Virgin Media down – thousands of broadband customers struggled to use internet

VIRGIN Media broadband went down for thousands of customers this morning as households struggled to get online.

At the height of the problem, outage tracker DownDetector reported complaints from more than 2,000 people.

Virgin Media broadband went down for customers in Scotland and parts of the north of England

The problem appeared to start just after 8am and it came as millions of people continue to work from home due to coronavirus.

A spokesperson from Virgin Media told The Sun the issue has now been fixed and said customers in Scotland and parts of the north of England were affected.

Customers were complaining about the broadband issues on social media.

Some also said they couldn’t access the service page on the Virgin Media website where you can check for issues in your area.

It’s the third time Virgin Media has experienced issues in the last week, with mobile and TV customers affected by two recent outages.

Customers have been complaining about the lack of service on social media

One person tweeted: “Broadband down, again! Even your Service Status page is broken WTF?”

Another said: “It’s annoying that not only am I having difficulties with my Virgin Media broadband this morning, but when I try to check the service status on your own website, it’s down too!”

A third customer said: “Hi what’s going on! My internet is completely down…are you having issues? Need to know as I’m working from home. Please can you respond urgently.”

A fourth said: “Is there a problem in my area? The fibre broadband is really slow and the Web page to check a fault won’t open.”

DownDetector showed a spike in complaints from broadband customers

Can I get compensation if my broadband cuts out?

BROADBAND and home phone customers can get automatic compensation from providers for service or engineer visit issues.

These payments are automatic, although had been paused in March 2020 due to the coronavirus lockdown making it harder for providers to carry out repairs.

But as of July 2020, regulator Ofcom says most providers were able to restart paying automatic compensation for at least some service issues.

Under the rules, customers get £8 back for every day the service stops working after two working days of it going down.

Customers are also due £25 if an engineer misses an appointment or cancels with less than 24 hours notice.

Plus, if there’s a delay to the start of a new service you will usually get £5 for each day, including the missed start date.

But if your service goes down it’s still worth asking for compensation, even if it doesn’t fall into one of these categories.

If you’re unhappy and your provider doesn’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 (CISAS).

You’ll need to check which of the two your provider is signed up to.

It’s unclear exactly how many customers aren’t able to get online.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “The issue which affected some customers’ broadband services this morning has now been fixed.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Other services – such as TV and mobile – were unaffected by the outage.

Virgin Media has approximately 3.2million customers in the UK.

Unlike many others broadband providers, it has its own infrastructure and does not use the Openreach network.

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.

Virgin Media broadband last went down for hundreds of customers on January 18 following an outage in Guildford, Surrey.

Almost 700 people were struggling to use the internet at its peak, according to outage tracker DownDetector, but the problem was fixed during the day.

Previously, the provider last experienced issues on August 13 after its network was hit by a series of outages.

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk