Consumer Complaints Code of Practice

Updated August 2020

1. Introduction

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.

2. Making a complaint

If you’re not completely happy with our service, please let us know as soon as you can. 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 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:
/help/automatic-compensation

How to get in touch

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

Mobile customers

789 free from your Virgin Mobile phone or 0345 600 0789** from any other phone line

_{*Find out call costs to our team from a Virgin Media home phone at virginmedia.com/callcosts. Call costs from other networks and mobiles may vary.}

_{**Please note standard charges apply. Check with your network operator for rates.}

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 don’t hear from you within the 28 days from the date of the letter, we’ll take this as confirmation you’re satisfied with the resolution and we’ll write to you again to let you know we’re closing your complaint.

3. Resolving a complaint

We always look into 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 try to contact you by your preferred method first. 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 can’t reach you to let you know about our proposed resolution, we’ll email you instead, or if we haven’t been able to clear Data Protection we’ll write to your home address. Your case will remain open for 28 days so you’ll have enough time to review and consider our proposal. If you’re happy with the resolution, please let us know so we can close your case down.

If we don’t hear from you within the 28 days from the date of the letter, we’ll take this as confirmation you’re satisfied with the resolution and we’ll write to you again to let you know we’re closing your complaint.

If you don’t feel your complaint’s been resolved:

When we get your complaint, we’ll aim to resolve it to your complete satisfaction. If you don’t feel this has been done, you can ask to escalate the issue to a manager. If you call in, 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. The manager may get back to you in writing as well. If, after discussing your case with a manager, you still feel we’ve not dealt with your complaint appropriately, please ask for your complaint to be reviewed by a Senior Manager.

Just so you know, if your complaint is referred to our specialist Resolutions department, it means your case is being reviewed by a Case Manager at first point of contact. If you still feel dissatisfied, your complaint will be reviewed by a Senior Manager.

If, after following the process above, you’re still not happy with the outcome of your complaint, you can refer it to independent adjudication.

4. Independent adjudication

If we haven’t reached an agreed settlement within 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, 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

CISAS, 70 Fleet Street
London
EC4Y 1EU
0207 5203814
Email: cisas@cedr.com
Website: www.cedr.com/cisas

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

You may also be able to refer a dispute to the European Online Dispute Resolution (“ODR”) platform at http://ec.europa.eu/odr. It’s a web-based platform designed to help consumers who’ve bought goods or services online. It provides access to independent alternative dispute resolution services that are usually free to use.

Our email address for Online Dispute Resolution complaints is ODR@virginmedia.co.uk

If you’d like any more help or advice, you can talk to your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) for free. But, just so you know, this isn’t part of the formal complaint process.

Other ways to get in touch with us

Broadband, TV and phone customers

Ring 150 from your Virgin Media home phone or mobile. It’s completely free.

If you want to contact us using our Text Relay Service, call our Text Relay freephone number on 18001 0800 052 2164.

Or you can ring us from any other phone on 0345 454 1111*.

Mobile customers

Ring 789 from your Virgin Mobile phone. It’s completely free. or ring us on 0345 6000 789** from any other phone.

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 a virginmedia.com/callcosts. Call costs from other networks and mobiles may vary.}

_{**Please note standard charges apply. Check with your network operator for rates}

Available in PDF format - Consumer Complaints Code of Practice - August 2020