Forum Discussion

sheffmale26's avatar
sheffmale26
Joining in
21 days ago

Automatic compensation scheme for full loss of service - not being resolved appropriately

Hi I'm having the same problem at the minute I had a total loss of services from the 2nd of November 2024 until (they said) the 13 of November 2024 when in actuality it wasn't until the 16th November when my services where up & running again ( due to someone damaging the street box which is not my fault) I've been in contact through the complaints procedure but gotten nowhere just arbitrary good will gestures which was about half of what I should be getting & I was told they would escalate it for me & that was 17 days ago & I still haven't heard anything from them. Since this has happened I've had to leave virgin media as I've moved house into a new build property & they don't supply the property but they do supply all the other properties around my house. I'm now left no option but to go to the ombudsman & take legal advice as well as contact the media. I really didn't want it to come to this as I was very happy with virgin media for two years & really wanted to bring them to my new home.

  • I reported the outage on the 3rd of November as I lost all services at 8.30pm on the 2nd of November. So first thing Sunday morning I rang virgin media to report it as did loads of other people in my area. I went on my local Facebook group & asked if anyone else were having the same problem & multi people said yes they were.

    As for virgin media connection you can get virgin media 5 doors away on one side of my house about 5 doors away on the other side of my house & on the houses across the road from my house.

    We've got openreach putting in their network at the minute g I didn't really want to have to go with another provider for a lengthy contract & not being able to have virgin media for at least 18 months to 2 years.

    • Matthew_ML's avatar
      Matthew_ML
      Forum Team

      Hey sheffmale26, thank you for reaching out and a warm welcome to the community, I am so sorry you are having some issues with the auto compensation. 

      To qualify services have to be down for 2 full working days  and then you get £9.76 per day for a total loss of service. Please see the link for a full break down regrading this.

      Even if the service come back online for 90 seconds and the went back off this would reset the clock.

      It does need to be a full 48 hours. 

  • Hi thanks for the reply to my message I think the reason that they can't supply my new address yet is because it technically doesn't exist yet as there's no working internet connection & it hasn't been banded for council tax yet as it's a new build house only built in October 2024. Yes I've been through the complaints procedure to no avail so it looks like I'll have to go to the ombudsman now & to take legal advice about the small claims court & maybe involve the media as it seems to be a recurring theme with them not sticking to their own contracts.

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta

      Does your new address appear on the Royal Mail postcode checker? If it does, it may be a case of getting it added to the VM database and/or getting a spotter out to see if you can be connected to VM. That often seems to be based on how near you are to the existing VM infrastructure and how cost effective it is for VM to make the connection. The VM forum people should be able to advise on this when they reply.

      For the compensation claim you only need the ombudsman to look at that for you but worth noting that VM gets two clear working days to fix a fault before any compo starts (since you mention the issue started on a Saturday, 2 Nov, and if that is when you reported the outage to VM).

      https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/automatic-compensation

      I believe the small claims process expects you to have tried using the arbitration route first of all.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    There have been numerous topics on here in the past about VM not paying the correct auto compensation (and frequently trying to offer much smaller 'goodwill' payments instead).

    If you have gone through VM's formal complaints process

    https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

    and not received a proper resolution, you can reject the VM resolution and use a deadlock letter to

    escalate to the ombudsman via the process below

    https://www.commsombudsman.org/our-process

    (new forum software only allows hyperlink text to be posted, not a functioning link)

    There is nothing the ombudsman can do to compel VM to install at your new address. There may be various reasons why VM cannot install at a particular address. The most simple might be an admin error, if the address is not on the VM database for some reason, or there may be more complicated reasons why your new address may be marked as unserviceable (technical, legal, financial etc.).

    A VM person should reply to your topic within a few days and may offer further help.