Refused Auto compensation

[Klj011]

I went 32 days without broadband, that excludes the 2 days I am supposed to give for the engineers to fix it. I informed Virgin of no connection on 25th November, I have had three engineers out, I have had 3 cables re-done and the final engineer who visited on the 20th December told us that they couldn’t fix it that year as they need to dig up the entire road. 

I’ve had issue upon issue trying to get people to fix this with everybody blaming everybody else. I’ve had a lovely chat with a Sophie who told me it was not her problem.
I’m also being made to pay the early disconnection fee which I was told (by Sophie) I wouldn’t have to pay if I had no internet for 30 days. It also states in the contract that if it’s less than the promised speed for 30 days I don’t have to pay, well yes, I had no speed as I had no internet. But apparently no, I still have to pay early disconnection.

Today I’ve been told I don’t meet the criteria for auto compensation. I asked what the criteria was and was told it’s a total loss of service (which I knew), which is exactly what I had…for over 32 days. So at £9.33 a day that’s not an insignificant sum.

I cannot believe it. I am fuming and can’t believe how much I’ve been lied to over the past month, how much time and energy I’ve spent trying to get this fixed to be told I haven’t actually had total loss of service. I’ve got doorbell footage, screenshots of chats, screenshots of my account clearly saying we are disconnected and yet I’m just being told a flat no. I’ve done several complaints through the web form, spoken to customer service agents, WhatsApp conversations, live chat. 

I’m honestly at the end of my patience now, and my next step whilst I wait to be allowed to contact the ombudsman is to contact Anna Tims at the Guardian as my last ditch attempt. I’ve made this post so that I can say I’ve tried every single way possible to resolve this before escalating, but I am so enraged by the awful customer service I’ve received and how they are able to get away with such lies and I hope some how future potential customers will see this and think again. 

The last engineer even disconnected our neighbour and they’ve now had no broadband since the 20th. So good job all round I’d say.

[Daniel_Et]

Hi @Klj011, thank you for your post and welcome to the Virgin Media Community.

We're sorry to hear about the poor experience you've had and that you feel this way.

In order to look into this for you further, we'll send you a private message on here. Look out for the envelope in the top right-hand corner.

If you're on a portable device with a smaller screen, click on the icon in the top right-hand corner and select "messages" from the additional menu options.

Regards,
Daniel

[Klj011]

So as an update for anybody who comes across this post when searching for Virgin Customer service. I have been offered £60. For 32 days with no internet. Their reasoning? Because I cancelled the contract due to their rude and disgusting service. So it’s okay for me to have no internet because I cancelled and I’m not eligible for compensation because apparently I have no right to internet because I cancelled BUT they can charge me for it. 

Also to note an external company and virgin came out to do works post cancellation and and engineer came out, so they were still trying to fix it and didn’t, but still I’m not entitled to compensation, regardless of the fact I had no internet from cancellation to me being cut off. And not a single person had explained how that makes sense. Avoid Virgin Media at all costs. 

[Cardiffman282]

On a strict reading of the Ofcom Code of Practice on this (10 b) unfortunately this sounds correct https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

[Klj011]

Hello thank you for replying 🙂 I don’t actually fit in to service issue 1 as it wasn’t a new line being installed or activated, we’ve been with virgin for a year so ours is service issue 2. But appreciate  you taking the time to read through 🙂

[Cardiffman282]

Sorry! Yes you are quite correct. Tired eyes etc. 

[Matthew_ML]

Hey Klj011, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear this.

I can see my colleague has sent you a PM regrading this. 

If you need anything else answering on the matter please do reach back out to him. 

[Klj011]

Hello Matt,

Yes Daniel is communicating between me and your teams on the matter. My recent post was purely to update people who cannot see PMs as I think everybody should be aware of how hard it is to claim back compensation. As noted by a previous poster, the only section in the ofcom guidance that mentions cancellation being a factor in refusing compensation is regarding new installs. That’s not my case and nowhere does it say I’m not entitled due to cancellation of the service. So I’m updating people to tell them not to listen to that when told that’s the reason. 

[Matthew_ML]

Sorry to hear this.

You can of course read up on our auto compensation here in the meanwhile. 

[Klj011]

Yes I’ve already read that many times and nowhere does it say if I cancel I’m not entitled to it.