UPDATED October 2022
It seems that Virgin Media are a communications company that don’t actually know how to communicate with its customers. It could be that they don’t give a fig about customer services and why should they, they don’t have any competition* when it comes to awesome Broadband! However when it comes to TV, Sky TV is a bit better but the Sky Q box is still a bit of a joke, it is still a “work in progress”. The Virgin TV 360 box is awesome but still needs a bit more polishing. Virgin now connect your (Landline*) phone to the router and this appears to be reliable but if the router goes down, you can’t use the landline, doh.
*NOTE landlines are being phased out and will no longer be available from 2025. All voice calls are now going through the Router (Internet Gateway). This is basically what we know as VOIP (Voice Over IP) or VOB (Voice over Broadband) but you don’t need an “IP Phone”, your normal phone should just work as normal but will be connected to the router. This means that if you get a power cut, you won’t be able to use your “landline phone”! That is called progress 🙂
Lets look at what Virgin offer with regards to Customer Services.
They actively want you to use the phone. However, they use (ro)Bots to answer the calls and basically this was seen as a bad idea 20 years ago. If you don’t die of old age while you’re jumping through hoops having to press this button or that button and listen to this and listen to that and then get through to a BOT that wants to play guessing games about why you are contacting “customer Services”, you might get through to a real person who will usually be very friendly and try to be helpful but usually they don’t have the knowledge to help but can arrange an engineers visit! The engineers / Techs are usually awesome and can usually resolve the issue in minutes.
You can use “Web Chat” but honestly who really wants to “chat” with a Bot and play guessing games about why you wanted to contact Virgin.This is not “customer service”, it is a “go away, we’re not interested”.
You can use the “Forum” to see if anyone else has a similar problem and will (mostly) be advised to phone “customer support”.
If you have a hearing impairment, you can download an app or you can phone a very long number which indicates it is trying to connect to an old fashioned modem. No one ever answers, so that’s a non starter!
So what should Virgin be doing to provide a decent customer service?
1. keep the phone method for those that don’t have a life or anything better to do other than listen to announcement after announcement and then press this button or press that button and play guessing games. Ultimately your patience will be rewarded and you might actually get to speak to a real person, Yes! Speaking to a real person is the goal but it comes at a cost, your social life will have to be put on hold and there is a chance that you will die of old age before you get through to a real person that can assist. If you want to speak to a real person at Virgin, that has the technical knowledge to deal with your issue; you have to accept these costs! Virgin media customer support is stuck in the past and they are not really interested, they just want your money!
2. Implement a secure messaging system, available to people with a Virgin Media account. This would enable account holders to log in and send a message which explains the problem. The “support agent” would then be able to forward the message to a real person who is qualified to deal with the issue. The “support agent” would then be able to advise the account holder that the issue has been passed to the relevant people to deal with and they will contact you to resolve the issue, this is the “modern” method. Apparently, “Modern people” don’t use phones to talk to anyone, they use instant messaging or email. Automated phone systems are yesterday and verge on being antediluvian, no one wants to use a robotic system where you have to press this, press that and listen to announcement after announcement. When people phone, they expect to be connected to real person that can help with their issue. Secure messaging is ideal when the issue is “account related” and the Secure messaging can be easily incorporated into to any decent call logging / management system. The secure messaging system is the modern day and elevates sh*te customer services to awesome customer service. Yes it’s good to talk, but the secure messaging system removes the hurdle of trying get through to a real person. Once the message has been sent, the issue can be progressed. The issue has been (hopefully) explained and the support team can then find a suitably qualified person to deal with the issue, how hard can it be!
Once the issue is recorded by the Secure messaging system it puts the onus on Customer services to contact the customer either by using the messaging system or contacting the customer via phone or email. The issue can be dealt with without the customer having to play guessing games or spending hours trying to get through to customer / tech support. If a “techie” is needed, the secure messaging would enable the “support agent” to either arrange an Engineers visit or make changes without an Engineers visit.
3. Remove the “bot” from “Web chat” and replace with a real person(s) so that you don’t have to play guessing games or select “inappropriate” options to advance the “chat”. Basically “Web Chat” is a chocolate fireguard but could be awesome by chatting to a real person who is knowledgeable and who able to redirect to someone suitably qualified to deal with the issue or can arrange a call back from a suitably qualified person. Unfortunately the people on “Web chat” don’t appear to have the authority to do anything other than advise you to contact “the team”.
4. Maintain the “Forum” for people that just need some help in doing something, not “account related”.
5. Make sure that “Contact preferences” are complied with.
6. Provide an email address or text number to contact customer services – unless the secure messaging is implemented.
Item 2 above would be the best solution and it is soooo easy to implement. It gives a clear record of the messages and these can be easily incorporated in to any “call logging system”. Having worked in IT Tech support for the best part of 20 years before retiring, I know what is possible.There is no justifiable reason for the diabolical customer service contact methods that make it difficult for the customer to seek assistance. It’s good to talk (to a real person) but quite often the “initial” contact method is best achieved by email / text or secure messaging. This can certainly be followed up with a “phone chat” to clarify any details, once a “qualified” support “operative” has been assigned.
In conclusion.
Virgin Media need to to have a major rethink about “Customer Services” and methods of contact. They need to update their Customer Services contact methods to make them suitable for the modern day. They need to “Up their Game” and get rid of the archaic robotic phone system and the Web Chat robot. No one in this modern world should be forced to use an outdated robotic phone system. Customers should be able to log on to their account and send a secure message describing the issue and maybe a suggested solution. This is not difficult and can be a very cost effective method that keeps everyone happy.
Virgin employ some awesome Techies but they are not contactable by customers. It also seems that “Support Agents” have no direct contact with the “Techies” and can only arrange an Engineers visit or a call from a “Virtual Engineer”. When you can get through to a real person, they are usually friendly and try to help as much as possible but when it comes to “Technical Capabilities” most don’t have any e.g. when you have a “networking problem” and the support “agent” doesn’t even know what an IP Address is or doesn’t really know anything about “computers”, you’ve just wasted several hours trying to talk to a real person!
All is not lost, the “agent” can arrange a “Virtual Engineer” (Virgin Speak, that suggests a robot will call you!) to phone you or can book you an engineers visit; YES progress! In most cases, you can explain to the engineer what the problem is and what you done (if anything) to resolve the issue. In most cases the (awesome) engineer will have the problem fixed in no time but sometimes the engineer has to make a phone call to get something amended by the network Techies.
In many cases an Engineers visit is using a sledge hammer to crack a nut but it would seem that the decision makers at Virgin appear to think that their customers are as clueless technically as they are!
A good example of the diabolical customer service :- I recently received a phone call (not on my preferred contact methods) advising that I qualified for new Hub 4. It was “spammy” by nature but I didn’t give out any personal details. Virgin could have quite easily emailed me with this info but it seems Virgin like to use the phone, unfortunately the people making the calls are just script readers that gabble and mostly don’t speak English as their “Mother tongue”. In most cases, an email would be a better option.
The Hub 4 arrived and it wasn’t something I wanted to keep see my review unfortunately going back to my Hub 3 seemed to be an impossible task. All it needed was someone to “re authorise” the Hub 3 (basically amending a config file) but after spending hours trying to talk to someone who could do this, I eventually got an Engineers visit booked. When the Techie arrived, I explained that I just wanted to continue using the Hub 3. He made a phone call to the network Techies and I was up n running again within minutes and using the Hub 3. In my book that was a complete and utter waste of my time and the time of the Techie.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could log in to your Virgin account and send a secure message or just book an engineers visit or get someone who is technically qualified to phone you back instead of jumping through hoops to use the faux customer services!
As Virgin Media don’t appear to have any “viable” competition*, its likely that nothing will change! Virgin don’t appear to be interested in giving an awesome customer service, they just want your money!
With regards to viable competition*, BT own the “infrastructure” of the “Telecoms / Internet” system (in the UK) and Virgin are just another customer of BT, Just a thought! Yes Virgin have their own infrastructure but still need to connect to the BT Infrastructure at some point for both broadband and telephone. It is very likely that the decision makers at Virgin are so technically inept, they don’t know this!