Broadband News

Virgin Media ups call costs

(12-06-07) - Virgin Media has announced that its technical support helpline will become a premium rate line from 1 July, pushing call costs up to 25p per minute - even from a Virgin landline.

Virgin Media said that less than half of all calls made to the line are actually about their broadband service and that increasing the cost would deter off-subject calls to their new 0906 number.

Because they get so many calls about equipment that they haven’t supplied, they suggest that you call their dedicated PC helpline if your Blackberry or PDA is playing up. But at £1 a minute you’d be far better off contacting your manufacturer instead.

Chris Eagle, BroadbandChoices.co.uk commercial manager said: “This won’t win them any points against rival Sky whose technical line is 8p a minute.

“Although they promise to call you back if the call is longer than 20 minutes, a reoccurring problem could end up being very expensive - especially if you don’t have a landline and have to call from your mobile.

“If the fault is with their equipment you should definitely ask to have your call costs refunded, this will be at the discretion of the technical support agent you speak to, but be persistent and ask to speak to a manager if necessary."

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