Forum Discussion

madwayne's avatar
madwayne
Dialled in
24 days ago

Thought I posted this already

Why are virgin /o2 no longer being covered by the ombudsman scheme?

I say that as I got a voicemail message on the the ombudsman page saying not covered after 1st January.

customer service remains shocking.

  1. tried to get a leave contract figure months again took ages to get very unhelpful
  2. tried to speak to them about cancelling my contract to go elsewhere but wouldn’t tel me what’s involved.

they stalled and tried to offer me a worse deal than my renewal offer.

they never answered what was involved in cancelling.

they then passed me to someone else, so I the end just went to the new provider and signed up.

tried to speak to them today and same tactics deployed not answering the question asked, and delay and being passed around from pilar to post.

every time been taken th rough security very slowly.

in chat taken through security by bot

hen taken through secularity with agent 1, then the next and so on and no progress being made.

almost 30 years a customer through various addresses over the years. Yet still treated like scum, I hope my new provider treats me better.

so when I set up for he new provider to take us in when the old contract expires 22nd January 2026 I got a EDF email saying I was leaving whilst in contract.

23rd December 2025 30 days notice takes us to the 22nd January 2026 and therefore no longer in contract and therefore no EDF.

Very disgraceful.

been with NTL/Virgin Media since 1996 on dial up, then up to 1MB up to 1Gig but the customer service has been getting worse year on year.

Merrry Christmas hope you all have better experiences than We have with VM.

8 Replies

  • madwayne's avatar
    madwayne
    Dialled in
    24 days ago

    I looked elsewhere but I am broadband only.

    will see if my move happens on 22nd January, but hoping for a better experience but the bar is set pretty low

    • Sabrina_B's avatar
      Sabrina_B
      Forum Team (Retired)
      23 days ago

      Hi madwayne 👋.

      Thanks for reaching out to us sorry to hear of the issues that you are facing with your service. Your post is quite jumbled in areas, we can only assist on your 2 points that are the most clear. 

      1. Your figure for leaving your contract early can differ day by day, it is dependant on the contract price and the remaining months within reason as to how it is calculated. 
      2. To leave your contract there are a couple of ways, the first being the easiest you can use the One Touch Switch option on the website of your new provider, this eliminates the need for contacting each provider the service will do it for you. The other way would be to obtain a new provider first and once you have a install date, reach out to us and give us your 30 day notice to terminate your services, we will process this and advise of any final dues that are due to be sent as well as sending out any packaging after the disconnection is complete for any equipment to be returned. 

      With the remainder of your post, could you please give us a little more clarity on any further issues that you have or if you wish to discuss further along with your chosen disconnection process via a private message.

      Thanks

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    24 days ago

    VM has to be part of an ombudsman scheme. Looks like VM is returning to CISAS who provided the service prior to the Communications Ombudsman

    https://www.commsombudsman.org/raise-dispute/virgin-media

    If you now have a new service ready to go on 22 Jan 2026, and you simply want to give 30 days' notice to cancel, people posting on here often seem to have greatest success by sending the cancellation in by post using a tracked service for proof of delivery.

    A VM person should reply to your topic and may offer to look into the issues if you are saying you have already cancelled and need to confirm the cancellation in being actioned.

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    23 days ago

    Telecoms companies must legally belong to one Ofcom's two approved ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) schemes. VM used CICAS pre-2014, switched to Ombudsman and is now switching back to CICAS from 1 January 2026.

  • Peeps's avatar
    Peeps
    Tuning in
    23 days ago

    I think there are a lot of customers like me who are waiting for the 8 weeks since making a formal complaint, before approaching the Ombudsman.

    The Ombudsman website says, up front and centre.

    “What are the possible outcomes of raising your dispute through our service? We can tell providers to…

    Take practical action e.g. credit your account, cancel an account, fix a problem with your service
    Make an apology
    Offer a financial awards up to £10,000
    Make recommendations to prevent this happening again
    A combination of these actions"

    Compare this with:

    "CISAS is an Ofcom-approved dispute resolution scheme for the communications sector, operated by Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). Where a mediation process has finally ended with no settlement, the parties will be able to proceed as they were previously.  ….. the court process can continue."

    My reading, the new CISAS, you can go to court. The Ombudsman has teeth. They can tell the providers to fix the problem. I know which one I would like on my side.

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta
      23 days ago
      Peeps wrote:

      I think there are a lot of customers like me who are waiting for the 8 weeks since making a formal complaint, before approaching the Ombudsman.

      CISAS and Ombudsman Services have comparable powers. See section 5.4 below

      https://www.cedr.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/CISAS-Scheme-Rules-Jan-2026.pdf

      and across both organisations they either find in favour of the customer, or VM settles the dispute, in typically 83% of cases (3rd quarter results of 2025)

      Those customers posting feedback on here about both organisations are typically positive and usually state that the process was fair and easy to use. When comments from the adjudicators have been printed on here in the past, it has been obvious that the adjudicators are well aware of VM's many customer service failures and know what they are dealing with as far as VM goes.

      • Peeps's avatar
        Peeps
        Tuning in
        20 days ago

        Hi  goslow
        I was thinking the Ombudsman had more powers. Given the below case it seems not 
        A Decision from the Ombudsman | Virgin Media Community - 5688279

        My complaint is the same. The new Virgin Media O2 ID Single Sign-On (SSO) does not allow me to access my e-mail address settings. I was wanting the Ombudsman to agree with VM O2 that they fix the problem. Like Tony_ I have no interest in compensation, just want a fix to what is broken.