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FredSagen
I have reason to believe (as a result of private conversations) that Virgin Media’s problems are rather more serious and widespread than previously realised.
Apparently, a significant number of their customers (at least in the Plymouth area) are being treated as persistent defaulters despite being blameless of any default or breach of contract.
It would also seem that it is Virgin Media’s strategy in dealing with the problem to maintain a state of denial and keep previously valued customers in a state of perpetual frustration.
This, I presume, in their mind keeps the ball in the customers’ court, obviating the need to address the nightmare of their own incompetence.
The one flaw in this strategy is that, by all accounts, the problem started more than twelve weeks ago with failures to notify customers of their impending Direct Debit payment.
Twelve weeks, you will recall, is the minimum period a dispute with an ISP must be ongoing before a complaint can be made through ISPA (www.ispa.org.uk - the trade association of which Virgin Media is a registered member).
The chickens are coming home to roost… in flocks!
With only ten days to resolve complaints submitted by this route Virgin Media staff must be feeling like headless chickens themselves and customers with disputes less than twelve weeks old must suffer the delay-and-deny tactics previously alluded to.
How this company hopes to survive the loss of so many disgruntled customers that such tactics generate or attract new customers in the wake of the inevitable adverse publicity that consumer rights activists will justifiably make of this is beyond me.
One would think the prospective damage to the reputations of Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin group of companies ought to be sufficient reason for Virgin Media to ‘come clean’ and desist from treating blameless customers in such a contemptuous manner but there is currently no sign of any will to admit their error.
