Virgin
For those who have been reading my blog and have been following the Virgin Saga you will know what I think of Virgin’s customer service, or lack of. Some of it has been laughable really, for instance sending an email to instruct me how to install a modem when they have stopped my internet services do they not know how to use a phone? They tell me that they do not recommend installing a modem any other way, yet their instruction CD that you use for installation tells you to install the modem the way it was installed?

They have moved their ‘Helpline’ to a premium rate line so if you want to call them to get help it costs you a fortune which is payable to them of course. It takes them six weeks to answer a query/complaint, this is done only after you have withheld payment, and then they tell you that your email is full, that’s it, no addressing the main issue, and no actual help. When their opinion was questioned they were arrogant and condescending. Once they decided to actually answer the questions raised they tell you to use a different email to read your mails and then down load them to your computer, erm, what is the point in even having their email If you have to use a different server to actually read the mails sent?

When the actual Customer service department condescends to contact you they are sympathetic, they totally understand where you are coming from, and no you should not have to use a different mail server to open your mails, and no you should not have to reinstall your modem twice a week, and they can understand why you are so frustrated at not being able to get any help, but they can do nothing until you pay them? You of course refuse, you tell them that they have broken the contract; they say no we have still supplied the TV and the phone.

Let us look at that shall we, the TV is the lowest package, in fact most of those programmes are available on freeview, I do believe there are only three channels that I had that were not on freeview. The Virgin boss took it upon himself to discontinue some of those programmes because he didn’t want to pay extra for them, he didn’t ask his customers he just went ahead and did it. Now in principle that is fine, he stood up for what he thought was right, except right up until a month ago he had not replaced those programmes with anything else, so now you were paying for a reduced TV package at the same rate as before, so in effect you were actually paying more than you should have been anyway so what difference would having to pay a little extra for those Sky channels have made?

And we have Virgin 1 and Virgin 1 +1 and what is this fantastic new channel, well it is old sitcoms and programmes like Knight Rider that were discontinued years ago. He has two I think, actual new programmes, but I could not say for sure as I have never been tempted to watch Virgin 1.

My phone was placed on incoming calls only when they decided that I had to pay despite my complaint, therefore I was not getting full service there either. I spoke to Trading Standards who told me that as all the services were included in my package if one was not of the standard expected then the contract was broken, it does not matter whether the other two were fine or not.

My fight with Virgin is ongoing, I have been offline since it began and I am now back on through a different company, I am not going to give in and apparently neither are they. Except I have something that they do not have, the Financial Ombudsman and The Trading Standard, not to mention Offcom. They all tell me that Virgin have broken the contract by not supplying the service paid for. I will of course keep you updated as to the outcome, eventual outcome, of the ongoing battle with Virgin.

British Gas
Now I do not actually have anything to do with British Gas, but I have heard many people going on about how bad their customer service is, and they have been on Watchdog a few times. I did however have the pleasure (Sarcasm intended) of experiencing their shocking customer service first hand, well sort of, last Sunday. And since then have been inundated with tales of just how appalling their service is.

It is Sunday, just past lunchtime and my Son is sat playing on his PSP and the daughter in law and I are sat on the other settee chatting, the child is playing in his room. A nice peaceful scene (big awws are permitted) then the lights go out, they discuss the fact that this cant be right as they just placed thirty pounds in the meter the evening before, so off they go to check the meter and to place it on Emergency until they can sort out what is wrong. Nothing is ever that simple with my lot!

The meter tells them it needs fifteen pounds and just keeps flashing at them, no emergency is available, so they have no electric. Their Electric and gas are supplied by British Gas, simple enough ring the Emergency line and get it sorted, or so you would think!

They get out the bill, which gives them all the numbers to call for all the different problems. Call the first one, now you have to remember that there is no electric do the house phone is not working, the first number is an 0800 number and guess what? Mobiles will not allow you to call 0800 numbers, so they tried the next one, oh we only deal with gas leaks, here call this number. This number is the 24-hour Helpline for British Gas, dials the number and gets ‘this number is no longer in service’? Goes back to the number where he actually got a person and not a machine and asks them if they have a number, they gave him the same one, he tells them, no that is no longer in service. They give him another, he dials this and gets a person who he says sounded like she just did not want to be there, he went through the whole thing about the meter, again, and she says we will get someone out as soon as we can, then she says I cant seem to find your supplier, so he tells her, British Gas and she says ‘Oh we don’t deal with those!’ and gives him the same discontinued number as he was given before.

We decided to go get some more money on the key thingy that they use to top up the meter, off we go and we put another twenty pounds on, only we find that the slip that tells you how much credit there is on your key now says there is fifty pounds on it, which meant that the thirty he had put on it the day before had not transferred to the meter, and wouldn’t again.

Eventually after many more phone calls they managed to get someone to come out to the meter, but only by threatening to take it further because they had a small child in the house.

It took them four hours to actually get anyone out to the meter; it was going on for eight at night before they finally got the electric back on!

I mentioned to a couple of people about what had happened and got a multitude of tales about British Gas and their appalling service, not least of which is the appliances maintenance. Apparently British Gas have a cover plan for maintenance of appliances such as Boilers etc, for this service cover they charge around thirty pounds a month, which works out at about three hundred and sixty pounds a year.

However if you ever want to use this cover and call them out you have to pay a minimum of a further fifty pounds for each call out. So what are you paying this money for? In case you need to get them out, if you have the cover they will come out within 24 hours, if you don’t, well most of the time they will come out within 24 hours depending on what the problem is, how old you are, and the time of year if you have children. So again why are you paying for the cover? Well British Gas tell me that the cover actually only covers the cost of service, it also covers the cost of parts up to a set amount, though for some reason they could not quote me that amount as it depends on what needs servicing. It does not cover call out fees and only covers service up to a set amount; again this depends, on what they could not tell me.

So the service cover doesn’t actually cover very much for what you pay and you will still find yourself with a bill at the end of it, I got a quote from a Corgi registered plumber who can and does service gas boilers and fires, and he was cheaper to call out than British Gas was?

You know when I started writing this I thought it may have been a draw, but I have to say that I think British Gas wins this one.

What do you think?