Virgin Media Rip Off

mazza111

It's definitely a charge for non direct debit. When I worked for them they used to tell us it's for Giroslips that are printed on the bottom of the bills as they had to pay girobank for this, and for the paypoint machines to be kept running and... need I go on? Direct Debit is the cheapest and fastest way for them to get a variable amount every month on a said date. Many companies now make this charge, good luck in finding one that doesn't. What's the problem by paying by DD anyway if u are going to pay by SO anyway, if i may ask?

aceades

Thanks for replies; I will try to address a few comments

@staffie1 - I guess that is the case, the only thing I can try is signing up for direct debit and then canalling it, that has worked for companies before, just not ones that charge extra for not DD - its not good for business though, turning away good money for any reason

@macman - they will accept SO, they just charge £5 extra as detailed above

@donnac5528 - BT take my SO's and so do BG etc, they take it because I pay in advance, i.e. I pay £30 a month SO for my gas, at the end of the 3month quarter I have either a debit or credit on my account which either rolls onto my next bill if I have credit or I pay off by card (ensuring they do not retain my payment details ) any debit still on my account so I don’t run up any bills - I do all my bills like this and every month I know what I am paying, they send me bills and I process payment myself how I want to, I would think every responsible person would want to do that, most people realise you cannot trust these big companies that have do not know their !!!! from their elbow and if they mess up its no skin off their back, just yours; I had too many F up's and now I don’t let then have the chance,


@ Williham & liam8282 - quite possibly true, why don’t virgin come at it from that angle, it wouldn’t seem so extortionate then, trouble is there rates would not appear to be very good then, but from my point of view this is part of their charge so it just being honest, but they cant do that if it will accept their sales.

@ spud17 - sounds worrying, I think I should keep the SO - I guess £5 a month for peace of mind isn’t too bad, but if you have to pay this for all your bills it can soon rack up, i having to pay fo rthe freedom to decide what my money is spent on.

@ mazza111 - problem with DD, I cannot control payments, I don’t know when they are going to take them and how much for - I don’t have a massive cushion of cash to cater for their F up's unfortunately, so I cant afford to risk it, if they take it at the wrong time and say sorry our mistake my bank wont see it like that and will charge me for returned DD , then OD charges and though it is possible to reclaim these it a lot of wasted time stress and effort that could have been saved by sorting it yourself, - I will never trust a direct debit again they are terribly managed and you cant hold the computer responsible for its mistakes, so you have to deal with this again, maybe I have just been unlucky to have so many DD F'ups that have made me so opposed to them. But just to say I have held this opinion for about 3 years now and had a good friend that said as you did , why don’t you want to use them, Direct Debit is the cheapest and fastest way for them to get a variable amount every month on a said date its so much easier than having to make a payment each month etc until he changed jobs and had to make a few non standard requests for the DD amounts and dates, they messed this up completely and left him in the crap with charges etc which took a while to get back on track because of. after this he had a different view and hasn’t gone back since. I could also say its a complete killer for people of benefits, someone on JSA gets a DD a few pound more than expected, it gets rejected and then they are charged, with an income of about 80 every two weeks you could imagine what this could do to the payment arrangements and subsequent weeks and months if they had no other money avaialble, of anyone in this position taking almost a weeks money and who can they turn to? It really annoys me that the majority people are too lazy to deal with their own finances making DD commonplace and causing a lot of careful or less well off people issues.


A SO is easy to set and to schedule in advance, its very easy to change and as long as the company actually inform the customer of this expected changed and they agree the payment can be adjusted a lot quicker and easier than having to go through one of those painful company phones systems and clueless careless operatives in a far away country

mazza111

Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones, I know what i'm spending each month by DD, I am careful with my telephone and pay per view events on my cable tv, so i guess i know what's coming out anyway. A SO maybe able to changed, but that's by you, still doesn't tell them they are gonna get the right amount of money each month, and they will still have to send out the giro slips i guess.

I'm not agreeing with the charges, just trying to see it from their pov.

BTW All Virgin customers pay for their services in advance anyway. One month in advance then you have to give them one month notice should u wish to cancel, therefore the month in advance would cover the last bill, which a lot of people are quite happy to bump

aceades

how can you always see what you are spending and when if the figures and dates change ? that is what my issue is with i have tried to use DD before but wanted them to come out on a specific date - just after i get paid but they always messed it up and caused me hassle.

I dont use giro slips i dont have any paperwork at all i do it all online and they know what they are getting because i call and make and arrangement first and then stick to it, tbh most of the operatives ( not sales but usually advice / support ) agree with this method and themsleves think it a much better idea then DD for controlled payemnt.

Virgin shoud be a fixed price, well my package was £31 a month with a discount of £20 for the first month so i just set the SO on my onilne banking for the correct date, 1st payment £11, payments from then on £31 recurring monthly and thats it, no wrrying about payments at all ever! if they want to change my charges it must go through me, just how i like it - what is wrong with that (apart from the £5 it incurrs).

I deal with variable payments by making an estimated average payment and then when i am billed (quarterly) i make up the difference, or if i am lucky i'm in credit !


With SO there is no risk, its a shame it is charged, it shoudl be encouraged and discounts given for doing it not from the companies POV but from the economy's.

They have as much chance of getting the money from someone with DD as with someone on SO, if the customer dont have the money then they wont get it the difference is if they have a DD they will be charged the the failings of that system as well as owe the initial money - but either way they will use the same collection services so i dont see it matters to them that much, its just an initelligent choice for the customers to avoid possible hassle, trouble is people dont realise until they experiance the bad side of DD and learn the hard way, they are fine when things are all gravy but the slightest bit of non standard action required and no matter how many people you tell or how much pre warning you give ,you can always bet you will be the one to suffer !

aceades

I guess the main reason they want people on DD is for security of payment - but if people dont want to pay they can just as easily cancel a DD as a SO, so it seems the only thing it gives them is the ability to take money at will from your account they should need or be given that power.