Virginmedia Email Consumer Relations discourtesy

I have been a 'cable' customer of Virginmedia for several years and generally I have been (and still am) very pleased with their service. My field of conflict with them is in their Consumer Relations area.

I needed to contact them in order to discover why my monthly newsletter (sent in 4 batches of 50 to avoid exceeding my Windows Live Mail limit) was blocked due to 'unusual usage' and to check that it would not happen again next month.

I found it impossible to discover how to complete their 'Contact Us' email in spite of being told that it was very simple to do, - I kept going round in 'nested loops' and getting nowhere; my son who is very 'computer-savvy' tried with no better success. Eventually I managed to get a response by emailing '[email protected]' but, for some obscure reason they would not deal with my problem but insisted in my following the correct channels with the 'Contact Us' email form and they tried to help me along by providing a 'click here' link. This did not help however because it did not take me straight to the email but back into 'nested loops' again.

Eventually a very helpful chap called James Robson patiently explained it all in detail thus:-

� you first need to sign in to your Virgin Media account: http://www.virginmedia.com/

From here, click on 'My Virgin Media' and enter your username and password as you would normally.

Once you're signed in you will find a 'Contact us' section roughly half way down the screen, click that.

You will see a box that says 'General Enquiry', and after hovering over that several more boxes will appear. You want 'I have cable services'.

I inserted the following in a copy email to James: "I had reached this point zillions of times previously and this is where the stumbling block comes. It is the following screen of common queries that is the problem - what this screen needs is an extra box saying 'None of the above apply' (otherwise - not realising you are nearly home, you assume you are in the wrong section and just close that page down and try another route � zillions of times!)."

After click that you will see a list of common queries appear below. You may click any of these, it really doesn't matter.

After clicking one of these options, scroll down and you will see a red button next to a message that reads: 'Haven't found what you're looking for?', this opens up the web form to fill out.

He was quite correct - it was easy once you knew how and one would have thought that Virginmedia would have been pleased with my constructive suggestion and thanked me and said they would consider it etc etc. Instead of that they completely refused to speak to me again. James Robson disappeared into space and all my subsequent attempts to contact VM through the 'correct channels' were met with an automated response but no other reply.

I am left therefore with no answer to my original question: "When I send my newsletters out this month, am I likely to have them blocked due to 'abnormal usage'? If so, what should I do to avoid this?" Richard Branson - if you are listening, please help me.

I am left with the impression that the 'Contact Us' form is deliberately obscure in an attempt to dissuade customers from sending emails. This impression is increased by the discourteous treatment I have received and it appears that I have been (unjustly) labelled as a 'troublemaker' and been put in the 'blocked contacters' filter.

In reply to a post by denpepper:

I am left with the impression that the 'Contact Us' form is deliberately obscure in an attempt to dissuade customers from sending emails.

Unfortunately, that is what a lot of Web-Based "Contact-Us" do!!

They direct you through to numerous irrelevant FAQs & then expect you to select a number of non-applicable options.

Finally, because it is NOT Email (despite what a lot of them suggest), you do not get a record of what you have written.

Yes, you are right, it is NOT customer orientated at all!!

You might be better investing a couple of pound in an external mail server and your own domain name. Others will recommend reasonably priced hosts and as they are often intended for more SME type use, odd restrictions like this rate limit at Virgin should not be an issue.

I would concur with MrSaffron's suggestion.

Obviously, you will need your own Domain name (but these are cheap) & it will also give you continuing flexibility - since you will not then be restricted by a specific ISP or a specific Host-Provider.

I concur with johnjburness. Many ISP's Contact Us first insist on you looking at a load of irrelevant FAQs, selecting 1 of them and then saying they were no use to me before presenting the real Contact Us button. They are stupid cuz you wouldn't be trying to contact them if you could just look up the answer.

Similar stupidity happens on phone menu scripts that keep telling you to look it up at their website. Again you wouldn't be phoning them if you could find it on the website, where you got the phone # in the 1st place.

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

Finally, because it is NOT Email (despite what a lot of them suggest), you do not get a record of what you have written.

I copy & paste the text into a saved draft email, which also dates it.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

Finally, because it is NOT Email (despite what a lot of them suggest), you do not get a record of what you have written.

I copy & paste the text into a saved draft email, which also dates it.

Which is "common-sense"!!

Unfortunately, I have to admit, I'm so intent on getting it right & sent-off, I have forgotten to do that on occasions!

In reply to a post by denpepper:

I am left therefore with no answer to my original question: "When I send my newsletters out this month, am I likely to have them blocked due to 'abnormal usage'? If so, what should I do to avoid this?" Richard Branson - if you are listening, please help me.

Not much to do with him I'm afraid. Linky. He will still own 2%-3% of he shares, that's all.

He only had 3% anyway.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 28-Jul-13 21:13:37)

Well it is not surprising that Virginmedia did not have the courtesy to answer my question as to whether or not my 5 batches of 50 emails would 'go out' this month because THEY DIDN'T.

In fact two batches went before Virginmedia blocked further sending - presumably due to again to their definition of 'abnormal usage' in spite of the fact that I have tried to tell them that this is what I do each month.

I transferred the other three batches to GMAIL and they went without any problems so I shall use GMAIL in future. It just seems a pity that Virginmedia's system is not sophisticated enough to cope with this.

Thank you for all comments. I have taken them aboard and will consider using an email address based on my own domain. I have also now reconciled myself to the view that Virginmedia are simply not interested in maintaining good PUBLIC RELATIONS. Once one realises this it somehow does not matter any more.

See my page about domains and hosting. There's a link on it to the one I recommend there.