Virgin could pay for cut-off customers
Compensation may be offered to customers who suffered loss of their TV service because of a fault which hit thousands of Midlands homes, Virgin Media said today.
Compensation may be offered to customers who suffered loss of their TV service because of a fault which hit thousands of Midlands homes, Virgin Media said today.
Rebates will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
This will be for customers left without a picture for more than 24 hours, a Virgin Media spokesman said today. Thousands of customers with the supplier lost TV services last week and some were still experiencing problems today – despite assurances from Virgin Media that all services had been restored.
Company chiefs said that the problems had stemmed from a router failure, followed by a power cut, knocked out services in Dudley, Wolverhampton and Walsall, as well as parts of Birmingham, on Wednesday evening.
One customer, Lisa Vetere, had a complete loss of all TV channels for more than 24 hours, and says that she has been contacted by a Virgin representative who offered her £10 off her next bill.
"I was going to ask for it but I didn't have to as she just rang me to offer what she called a 'goodwill' gesture," said Miss Vetere, of Cannock Road, Wolverhampton.
"It's a nice offer when I was essentially without any television for two evenings."
However, not all customers have been so lucky. The Virgin Media website was still inundated with complaints on Saturday.
Jack Cooper of Balmoral Road, Wordsley, says that he has now been without any television for five days.
He says that he has rebooted his system, as advised, up to four times a day, with no effect - and said he had been told he might not get it up and running again until tomorrow afternoon.
Mr Cooper, aged 67, added: "The only way I have been able to get hold of anyone to speak to directly was to threaten to cancel my service completely.
"I have heard nothing about any compensation being available, but I'm not paying for a service I haven't been receiving."
Virgin Media spokeswoman Rebecca Burke said: "All service was restored last week, by Thursday evening, as already reported, and will look into any individual cases where people are still without their TV.
"We don't apply a blanket approach to compensation. We anyalse the impact on each individual customer when it comes to service failures."
