Back at the end of August and for reasons that nobody seems to know, Virgin Media started to use my workplace as a mailing address. I called them and eventually got through to an overseas call centre. I asked for them to stop using that address and to only send letters to me at home. I was assured that this would be done.
A week or two later, I got another letter sent to my office address. I called again and spoke to someone based in the UK. They couldn’t understand how it could have happened because a check of their system only showed my home address. The guy asked me to email a copy of the latest letter directly to a woman called Caroline Morris for investigation. I duly scanned the letter into a PDF and sent it off to her, requesting an acknowledgement of receipt.
Despite repeated emails to her, asking if the scanned letter had been received and what was being done about it, I heard bugger all. A pet hate of mine is people who aren’t polite and courteous so the lack of response started to bug me.
At the end of September, I used Resolver to open up a complaint regarding the original letters and the lack of response from Virgin Media since I reported the problem. I updated my complaint record with repeated requests for some kind of response but I heard absolutely nothing from them until I received a template letter in late November.
The letter apologised for the delay in resolving the problem and assured me that their team were “…working hard to resolve it…” and promising that someone from the team would “….call me in the next few days.” I left it another 10 days but no call was received. They’re not working very hard then are they? I’d venture that they aren’t working at all and have their tootsies up on the desk whilst enjoying a nice nap.
The letter was sent by or on behalf of a woman called Karen Walker who is apparently their Customer Services Director. Her name was also on the letters that were wrongly delivered. A busy woman obviously. So, I sold a kidney to buy a 1st Class stamp and sent her a letter requesting an update, along with the scanned PDF that I had emailed to Caroline Morris earlier in this farce.
Another 2 weeks and still nothing. I’m now wondering if these people actually exist or if they are code names for letters and emails that should be binned without action when they arrive.
I’ve had my cable services with the company since the late 1990’s when it went by another name which was subsequently bought by Virgin Media. I thought that staying loyal for 20 years might entitle me to a little courtesy at least – it would seem not.
I tried calling them again yesterday and eventually got through to another agent based in the UK. She took some time to read through the complete complaint thread with the end result being that she admitted they had, in fact, received all the updates to my case that I had added via Resolver and she didn’t know why I hadn’t received a reply. I mentioned that it might be down to incompetence. Apparently my case is still open and is ‘assigned’ but not to Lord Lucan as I suggested. She couldn’t/wouldn’t say who it was assigned to but she assured me that someone would call me in the next couple of days.
I don’t think I’ll hold my breath waiting for that and as I suggested to the agent, it is now getting to the point where I will have no option but to open a new complaint about the way my old complaint has been handled – or not as would seem to be the case.
It was a simple issue at the outset. I haven’t asked them to find a cure for cancer or to provide me with a unicorn. I wanted to know – and still do – why mail started being delivered to my workplace, has the fault in their system been found, can they assure me it won’t happen again and why has it taken 3 months and counting for someone to have the courtesy to provide this information? When they plan to increase their monthly fee they can contact me well enough and if I cancelled my direct debit I dare say I would be plagued with calls, emails, letters, carrier pigeons and more.
I’m sorry Virgin Media but your complaint handling procedure is one of the worst I’ve ever come across. Maybe Sir Richard Branson ought to stop dicking around with space travel and instead spend some time and money looking after the people who made him a wealthy man. Virgin Media – have a stiff word with yourselves and buck your ideas up!