Dealing with Virgin is like pulling teeth. They ignore emails, you spend ages on the phone listening to music on hold, they change your tarrif without notification & cannot provide a reasonable basic service of a working handset. See my letter of complaint below, sent twice, & ignored completely. Job No VM024****, tel no 07758 ****** I am writing to complain about the handling of ?organising? repair/replacement of my son?s Samsung Galaxy S2. This phone is on a pay monthly contract. 1) The phone was offered as part of a contract upgrade in July 2012. As such, it was therefore recommended by Virgin as a being suitable handset & is only 5 months old. 2) A few days ago, the phone began to behave erratically, showing indication that it was connected to a charger when it wasn?t, not recognising being connected to a power supply when it was recharging, proving difficult to switch on or off & generally not responding to the touch pad. 3) A quick check on the internet reveals that these problems are very common with this model phone. Further, it is also common that when returned to Samsung for repair, the fault is diagnosed as water damage, which many users believe to be spurious. Many owners are left faced with the choice of a large repair bill or no phone, even though they are quite convinced that the handsets have never been in contact with water. ?Atmospheric conditions? is just a poor excuse for poor product design. 4) My son takes great care of his phone & needs it as part of his job since he is ?on call?, working odd hours, hence the reason for my involvement. This phone is not used & abused, it is virtually cherished. Being without the phone is a real inconvenience & should be unnecessary if Virgin are as good as their advertising claims. 5) His call to report the fault (a known, common fault on a handset that is actively promoted by Virgin) has resulted in the above job number & the insistence from Virgin operatives that the handset be returned for repair, not replacement, leaving him without a phone for several days. For such a new phone, this ?service? cannot be acceptable when virtually every other consumer product on the market would be handled by a straight, no quibble replacement. 6) Virgin has but one part to play in this competitive mobile phone market - provide a service with a working phone. It should be that simple. As a provider of handsets, any legal consumer law responsibility for them being ?fit for purpose? lies with Virgin, not the PHONE manufacturer. Virgin effectively is the ?retailer?. 7) Being without a phone cannot be a normal part of the pay monthly contract agreement. A contract is an agreement between two parties, Virgin & the consumer, so if Virgin Mobile cannot provide its the one prime function, a servicable product to its clients, they have failed in their part of the contract. 8) If the phone is sent for repair, then the client has lost all opportunity for reasonable & fair negotiation. The manufacturer has total control, has the phone & can make whatever demands they chose - they are judge, jury & possible executioner all in one. 9) The returns documentation makes mention of possible postal loss resulting in up to 45 days for the postal claims process. This suggests the possibility of being without a phone for weeks, which however remote a possibility, is a nonsense. 10) Trying to speak to & deal with your operatives via a voice call is a frustrating ordeal. Incessant automated menus, only to be placed on hold, being told that ?We are exceptionally busy? whatever the time of day the call is placed is simply being understaffed & poor customer service, nothing more. It is very poor customer service when the phrase should express a quality standard, not just a department title. To be a successful business, it must surely be the aim to excel, not just be adequate or average, be better than the rest, not ?just the same?. Your operatives follow restrictive guidelines that do little to aid the client whilst playing to Virgin?s own advantage. It is not acceptable to be without a phone whilst this faulty, Virgin recommended, handset is repaired, especially when all control over the outcome is lost. It should be more than possible to supply a replacement, just as easily as they are so readily offered when there is the possibility of a contract renewal. A failure to do so is a failure to provide a phone service that is fit for purpose & a failure under the Sale of Goods Act. As such, any breach of contract is on the part of Virgin, not the user. It should also be noted that Distance Selling Regulations allow the user a cooling off period for any decision involving the provision of a service or product, so a lack of acceptance of a repair should not be seen as any problem.. I would therefore like to see an offer of a new, replacement handset being sent out before any return of the old, so that some sort of continued phone service is made available. On receipt of a new handset, we would then gladly return the old, faulty handset, at our own cost, on a postal service that provides proof of receipt, so that this can be returned to Samsung. Given the sheer volume of handsets that must pass through Virgin, this is not an unreasonable or expensive request & may well go some way to restoring our faith in Virgin & providing real customer service, not a second best, take the client for granted, poor alternative. This letter should be seen as a chance to excel. If this cannot happen, we have to consider voting with our feet & changing provider, as we truly consider that any contract breach lies with Virgin. Yours faithfully,
