Virgin Media Broadband Poor Service!
I phoned these people up yesterday as I have had enough of the poor service that has been ongoing for weeks. In complete denial, they tried to tell me that their broadband was working fine in my area when I have evidence that is not.
I suspect they are passing off service as being good when it is not and possibly saving money. If you are paying for the fastest broadband going and you just about get a signal and all your internet does is buffer then one needs to look closer at the company providing the service.
What is the law of passing off? The law of extended passing off prevents one trader from misrepresenting goods or services as being the goods and services of another.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_off
This is the outage map for the whole of the UK yesterday.
This is the outage map in my area yesterday.
https://istheservicedown.co.uk/status/virgin-media/map
I have since read on dozens of media outlets how people are so irrate and Virgin are doing nothing other than fobbing people off.
Here are the links to all the articles I found and if you look at trustpilot well it just speaks volumes with a shocking 89% reviews with a 1 star rating.
In the News:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/store.virginmedia.com
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3YsNp55bGQSxttdd1XTyw7b/watchdog-virgin-media
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/breaking-virgin-media-broadband-down-23339158
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/14293001/virgin-media-down-internet-broadband/
https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/virgin-media-criticised-after-month-of-slow-broadband-7326992
https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-legal-stuff/consumer-code-of-practice
What New Research Reveals About Broadband Speeds
According to: www.which.co.uk Research reveals the full extent of the problem – a whopping 15.4 million UK homes are putting up with speeds that don’t actually match those they were initially promised.
So 74% of households with fixed broadband connections are paying for packages with advertised speeds they don’t get. It gets worse when you move out of cities. Astonishingly, 98% of rural homes typically don’t get the headline advertised speed.
For example, only 4% of customers on TalkTalk’s 17Mbps package, and just 1% of people on BT and Plusnet’s 76Mbps deals, are getting the top advertised speeds.
Obviously, speed matters. Nine in 10 people told www.which.co.uk that speed was an important factor in how you choose your broadband provider. It’s also how providers describe and categorize their own services.
Bad Press.
I promised I would tell the world about their appauling service, obviously other people have beat me to it.
Considering I am supposed to be online I cannot have any disruptions to the service.
To keep on having an atrocious service is beyond comprehension and all they said was they would have to test my signal which would be having disruption to my service completely.
How about improving the signal nationwide, that would be a start?
Obviously they are saving themselves money charging full whack for what is supposed to be the faster broadband but giving a sub standard service.
It is not my modem or the device I am using as all my devices are brand new.
Will I be looking for another provider of course I will.
I wrote about them a while ago here is the link: https://marketingagency.cymrumarketing.com/2021/01/15/virgin-media-service/
Virgin needs to get their act together.
This is the screenshot to my speed yesterday and today for comparison. I should not be paying a single penny to them if they continue to provide such an awful service.
Yesterdays signal.
Todays Signal.
What Should You Do Next.
What should people do to get compensated. According to Virgin they will give you £3.50 off your bill per month if you threaten to leave them. Obviously I did not accept this offer as they are affecting my business and £3.50 is comical and insulting. If I loose business because of this company then it will be a litigation law suit they will be facing.
According to ‘Trading Standards’ “The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that services must be provided with reasonable care and skill.
If the broadband provider are not providing a service that you agreed on at the beginning of your contract and you can prove you have been affected you can get compensation.
You first need to reach out to the service provider, with a formal complaint. I have done this using Facebook Messenger and also on the phone and so far they are not responding.
If the service provider fobs you off you should make a compalaint to Ofcom. Ofcom is an ombudsman and they oversee all telecommunication companies.
Worse case scenario the telecommunication companies can get fined. (I would love this to happen to teach them a lesson).
The more people complain to Ofcom eventually Ofcom will look at the company with a fine tooth comb.
Compensation.
BROADBAND and home phone customers can get automatic compensation from providers for service or engineer visit issues.
These payments are automatic, although had been paused in March 2020 due to the coronavirus lockdown making it harder for providers to carry out repairs.
But as of July 2020, regulator Ofcom says most providers were able to restart paying automatic compensation for at least some service issues.
Under the rules, customers get £8 back every day the service stops working after two working days of it going down. And they decided on that figure and not the customer, so they dictate to the customer what they are prepared to pay in that case, see you in court is all I have to say.
Customers are also due £25 if an engineer misses an appointment or cancels with less than 24 hours’ notice. (Where a customer has specifically taken time off work, lost pay, to be on the premises, for the engineer to be a no show then the compensation should be not a measly £25 but the compensation of the lost earnings the customer has lost).
Plus, if there’s a delay to the start of a new service you will usually get £5 for each day, including the missed start date.
But if your service goes down it’s still worth asking for compensation, even if it doesn’t fall into one of these categories.
If you’re unhappy and your provider doesn’t resolve your complaint then you can take it to one of two dispute resolution (ADR) schemes – Ombudsman Services: Communications, or Communications and Internet Services Adjustment Scheme (CISAS).
You’ll need to check which of the two your provider is signed up to.
Recommendations
I will NOT be recommeding this company to anyone!
Will this be the straw that breaks the camels back, we will just have to wait and see….
Who is Virgin kidding when if you read all the complaints you will see there is a lynch mob gaining momentum.
If I were ‘Lutz Schüler‘ CEO or the Chairman John C. Malone I would be ashamed to show my face.
Obviously, someone needs to hit them in their pocket where it will really hurts, for them to do a drastic shakeup of their company. But my guess is they will pass the buck and blame it on everyone and everything else other than their own wrong doings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Media
#John C. Malone #Lutz Schüler #virginmedia #virginbroadband #virginmediabroadband
