Virgin grovels for fining dead man

Virgin Media has been forced to make a grovelling apology after a broadband bill sent to a deceased man – including a £10 fine for late payment – went viral on Facebook, being shared by more than 86,500 people…and counting.
The man’s son-in-law, Jim Boyden, posted a photograph of the bill, along with a message addressed to Virgin, on the social media site. It said: “I’m really sorry for my Father in Law not paying his bill last month, but what with him being dead and all, it’s probably slipped his mind. Some people, eh?”
Alongside a £63.89 charge the bill stated “DD Denied –Payer deceased”, a reference to the fact the dead man’s bank had refused a direct debit payment. Under this Virgin added the late payment charge.
A Virgin spokeswoman told the BBC: “We offer our sincerest apologies for the wording that appeared on the bill. Automated responses from banks should not appear on customer bills and we’re investigating how this happened.
“We have a team in place to ensure bereavements are managed sensitively and will ensure this wording is removed from our billing system. As soon as Mr Boyden brought this to our attention, we looked into this matter straight away and can confirm the account has now been closed, with all late payment charges removed.”
Boyden added: “The only saving grace is that my father in law had an excellent sense of humour and is probably laughing his arse off about this as we type, giving you the Vs, waving ten pound notes around, planning to haunt you and enjoying the content of Sky TV.”