Virgin Media blocking calls to mobiles

Nooj

A while ago I noticed I was unable to call my partner's mobile fom our Virgin land line, further investigation revealed that I was unable to call ANY mobile from our landline.

I rang Virgin Media and was told that their debt prevention squad had taken this 'privilage' away as we were running up £100+ bills by calling abroad (they're also blocking us from making international calls). This was correct, my partner was dialing into teleconferences abroad for work and her work refunds the calls as an expense.

We were paying Virgin all the money they charged with no arguments by direct debit each month and have never missed a payment. They claimed to have sent a letter, though no letter turned up, and said they also left a message on our phone, but there's no way of knowing that we even have a message with their answerphone service, so that didn't get picked up either.

I rang them and complained and they said we should have taken on their international calls package and that if we wanted the block lifted we'd need to pay £100 up front which would be taken off out next bill, obviously I told them where to go.

Can they do this? What right do they have to dictate how my partner and I spend our money?? We are still paying for a complete service, yet they have taken some of it away.

Heinz

That's ineptitude on a par with that which BT regularly demonstrates!

Start making those calls via www.18185.co.uk - they'll be cheaper than Virgin and, as you will use the freephone gateway number (08081703703), they won't be able to block you.

Nooj

Thanks, I wondered if 18185 would work. Will give them a try.

mazza111

Nooj, how long have you been with VM? This is standard practice for new customers or customers who have a poor credit history. Think it's something like 3 months they would hold your deposit, just to make sure that any bills would be covered. Everyone has a credit limit on their account to start with, unfortunately that's due to so many people not paying their bills.

Not saying it's right, but I guess they have to protect themselves somehow. I guess it also gives you some protection against the kids using the phone when u aint at home.

Nooj

We've been with them for about six months. We already get discounted TV as they made such a bad job of changing us over from BT, we were unable to dial out anywhere for about four weeks!

Kids aren't an issue, we don't have any, which save us THOUSANDS of pounds a year :-D

They get their money regardless, we pay by direct debit, so they have no reason to impose limits on the service we're buying from them, and as far as I'm concerned, no right.

macman

Nooj wrote: »

We've been with them for about six months. We already get discounted TV as they made such a bad job of changing us over from BT, we were unable to dial out anywhere for about four weeks!

Kids aren't an issue, we don't have any, which save us THOUSANDS of pounds a year :-D

They get their money regardless, we pay by direct debit, so they have no reason to impose limits on the service we're buying from them, and as far as I'm concerned, no right.

Not quite, they're entitled to safeguard against the risk of a high unpaid bill one month, which means that they have to impose some sort of credit limit on every account. Your issue is to make them agree a limit which is appropriate to your particular pattern of usage. The fact that you pay by direct debit gives them no security whatsoever-you could run up a £1000 bill one month and then cancel the DD. It happens all the time.
VM's real error here is their failure to inform you of what they were doing and why, which I'm afraid is fairly typical of their standard of CS.

Nooj

you could run up a £1000 bill one month and then cancel the DD.

Don't put ideas into my head

I've just signed up to 18185 so I'll see how I get on with them. It's a sad state of affairs when companies you're paying for a service decide they will manage your finances for you. What next? Will Sainsburys only let me buy £40 of shopping at a time? The next time I get petrol will the garage manager insist I sign a 12 month contract and pay £500 up front before I'm allowed to fill the car up?

The thing that REALLY p1sses me off, between the Missus and myself, we probably get taxed more every week than the snotty oik I spoke to gets paid in a month!

spike7451

This was correct, my partner was dialing into teleconferences abroad for work and her work refunds the calls as an expense.

Did you inform VM that this was the case when taking the service?
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/legal/oncable/terms.html

D Using the services

You are responsible for the way the services are used. You must not use the services to do any of the following acts or allow anyone else to use the services to do such acts:
h-Use any services (including, but not limited to, phone services) for commercial or business purposes.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/legal/oncable/credit_check.html

If at any time before or during the terms of this agreement you fail to meet our credit conditions, we may do the following;

• Demand payment for future line rental and usage charges.
• Enforce credit limits on you for any of our charges (to the extent we believe is reasonable in the circumstances) and suspend some or all of the services at any time when you reach the limits until we have received the full payment of any charges you owe us.
• Demand a deposit from you.

ceridwen

Hmmm....I'm wondering if this explains why I found recently that I had a few days worth of emails turn up at once on my Virgin email service and was wondering why on earth they had been delayed.

Over the period in question Virgin apparently thought I was late with paying my direct debit - even though I wasnt...there seems to have been a bit of an error by my bank (not ME personally). As soon as I had realised there was an error and asked why my monthly bill was wrong - bingo...those several days worth of emails all turned up at once....

Note to self - make sure every single email ever comes through my normal email service (ie the Googlemail one I use) - as I know then that they will turn up within minutes.

beginner52

Nooj wrote: »

We've been with them for about six months. We already get discounted TV as they made such a bad job of changing us over from BT, we were unable to dial out anywhere for about four weeks!

Kids aren't an issue, we don't have any, which save us THOUSANDS of pounds a year :-D

They get their money regardless, we pay by direct debit, so they have no reason to impose limits on the service we're buying from them, and as far as I'm concerned, no right.

The same has happened to us but so far it is only premium numbers (thank God!) and voting on reality shows so the missus couldn't get her vote in for Stacey on the X Factor (what a shame!) I was wondering whether Simon Cowell has taken over VM to ensure who wins!

Seriously though, I do think it is a cheek especially when the reasons people are running up high bills is due to them putting up the costs all of the time.

macman

Nooj wrote: »

Don't put ideas into my head

I've just signed up to 18185 so I'll see how I get on with them. It's a sad state of affairs when companies you're paying for a service decide they will manage your finances for you. What next? Will Sainsburys only let me buy £40 of shopping at a time? The next time I get petrol will the garage manager insist I sign a 12 month contract and pay £500 up front before I'm allowed to fill the car up?

The thing that REALLY p1sses me off, between the Missus and myself, we probably get taxed more every week than the snotty oik I spoke to gets paid in a month!

Your comparion are not valid. With Sainsbury's or the petrol station you are paying in full at the time of purchase. With VM you are being given a month's open credit. Do you really expect them to set no limit on that credit whatsoever?