Ofcom just fined Virgin Media £28m for making it hard to leave. Know your own switching rights.
The regulator handed down its largest ever fine for direct consumer harm on 8 July. The behaviour behind it is a useful prompt to check the exit terms on your own contracts.
On 8 July, Ofcom fined Virgin Media £28 million for repeatedly making it too difficult for customers to cancel their contracts. It is the regulator's largest ever fine under its consumer protection rules for direct harm to customers. The findings cover the period from January 2022 to September 2024.
What Virgin Media did
Ofcom found a pattern built to wear people down rather than let them leave. Customers trying to cancel were put through a two-tier process that made them repeat the request to more than one agent, calls were dropped, people were transferred needlessly and left on hold, and some cancellations were simply not processed. Staff were on commission schemes that rewarded them for talking customers out of going. Natalie Black, an Ofcom Group Director, said Virgin Media 'made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully co-operate' with the investigation. Virgin Media, which was fined for similar behaviour back in 2018, says it has since redesigned its customer service and is now the least complained-about broadband provider. It has two months to pay.
This was a consumer case, but the lesson travels
The fine concerns residential customers, and business contracts sit under different rules. The behaviour, though, is a familiar one, and the practical point holds whatever you are signing. Providers do not always make it easy to leave, so the time to understand how you get out of a contract is before you are in it, not when you are trying to switch.
What to check on your own contracts
Two things are worth knowing for every comms and connectivity contract you hold: the minimum term, and the notice period to cancel at the end of it. Put a note in the diary for the point where you can give notice, because auto-renewal can quietly roll you into another term. Keep a written record of any cancellation request, by email, so there is a trail. This matters more over the next eighteen months, because the switch-off will have a lot of businesses moving phone lines and broadband onto new services and providers, and you do not want a clumsy exit process slowing that down.
What this means for your business
Being able to leave cleanly is part of what you are paying for. When we move a business onto a new phone system or connection, we make the switch itself the straightforward part: we port your numbers, line up the new service and cut over with no gap, so you stay with us on merit rather than because leaving felt like too much hassle. If you are weighing up a change ahead of the switch-off, we will give you a plain read on what moves easily and what needs more thought.
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