Virgin Net accidentally closed my account

[thefenz]

Virgin Net (which is now owned by NTL) has made an admin error and closed my account despite my paying my bill almost one week earlier and them assuring me, verbally, that my account was fine. Been a customer for almost 10 years.

They have now re-instated the account on dial up whilst they try and re-activate me on broadband (which takes 10-12 days) as they have to complete formalities with BT.

ANy advice on my rights. I was supposed to rent out a flat of mine and when the prospective tenant email me, the mail bounced back and he thought I was a con, so rented elewhere. I've now had to use an agent which has cost me £900 in commission.

Had no email access for 8 days. Have recorded all my conversations with Virgin Net.

Any advice?

[buzby]

If it is the standard ISP contract, then you'll find there is no automatic right to compensation, although if there is an error, their usual ploy is to offer X months pf free service to cover the inconvenience. If you really feel hard done to, rekect their first offer and suggest your own.

As to the problems associated with the flat sale, that wouldn't be covered anyway (it's a consequential loss) and there was no guarantee that the original renter would have completed the agreement, so hoping to hold your ISP liable for this would be hard if not impossible to prove.

Other inconvenience issues you might be able to wring more value is that your email address should at least still be holding email for you to long in - whether as BB or dial-up. If it doesn't you can make lound noises about this too.