Automatic compensation - Refund vs compensation
Like many others, I’ve experienced Virgin Media’s appalling customer service…long story short, my installation was delayed, I was entitled to automatic compensation, Virgin refused to pay. I’ve been to the Ombudsman who ruled in my favour, but I have questions over the type of payments that qualify under the automatic compensation scheme. Virgin began charging my account for my subscription before installation was complete or any services were activated. Two months of charges were applied to my account, which Virgin then refunded. These refunds were deducted from the total compensation I was ultimately awarded - I was entitled to £400, I had £150 of credits to my account, so was awarded £250. I’ve discussed this with the Ombudsman and was told any payments made to me by Virgin qualify as payments under the automatic compensation scheme. The fact I was being charged for a service I wasn’t receiving doesn’t matter, and there appears to be no distinction made between payments made as refunds, rather than to compensate me for the inconvenience and additional costs I incurred. Is this really how the scheme works in practice? If so it’s clearly open to abuse and not fit for purpose. Sorry if anything isn’t clear and thanks in advance for any help!