Virgin Media discriminates against customers with disabilities
I have supplied this in DM to one of your colleagues, who will inevitably take about 10 hours to respond, but this may come in useful for another person who finds themselves dealing with this wretched company as a vulnerable user. I have spent seven hours of one day dealing with Virgin Media after OpenReach did not complete an install, which unfortunately has left me stuck with this clown car for another week. VM were informed that I was in treatment for pre-cancerous cells of the uterus. This is on the back of multiple hospital visits in a short space of time which I assumed to be a continuation of endometriosis (which meets the grounds for a disability under the Equality Act 2010, and may also be considered a form of sex discrimination as the condition impacts the female reproductive system). My first contact with VM, disclosing this, involved a call centre agent becoming hostile and aggressive with me before disconnecting the line. I subsequently began a move to Sky. Despite Open Reach's error, Sky resolved the error with booking a new appointment quicker than advertised online and with compensation for each day lost, all within 30 minutes. I am now entering Day 3 of trying to have services reinstated with Virgin. For some reason they are baffled as to why I loathe this company with every cell of my being. I have an outstanding bill with Virgin for the grand sum of circa £70. Over the space of two days I have been quoted three different amounts to reinstate the service. I have had a payment plan offer removed from me by a manager as soon as I mentioned the Equality Act 2010 and disability discrimination, where she hung up on me and wrote in notes I was not eligible for an extension. You are not allowed to know your legal rights with this company, but you can be verbally abused by their staff over your health, and you should take it because if you become frustrated or just flat out offended by how vile they are being, they will hang up on you. Therefore I would indicate to Virgin Media, and to anyone else who may need this in future, that they are bound by the Act, specifically s15 and s20. In specific relation to s20, this pertains to duties to make adjustments. I would also point you to s26(1) which pertains to harassment; their staff are extremely adept at dismissing and ignoring any mention of a disability and continuing to create a hostile, degrading environment for the person. Yes, your elderly parent who has dementia has a disability under the Equality Act 2010 and despite what their call centres protest, probably didn't understand how to add on a bunch of things that they don't even comprehend. Yes, your mental health issues can be considered disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, and yes you do have the right to be treated with dignity and respect by their staff if has caused your life to fall into chaos. Yes, if you are autistic and become overstimulated and overwhelmed by having to run around for hours after these idiots and it impacts your ability to communicate, they have a duty to consider this and not become aggressive/hostile. I do not like these people. I am sick to the back teeth of the way they treat customers. Their inability to have any duty of care toward their customers whilst racking up £2.7bn in revenue last quarter is not my concern. Other companies do this just fine complying with their obligations. They are nothing but a bunch of cowboys who appear to make it up as they go along. You can always explain how capitalism works anyway when your agents reply to this, if they bother. I'll ask the Communications Ombudsman what they think though as obviously I don't understand these kinds of meaty topics. Anyway, I did notice that it seemed to really annoy them when I mentioned this, probably the same way it annoyed me being patronised to about capitalism, so it may benefit someone else who needs it. Odds, favour et al.Lied to about EDF
I contacted Virgin Media in April because my supported living accommodation were having us transferred to their WiFi. I called and was promised I could cancel my contract in May without the EDF (Early Disconnection Fee) with the agent promising to make a note on my account. I contacted today to cancel and was told there's no record of the call, nor no note on my account. I've spent the past hour going round in circles in the webchat and nothings been accomplished. I feel like my disability is being taken advantage of, since I told the agent I like in supported accommodation I can't handle the stress and I just want this all to end 😢