[ad_1]
There is bad news for Virgin Media customers, with the firm just coming off the latest report on Which?
According to the consumer champion, Virgin is the worst UK broadband provider to have left customers without a connection for long periods of time.
In fact which one? found that one in six (17%) Virgin customers reported having no connection for hours or days.
This places the broadband provider behind its major competitors, with a user of BT, Sky and TalkTalk out of 8 (8%) suffering from similar problems.
Although this news does not please those who have been left without an Internet connection, there is good news from tomorrow.
Households that now report Internet outages that are not fully repaired after two full business days will receive a £ 8 per day automatic rebate payment on their next bill if their provider subscribes to the new voluntary system.
Customers will also receive £ 5 per day if the installation of their service is delayed and £ 25 per missed appointment if an engineer does not show up or cancels in the near future.
According to the regulator Ofcom, which has set up the system, Virgin, BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Zen Internet – which together serve about 90% of UK broadband and fixed customers – all were registered in November 2017 at the announcement of the system. .
Companies have had 15 months to implement this new system, which would encourage them to dramatically improve poor customer service, which left Virgin, BT, Sky and TalkTalk languishing towards the bottom of the customer satisfaction survey. Which ?.
According to estimates by the Ofcom regulator, consumers experience about 7.2 million QoS failures each year in their broadband / fixed services. This system could mean that consumers receive additional compensation of up to 126 million pounds a year, nearly eight times more than the 16 million pounds they currently receive.
According to Ofcom, more than five million consumers lose their fixed or broadband service each year, nearly 250,000 engineering appointments are missed and more than one million fixed and broadband installations are in delay.
Which? says that it is asking all broadband providers to subscribe to this program in order to guarantee all consumers the compensation to which they are entitled without being forced to take the plunge.
Natalie Hitchins, who? The Head of Residential Products and Services said, "Broadband customers undergoing slow repairs, missed appointments and delayed installations have so far had to go through obstacles to get compensation. It is therefore encouraging that some will now be reimbursed automatically.
"However, for consumers to truly experience the benefits of this system, broadband providers need to improve their service overall. Otherwise, we expect the regulator to show their teeth and take more aggressive action. "
A spokeswoman for Virgin Media added, "In the last 12 months, Virgin Media has had a network reliability of more than 99%, which is one of the main reasons why our customers have been declared the most satisfied of all the major ISPs in the survey of which? on broadband satisfaction released last week. Virgin Media was also the most likely provider to be recommended to a friend in Ofcom's latest satisfaction survey.
"This voluntary code is an excellent example of collaboration between industry and consumers. Virgin Media will give its customers a clear and consistent way to receive credit in the unlikely event that our services will not live up to the high standards we always aim to provide. "
Source link
