In tonight’s programme (Wednesday 5th July, BBC One, 8pm) the Watchdog team investigate complaints made by Virgin Media customers that the broadband package they signed up for is delivering nowhere near the speeds they were sold.

Virgin Media routinely claims to be amongst the fastest fibre broadband providers in the UK, with claims of speeds of up to 200Mbps in selected areas. However, customers across the country are claiming that they are unable to perform activities which should be straightforward with speeds of around 200Mbps – such as streaming video, listening to music and downloading games. Even more crucially, school and university students have claimed that their studies are being interrupted due to underperforming broadband speeds.

A number of customers have told Watchdog that when they complain to Virgin Media they are told their low speeds are down to ‘over-utilization issues’- which means that the company has signed up too many customers for fibre broadband in particular areas, and the increased demand leads to a decline in speeds.

Watchdog wanted to see how Virgin Media was selling packages in these areas, so posed as new customers in locations across the UK where Virgin Media has admitted there is an ‘over-utilization issue’. The programme found that time and time again they were sold speeds of around 200Mbps – with most conceding that there would be only a marginal decline at peak times. But when Watchdog tested the exact speeds at these addresses, they found that customers were at times receiving as little as 3% of the speeds promised by Virgin Media staff.

The findings are particularly misleading given that at the end of May 2017, Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge released a statement declaring that speeds of up to 100Mbps would now the be Virgin Media fibre broadband standard with claims of “leaving competitors in the rear view mirror” and achieving “eye-watering speeds”. He has also publicly stated that the industry needs to improve advertisement of broadband speeds and that “customers should know what they’re paying for and not be hoodwinked.”

In a statement to Watchdog, Tom Mockridge, CEO, said:

“I, along with everybody at Virgin, am disappointed that, in these cases, we fell short of the high standards we set for ourselves and which our customers rightly expect of us.

“We apologise for the inconvenience to these customers and have resolved the issues they raised. All of our sales agents have been re-briefed on the Company’s sales policy and we are providing additional training to ensure everyone complies with it.

“Virgin Media invests more than £1 billion a year in its ultrafast network. This year we are also investing £200 million to upgrade network capacity where it’s needed to meet the growing demand for faster broadband speeds across the UK.

“If you are a Virgin Media customer, please take a look at virginmedia.com for guidance on what you can do to improve the performance of your broadband and ensure that it isn’t something in your home slowing it down. If you need the support of one of our expert customer agents, please contact the Virgin Media team on 0800 952 2222.”