Complaints ignored - Escalation Letter?

[scottm88]

Hi,

There is a lot to this, I will try to keep it brief where possible.

I was completely without internet for over 4 weeks just over a year ago. I called numerous times for updates, also numerous texts from Virgin saying it would be fixed the next day. All the staff I spoke to were good and as helpful as they could be.

I was working from home during this time, so I had to spend money to connect hotspots, so being without internet did cost me money.

Stupidly during this time my contract expired and I renewed. I was told on the phone that I would automatically receive compensation, I didn't need to do anything. Some months later Virgin increased my bill by 25%.

I left it some time, thinking they'd need to calculate the amount owed, then called to enquire where my compensation was. I was told this would be escalated to a complaint, I asked to only be contacted by email.

I received a copy/paste reply offering me "30GBPS". I replied and said the amount is £9.33 a day after 2 days, I was off 4 weeks, which was acknowledged by Virgin at the time of the fault.

Received a further copy/paste reply, with a few rude comments and just stuff they'd made up, such as telling me I needed to contact them to arrange compensation (Automatic Compensation Scheme?). They upped their offer to "35GBPS", despite admitting they had me down as being off for 12 days, and me providing evidence it was really over 4 weeks.

I replied and said that they were not being honest. I read on the OFCOM website that I needed a deadlock letter from Virgin to escalate this. I requested this letter to be sent.

Heard nothing, sent a further email and still nothing. I then decided I should probably raise a further complaint, I've heard nothing at all from that complaint. I've now sent them an email giving 14 days to respond or I will contact OFCOM.

I'll be honest, if my bill had just stayed at the original agreed amount, I probably wouldn't have pursued this.

I guess I just need some advice please. Has anybody had similar long periods with internet?

Did Virgin pay compensation? Or did they lie and label it as "intermittent" like mine?

Can I get OFCOM or anybody else to provide any help to get this resolved?

If all else fails, is there any way I can cancel my contract due to this and switch to another provider?

[goslow · Accepted solution]

Yours is a familiar story on here.

Customer has an outage, or outages, over a long period of time. VM eventually resolves the fault. VM claims no compensation is due (for a variety of dubious reasons). VM offers a much smaller 'goodwill' payment.

You will need to take the matter to arbitration.

Process for that is a formal complaint to VM first of all (a required first step but unlikely to result in any useful outcome)

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

If VM fails to resolve you can go to arbitration with a deadlock letter or in any event after 8 weeks

https://www.commsombudsman.org/our-process

There has been a steady stream of customer feedback on here (in similar circumstances) where VM has denied any compensation but this was rejected at arbitration.

Success at arbitration often seems to be when the customer presents a clear and easy-to-understand timeline of events, backed up with linked evidence, which the adjudicator can use to come to a decision. VM's evidence (if VM presents any) is likely to be a muddled mess of random information and unsubstantiated claims. If you can do better than that, then you are likely to win the case.

Here are a few past examples, under similar circumstances, which might offer you some encouragement that it is worth following up

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Landline-not-working/m-p/5230030#M184701

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Still-waiting-for-deadlock-lettet/m-p/5291958#M18973...

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/A-tale-of-woe/m-p/5345224#M194067

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Refused-compensation-for-total-loss...

[scottm88]

Thank you for your help.

I did respond just earlier, it looks like it maybe didn't send.

Thanks for the information, I'll get all my evidence together and contact the ombudsman after work. It's been over 8 weeks now since Virgin last contacted me.

I can provide all of the SMs messages they were sending saying they would be restoring my service with identical fault numbers, then the message to say it had been restored. Also the call logs to show that I was calling them during that time.

I didn't report it initially, I checked and saw there was a known fault in my area and wasn't aware that I also needed to report. I'm fine to accept from the dates I can prove.

I'll include the emails from them too, as those have links to the OFCOM site and then give information that completely contradicts the information on there.

I'll get this all sorted after work.

Thank you

[用心棒]

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@scottm88 wrote:

⋮
I didn't report it initially, I checked and saw there was a known fault in my area and wasn't aware that I also needed to report. I'm fine to accept from the dates I can prove.

⋮

Do consider stating that in your complaint and letting the independent arbitrator decide the matter.

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[goslow]

You can also share your unhappy complaint experience with OFCOM.

They launched an investigation into VM on 13 July 2023 specifically into VM's cancellation and complaints processes and how VM should facilitate access to ADR

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/bulletins/enforcement-bulletin/open-cases/cw_01275

Case ref. no. and an email at the bottom of the above page or submit with same info via the contact form

https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

Submitting information won't help your individual complaint but it will contribute to the OFCOM investigation and it sounds like your experience is directly relevant to the terms of reference of the investigation.

[scottm88]

Thank you both for your information.

I put together as much information as I could and forwarded this to the Comms Ombudsman link that was provided. I followed the advice that you had provided.

I'll drop another message in here once I get any updates. After reading through the information provided, I do feel confident I'll get this resolved.

Thanks again.

[Vikki_M]

Hi scottm88

Thank you for your post and welcome to our community.

We are sorry to hear you were unhappy with the response we provided regarding your complaint.

If we have sent you an email to advise your complaint is over 8 weeks old, you will be able to take this to independent adjudication.

All the information on our complaint code of practice is here for convenience. 

If you have already contacted them, they will be in touch with you directly. 

If you have any further questions, please pop back to us here and we will do our best to help. 

[Lakhi1234]

Having the same issues getting through to anyone. Complaint went through. No confirmation. No reply in over 28 days. No link to reply. Sent the complaint through twice. Two long conversations on livechat never got me through to complaints. How do you actually speak to a real person in this company. Finding O2 are just as bad. Funny coincidence 

[scottm88]

Hi,

I'll just say that the advice I received above was hugely valuable and helped me a lot. The ombudsman have accepted my case just after Christmas, I'm just waiting for Virgin to submit their evidence. I'll be able to give a full update once I have one.

I really can't give any advice about how to get through to them unfortunately, all their complaint response emails told me to call back. It's like you say though, it's almost impossible to get through to them, as there is no complaints option when calling.

The email they always used to respond to my complaints was:

ExecutiveTeam@virginmedia,co,uk

(I apologise for the formatting, it's not allowing me to send the proper email address. Commas to dots)

Regardless what I sent to that email, they'd usually just send the same copy/paste reply, with the occasional passive-agressive remark thrown in. It could be worth a shot though.

I'd definitely recommend looking at the replies to my original post, the info I received there was very helpful. Especially since they're currently being investigated for how bad they are at handling complaints.

I'm hoping you get sorted.