In March of this year, I blogged about the problems I had moving from BT to Virgin. After I blogged about my frustrations, a very nice man from Virgin Media got in touch and did some magic that created my new account, and my broadband was soon up and working. I had three routers, for some reason, but I didn't dwell on it.
The only downside of the intervention was that somehow Mr Nice had created a whole new account for me, and I was paying a direct debit onto the first account I'd created. For some reason, Virgin couldn't get its head around this. So somewhere around June, my phone was cut off because Virgin hadn't collected a payment for three months. I called, paid the bill in full, provided the bank details again.
Cut to November. A letter arrives from Virgin, saying they're sorry I'm cancelling my service. What?? I log in to my account and discover - again - no payment has been taken for three months. I pay the outstanding balance online and called Virgin on the 10th.
"Well, the thing is you're showing as a former customer, so I can't activate your account."
"Er, okay, well, just tell me what I need to do to get my broadband back."
"Well, it's very complicated."
"Right. So do I need to pay more? Set up a new account?"
"Well, I can't tell you. I'm not sure how long it might take if you did. It's not my department."
"So, would it be quicker for me to just set up a new BT account and leave this one closed?"
"Well, I don't know. Maybe."
I said thanks, put the phone down, went to BT.com and ordered a new broadband account in five minutes flat. I was given an email address and password there and then, with an activation date of the 16th - six days later.
I'm pretty happy. BT's broadband, in my experience at least, is faster and far more reliable than Virgin, and I'm now paying £20 a month or so for a service that used to cost me more than £120 last time I was with BT. And I get free WiFi in Caffe Nero and Starbucks again, which is no bad thing.
The real stinger in the tail, though, was a letter I got from Virgin the day after my last conversation with them. They wanted me to pay the £11 for broadband and phone service in November - which would usually fall due on November 30th. "If you do not make this payment IMMEDIATELY we will instruct a debt collection agency, who may take legal action against you..."
Blimey, guys, way to make a parting gesture.






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