cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Complaint

davekennedy79
Joining in

I started my service in February 2021

never from day 1 did my service work properly, never got full speed that I was paying for , I had an engineer come out and they tried to tell me that the reason for slow speed and service cutting out was that I was getting too much signal and they put a reducer on my router  , I’m sorry but I don’t accept that, I’m a fibre engineer so that is the Poorest excuse I’ve ever heard , I have had poor customer service and never had the service I paid for , I requested my account to be disconnected, this disconnected on 1st October 2021 , I then received a bill for £147 disconnection charges, for a service that was very poor and never got proper speeds, therefore I requested to be taken out of contract without being held to term due to the fact I’ve never received the full service I paid for. I was promised callbacks but they never happened. I suggest you sort out the cancellation charges for the poor service I’ve received and attitude towards the way I’ve been treated , I will take it up with ofcom as I don’t get any kind of resolution with talking to customer services 

please can someone call me to resolve this issue 

2 REPLIES 2

Zach_R
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi @davekennedy79,

Thank you for your post and welcome to our community forums. We're here to help.

I am very sorry to hear about your experience with your ongoing service issues. It's correct, however, that if your signal levels aren't in spec then you would see some problems with your connection. Did the changes that the engineer make in regards to that improve the service at all?

With the Early Disconnection Fee that you're referring to, this would be valid if you terminate your services with us midway through your minimum agreed term. I understand that you've had issues, and I do apologise, but you would need to allow us ample opportunity to perform the necessary diagnostics and troubleshooting before we would then discuss potentially waiving those charges. You can also find more information on this via our Terms & Conditions.

I'm afraid that I'd be unable to arrange a call for you from here, but I am happy to investigate and assist further via the forums. If you'd rather discuss matters over the phone, however, you can reach the team on 0345 454 1111 (or 150 from a Virgin Media landline).

Thanks,
 


Zach - Forum Team
New around here? To find out more about the Community Forums, take a look at our FAQs!


Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

I had an engineer come out and they tried to tell me that the reason for slow speed and service cutting out was that I was getting too much signal and they put a reducer on my router  , I’m sorry but I don’t accept that, I’m a fibre engineer so that is the Poorest excuse I’ve ever heard

If your local VM network is the HFC technology, that's multi-channel analogue RF that relies on amplitude modulation, and therefore if one or more channels have power levels that are too high, then it will cause problems and require an attenuator.   Doesn't mean that was the problem, but if power levels are too high due to amp configuration and short drop lengths then attenuators are commonly used (I've got one on my connection).

I suggest you sort out the cancellation charges for the poor service I’ve received and attitude towards the way I’ve been treated , I will take it up with ofcom as I don’t get any kind of resolution with talking to customer services 

Early exit penalties are clearly written the contract all customer agree to.  If there have been persistent, repeated or long term unresolved problems then you can request release from contract without penalty, but to do that you'll probably need to raise a formal complaint with VM setting out the details of your experience and requesting as a resolution that outcome, or a deadlock letter.  From that, VM should either issue agree to release you, or refuse but issue a deadlock letter.  If they refuse, you then escalate to the industry arbitration scheme CISAS, who will review the matter and make a decision that is binding on VM.  If you make a good case CISAS will uphold your complaint and order VM to cancel the termination charge.  If you don't make a good case they may say that the company have acted within the terms of the contract, and then you do have to pay.  If VM don't resolve to your satisfaction, and don't issue a deadlock letter, then you can still take the matter to arbitration but you need to allow eight weeks between VM receiving the complaint and asking CISAS to adjudicate the matter.

Be aware that early exit fees can be enforced and CISAS will uphold them unless you present clear evidence of any persistent, or repeated or unresolved problems, and you should include as much detail as you can on contacts with VM, and their attempts to resolve those.  I would suggest that the grounds of your complaint is the poor performance, and your request for release from contract without penalty is twofold: First the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that requires any consumer service to be provided with "reasonable skill and care", and second, the Ofcom Fairness Commitments, that state "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."

There's possibly another complication - you have unfortunately done this in the wrong order - the complaint should have been before you terminated the contract, so you need to consider what's happening with the early termination bill.  Complaining to VM and if need be escalating to CISAS could take a couple of months or so.  Whilst VM should not take further action over a disputed debt, VM may already have treated it as a late payment or default under a credit agreement, and that would affect your credit scoring in future.  Since that is true even if you don't think it is right, there's no onus on VM to "correct" your credit history if this is the case, even if they choose or are forced to cancel the termination fee.  If that's the case, then you may need to investigate how to add a "Notice of Correction" to the various credit agency files, and it may help if you have a CISAS adjudication rather than just getting VM to voluntarily cancel the termination fee.  Any unfavourable credit history entry will be visible to all and sundry for the next six years.