Virgin Media are...simply rubbish

Guest post Ebrahim Piperdy: "I am currently a customer with Virgin Media and have been for 12 years. As we all know it was previously NTL and I can remember how one of their staff left a rude voice mail for all customers to hear. This was due to a lack of staff available to deal with customer enquires, the poor customer service continues.

Recently I have managed to buy a house. However this could have been made more difficult had I not complained to the Information Commissioner and my credit agency. Virgin Media did not setup my Direct Debit properly which caused my payment to be missed. As this affects my credit rating, I would be restricted in choosing a good mortgage lender.  Virgin Media competence could have meant that my mortgage was refused!

Fair enough mistakes can be made but what puzzled me was the lack of understanding by Virgin Media in what I was requesting them to do. All I was asking was for them to write to the credit rating agencies to put the record straight. They didn’t do this.

I subsequently sent them a “Breach of Data Protection Notice” in which they did not even respond to. They had to do so within a set time frame. I then threatened them with County Court action and wrote to the Information Commissioner. I outlined they were in breach of the Data Protection Act in which they must hold accurate information about customers.

I still exchanged a few emails with Virgin Media. Eventually I believe they took the hint as to what I was going to do which was to make a claim to the County Court. I would have referred to Liz Ferguson v British Gas. Liz Ferguson became a former customer of British Gas but she still received letters from them requesting she make payment.

Liz Ferguson was successful in reaching a settlement for the harassment this caused. I too would have been and any person can do so as long as you have communicated with the other party enough to bring to their attention what they are doing wrong. The link to the case is http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/2009/02/the-gas-man-cometh.

In all Virgin Media are poor. I think they need to look hard at what they can do to improve the service offered to current customers and not focus on wooing new customers". (Click on "virgin media" label underneath for more sorry tales about Virgin Media and its dear leader)