Virgin Media investigated over contract cancellations

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66174785

In reply to a post by Brunel:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66174785

Is this in connection with this story:-
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/switch...

Apologies as I have not fully checked it out. It's been one of those webpages I've left open with the aim of reading asap. I thought I may have been taken to that page via a recent story.

Well, All I can say is I spoke to them using the online chat and my connection will be terminated on the 6th July.

No problems so far,

In reply to a post by Brunel:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66174785

Finally, judging by the online community its years too late, but better late than never, I filled in my form only about a month or so ago.

I tried to cancel my VM home broadband about an hour or so ago, with their online chat feature. No luck for me, The previous 'Thank you for waiting messages' stopped and went silent after 5 or 10 mins. When I closed the browser and went back to the chat, after 40 mins of waiting, it basically says 'we'll be back tomorrow at 8am'... No warning of their closing time, just kept me waiting, while they had already closed, while I was waiting.............. So, I have no idea what hours they operate for cancellations. I go to work before they open at 8am. I'm not able to phone or chat with their cancellations team until at least 5pm. Are they open to take cancellations between 5 and 6pm?

Can you only cancel via on-line chat operating restricted hours? That looks like an obstructive practice to me.

They aren’t expected to operate 24 hours a day for cancellations. Calling them is probably easier.

Ofcom probably should enforce cancelling is possible via a online request (not chat, but an actual thing in the control panel, that doesnt require an interaction with customer services) when not in contract.
They could allow outbound retentions still, and the customer could configure if marketing calls are allowed, if they want peace.

Sadly they seem to always choose the lightest possible solution on regulation, and place a huge amount of faith in the companies to behave with good intentions.

Edited by Chrysalis (Wed 26-Jun-24 17:50:42)

There is a number to call too. However in the past when I cancelled with them it has had restricted hours too. 9am to 5pm, I seem to recall. I didn't take the phone route this time due to the restricted hours in the past, and I was expecting a very important call from someone else too.

Anyway, I managed to cancel on chat today (hopefully). I got home a little earlier than usual and started the chat with a Bot at 16:44 hrs. The Bot kept me entertained every 5 minutes with a "Sorry to keep you waiting......" message, untill the first human messaged me at 17:21 hrs. It then took untill 17:40 hrs to confirm the cancellation.

In reply to a post by ACdeag:

They aren’t expected to operate 24 hours a day for cancellations. Calling them is probably easier.

Who says? Ofcom? Do you have a link? Not taking a cancellation by an asynchronous channel eg email or post and not operating 24 hours a day looks obstructive.