Virgin Media fined £28m for blocking customer exodus

Ofcom has whacked Virgin Media with a £28m fine – the largest ever penalty under its consumer protection rules – after it deliberately mishandled millions of calls to prevent customers from cancelling contracts to switch to a competitor.

The regulator’s investigation covered the period from January 1 2022 to September 11 2024, when the One Touch Switch rules came into force, meaning customers no longer have to contact their existing provider to switch.

The probe was sparked by 1,881 complaints from customers who reported experiencing difficulties cancelling.

Ofcom found that Virgin Media split its retention team into two ‘tiers’ of agents but only agents in the second tier were able to process cancellations. Ofcom estimated that this resulted in over a million calls being made as customers were forced to repeat their request to at least one further agent to stand any chance of having their cancellation processed.

Customers reported making multiple attempts to cancel through repeated calls to the retention team and through other contact channels, and in some cases resorted to cancelling their direct debits, which led to further difficulties such as missed payments impacting their credit score.

Ofcom uncovered widespread and, in many cases, deliberate mishandling of calls by retention team agents, including repeated attempts to pressure customers to stay, even when they had made it clear they wanted to cancel; unnecessary or excessive call transfers to other departments; excessively, unnecessarily and repeatedly keeping customers on hold; deliberately dropping calls; and failing to process cancellations on the system.

The regulator said Virgin Media effectively encouraged the use of these behaviours to deter customers from cancelling by financially rewarding agents through its commission scheme. Its training and guidance for agents also failed to prevent these behaviours while inadequate quality assurance and monitoring meant they were often overlooked. Additionally, the company did not have proper oversight of its third-party call centres or quality monitoring.

The penalty includes a 30% reduction after Virgin Media admitted its failing. However, the company does have “previous”; in 2018 Ofcom fined Virgin Media £7m for overcharging customers who wanted to leave their contracts early.

Ofcom group director of infrastructure and connectivity Natalie Black said: “The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully cooperate with our investigation. As a result, we are levelling our largest ever fine under our consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers.

“Today, we are sending a clear message that any provider who wilfully acts against the interests of their customers will pay a heavy price. And by introducing the One Touch Switch Process, we’ve put in place further safeguards to prevent this from happening again.”

Virgin Media has vowed to make a number of important changes, including to improve its commission scheme, training and quality assurance and monitoring. As part of Ofcom’s decision, Virgin Media must check that every affected customer who complained has received the compensation or other remedies they were entitled to. The company must complete this in six months.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “We’re committed to giving all our customers great service and apologise to the small proportion who experienced an issue when contacting us to agree a new deal or cancel their service in the past.

“We have completely redesigned our customer services in recent years, addressing the historic shortfalls identified by Ofcom through a number of improvements, and have resolved all formal customer complaints from this period providing redress where appropriate.”