Consumer Complaints Code of Practice
Updated April 2024
1. Here to Help
It’s really important to us at Virgin Media to always give you the best customer service possible. So, if you ever feel we’ve fallen short of this, please let us know. We’d love to work with you to put things right and we’ll always try to use your feedback to improve things for other customers as well.
This Code lets you know how to go about making a complaint and how to take it further if you need to. It covers the phone, broadband and TV service provided to you by Virgin Media Ltd, and the mobile service provided to you by Virgin Mobile Telecoms Ltd.
We’re required to publish our Customer Complaints Code, which explains how we’ll help if things go wrong. If you’d like a copy of this code sent to you, please let us know. We can also send it in accessible formats such as large print, braille or audio free of charge – you can request an accessible format when you contact us.
2. Contact us
We hope you won’t need to contact us to make a complaint, but we understand that sometimes things don’t go quite right, and you might need some extra help to solve an issue. We’ll do our best to put things right, so you can carry on enjoying your services again.
If you don’t feel we have correctly provided compensation under the Automatic Compensation scheme please let us know, and we will ensure we follow this process to see if we can resolve matters. You can find out more about our Automatic Compensation Code here: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/automatic-compensation
How to get in touch You may find the quickest way to get the answers you need is online at virginmedia.com. Our support pages include help on finding out more about your bill, how to change your package, including useful links to fix any issues with your service, all can be found at https://www.virginmedia.com/help There are 3 easy ways to get in touch with us. Please remember to give us your details, including your account number, address and contact number when you do, so we can get back to you as quickly as possible
By phone Give our Customer Care team a ring on the numbers below. We’ll do our best to resolve your complaint on the call, but sometimes we’ll need to look into things in more detail and reaching a resolution may take longer. Broadband, TV and phone customers 150 free from your Virgin Media phone or 0345 454 1111 from any other phone line. If you want to contact us using our Text Relay Service, call our Text Relay freephone number on 18001 0800 052 2164. Mobile customers 789 free from your Virgin Mobile phone or 0345 600 0789* from any other phone line Call us from a textphone on 18001 0345 454 1111. Or you can get in touch through a sign language interpreter for Video Relay Service, 7 days a week from 8am until midnight. *Find out call costs to our team from a Virgin Media home phone [here] (https://www.virginmedia.com/content/dam/virginmedia/dotcom/images/mobile-browse/downloads/010123_Everyday_Call_Charges_V1.pdf). Call costs from other networks and mobiles may vary.
By web form On our contact us page, you’ll see a link to our web form. Complete the form to let us know what went wrong and what we can do to put this right for you. We always aim to resolve complaints in the first instance and respond within 7 days, but this isn’t as quick as calling us
In some cases, it can take up to 28 days. This depends on the issues you’ve raised, as we always try to give your comments the attention they deserve. To help speed up this process, please make sure you answer the Data Protection (DPA) questions accurately
By post It’s not as quick, but if you prefer to send us a letter, you can write to us at: Complaints, Virgin Media, Sunderland, SR43 4AA Your letter will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt, and we aim to resolve all written complaints within 28 days once we’ve received them If we’re unable to speak to you about your complaint, we’ll write to you with the outcome of our Investigation and what we are going to do to put things right. We’ll keep your complaint open for 28 days, so if you think there’s something we have missed, you can contact us again. If we don’t hear from you within the 28 days, we’ll consider your issue resolved and will close your complaint.
3. Complaint handling process
We always investigate every complaint and actively work to resolve things to your satisfaction.
We’ll let you know as soon as we think we have a resolution. This could be on the original call, if we can sort things out there and then, or if we can’t, we’ll be back in touch to let you know.
We’ll always try to call you to make sure we’ve understood your issues better, unless stated otherwise. If this is by telephone, please let us know the best numbers to reach you on. If we miss you, we’ll drop you a text with our telephone number so you can ring us back when you’re free during our opening hours.
If we’re unable to speak with you about your complaint, we’ll write to you with the outcome of our investigation and what we’re going to do to put things right. We’ll keep your complaint open for 28 days, so if you think there’s something we’ve missed, you can contact us again. If we don’t hear from you within the 28 days, we’ll consider your issue resolved and will close your complaint.
If you don’t feel your complaint’s been resolved:
Most complaints can be resolved quickly and easily by contacting one of our Customer Service advisors. Our advisors will do all that they can to resolve your complaint but will escalate your call to their manager if needed. A manager may be available to talk to you immediately or they may call you back at a time that suits you. If the manager has to call you back, please let us know which daytime and evening contact numbers work best for you. If you’re happy that our advisor or manager has done everything to resolve your issue, we will close your complaint and always write to you with the outcome.
If you’ve spoken with a manager and after hearing their full and impartial review you remain unhappy, we will write to you with our outcome. This will detail information of our independent adjudicators, who you may refer your complaint to.
If your complaint is about a financial product, such as your Freestyle Device Credit Agreement, we’ll always write to you with the outcome.
4. Independent adjudication
If you’re not happy after we’ve responded to your complaint, or if your complaint isn’t resolved after eight weeks, you may wish to refer your complaint for independent adjudication, we’ll send you a letter or email confirming that you have the right to refer your complaint for independent consideration through Alternative Dispute Resolution. This service is absolutely free of charge.
Here’s the contact details of the two adjudication schemes you can use: TV, broadband, phone or mobile complaints Communications Ombudsman Phone: 0330 440 1614 Web: www.commsombudsman.org Email: enquiry@commsombudsman.org Post: Communications Ombudsman, P.O. Box 730, Warrington, WA4 6WU The Communication Ombudsman is an Alternative Dispute Resolution Provider approved by Ofcom, to resolve disputes related to communication and internet services. The service is free of charge to customers. The Communication Ombudsman will review your complaint if it hasn’t been resolved after 8 weeks of receiving your complaint, or we agree in writing before the 8 weeks are up that the dispute should be settled by independent adjudication.
Financial services complaints The Financial Ombudsman Service Exchange Tower London E14 9SR 0300 1239123 Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints If your compliant is about your Freestyle credit agreement, you will need to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme who will review your complaint if it hasn’t been resolved after 8 weeks, or if you can provide a final response letter. You have up to 6 months to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service after receiving this letter. Available in PDF format - Consumer Complaints Code of Practice - August 2022