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Virgin Media contract lies - any advice?
magicka
Posts: 7 Forumite
I am in dispute with Virgin Media and wondered what advice anyone had.
In Nov 07 I entered into 12 month contract with VM for broadband and phone. So, by Dec 08, I was in situation where could cancel with a months notice.
End of Jan 09, woman from VM calls asking if I'd like a TV set-top box, that I "might as well have it as you're paying for it already in your phone line rental." NOTHING re a new contract mentioned. I accept, box arrives. I phone in Apr 09 to cancel account with months notice as I have to move. They tell me I owe £120 for early termination of contract. The notes on my account say that during the Jan 09 phone call the agent explained the T&C of signing up to another 12 months as a condition of adding the additional service (ie TV), and that I agreed to this. This is a total lie. VM also claim that their records show a contract was posted out to me at the time. I never received anything.
I have argued case with VM that I do not owe them these fees as I never entered into further contract and have challenged them to provide either recording of the conversation or my signature on a contract.
They can provide me with neither. They say that the call was not recorded. They acknowledge that the contract they claim to have sent out was never returned - but that often customers don't send them back, and that this fact doesn't matter.
They've stubbornly stuck to their argument that I WAS in a contract because 1) the account notes show that I agreed to it and 2) they sent a contract out.
I've so far refused to pay the £120 and I've had couple of letters from debt recovery firm. I referred case to CISAS (adjudicators) but, after a process, they said my case failed because I couldn't supply proof of my allegations of VM's lies. But that's the thing - what proof could I supply?
To my mind the onus should be on VM to prove their version of events - and I don't think that some notes typed by a commission-hungry sales rep constitute objective evidence. Friends seem to agree and boldly suggest that I "let them take (you) to court" with the belief that a court would definitely require proper evidence that VM don't have. But is this naive?
I've just had the adjudicators decision back which isn't in my favour and so am wondering what to do next. Haven't heard from VM or the debt recovery people for couple months - I wrote to debt recovery people telling them that adjudication process was going on so they seemed to hold off temporarily.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
In Nov 07 I entered into 12 month contract with VM for broadband and phone. So, by Dec 08, I was in situation where could cancel with a months notice.
End of Jan 09, woman from VM calls asking if I'd like a TV set-top box, that I "might as well have it as you're paying for it already in your phone line rental." NOTHING re a new contract mentioned. I accept, box arrives. I phone in Apr 09 to cancel account with months notice as I have to move. They tell me I owe £120 for early termination of contract. The notes on my account say that during the Jan 09 phone call the agent explained the T&C of signing up to another 12 months as a condition of adding the additional service (ie TV), and that I agreed to this. This is a total lie. VM also claim that their records show a contract was posted out to me at the time. I never received anything.
I have argued case with VM that I do not owe them these fees as I never entered into further contract and have challenged them to provide either recording of the conversation or my signature on a contract.
They can provide me with neither. They say that the call was not recorded. They acknowledge that the contract they claim to have sent out was never returned - but that often customers don't send them back, and that this fact doesn't matter.
They've stubbornly stuck to their argument that I WAS in a contract because 1) the account notes show that I agreed to it and 2) they sent a contract out.
I've so far refused to pay the £120 and I've had couple of letters from debt recovery firm. I referred case to CISAS (adjudicators) but, after a process, they said my case failed because I couldn't supply proof of my allegations of VM's lies. But that's the thing - what proof could I supply?
To my mind the onus should be on VM to prove their version of events - and I don't think that some notes typed by a commission-hungry sales rep constitute objective evidence. Friends seem to agree and boldly suggest that I "let them take (you) to court" with the belief that a court would definitely require proper evidence that VM don't have. But is this naive?
I've just had the adjudicators decision back which isn't in my favour and so am wondering what to do next. Haven't heard from VM or the debt recovery people for couple months - I wrote to debt recovery people telling them that adjudication process was going on so they seemed to hold off temporarily.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
0
Comments
-
Couple of options
1. Pay up.......job done, peace of mind, move on with your life and slag VM off to everyone you possibly ever meet [depends how much you want to end it]
2. Write to Richard B himself and see if that gets it sorted.
3. Tell them 'See you in court' and ignore every other piece of paper that they send you [unless its actually from a court] ....they are unlikely to take action, and even if they did you've got a great chance of winning [imo]. You can bet that if the sales recording was in their favour they would be producing it to you here and now; the fact that they 'don't record calls' is tosh. These 'sales' calls are contentious and they know this and possibly choose deliberately NOT to record for that very reason. Even IF they did actually issue court papers and IF they attended your local court and IF they won, the most you'd have to pay is the balance plus £30 court costs.
Personally I'd be going for option 3.0 -
You mention a DCA...they have no more standing than your local lollipop lady.
Somewhere on these forums is a std letter tjhat you send them that akss them for a whole shed load of paperwork that they LEGALLY have to produce for you. Sending it [don't bother about the £1 bit imo] usually results in them writing and saying 'oops, upon further investigation we havre passed it back to the original debtor'
HTH0 -
Thanks for the info. Just the sort of thing I was looking for. I'd previously pondered your option 1 (reluctantly paying up) but I feel better about your option 3 now :T0
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