The Most Awful Customer Experience Imaginable

[Seanhb]

At the hands of Virgin Media I have experienced the worst customer service that I could ever have imagined.

I moved into a new build property in August 2018 and opted to go with Virgin for TV & Broadband as I chose to believe the local sales representative when he told me that the infrastructure installed by Virgin would guarantee the best service in the area. Fast-forward 4 years and after frequent service outages, pixelating TV images and inconsistent broadband speeds, I'd finally had enough and in July 2022 I called Virgin to cancel my service. 

When I called to cancel, I was transferred between 6 different agents (I won't refer to them as 'customer service' agents because that would imply that some level of service had been provided)......anyway, I explained to each and everyone of these agents the reason for my call and when the 6th agent told me that they would need to transfer me to someone else I told them that I had been on the phone for too way long and needed this to be concluded there and then.....I told the agent that I was giving notice to end my service and that I would expect them to note that on my account and do whatever is necessary to ensure the account is closed. 

I stopped using Virgin and approximately two weeks after this debacle of a phone call I had Sky TV and Broadband installed.

Fast-forward 6 months and during a super important re-mortgaging process to save my business and make necessary adaptions to my property to meet the needs of a growing family get an email from my mortgage consultant advising me that the mortgage offer I had received from Barclays had been withdrawn because Virgin Media has recorded late payments and a default against my credit file. Absolute despair set it!!!

So I call Virgin customer services.......hold for ages, get passed from agent to agent and then get cut off...........I call back.....get passed from agent to agent and get cut off again.......I call back, finally speak to someone who sounds like they might be able to even partially help me and get advised that I need to email some credit file amendments email address and someone will come back to me within 28 days  - Not good enough!!!! My whole life is on the line right here and Virgins idea of acceptable customer service is for me to drop an email into an abyss of incompetence and wait until they can be bothered to get back to me.....really??!!

With no other option I send an email, marked as urgent on 3rd January 2023 and get an automated reply telling me that I will get a response within 21 days.......Here I am on 1st February 2023 without so much as a missed call from you absolute jokers. Plus, in the meantime I have called and asked to speak to a manager but apparently in this day and age a company the size of Virgin, and I quote 'does not have the ability to transfer a call to a manger'.......are you for real??? 

So on the above call I request a manager to call me back within 30 mins.....'I'm sorry sir, they will call you back in the next 48hrs'........Not good enough!!! I asked for recordings of all my calls to Virgin Media and was told that wasn't possible but that they would email me copies of all the notes made on my account (not sure that helps because if their agents can't execute a simple cancellation request lord knows how they'd get on trying to make a note on a system).

Did the manager call me?.... Of course not.......did the email with the notes on my account follow?.....of course not. 

I am at a complete loss with you lot but I won't let this go because of the devastating impact this has had on me.  

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

VM appear to have made cancelling their services as tedious and troublesome as they possibly can, and you're not alone in this - there's many other examples in this forum, although there's also many people who manage to cancel without hassle.  the resolution of this is not likely to be quick, I'm afraid.

You gave an instruction to cancel, it was not processed and as a result VM are in direct breach of Ofcom and CMA regulations, as well as the whole panoply of UK contract law and consumer protection law.  In terms of getting call recordings, if you've made a request, VM have 30 days to comply, if they haven't then notify the ICO, as VM have previously been told that if they didn't improve their performance on subject access requests they'd be fined.  If you need to request this again, then the online form is here.

Now read and follow the VM Complaints Code of Practice. I always recommend putting complaints in writing and sending by recorded post because VM have a history of poor handling of telephone complaints, and of web complaints not being properly submitted. You may have zero confidence in VM's ability to resolve a complaint, but the point is that you have to follow the process if you are then to escalate this to the industry complaints adjudicator.  Your complaint would ask (a) backdating the cancellation to when it should have been effective, (b) refund of all payments they've demanded since the cancellation date that should have applied, (c) correction of any credit history foulage if this applies, (d) payment by Virgin Media of significant compensation for the poor service, failure to process the cancellation, any wrongful credit history reporting, and the inconvenience and distress of having to sort out VM's mess.  If this gets a good outcome then the job is done, but don't expect that - VM's complaint handling is outsourced to International Imbeciles plc, so expect to be fobbed off.  When that happens, then you can reply to any "resolution" letter by rejecting that and asking for a deadlock letter.  With the deadlock letter you take the matter to Ombudsman Services (any references in VM documentation or other posts in this forum to the alternative adjudicator CISAS are now out of date), making the same requests, and adding a further compensation request for VM's failure to resolve the complaint competently.  You may wish to additionally report your soiled credit history as a result of VM's failure to process a cancellation instruction to the ICO because this means VM have been processing inaccurate data about you - that's a breach of GDPR.  

Make sure your complaint is clear, starts from the beginning, includes as much detail as possible on the contacts you've had with VM, including (if relevant) any rudeness or being cut off or disconnected. It should also specify exactly what you want: Refund of any over-charges, correction of the credit history, a generous "goodwill gesture" (compensation) for the hassle, wasted time, broken promises and sheer unpleasant inconvenience of the whole thing.  If the forum staff can grab this and get it sorted that will be quicker and easier for both parties, but don't settle for any compromise or inadequate goodwill gesture just because it's easy - and VM have a miserly track record on voluntary goodwill payments, don't let them off the hook.  I'd suggest that you're looking for a good few hundred quid compensation for the very serious inconvenience and distress. 

Do let us know how you get on, whether through formal complaints and adjudication, or by some resolution sorted by the VM forum team.  If you go to adjudication there's usual a non-disclosure clause, but that covers the detail, you can still let us know if you're unhappy, satisfied, or very satisfied with the eventual outcome.  And don't settle for VM sorting the credit history but paying you a hundred quid by way of restitution - their failure is very serious, it's a repeat failing in these forums, and the consequences for you have been financial harm and distress.

[Seanhb]

Thank you so much for such a comprehensive and helpful response - I will be sure to let you know how I get on and really appreciate your support. 

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @Seanhb,

Welcome to our Community Forums! Thank you for your first post and I'm very sorry to hear that you've had a very poor experience cancelling your services with us and that this has impacted your credit score.

I'll be more than happy to look into this further for you via Private Message and see what we can do to help to correct this issue. 

Please keep an eye out for a purple envelope at the top right corner of your Forum page. I'll be in touch soon.

Thank you.