Divulging bank account details over the phone

[najdorfcymraeg]

I was intending to leave Virgin Media, mostly because of their poor customer service. However, as I approached the end of my contract they offered me an acceptable deal so I decided to stay. Unfortunately, at the end of the call, they told me they needed the first half of my bank account number; if not they would lose their jobs. VM state explicitly that they never ask for such information and they haven't before in my 20+ years with them. After a total of an hour and a half on the phone, both to their sales team and to customer service, I was pressured into giving this information which I did since I was about 98% sure that the people were legitimate. Overall, this 90 minutes was the most stressful (sales team) and amateurish (customer service) interaction I ever have had with a supplier so I will be taking this into account when I next renew. I think I'd rather deal with an organisation that doesn't shorten my life expectancy.

[japitts]

If you had called a published VM number, then this would have been routed to either VM staff or their "outsourced partners" - but certainly those with legitimate use for this.

I would suspect this was a genuine attempt at passing DPA security, and can totally believe that offshore agents are heavily focused on process.

[Kath_P]

Hi najdorfcymraeg, 

Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums. ⭐

We're sorry to hear you were unhappy with how a recent conversation with our team went. 

In certain circumstances there will be times where we would need to confirm partial information relating to the account you pay with although this is usually a sort code if we're asking to clear security. 

If we're setting up a Direct Debit then we would ask for the full sort code and account number. 

We're happy that you've decided to stick with us for now and hopefully throughout your new contract, your faith in us will be restored. 

Many thanks,