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Cancellation

Trevor747
Tuning in

Hi, I am 6 weeks into my virgin contract. However I have lost services twice in that time. One a couple of weeks ago for a couple of days. And now I have had no TV service  since the 25 September and will not have a technician visit until the 05 October. Is 12 days without TV services a breach of contract? I have had 2 previous technician appointments cancelled by virgin on the understanding that my services were working. This is incorrect which they have a aknowledged. I also have had intermittent broadband and phone issues. I was also informed work was going on too fix faults in my area. Have I got grounds to cancel my contract and ask for a refund. 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

As an observer, Aaron appears to be showing all the customer focus that has earned Virgin Media it's appalling reputation, and status as consistently in the bottom tier of Ofcom's complaints tables.

There's a number of ways forward here for Trevor747.  The first is to wait on the automatic compensation scheme.  Sometimes this pays up for missed appointments and lost service, but there's frequent reports of the company failing to apply it properly, and you may feel events now require more than that.

Second option, raise a formal complaint with VM (in writing - don't bother phoning as you already know how poor VM's telephone service is).  You can try the dubiously reliable web form for complaints in My Virgin Media, or do it in writing and sending by recorded post to the address on the complaints help page.  Maybe that will get a good result, my own experience and many others have found that VM's complaint handling is as bad as many other aspects of customer service.  If VM can't sort your complaint out to your complete satisfaction, then you reject any unsatisfactory "resolution" and ask for a deadlock letter, and with that deadlock letter you can escalate to the industry arbitration scheme CISAS.  If you can't get a deadlock letter then you can still involve CISAS, but need to wait eight weeks from the date of the complaint (and add the failure to issue a deadlock letter to the CISAS complaint, along with poor complaint handling and the original fault and problems).  Include any instances of long call waits, broken promises to fix or call back, missed appointments, rudeness, and the fact that due your disability you are more dependent than most customers on a working connection.  Those are all "aggravating factors" when CISAS assess compensation.  Importantly, you can ask for the contract to be cancelled due to (a) loss of faith in the company and its poor service, and (b) an unreasonable time to fix the fault.  Sometimes CISAS support this, sometimes they won't.  Compensation for poor service and a right to cancellation of services due to non-performance are both allowed for as remedies under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (section 54 if my memory serves me correctly) and statute law always trumps any one sided bilge in VM's standard terms of contract.  

Third, option wait on the proper forum staff to take a look and advise, they'll pick this up over this weekend.  Unlike some VM employees who participate unofficially in the forum, they're all paid to be here and are focused on solving problems, and will be as helpful as they are permitted to be withing VM's operating policies.  This would be your easiest option and potentially the quickest outcome.  Make sure that any goodwill payment is at least as generous as you'd expect under the CISAS guidelines linked above.  Any discussions with forum staff will be by private message - if you feel they're not giving you adequate redress, then give them one final chance stating that you think they need to be more generous failing which you will take the matter through formal complaint to CISAS - staff here know how much that costs VM, and that VM lose or concede the majority of cases that CISAS accept.

And finally, regardless of the option you choose to take things forward, complain to Ofcom.  Do it as a summary complaint because they won't get directly involved in your complaint, but if sufficient people complain they might actually do something to hold the company to account.

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24 REPLIES 24

Aaron2
Well-informed

Any faults are 30 days to resolve from when VM are first notified as per the T&C, if you are within your 2 weeks cooling off period then you can utilise that opportunity to cancel without penalty regardless of reason.

If after 30 days we have been unable to resolve a delayed provision of
Virgin Phone or Virgin Broadband or a total loss of service, we may give
you notice that we are ending credit payments being made to you under
the Virgin Media Automatic Compensation Scheme (click
here to view
the policy). If we give you notice, we will offer you the right to end your
agreement without needing to pay an early disconnection fee. We will give
you no less than 30 days’ notice of our ending such credit payments and if
you cancel your services before the end of this notice period you will not
be charged an early disconnection fee (even if service is restored or your
activation is completed in this notice period).


** I work for VirginMedia but all opinions posted here are my own.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2019/broadband-and-phone-firms-put-...

Your link above is cut off and missing -put-fairness-fist


** I work for VirginMedia but all opinions posted here are my own.

Trevor747
Tuning in

The mention of 30 days to fix something that's broken is a joke. I will have to look at the consumer council regulations 2015 and check my rights. 

Trevor747
Tuning in

Absolutely love it when you reply so quickly I work for virgin media but the posts are my own . Ha ha you couldn't make this up. God I have never laughed so much in my life 😄😄😄

Trevor747
Tuning in
  1. Customers’ services work as promised, reliably over time. If things go wrong providers give a prompt response to fix problems and take appropriate action to help their customers, which may include providing compensation where relevant. If providers can’t fix problems with core services they have promised to deliver within a reasonable period, customers can walk away from their contract with no penalty;

Surprisingly I was required to put it as part of my signature, even though prior I never announced I was an employee. As for the replies I can't say much for that other than boredom gets the better of me.

In relation to what I mentioned above with the 30 days, it's listed in the Terms and Conditions outlined here https://prod.ctassets.virginmedia.com/uploads/Terms_and_Conditions_TV_Fibre_and_Phone_POST_01_SEPT_2...

If you either CTRL + F part of what I pasted, or just look for "R. Liability to you" you can find it on the left side under paragraph 12.

 


** I work for VirginMedia but all opinions posted here are my own.

Trevor747
Tuning in

Paragraph 11 is better? 

11 is in regards to Broadband/Landline, from what you mentioned it was only TV so if there is a broadband fault, then you may be entitled to compensation under the Speed Guarantee, but again even that is 30 days of monitoring to be eligible for disconnecting penalty free should they agree the service etc is unacceptable and not resolved in 30 days. https://www.virginmedia.com/legal/speed-policy

"If the actual download speed provided from our network to your Virgin Media Hub falls below the Minimum Guaranteed Download Speed, and this happens for 3 consecutive days or more (whether continuously or intermittently during each day), and we are unable to fix the problem within 30 days of you reporting the problem to us, [[you may have the right to end your agreement without paying an Early Disconnection Fee. ]] You need to contact us if you have a speed problem via the contact us page (click here)"


** I work for VirginMedia but all opinions posted here are my own.