Apologetic Virgin takes a battering

Virgin Media has responded to the barrage of customer complaints it has received in recent weeks, claiming its performance has not been aided by its recent wrangling with BSkyB.

Readers of CNET.co.uk's sister site, silicon.com, have been posting angry feedback on a recent article about Virgin Media's customer service strategy, criticising the cable broadband giant for everything from poor up-time of its Internet service to unacceptable levels of customer service and long helpline wait times.

Nicola from London was typical of many readers. She wrote: "I have been trying to contact Virgin Customer Service team for over a week. Phones are not answered and emails are not responded to, except to send an automated response. Telewest at least picked up their phone! I can't wait to cancel my Virgin service. I am outraged by their lack of customer care."

Stephen from Hampshire wrote: "I'm disgusted with Virgin and I think I'm going to make it my duty to let everyone know how poor the service is. This is completely unacceptable."

silicon.com presented a catalogue of complaints to Virgin Media and asked for a response to readers' concerns.

Neil Berkett, chief operating officer of Virgin Media, blamed the problems on its recent spat with Sky.

"We are currently receiving a high number of queries, following Sky's recent decision to withdraw a small number of channels from our TV service. We would like to sincerely apologise to anyone who has had to wait a long time to speak to us recently. We are working very hard to answer the queries as quickly as possible."

While that might explain lengthy wait times it doesn't answer some concerns, such as those expressed by Mary from Dagenham.

"Since Virgin Media took over my home phone it is almost not working and it is taking six days for an engineer to come out to fix it even though I am disabled," she wrote.

Caroline from Hersham was another angry reader whose actions may rub salt in Virgin's recent wounds.

She wrote: "We have taken the decision to move to Sky -- much against our wishes. We agreed with Richard Branson over his stand with Sky but feel Virgin's customer services let them down badly -- especially when they refuse to speak to you."

Gary from Reading said he too is making the switch to rival Sky: "The [Virgin Media] staff have a bad attitude and I still have to hold for 20 minutes to speak to someone. I would wholeheartedly recommend Sky to anyone and I have never been a customer of theirs. It's just they can't be as bad as Virgin."

A spokesman for Virgin Media told silicon.com: "We know this isn't good enough and we're doing everything we can to return things to normal."