Virgin Media’s customer website and emails go down leaving thousands unable to log in this morning
THOUSANDS of Virgin Media customers struggled to login to its customer website this morning, with emails also down.
The outage left Virgin's 6million users unable to check the service status in their local area, access bills, make package changes, or use certain corresponding apps, such as Virgin's Sky Sports and Sky Cinema apps.
Reporting site Down Detector received 700 complaints of issues this morning, while users on social media also reported problems.
Of those complaining on Down Detector, 65 per cent reported issues with their cable broadband, 20 per cent experienced email problems, and 14 per cent said they had issues with their mobile internet.
Virgin Media says the problem was resolved as of 11.30am.
The issue meant all users were unable to login into their "My Virgin Media" accounts, although the telecoms provider says less than 1 per cent - or under 60,000 customers - attempted to use these services this morning.
It's insistent its broadband service wasn't affected, despite some complaints saying otherwise, and adds that it doesn't believe Down Detector accurately reflects the status of its service.
The telecoms firm has been plagued with outages recently as millions of Brits continue to work from home.
One person tweeted this morning: "@virginmedia Yet again Virgin Media is down in Birmingham and most of the UK, wonder what excuse will be used this time. People working from home trying to keep their jobs and they have this to contend with. Disappointing service."
Another wrote: "@virginmedia can you please just admit that you have not done anything to make sure your network can handle the influx of people using it. Every morning it goes down without fail while everyone’s logging on from home."
Someone else added: "@virginmedia my emails are down. Can you get this sorted please. Grr frustrating!"
Another person tweeted: "@virginmedia internet been down all night, saying known issues but can't even access account now."
Can I get compensation if my broadband cuts out?
BROADBAND and phone customers are usually paid compensation from providers for service or engineer visit issues - but this scheme has been temporarily paused.
Under the current coronavirus circumstances providers are less likely to be able to carry out repairs, install new services or make home visits.
Usually customers would get £8 back for every day that the service stops working after two working days of it going down.
Customers are also usually due £25 if an engineer misses an appointment or cancels with less than 24 hours notice.
If there’s a delay to the start of a new service then you will usually get £5 for each day, including the missed start date.
If your service goes down then it's worth asking for compensation, even if it doesn’t fall into one of these categories.
If you’re unhappy and they don't resolve your complaint then you can take it to one of two dispute resolution (ADR) schemes - Ombudsman Services: Communications or Communications and Internet Services Adjustment Scheme.
A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “The technical problem affecting access to the “My Virgin Media” portal has now been fixed.
"Less than 1 per cent of our customer base tried to login in the time it was down and this issue had no impact on our connectivity services. We’re sorry for any disruption caused.”
How do I check my Virgin Media service status?
Virgin Media has a dedicated web page where you can find out if there are any problems in your area.
Click here to visit the My Virgin service update website.
To find out if there are problems in your area, enter your postcode.
See our Virgin Media outages guide for more information on how to check your service and if you're eligible for compensation.
more on broadband
Earlier this month Virgin Media experienced an outage in Nottingham leaving thousands without broadband.
While back in June it experienced broadband problems in London, as well as a TV outage.
Elsewhere, BT, Plusnet, and TalkTalk all went down in Newcastle last week after a fire caused an outage.