virgin media payment handling charges

substandard

If you sign up for a service without taking the time to understand the terms of billing then all things being equal, you deserve to get stung.

On the other hand, clayts makes a very good point. The nature of telecom products like this is that you sign up for a period of time and then can't get out of the contract. If you lost your job some months into a 12/18/23 month contract then you couldn't cancel even if you wanted to. Which is when fairer payment plans would make sense.

@ Linas: Virgin Media don't just supply TV but also the internet. The cost of home broadband is a perfectly sensible thing for a job seeker to spend money on as being without it is a significant disadvantage when it comes to looking for work. It certainly doesn't make you a jake (whatever that means...)

Revoraman

Like you juby_2002,I am not at all happy with Virgin Media's under-handed methods of coining it.Having been a blueyonder/Telewest customer for a long time without a single problem or charges levied for paying monthly bills by cheque,now,despite having reluctantly switched over to DD since VM took over Telewest/blueyonder,and then because of continued abysmal customer service from VM in trying to resolve a billing issue,which resulted in VM themselves cancelling the existent DD,now I find myself being billed a £5 Payment Handling Charge even if I pay cash---never mind by cheque----at one of VM's appointed Pay Point agents.

This is clearly daylight robbery.Pity that Ofcom is so toothless and only seems to exist to serve the interests of the 'big' names in the communications industry.I'm seriously thinking of dumping Virgin Media

trouble_causer

In my opinion Virgin Media’s £5.00 per month Payment Handling Charge is nothing more than a Cash Cow.

I would like to make it clear that I do not object to paying an extra amount because I choose to pay by cheque after all it does cost Virgin more to process cheques than a direct debit, Not £5.00 per month worth though.

I telephoned Virgin Media and asked if they could bill me quarterly, They can’t, I then asked if they could justify to me the £5.00 per month charge, I was informed by a very arrogant lady that it was not Virgin Media's job to justify this charge and I should write to the Head Office in Swansea. I sent the letter today (Also sent a copy to OfCom).

I have never come across such arrogance from a customer service rep and I believe it is the job of any company to justify what I am billed for.

From what I can gather from the Internet around 70% of Virgin Media’s customers pay by direct debit, Is it Virgin Media’s intention to try and bully the other 30% into doing the same by applying an over inflated charge?.

I do not accept that it costs Virgin Media £15.00 per quarter to process my payments. BT do it for £4.50 per quarter and that equates to £1.50 per month. If BT can pass on a realistic charge why can’t Virgin Media?.

The Virgin ethos is simple, take on the big boys and do it better, Well they don't come much bigger than BT do they?.

That same ethos that appeals to the older, more sensible 30+ market are also the same "older, more sensible" customers who, for their own valid reasons, do not want to pay by Direct Debit.

If we all called Virgin Media customer services and/or wrote to their Head office and OfCom and the OFT and asked how BT can charge £4.50 per quarter for non DD payments Virgin Media might sit up and take notice.

Also, It seems that if you tell Virgin Media you want to leave them they can set up a special rate of £1.50 per month for the Payment Handling Charge, This lasts for up to 12 months then if you are still using Virgin Media it goes back up to the £5.00 per month.

Mark_Hewitt

Why not switch to DD?!

trouble_causer

Ah yes Mark, I expected a reply like that.

The simple reason is I CHOOSE not to, Note the word "CHOOSE".

You seem to have missed an important part of my post so here it is again....

I would like to make it clear that I do not object to paying an extra amount because I choose to pay by cheque after all it does cost Virgin more to process cheques than a direct debit, Not £5.00 per month worth though.

I am quite willing to pay a reasonable amount for my CHOICE, £5 per month is not a reasonable amount.

cleo1299

trouble_causer wrote: »

I do not accept that it costs Virgin Media £15.00 per quarter to process my payments. BT do it for £4.50 per quarter and that equates to £1.50 per month. If BT can pass on a realistic charge why can’t Virgin Media?

An article on This Is Money (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/broadband-and-phones/article.html?in_article_id=430799&in_page_id=182) argues that BT customers should be able to pay online through their bank accounts. Apparently there should be little difference in costs between this and DD.

If that's correct, then it seems to me that if a customer refuses to pay by DD but offers to pay by bank transfer, they would be on strong ground if BT or Virgin or any other supplier refused to accept that. If the purpose of the charge is really to cover costs, and not to try to bully customers into handing over access to their bank accounts, the supplier ought to have no objections to payment by bank transfer. Unfortunately, they probably would be careful not to let a test case get to court for fear they might lose.

Seems like a good "cause" for MSE to take up once the bank charges campaign has been won.

trouble_causer

cleo1299

A bank transfer or BACS as it is also known is a very inexpensive way a business can take your payment. It maybe a LITTLE, and I mean a LITTLE more expensive than Direct Debit but I believe any company should stand the "Little" extra cost in order to retain their customers.

As I said, These charges are a "Cash Cow" and nothing else.

cleo1299

trouble_causer wrote: »

cleo1299

A bank transfer or BACS as it is also known is a very inexpensive way a business can take your payment. It maybe a LITTLE, and I mean a LITTLE more expensive than Direct Debit but I believe any company should stand the "Little" extra cost in order to retain their customers.

As I said, These charges are a "Cash Cow" and nothing else.

I don't think so. The charges are a way to try to bully customers into paying by DD. If all customers paid by DD, the company would not have the hassle of dealing with late payments or nonpayment. That's probably worth more to them than the charge.

Payment by bank transfer would not give them the same advantages as payment by DD, and so they would surely resist it. But in the process of resisting, they might have to come clean and admit that their real reasons for charging for non-DD payments is not because of the handling costs but because of the control over late payments/non-payment. At least, that's my take on it.

No1

I also reluctantly choose to pay the £5 premium, in my experience setting up a DD with Virgin Media is a bit like putting Billy Bunter in charge of the pies!

Double billing, incorrect billing, hassle and non-existent customer service - the £5 [STRIKE]ripoff[/STRIKE] charge wins hands down.

juby_2002

these charges make up the majority of my bill

i agree with late payment charges etc, but £5 to pay a bl00dy bill is ridiculus.

i understand that it costs them to process the payment,, but how much exactly?

anyone work for the saintly VM here?