Virgin Media down: Can I claim a refund?

Virgin Media says a major outage that affected thousands of its broadband customers on Tuesday has been resolved.

The provider's internet services were down for about eight hours on Tuesday morning as many users were unable to get online.

The issue started at about 2am, according to data from Downdetector, a site which tracks outages.

There was a big spike in reports to the website of problems with Virgin Media, with another peak coming at about 7am.

According to DownDetector, more than 25,000 customers reported problems with Virgin Media.

After the outage, Virgin said at 8.20am there had been problems with its systems and that it was working to fix everything as soon as possible.

In a tweet, Virgin said: “We’re aware of an issue that is affecting broadband services for Virgin Media customers as well as our contact centres.

“Our teams are currently working to identify and fix the problem as quickly as possible and we apologise to those customers affected.”

Shortly after 11.30am, Virgin tweeted again to say broadband had been restored for those affected.

It said: "We’ve restored broadband services for customers but are closely monitoring the situation as our engineers continue to investigate. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

But can customers claim a refund when their broadband provider is hit by an outage?

How to claim a refund from your broadband provider

UK communications regulator Ofcom set up its Automatic Compensation scheme in April 2019.

Under the scheme, broadband and landline customers will receive a refund from their provider when things go wrong without having to ask for compensation.

Which providers are signed up to the Automatic Compensation scheme?

According to Ofcom, the following providers have committed themselves to the scheme:

BT (joined April 2019)

EE (joined May 2021)

Hyperoptic (joined 2019)

Plusnet (joined May 2022)

Sky (joined April 2019)

TalkTalk (joined April 2019)

Utility Warehouse (joined February 2020)

Virgin Media (joined April 2019)

Vodafone (joined November 2021)

Zen Internet (joined April 2019)

When would I receive a refund from my provider?

The firms signed up to the compensation scheme will give a refund for delayed repairs after a loss of service, missed repairs or appointments and delays to the start of a new service.

How much compensation am I entitled to under the scheme?

For a delayed repair after a loss of service, for example following an outage, customers are entitled to £9.33 for each day the service is not repaired. However, this only applies if the service stops working and is not fully fixed after two full working days.

If an engineer fails to turn up for a scheduled appointment, or it is cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice, the customer is entitled to £29.15 for each missed appointment.

For a delay to a start of a new service, if the provider fails to deliver it on a particular date, the customer is entitled to £5.83 for each day of delay, including the missed start date.

What do I need to do to receive compensation?

If the service doesn't start on the agreed date, or an engineer appointment is missed, your provider will pay compensation automatically, Ofcom says, meaning customers don't have to take any action.

If the broadband or landline stops working, customers should report the fault to their provider. If the service is not fixed after two full days, they will receive compensation automatically.

How is compensation paid?

Refunds should be paid within no later than 30 days.

The compensation will arrive as a credit on the customer's bill.