My Dad is in dispute with Virgin Media over poor service provision whats the best thing to do?

Question

They have been providing little or no service over the past couple of months for a few reasons.

1.local faults in his area
2.faulty box
3.Engineer came and ripped up some cable outside his house and left it hanging out and the telephone and tv service went off for over a week.
4.Engineers not turning up on days booked

He has had a pretty poor service from them all in all but they are still charging him in full for two months during which time he had virtually little or no services.
He is refusing to pay them and the bill stands at over £150 quid, they have now cut off his services completely because of non payment. I can't see how he is going to win this argument. He has also signed up with BT for a telephone line without informing virgin media who require 28 days notice to cancel there services, but because there is money outstanding I don't think they will accept the cancellation anyway. Can he win? or is it better to just pay up and change service provider

It has cost him a lot in mobile phone bills from having to constantly call their customer service centre when the phone has been off, and days off work because he is self employed.

Answer 1

In my opinion he was right to with-hold payments until these things had been taken into account. Under the NTL name we cancelled direct debits when there were problems with the service a couple of times, thankfully for us the service has greatly improved.
You do not need to inform Virgin Media that you are getting a BT phone, BT use there own entry point and socket.

I would suggest writing down all the problems you have had with the service, make it clear you are prepared to pay a fair price, but you are not prepared to pay for a service when it was not working for you. Get hold of the complaint address, and pursue your complaint, always making it clear you are prepared to pay a fair price.

Even under the earlier days of NTL, my service wasn't as bad as you have reported, though there was a fault on the NTL phone line for 10 days once.

I think your father should be willing to pay a fair price to Virgin media. But have him negotiate with them. NTL/Telewest changed the name to Virgin media, in an attempt to improve customer services, they should be willing to acknowledge you have had a poor service.
Mention regarding Engineers not turning up, that they charge if they cannot get in when they call round.

Have rang Virgin for their complaints address:-
Virgin Complaints
Concord House
Concord Business Park
Shadow moss lane
Withenshawe
M22 OBA

Answer 2

does he not have a solicitor? What about the citizens advice bureau? Tell him to get tough. All the best.

Answer 3

sue their azz