Impossible to cancel account

[emthom12]

I've been on the phone for 2 hours, and have been passed around to 4 different people to cancel my account. I've never struggled so much to perform a single action in my entire history of internet providers over the past 20 years. This company is designed to make cancellation impossible. On hold for 1 hour every time I call, transferred to agents who hang up on me or put me on hold while I'm still speaking, and nobody seems to be able to help. 

This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced. 

[Andrew-G]

Yours is a sadly common tale, and occurs because VM refuse to provide proper online account management facilties.  Your guess is as good as mine why they might do this, but it all stinks of the practices of AOL in the 1990s, who intentionally made it difficult to cancel, and it is a flagrant breach of Ofcom's Fairness Code, item 5: "Customers can sign up to, change and leave their services quickly and smoothly. Providers ensure that customers who are leaving do not face additional barriers or hassle compared to those who are signing up to new services".  

You can complain to Ofcom here that VM are not complying with the fairness code.  That won't help you cancel but it will reward VM for their shocking customer service.  In terms of cancelling, best option seems to be to do it by recorded post if you just want to cancel without the misery of VM's phone system and the whole "customer retention" pantomime.  Address in the link below - allow for postal time, and remember your 30 days notice starts from the day they receive the cancellation letter.

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-legal-stuff/terms-and-conditions-for-fibre-optic-services#end