A broadband bill that was sent to a dead man, complete with a fine for his clearly unavoidable late payment, has been shared more than 85,000 times on the popular social networking website Facebook.
The man’s son-in-law Jim Boyden addressed a message to Virgin Broadbanda along with a photograph of the bill for £63.89 and posted it on his Facebook wall. The photo also shows the charge with “D.D Denied-Payer deceased” – a reference to the fact that the dead man’s bank had refused the direct debit payment, followed by a late payment charge of £10.00.
In his remarks to the broadband provider, Mr Boydon wrote:
“I’m really sorry for my father-in-law not paying his bill last month, but what with him being dead and all, it’s probably slipped his mind. Some people, eh?”
Explaining why he decided to use Facebook to vent his frustration with the company for their error, My Boydon said:
“This actually amused me to start off with, but their complete lack of response irks me somewhat.”
Virgin broadband has since apologised via the social networking channel as well as to the family personally and the deceased’s account has now been closed. The company states that originally they were unable to close the account on unverified claims of the customer’s death. They also pointed out that the process was especially difficult as it was conducted through social media because no direct contact had been made with the company.
While the action of bills being sent out to those who have recently died is a frequent occurrence, social media experts hope that the viral nature of this complaint will serve as a warning to other businesses. They say that the case is another reminder of the importance of companies responding quickly and publicly to complaints that have been made on social networking websites.
Dr Lisa Harris, Head of Digital Marketing Masters Program at the University of Southampton, has said:
“Corporations are very good at promoting themselves, they recognise that everyone needs a Twitter and a Facebook account, they are aware the networks exist but they don’t have the strategies in place to deal with the issues that can arise from those networks. If they do make a mistake they should say that they are human using the channels they have created themselves. A lot of people as a result of seeing this will now think, ‘I had that problem as well’ – it can mushroom. Companies need to recognise that people have more power than they used to.”
Commenting on the incident, Head of Customer Services at BT, Warren Buckley said that 40% of their customer feedback now originates from Twitter. He recognises that it is difficult to deal with customers who aren’t happy so publicly, but says that many of them respect the fact that the company is available on Twitter at all. Their policy in dealing with public complaints is always to be honest.
As well as closing the deceased man’s account, Virgin Broadband has also offered to make a donation to a charity of the family’s choice.
