We've got TV+Broadband+phone with them. Been a bit of a nightmare since Day One. And before anyone asks, I don't work for Sky
Here's what I mean.....
Day of installation. The installation team don't even turn up. Apparently, a mix up in diaries and paperwork between sales team and installers.
After rescheduling, everything is installed and engineers move onto next job. Hours later, the phone isn't working. Arrange for engineer to visit in a few days. Turns out they made a schoolboy error when connecting up the phone socket.
Weeks later, when the first bill arrives, it's more than expected. They've incorrectly billed us for two set top boxes, when we only have one in the house.
We get a revised bill. But weeks later, we get a final demand notice for the first (higher) bill. Turns out, they haven't made the correction to the first bill, and they also messed up setting up the direct debit.
Soon later, we come back home and find we've no longer got our Sports package etc, just basic channels. Ring Customer Services (in India, I think) and find out it's because we're over our credit limit of £100, I think it was at the time. Apparently, every customer is given a default credit limit. Go over it and they put you on "reduced" services. I explained we make quite a few international calls to relatives overseas (expensive, unless you log those numbers as Favourites), so our monthly bills can be occasionally high. After much argument, they agree to raise our credit limit.
About two months ago, we decided to switch to their Talk Unlimited package. They sent us an email confirming the switch was actioned, so we all started using the phone a lot more. Now we've got a ridiculously expensive bill because they haven't actually switched us over. We're currently awaiting their excuses.
We've also had instances when the TV box has stopped working altogether. They blamed it on local connection problems. It lasted one whole weekend once. We cheekily asked if they'd knock a few quid off that month's bill, but they didn't.
Also, does anyone else's set top box sometimes chirp away like R2D2 from Star Wars? Sometimes with a jerky picture and sometimes with no picture at all. And sometimes we can't get certain channels. Instead, it comes up with an error code that you have to tell Indian Customer Services about. Despite everything being connected properly, and rebooting?
A couple of tips we've learned since we've been VirginMedia customers:-
1. Make sure you leave easy access to the set top box plug. You'll need it, as you'll be frequently rebooting it by killing the power hoping the faults clear;
2. Have the menu to your local Indian takeaway to hand. When you ring Indian Customer Services, you'll end up spelling out much of your problem because you can hit a bit of a language barrier. Rather than use police-type-speak e.g. "B" for "Bravo", "T" for "Tango" etc, it's better to say "B" for "Bhiryani", "T" for "Tikka Massala", "V" for "Vindaloo".
So why are we still with them.....well, we've never really gotten round to looking into Sky. And we're very forgiving people. There's a lot worse happening in the world today.
