Virgin Media 'bills dead people'
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We've all been there, hitting a brick wall when dealing with a big company and a customer service department that doesn't work. But for Virgin Media customers this couldn't have happened at a worse time.
We spoke to three customers who tried to make simple changes to contracts with the company after the death of a parent, but instead became embroiled in lengthy battles. So using the power of the internet, Watchdog helped them cause a stir at the top.
Watchdog received more complaints about Virgin Media than any other when it came to problems concerning the death of a contract holder. In many cases, Virgin Media had sent letters and bills to people they knew had died.
When Tom Holland's dad died, his mum wanted to keep the Virgin Media package that was in his dad's name. But he says Virgin cut off the service after hearing about the death without telling anyone, leaving his mum to organise a funeral without a landline phone or broadband.
Tom said: "We felt really angry.. we feel victimised. You can't treat customers like this. You can't kick them when they're down. We had to go through the trauma of losing our dad."
Peter Whitmarsh suffered in a similar way. When his dad died, he also wanted to transfer the contract, so his step mum could keep the Virgin service. But the company cancelled the direct debit instead of transferring it, and didn't tell the family. Virgin then chased the outstanding bills which his step mother thought were being paid.
Peter said: "Virgin Media kept sending letters and making phone calls threatening to cut her off. It was very upsetting for her."
The saga with Virgin lasted four months and involved numerous phone calls and letters.
"The final letters that came were sent to my dad who'd died three months previous. It's a horror story," he added.
When Cindy Mills' mother died, she was in credit with Virgin Media. But Cindy had to battle for three months to get back around £11 that her mum was owed.
Cindy said it was like they were trying to steal from her mum. "I would say half of the calls I made to Virgin were with me in tears. Of all the companies I had to deal with, Virgin was the worse," she said.
They all tried writing to Richard Branson: high-profile figure head of the entire Virgin Group. More than 200 companies worldwide bear the Virgin name and though Branson doesn't run them all, the whole brand relies on his reputation and a commitment to customer service.
That's why he's the man our trio want to get to. Although Branson only plays a minor role in the company, they wanted him to get the message. Their cases have now been resolved but they want Richard Branson to hear their complaints, and make sure nobody else is treated in the way they were.
Our trio met advertising guru Chris Arnold who told them that the way to make a big company listen is to get your message on line "in the old days you'd just tell a few friends. Now you can use the internet and tell millions".
So musician Mitch Benn has created this song, and we have released it on You Tube.
Virgin Media have told us:
"Bereavement can be an extremely difficult time and Virgin Media does all it can to ensure the process of cancelling or transferring the account of someone who has passed away is as sympathetic as possible. However, in order to comply with privacy and data protection laws the cancellation process requires us to receive documentation and, where necessary, to run credit checks on new account holders, both of which can take time to complete.
Whilst all three cases presented by Watchdog were unique, unfortunately some elements of the process were not fully communicated to the relatives which resulted in delays. We understand how this may have been upsetting during this emotional time and have undertaken a process and training review to ensure we are able to manage these cases more effectively in future. We can confirm that all the cases brought to our attention were resolved some time ago and we apologise again for any upset and inconvenience which we may have caused.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
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Ok, so I'm not dead - but when I had to handover my Virgin Broadband account to my Mother-In-Law because I was moving out of her house Virgin were actually very helpful. I had a cheap-rate number to ring which was answered pretty promptly and the advisor talked me through changing the details online. They really were very helpful!
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while watching this story on the telly why is it that the reporter and the people being interviewing about this story all traveling on a mini bus but not one of them were wearing a seat belt!!!!! and they are saying sun beds are dangerous well isn't not wearing a seat belt even more dangerous!!!!
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
no one wore their seat belts in the taxi, does a tv camera give you an immunity from prosecution?
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how do i get a copy of the song or what is it called on you tube
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Just loved the Virgin Media story - and the song on Youtube is hilarious - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNBjV10X64A
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it is great that you are back and helping out those in need but really what about safety what about being told to wear seatbelts at all times and drumming it into our kids about being safe in cars so buckle up, well if any of the youth today watched as the group in the car traveled about with no seat belts on then what example are we setting.
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i appreciate that situations surrounding the death of a loved one need to be handled with a certain amount of sensitivity but surely people need to understand the importance of data protection. the data protection act is there to protect people and legal cannot be broken without risking severe reprocussions including hefty fines.
if the circumstance were differnt and a virgin medias personal info had been handed out then they would still be featured on watchdog for that! they cant win!
there are fraudsters out there who would try to change the name on an acct which is why there are processes and laws in place.
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Why write a song about charging dead people when none of the poeple concerned were charged, in fact quite the opposite, the accounts were closed after their death no-one mentioned anything about them being charged after their death. I just didnt get it. The article was about their relatives trying to take over the accounts which Virgin Media would not let them do. Get it right watchdog!
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Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Virgin media really are incredibly poor.
I can't believe I have just been writing a song about them as well, which i have threatened to publish, but still no response from them:
[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
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For a piece which deals with a difficult and serious subject, this was horrendously trashy. If the BBC is seriously suggesting that we solve our problems with Virgin Media (which are many and legion I am sure), by posting a silly song on youtube, they need to take a look at the level where their advice is pitched. Not all (if any) problems can be solved with low-grade schoolboy humour. While on the subject of trashy content, I must ask why the victims of Virgin's Customer Disservice were interviewed in a taxi where the sound quality was almost as poor as the programme's overall picture quality.
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In a word, this was appauling!
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so does that mean that any company that has mishandled any of the watchdog team, their friends or relatives will become a part of this feature? (reference to the presenters friend who raised the issue!)
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They don't just bill dead people, they threaten to take them to court. When my father died 2 years ago, his bank immediately froze his account, so no direct debits could be paid. I phoned Virgin Media who seemed to be helpful and said they'd change the account to my name while we needed the landline to make arrangements. I received a bill for what was owed, but then a week before it was due to be paid, a default notice arrived (addressed to my late father), threatening court proceedings for non payment of the direct debit. Although the problem was sorted out quickly when I explained the situation (the advisor I spoke to was mortified and immediatedly apologised and arranged for the outstanding balance to be written off), it's worrying that Virgin's first resort was to threaten court action, even though the bill had been reissued and wasn't even overdue for payment. And that they apparently ignored the information which the advisor said was clearly displayed on her screen - that their customer had died.
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Virgin are not the only company to do this, My Mum passed away in October 2008 and I am still getting phone calls and letters from [Personal details removed by Moderator], we have sent Death Certificates and taken them to the local branch and still we get letters and phone calls from them. I have now got in touch with the Financial Ombudsman and hope that they can help us stop the harassment.
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