Suggestion: Separate PINs for age restricted content control and payments

[Jordan8396]

I would like to see the ability to setup & use different "parental control" PINs for accessing age restricted content and and for making payments.

This would allow you to share your age restricted content control PIN with, for example,  your adult children, without giving the ability to purchase premium content (renting/buying movies for example) without the account holders permission.

Twice within the last week we've had this problem with my mother (who has a form of dementia-like brain injury), where we obviously don't want to restrict her from having the ability to watching age resticted movies (especially when you need a PIN to watch a 12 or 15 🙄), but at the same time need to restrict her making random purchases as she sometimes doesn't understand what she's doing and ends up buying a subscription channel or movie; simply bc it just prompts inputting the PIN and she just blindly enters it with no idea its actually costing extra. Bc in her mind she is always having to put it in for included content so why would this cost any more? A separate payment PIN, would help stop this.

This last week alone this month's bill has gone from £85 (Ultimate Volt) to £110 bc of these accidental purchases (one a subscription channel & one a rental movie).

I know to most the parental PIN is a pain in the ass and they want to remove it completely - And to some degree I agree - We have no one under 18 in the house so have no need for age resticted content control. But bc of this, everyone knows the PIN and could (and in my mums case have) rack up massive bills just buying extras simply bc the age PIN is the same as the payment PIN. Of course the age PIN is bc of some Ofcom regulation so has to be there, so sure allow people to have the same PIN (or turn it off for purchases or whatever) but at least give those who need it the option to us a separate payment PINs for these 2 quite different functions.

Thanks for reading, I hope virgin take this on board and do can do at least something with this suggestion.

Edit: spelling & grammar.

[Chris_W1]

Hi Jordan8396, thanks for the message and welcome back to the forums. 

We would not be able to provide 2 separate pins but you will be able to apply a block to the PPV and this will stop any chargeable contact being purchased however this will also block On Demand content, - Chris. 

[Jordan8396]

Hi Chris_W1, Thanks for your reply.

This sounds like a stupid system - blocking access to On Demand content we pay for access to in order to block the purchases of premium content. They really need to fix their systems.

Is there a way to forward this suggestion & concerns to the development team for them to work on a better system - seriously how hard can it be to make it possible to add a second pin, or at the VERY least make it more obvious it is going to cost extra to activate the feature/access that content. The prompts for the PIN are extremely similar considering one is to access already paid for content and the other it to add it to the bill - especially when you have to constantly enter it bc of the age-restrictions on many channels.

Thanks

[Adri_G]

Hi, Jordan8396.
Thank you so much for taking the time to post and reply.
We are sorry you feel that way.

The PIN process is secure and should be used - we can change the PIN if required form this end or you can change it at your end. 

If you wish to block the OnDemand, we can do so but this would be a block for all OnDemand features.

We recommend that the PIN is changed and not shared with anyone to assist with security. You can also amend your Parental Controls via your settings on your TV box.

Let us know if this helps, we'll make sure your feedback is passed to the relevant team as well for future improvements.
Best regards,