{"id":48455,"date":"2026-10-20T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=48455"},"modified":"2026-10-20T06:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T05:35:22","slug":"leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html","title":{"rendered":"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today’s story we cover how one of Virgin Media<\/a>’s former customers instead ended up spending most of 2026 battling the ISP over an unexpectedly huge bill, after they failed to cancel his old service. As if to make matters worse, the customer then ended up being pursued by debt collectors and suffering damage to his credit file.<\/p>\n

Under the regulator’s One Touch Switch<\/strong><\/a> (OTS) process, consumers who want to switch ISP typically only need to contact their new (\u201cgaining<\/em>\u201c) provider to start and manage the process on their behalf. Both the gaining and losing providers then have a clear set of rules to follow. As a reminder, here\u2019s the process that providers should follow:<\/p>\n

Outline of the switching process<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. When the customer\u2019s new service is installed, the gaining provider must send confirmation to the customer and also send a trigger message via the OTS Hub (managed by TOTSCo) to the losing provider telling them to cease the customer’s service and complete the switch order.<\/p>\n

2. The losing provider should then send appropriate confirmation to the customer, such as a ‘final bill’, notifying them that services have been ceased.<\/p>\n

3. The losing provider must then notify the gaining provider confirming receipt of the trigger message, also through the OTS Hub.<\/p>\n

4. The gaining provider should monitor for any lack of receipt of confirmation from the losing provider.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, some switches don’t always go quite so smoothly, which is sadly what happened to Vasily Shilimov back in December 2025 when he asked his new ISP, Rise Fibre<\/a>, to switch his broadband service away from Virgin Media<\/a>. The switch itself appeared to go through and he began using his new connection from 2nd January 2026, while at the same time stopping his use of Virgin’s connection.<\/p>\n

During this process the customer received email confirmation of the switch from Virgin, who also notified him of a small Early Termination Charge<\/strong> (ETC), which was expected. The problem is that Virgin Media<\/a> then continued to bill Vasily for months afterwards and only later confirmed that the switch request had somehow not completed (this wasn’t clear to Vasily as, from his perspective, the switch had gone through).<\/p>\n

Vasily told ISPreview:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I called Virgin in January [2026] concerning the switch and final bill, and again on 20th April because charges were still continuing. Virgin acknowledged the switching failure in its written response of 27th July. The problem was not resolved through those contacts.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Virgin Media’s response in July, the original switch request had actually “expired<\/em>” on 22nd January 2026. In the course of investigating this case, a spokesperson for Virgin Media informed us that the provider never received the subsequent notification from Rise Fibre<\/a> confirming that the switch had completed. As a result, the account remained active on their systems and Vasily continued to be billed for his services.<\/p>\n

Confusingly Rise Fibre<\/a> later appeared to suggest to the customer that they did not initiate the OTS request, which appears inconsistent with Virgin’s original notification and how the OTS process actually works. At this point Vasily had now been incorrectly billed to the tune of c.\u00a3300 for a service that Virgin had long been made aware should have been cancelled many months ago.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the situation got worse after Virgin Media, despite having an active dispute, issued a formal default notice and referred the matter for debt collection. Vasily ended up with missed-payment markers for July, August and September 2026 on his credit file, thus damaging his credit history – seemingly through no fault of his own. Vasily has since had to challenge this by notifying the debt collectors that the case was still in dispute.<\/p>\n

ISPreview recently raised this issue with the provider, which a few days later finally agreed to close his account, refund all payments made towards his Virgin Media services since January 2026 and also provided him with a further gesture of goodwill (c.\u00a3300) to apologise for the delay in resolving his complaint. Just prior to this Vasily had also opened a complaint through Virgin’s independent complaints handler (ombudsman), CISAS (CEDR).<\/p>\n

A Virgin Media spokesperson told ISPreview:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologise to Mr Shilimov for the delay in resolving his complaint. While we received the initial notification that he intended to switch providers, we did not receive a subsequent notification from the gaining provider confirming the switch had completed. We have now closed his account, refunded the erroneous bills and have offered a goodwill payment in recognition of his experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The development is most welcome, although it raises plenty of questions over the fallibility of the OTS process, how customers are protected when this goes wrong and Virgin’s inability to rectify the issue in a correct and timely fashion. Vasily also remains unclear on what impact this episode might have on his future credit rating.<\/p>\n

The situation follows only a few months after Ofcom<\/a> announced their decision to fine Virgin Media \u00a328m after they made it difficult for customers to cancel their contracts (here<\/a>), which only covered a limited period – before OTS was introduced in September 2024. In this case the customer was not at fault and both ISPs appear to have made mistakes in their handling of the switch.<\/p>\n

Ofcom<\/a> told ISPreview it is the “responsibility of both the losing and gaining provider to ensure the process is followed correctly, and they should take all reasonable steps to ensure that switching customers are adequately informed before and during the switching process<\/em>.” The regulator added that all providers are expected to act in the “best interests of the customer and work to resolve complaints quickly<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Ofcom<\/a> said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Companies must provide compensation to customers in the case of failure to comply with our switching rules. As you have outlined, if customer is not satisfied with the outcome of their complaint, they can take it to ADR for independent decision.<\/p>\n

Evidence does suggest that the One Touch Switch Process is working well, with more than 3.5 million switches completed in the last two years.<\/p>\n

Ofcom does not have the powers to handle or resolve individual complaints. However, we closely monitor complaints we receive from consumers and where we see themes emerging or evidence of widespread harm, we have shown we will take action. We recently fined Virgin Media \u00a328 million for repeatedly preventing customers from cancelling contracts.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today’s story we cover how one of Virgin Media’s former customers instead ended up spending most of 2026 battling the ISP over an unexpectedly huge bill, after they failed to cancel his old service. As if to make matters worse, the customer then ended up being pursued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[419,56,36,475],"class_list":["post-48455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk_isp_news","tag-docsis3-1","tag-fttp","tag-ofcom-regulation","tag-virgin-media"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ispreview\/117470068063661012","error":""},"yoast_head":"\nLeaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors - ISPreview UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today's story we cover how one of Virgin Media's former customers instead ended up spending most of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors - ISPreview UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today's story we cover how one of Virgin Media's former customers instead ended up spending most of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ISPreview UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-19T23:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-20T05:35:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nggallery_import\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1089\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Jackson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ispreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ispreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Jackson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Jackson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5\"},\"headline\":\"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-19T23:01:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-20T05:35:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html\"},\"wordCount\":1075,\"commentCount\":18,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/06\\\/nggallery_import\\\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"DOCSIS 3.1\",\"FTTP\",\"Ofcom Regulation\",\"Virgin Media\"],\"articleSection\":[\"ISP News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html\",\"name\":\"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors - ISPreview UK\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/06\\\/nggallery_import\\\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-19T23:01:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-20T05:35:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today's story we cover how one of Virgin Media's former customers instead ended up spending most of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/06\\\/nggallery_import\\\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/06\\\/nggallery_import\\\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg\",\"width\":1089,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"virgin media gigabit van 2020 Wales\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/\",\"name\":\"ISPreview UK\",\"description\":\"Top Broadband ISP and Mobile Provider Information Site\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"ISPreview.co.uk\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"ISPreview.co.uk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/ispreview\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/ispreview\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/mjack\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/bsky.app\\\/profile\\\/ispreview.bsky.social\",\"https:\\\/\\\/mastodon.social\\\/@ispreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5\",\"name\":\"Mark Jackson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/01\\\/nggallery_import\\\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/01\\\/nggallery_import\\\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/01\\\/nggallery_import\\\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Mark Jackson\"},\"description\":\"By Mark Jackson Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/ispreview\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/ispreview\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/markj\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors - ISPreview UK","description":"Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today's story we cover how one of Virgin Media's former customers instead ended up spending most of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors - ISPreview UK","og_description":"Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today's story we cover how one of Virgin Media's former customers instead ended up spending most of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html","og_site_name":"ISPreview UK","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","article_published_time":"2026-10-19T23:01:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-20T05:35:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1089,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nggallery_import\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mark Jackson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ispreview","twitter_site":"@ispreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Jackson","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html"},"author":{"name":"Mark Jackson","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5"},"headline":"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors","datePublished":"2026-10-19T23:01:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-20T05:35:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html"},"wordCount":1075,"commentCount":18,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nggallery_import\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg","keywords":["DOCSIS 3.1","FTTP","Ofcom Regulation","Virgin Media"],"articleSection":["ISP News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html","name":"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors - ISPreview UK","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nggallery_import\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg","datePublished":"2026-10-19T23:01:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-20T05:35:22+00:00","description":"Switching broadband provider is normally easy, but in today's story we cover how one of Virgin Media's former customers instead ended up spending most of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nggallery_import\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nggallery_import\/virgin_media_gigabit_van_2020.jpg","width":1089,"height":1000,"caption":"virgin media gigabit van 2020 Wales"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/leaving-uk-broadband-isp-virgin-media-ends-in-huge-bill-and-debt-collectors.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Leaving UK broadband ISP Virgin Media ends in huge bill and debt collectors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/","name":"ISPreview UK","description":"Top Broadband ISP and Mobile Provider Information Site","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#organization","name":"ISPreview.co.uk","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"ISPreview.co.uk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","https:\/\/x.com\/ispreview","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mjack\/","https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/ispreview.bsky.social","https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ispreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5","name":"Mark Jackson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/nggallery_import\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/nggallery_import\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/nggallery_import\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg","caption":"Mark Jackson"},"description":"By Mark Jackson Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","https:\/\/x.com\/ispreview"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/author\/markj"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}