"Pretty shocking" and "poor behaviour" – that was Ofcom's verdict after a three-year investigation into Virgin Media's call centres. The communications regulator fined the telecoms giant £28m for deliberately blocking customers from cancelling their contracts, with agents caught hanging up on callers or leaving them on hold for no reason.
The penalty, reduced by 30% because Virgin Media admitted its failings and agreed to settle, covers a period from 1 January 2022 to 11 September 2024. Ofcom said millions of calls were "likely mishandled" as agents tried to prevent or delay customers switching to a better broadband, landline or pay-TV deal.
“Virgin Media fined £28m for call centre tactics that blocked customers from cancelling contracts over three years.”
Among the tactics uncovered: excessive and unnecessary transfers, deliberate disconnections, repeated pressure to stay, and endless holding. Ofcom said Virgin Media's commission scheme "effectively encouraged" and financially rewarded call centre agents for behaving in this way.
"Right at the beginning of this problem, a number of years ago in 2022, we tried to resolve this informally. There wasn't the will to do that," Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director for infrastructure and connectivity, told the BBC's Today programme. In a statement she added: "The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully cooperate with our investigation."
Anthony, 58, from Brighton, tried to cancel his TV package last August just before renewal. A Virgin customer for a decade, he said prices "were going up astronomically for the last three or four years". When he phoned, the call was... (the text is cut off in source, but the article continues with his experience).
Virgin Media apologised to "the small proportion who experienced an issue when contacting us to agree a new deal or cancel their service in the past". It said it had "resolved all formal customer complaints from this period providing redress where appropriate".
Ofcom has ordered Virgin Media to check every affected customer who complained to ensure they received compensation or other remedies within six months. The regulator said its rules "are clear that the conditions or procedures telecoms providers have in place must not act as a disincentive for customers who wish to cancel their contract" – and Virgin Media's failings likely acted as a disincentive in millions of calls.