‘Unscrupulous’ Virgin Media signed up 85-year-old dementia sufferer for £680-a-year fibre-optic TV and broadband package even though he only watches BBC and ITV
- Sydney Gill, 85, was sold a £681-a-year fibre optic package by Virgin Media
- Retired police officer has dementia and only watches two channels on Freeview
- MP Suella Braverman said Virgin Media has been ‘insensitive and unscrupulous’
- Virgin Media has offered six months’ free service as a good will gesture to family
Virgin Media has been branded ‘unscrupulous’ after selling a high-tech package to a ‘confused’ dementia-suffering pensioner who only watches two TV channels.
The firm sold Sydney Gill, 85, the £681-a-year fibre optic set-up with film and sport channels despite his daughter telling them five times about his diagnosis.
Retired Metropolitan Police officer Mr Gill, who is from Fareham in Hampshire, has no smart TV, mobile phone, or computer and only watches BBC and ITV on Freeview.
His MP, attorney general Suella Braverman, said Virgin Media has been ‘insensitive and unscrupulous’ and has vowed to raise his case in Government.
Sydney Gill, 85, was sold a £681-a-year TV package by Virgin Media despite his daughter Janet Thorpe, 55, (pictured with her father) telling the company five times that he had dementia
It is thought that the great grandfather-of-five contacted Virgin media after a message popped up on his TV and suggested he call the company.
He was then transferred to the sales team which sold him the pricey package after asking if he wanted to resume services.
But the pensioner only had a phone package with the company at the time as his TV package had been cancelled more than two years previously.
His daughter Janet Thorpe, 55, – who has lasting power of attorney since her father’s diagnosis in 2017 – realised what had happened after checking his emails.
She believes he saw a message on his television asking him to call Virgin Media if he wanted to subscribe to a new channel and mistakenly thought there was an error.
Mr Gill was sold a costly 12 month package totalling £681.20 which included installation fees and one-off charges.
Ms Thorpe thinks that her father saw a message (pictured) on his TV asking him to call Virgin Media if he wanted to subscribe to a new channel and mistakenly thought there was an error
Virgin Media – owned by US billionaire John Malone – has since admitted failing to update its records after Ms Thorpe said her father was ‘too confused’ to understand he was sold the package.
Ms Thorpe, an ex-project manager at Lloyds Banking Group, said: ‘They sold him a top package even though we have told them at least five times over the phone that he has dementia.
‘The Financial Conduct Authority has a big policy around organisations’ behaviour towards people they could class as vulnerable customers, so it defies belief how they can sell that package to an 85-year-old who has zero devices in his house.
‘Where are Virgin’s morals and what were the questions they asked my dad on that phone call?
‘I could understand if these were fraudsters, but 95 per cent of the mis-selling is from supposedly reputable companies.
Virgin Media have since offered to give Mr Gill (pictured) six months’ free service as a goodwill gesture and have apologised for not correctly updating her father’s account details
Attorney General Suella Braverman (pictured) said she will raise Mr Gill’s case with the business minister and called Virgin Media’s behaviour ‘insensitive and unscrupulous’
‘I want to know what’s being done to hold these companies to account and get them to put in place robust practices for vulnerable customers.’
A Virgin Media spokesman said: ‘We have apologised to Mr Gill’s daughter for not correctly updating her father’s account details to reflect that he has dementia.
‘As a gesture of goodwill we have offered six months’ free service which has been accepted.
‘Virgin Media is committed to ensuring our vulnerable customers are treated with care and we provide specialist training to our front-line staff so they can support customers appropriately.’
Mrs Braverman said she was backing Ms Thorpe’s campaign to crackdown on ‘endemic mis-selling’ to vulnerable customers.
She said: ‘It deeply saddens me that Virgin Media has behaved in such an insensitive and unscrupulous manner, forgetting the human element to the customer relationship.
‘In my capacity as Sydney’s MP I will raise his case with the business minister to ensure we put an end to the exploitation of the elderly, so that others do not suffer as Sydney has.’