Millions of Virgin Media customers face a £25 fine if they don't answer the door to an engineer when he turns up for a home visit.
It has made customers of the service furious, given that Virgin's recorded revenue is £2.5billion and the chief executive of its parent company has a £50 million salary. The penalties are imposed when assistance has been requested but the engineer gets no response at the door. Customers are warned by text message: “A £25 charge will be added to your next bill if you miss this visit.”
Emma Robinson, 42, is among customers outraged at the warning. Emma, from Caterham, Surrey, told The Mirror online : “I have two young children and it’s not unusual for me to fail to hear the doorbell ring if I am upstairs giving my baby a bath.
“Now Virgin want to fine me for not answering my door when they rarely pick up the phone themselves and offer some of the worst customer service on the market – unbelievable.”
The fine is added automatically to the normal monthly broadband charge – but it appears that there is no such automation if it's the engineer and the company who are at fault – under current rules, internet providers must pay customers £25 for each appointment they fail to fulfil or for appointments cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice. But Ted Johnson from Southport, Merseyside, said: ”I’ve had three missed appointments and not received compensation.”
Virgin Media – formerly owned by tycoon Sir Richard Branson – merged with O2 last year in a £31bn deal and is part of telecoms giant Liberty Global. As well as the huge salary, its boss, Mike Fries, has 120 hours a year personal use of the company jet.
Virgin, which has 3.2 million UK users, was criticised by the regulator Ofcom last year for poor service. It found customers waited an average of seven minutes and 40 seconds to speak to call-centre staff – the worst in the industry.
Martyn James, of complaints handling group resolver.co.uk, said: “Anyone who has spent ages trying to get an appointment for a fault – or has waited at home till the evening with no knock on the door – will be outraged that a missed appointment could result in a charge. The broadband industry has a pretty terrible reputation for missed appointments, service and sorting complaints. Until the sector has its house in order, it shouldn’t be charging extra for anything – including missed appointments and exit fees.”
Virgin did not respond to requests for comment. However, they are not alone in making money out of missed knocks at the door and missed appointments. Restaurants, hairdressers and dentists are among others to bring in fees if customers make and then break appointments.
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