Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Virgin Media
MANY residents will be subscribers to Virgin Media.
Some may have experienced a less-than-reliable broadband service and may be interested, if not in cancelling, then at least in seeing a report about a large fine levied by Ofcom:
Virgin Media fined £28m for preventing customers from cancelling co...
In response to this unwelcome publicity, VM issued a PR statement strictly on their own behalf. Past un-subscribers could be forgiven for any amusement at VM's damage limitation exercise.
After years of subscription to VM's broadlybad services, I set about cancelling. The friendly call-centre agent in India said that I'd had a contract longer than he'd been alive! (I'd been with it's predecessors Cable London, Telewest and Blueyonder).
Eventually I was put through to a cancellation (i.e. retention) agent with a Scottish accent. From elsewhere she already knew to the £, exactly what my new deal was going to cost me (under 40% of VM's prices). "How does that sound?" – in effect she was offering to match the new provider.
I had Net Zero confidence in this offer. The implication to me, of that (merely) verbal offer, was that either VM could still make a profit after slashing their price by more than 60% (!) or they would soon start creeping up their prices. Again.
I told her it was too late (the new ADSL installation was already booked). I also told her that her company depended on customer inertia and whose customers anticipated VM's famed difficulty to switch to another company.
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OFCOM
"Right at the beginning of this problem, a number of years ago in 2022, we tried to resolve this informally.
My impression is that Ofcom—like other industry regulators—might have acted earlier and more forcefully, rather than hoping to "resolve this informally" (Ofwat being the class-leader in this form of informality).
For some companies, big fines are the only language they really understand. For the greediest companies, fines should be levied large and early.
Tags for Forum Posts: OFCOM, Virgin, Virgin Media, competition, consumers, industry regulator, market regulation
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Martin (Woodside) on
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I'm glad they've been found out, they're a bunch of crooks.
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Permalink Reply by Simon Bradley on
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Truly hopeless broadband service on Green Lanes. Outages practically every day, for weeks on end now - the latest was this morning. No explanation is ever offered, nor any refund for the mounting hours when the paid-for service was not provided.
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Run a mile from the evil Virgin Media. I had a fight to get my contract cancelled. They are vile.
Community Fibre has been excellent and much cheaper for me.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Neil, yours is another recommendation for Community Fibre.
Unfortunately, it's not yet available in my road. If and when it is, I'll likely switch.
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The news didn't surprise me at all, I've experienced the full horrors of VirginMedia call-centre manipulation (Press 1 if you're cross, 2 if you're seething and 3 if you are slowly losing the will to live). All very similar to Clive's post above. I think the Ofcom ruling and fine fell really short - where is the proposed compensation for the victims of this? Where will the £28m go? It's surely ripped-off customers who should benefit. Even if twice I have got a reasonable deal in the end out of Virgin (only after initiating the process of leaving), I still found the hours I spent really disruptive, and knowing for sure now what I always suspected, that it was a deliberate and structured campaign by Virgin to stop me getting a fair deal, makes me hate them even more.
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Where will the £28m go?
"Virgin Media must pay the fine within two months and the money will be passed on to the Treasury."
Richard, I think I agree with you about where the fine monies should have gone. VM's practices were deeply uncompetitive.
It was customers and citizens who spent hours of aggravation trying to switch.
Whereas the State-created "regulator" was deeply dilatory. It could and should have acted sooner and harder. The evidence is the multi-year delay in taking action.
I have the impression that the gentle folk at Ofcom were strung along in their effort to resolve the matter "informally". For a period, were they partly "captured" ?
It appears that at great length, they understood that wool was being pulled over their eyes, the scales lifted and then finally they levied a whooping fine.
The market regulators were largely a creation of Conservative governments and little changed by Blair-New Labour.
I hope the new Burnham Government will fix the feeble regulator regime, starting with Ofwat which IMHO, needs to be put out of its misery ASAP!
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