Virgin Media

[Mancunian airman]

I have been without my mailbox for over three weeks. I have received the odd text message stating that work was being carried out on the network  . . .

When you open up my email account it says 'Mailbox unavailable'. Obviously there is a contact number for those without a Virgin phone line but after trying that its a waste of time.

They just keep fobbing you off with links to technical solutions but they dont work as I keep getting the said message 'Mailbox Unavailable' try again in one hour . . . . 

Even tried for almost two hours talking to an auto 'bot' but no joy. I kept saying I want to speak to a person but no thats not possible it seems. 

Anybody got any suggestions how to get a real conversation with these people ?

I am on the verge of switching but so many people have my email worldwide  . . .

[bentwaters81tfw]

I had the same problem. You will need to re-set your password via the Virgin Homepage.

I did manage to speak to the callcentre without a problem via my Virgin mobile.

[spruecutter96]

I recently left Virgin Media after FAR too many years with their slow, intermittent, generally messed-up service. My new Broadband provider is ten times better than VM and a lot cheaper too. When I talked to one of VM's Indian call-centres, it felt like I was banging my head against a brick-wall. Also, there are some very well-rehearsed scammers who phone you up, claiming to be from the Virgin technical-help department. Please don't let them fool you. 

 

I would thoroughly recommend moving to another provider. 

 

Chris. 

[treker_ed]

1 hour ago, spruecutter96 said:

I recently left Virgin Media after FAR too many years with their slow, intermittent, generally messed-up service. My new Broadband provider is ten times better than VM and a lot cheaper too. When I talked to one of VM's Indian call-centres, it felt like I was banging my head against a brick-wall. Also, there are some very well-rehearsed scammers who phone you up, claiming to be from the Virgin technical-help department. Please don't let them fool you. 

 

I would thoroughly recommend moving to another provider. 

 

Chris. 

I had a few problems with BT at one point with their Fibre to the Cabinet service at our old property. Rang them up.... Indian call centre. Now, before I go any further, I have had a computer since I was 14 (just turned 51), I did Computer studies as a BTec, I build computers as a hobby and have my own home based wired network! So I think it's safe to say that I know my way around computers quite well. Anyway, we were having a few issues with them with the router and the connection speed. Rang them up, and tried to explain the issues. It was like banging my head against a brick wall. All they could do was to read parrot fashion from a script. No joy from the "Help line(!)". I asked to be connected to their tech help. Next person, had to go through it all again, only this time, the person on the other end decided to try and educate me in the differences between Hardware, software and peripherals!!!!! By this point my patience had worn so thin it was threadbare, I went ballistic with them. I Had to try and tell them that I actually built computers and PC's and was fully aware what these where - and she tried to do it again! The wife had to take the phone off me at this point before I reached down the phone and throttled them for treating me with so little respect, absolute disdain, and treating me like an absolute idiot that didn't know one end of a DVi cable from the other..... (there's none they are reversable!) We hung up, and rang back a day later. This time we spoke to some one from a UK call centre, and got the problem cleared up - but not after making a formal complaint about the way that the overseas call centre had handled the previous call! 

[Toe]

10 hours ago, spruecutter96 said:

I recently left Virgin Media after FAR too many years with their slow, intermittent, generally messed-up service. My new Broadband provider is ten times better than VM and a lot cheaper too. When I talked to one of VM's Indian call-centres, it felt like I was banging my head against a brick-wall. Also, there are some very well-rehearsed scammers who phone you up, claiming to be from the Virgin technical-help department. Please don't let them fool you. 

 

I would thoroughly recommend moving to another provider. 

 

Chris. 

 

Like postal providers there are good areas and bad, I've never had any problems with Virgin for the 7 years I've been with them, quite speedy and on the lower tier, I'm happy with it anyway, no Game of Thrones fan here lol, service has only dropped a handful of times and for only for minutes at a time, tv has been fine - still on original Tivo box and phone has never dropped. I did ring up once to set up caller display and was very easy, had to set up a security question which by now I have no idea what the question is, hope I still know the answer!

The only gripe I have is value for money, I have no smartphone and have no interest in the other services they offer connected with internet on the move, mobile offers etc all I want is tv, phone and internet (tbh just internet and phone, lowest tv tier isn't much different to freeview but the price difference between no tv or with tv is ridiculous)

[Robert]

My first email address was via the Virgin cds you would get free and ended up with a virgin.net email address. I created another one for my wife and everything worked happily for over 20 years. A couple of months ago my wifes' account suddenly stopped with the same message you received. My account is still working but l am now in the process of changing my email address to another one. My wife has done the same and moved to gmail which works fine for her. What l have seen on the web is that Virgin is in the process of closing the .net accounts. It is very poor from Virgin to just go ahead and closing these accounts with no prior notice. At least it you would be able to move to another account. Like you the 'help' is non existent.

 

Do not forget that most websites ask that you login with your email address which will all need changing.

 

Regards

Robert

[fatfingers]

Interesting... When i was married we had cable and interweb from NTL which then became Virgin. I've had the same ntlworld.com email for over 20 years now (despite not being a Virgin customer for around15yrs) and never encountered any problems logging in. Really hope Virgin don't start faffing about with it as i will be stuffed if they do! 😬

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[alt-92]

On 11/19/2021 at 12:43 PM, Robert said:

Do not forget that most websites ask that you login with your email address which will all need changing.

I clocked on to that challenge quite early on and decided to not use any ISP mail address, but either one of the well-established mail services (gmail/hotmail) or use the mailbox & mailserver for the two domains I registered 20 years ago

Granted, having worked at ISP's and hosting tech co's makes that process a bit easier, but it sure has paid off over all that time. 

[Mancunian airman]

Many thanks for you replies gents.

Its very frustrating not being able to talk with a proper person, overseas call-centre staff are no the most understanding as they dont understand good English unfortunately. . . .

Tried to change my password as suggested but then they state that it will be sent to your email account ?????? 

I am now seriously considering changing to a new provided but my main concern was that so many have my current email addy but then my son tells me I just need another Provider but as I pointed out I still wont be able to access my mailbox cos its that which is controlled by VM and is still 'Unavailable'

 

rgds to all 

Ian

 

 

 

[bentwaters81tfw]

Keep trying the helpline. I usually get someone in N Ireland. They will talk you through it.

@Mancunian airman

[ckw]

12 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Keep trying the helpline. I usually get someone in N Ireland.

I've found with Virgin and others selecting the "thinking of leaving" option from the menu gets the best results (whatever the problem). You can just preface your query with "I want to leave .... becuase ...." 

 

Just for the record, I've been with Virgin for many years and found it to be a good service, but I do live in an area with highspeed fibre.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[Robert]

Ian, how do you access your Virgin emails ? I have Outlook as my email client so l just just open it and get access to my emails, at the moment. Can l assume you access your account via a web browser ?

 

Regards

Robert

[Mancunian airman]

22 hours ago, Robert said:

Ian, how do you access your Virgin emails ? I have Outlook as my email client so l just just open it and get access to my emails, at the moment. Can l assume you access your account via a web browser ?

 

Regards

Robert

Thats right Robert . . . 

 

On 11/22/2021 at 2:36 PM, ckw said:

I've found with Virgin and others selecting the "thinking of leaving" option from the menu gets the best results (whatever the problem). You can just preface your query with "I want to leave .... becuase ...." 

 

Just for the record, I've been with Virgin for many years and found it to be a good service, but I do live in an area with highspeed fibre.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

I have considered this option hoping also, hoping  that they would reduce my payments as an incentive to stay with them ???

[Mancunian airman]

On 11/22/2021 at 2:20 PM, bentwaters81tfw said:

Keep trying the helpline. I usually get someone in N Ireland. They will talk you through it.

@Mancunian airman

What options are you selecting because most are on the 'tree' and basically you end up with an automotive response which ends with 'Hope we have been of help resolvin your issue ' . . .  aarghh

[ckw]

19 minutes ago, Mancunian airman said:

I have considered this option hoping also, hoping  that they would reduce my payments as an incentive to stay with them ???

They can be flexible - it helps if you can get a better offer from another company and ask them to match it. In my case I arranged a better offer with Sky, and invited Virgin to better it. Initially they said no - however, when Sky got the point of transferring my phone number I immediately got a call from Virgin with a very good offer.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[bentwaters81tfw]

1 hour ago, Mancunian airman said:

What options are you selecting because most are on the 'tree' and basically you end up with an automotive response which ends with 'Hope we have been of help resolving your issue ' . . .  aarghh

If you are using Virgin phones, it's 150 and follow the broadband help menu. If it's from a mobile you can do the same thing, or dial 789 instead. Otherwise, go the customer retention route, they will find the proper person who speaks English as a first language.