Virgin Media Ripoff

Swindy

Hi guys, I'm new to the forums and decided to join after receiving my latest bill off virgin media for the following services for a shocking amount of £105.19!! :shocked::

Telephone Line Rental 14 October - 13 November £11.00 Talk Unlimited 14 October - 13 November £7.95 Phone, TV & BB Bundle Saving 14 October - 13 November £-9.50 Free Voicemail 14 October - 13 November £0.00 TV Size: L 14 October - 13 November £11.50 Broadband Size: M 14 October - 13 November
£18.00
Plus rental of a film for approx 4 quid and telephone calls for £3 not covered by talk unlimited. They have also slapped on a "Balance bought forward" amount for £59.45 onto the services charges of £41.94. How the HELL have they worked that one out? The rip-off b**tards have also added a £10 Late Payment Charge onto the bill, even though I have an automatic direct-debit set up with them and have done for ages! My previous months bills have usually hovered around the £45-50 mark, which in my opinion is still bl**dy steep! :mad:

So please tell me, do the chimps at Virgin Media use a random number generator when working out bills? Has anybody else had similar problems with billing from this !!!!less bunch of morons?

And can somebody explain to me !!!!!! does the "Balance Bought Forward" amount mean?

And yes, needless to say, I have sent them an email asking what the fudge is going on!

Later guys, gotta go, my head's got a date with a brick wall...

Swindy

sorry guys about my post above, I tried to make the payment list I pasted from my ebill get sorted into neat columns in the email to make it all easier for you to read, but obviously it didn't work LOL

normanmark

Balance brought forward means that Virgin are saying the previous bill wasn't paid. Which would indicate a £10 late payment charge.

Double check your bank account & see if the £59.45 went out. If it did then call them up (remember politeness always helps!) and inform them that they've taken the money from your account.

If the money didn't leave your account then there was a problem with the Direct Debit which you need to investigate and find out why it wasnt taken (error on Virgins side, issue with your bank, not enough funds etc etc).

bristolleedsfan

Swindy wrote: »

!!!!!! ..

Can u please explain to me "!!!!!!" means pse.

normanmark

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

Can u please explain to me "!!!!!!" means pse.

Never heard of google?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=!!!!!!

raradel

I had a problem with them last month but that was following having v plus installed, I paid £30 connection to get free box, my next bill said I was in credit and the month after I got a bill for 132! I was soooooo p!ssed off - and had to speak to someone who barely spoke english, didnt understand me and I didnt understand her. In the end they should have billed me the month before but didnt as the 30 put me in credit and they started contract as new from when I had vplus installed - all very confusing and customer care VERY SHODDY

DCFC79

Swindy wrote: »

Hi guys, I'm new to the forums and decided to join after receiving my latest bill off virgin media for the following services for a shocking amount of £105.19!! :shocked::

Telephone Line Rental 14 October - 13 November £11.00 Talk Unlimited 14 October - 13 November £7.95 Phone, TV & BB Bundle Saving 14 October - 13 November £-9.50 Free Voicemail 14 October - 13 November £0.00 TV Size: L 14 October - 13 November £11.50 Broadband Size: M 14 October - 13 November
£18.00
Plus rental of a film for approx 4 quid and telephone calls for £3 not covered by talk unlimited. They have also slapped on a "Balance bought forward" amount for £59.45 onto the services charges of £41.94. How the HELL have they worked that one out? The rip-off b**tards have also added a £10 Late Payment Charge onto the bill, even though I have an automatic direct-debit set up with them and have done for ages! My previous months bills have usually hovered around the £45-50 mark, which in my opinion is still bl**dy steep! :mad:

So please tell me, do the chimps at Virgin Media use a random number generator when working out bills? Has anybody else had similar problems with billing from this !!!!less bunch of morons?

And can somebody explain to me !!!!!! does the "Balance Bought Forward" amount mean?

And yes, needless to say, I have sent them an email asking what the fudge is going on!

Later guys, gotta go, my head's got a date with a brick wall...

stay calm, virgin media arent chimps, i have VM and no problems at all, do you have enough in your account for the £59 to come out,
you bought the film for £4 so you cant complain about that,
theyre not rip off b**tards when it could be your fault

Swindy

Thanks for all the responses guys!

Just to update, I rung VM on Saturday, and my call was also answered by a chap who I could barely understand due to his very strong Indian sounding accent. I said it was very cheeky of them to charge me a late payment fee, he counteracted this and said "It is not cheeky sir, it is my responsibility to check to make sure the direct debit has gone out, otherwise you have to setup a manual payment" which I suppose is true. Still cant believe how greedy and grasping they can be over £10 though! It looks like it was probably my new banks (Alliance & Leicester) fault as I have switched banks recently, and their 'Premier Switching Service' did a crappy job of transferring the direct-debits. Anyway I threatened to leave VM if they didn't knock off the £10 late fee, to which the guy on the phone refused, I asked to be put through to his manager, to which he said he'd only say the same thing, so I said I'd pay the bill and leave VM.

This obviously set alarm bells off at the VM retention department as I received a very nice call the following day saying that everything would be sorted and I wouldn't have to pay the ten quid after all.

Some of you on here are probably thinking I'm a right scrooge about the tenner, but to me it's the principle of it. The customer is always right, especially when you're paying them £50 a month.

Customer - 1
VM- 0

ALIBOBSY

Well I agree late fees don't seem fair, an d in light of the bank charges case even £10 may end up being classed as high. But at the moment this is one of the lowest late fees, do you think bt and sky don't charge?
The direct debit wasn't paid, it wasn't VM's fault and when you complainned they called you back and refunded the charge! What else do you want?

your new bank account will have come with a guaratee to move the debits correctly, they should have and would have given you the 10 and probably some compo too.

ali x

markelock

i'm pretty sure I get xl tv for the same price as you're paying (along with the other bits)

ring to cancel it all if you are outside your contractual period, they'll offer you money off.

i wouldn't bother talking india. the only ones I can talk to are the scots.