Problem with virgin...

usergu1de

hi, im not new to the site but i am new to posting,

i feel im being treated unfairly by my mobile phone company, i was accepted for a contract by virgin mobile a year and a half ago with no problems during my contract, i paid every bill on time i use my phone alot for work so its quite important i have it.

virgin contacted me recently to say i was due an upgrade and to renew my contract, so i pick a phone and a new tariff and i also ask for another handset/contract on the same account for my partner (she wanted to switch from 02 so we get free mins etc) they said they would have to get someone to call me back about the extra handset but would dispatch mine straight away.

The next day i got my handset, a week later when my new tariff and contract was due to start i got a message saying they`d added my minutes but whenn i checked i hadnt, so i ring them there all confussed about whats happened then management comes to the phone and explains that i didnt pass the credit check and they are canceling my contract and i`d have to send the phone back.

is that right? can the do that? i`ve been a good customer for a year and a half.. the lady on the phone agreed but says "its the computer" they said nothing liek that had ever happened, i know people who have gone throught iva procedure and had there contract renewed as long as they pay their bill every month, i feel like im being victimised!

Any help and advice would be great even its.. "yeah they can do that" thanks in advance

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

Unfortunately, the way the Virgin contract works is that when it ends, it ends. Most other companies just keep it rolling along but Virgin start a new contract each time. As a result, they are entitled to not offer you a new contract and although it's a shame for them to lose a good customer, you are stuck.

What you need to do now is make sure you don't lose your phone number. Give them a call and ask them to transfer your number on to a Pay as you go tariff so that you can "top up and keep everything going with your existing phone". Then you can shop around for a new contract (possibly do the reverse of what you were doing and both go to O2?), get your PAC code from Virgin (they are very good about texting it to you within about 48 hours) and switch your number to the new contract.

Sorry I can't bring you better news, but good luck with getting a new contract. O2 are probably your best starting point if your partner is already with them, but you are probably best going into the shop - they will credit check you and if you come up as a "possible" they simply ask you for a deposit (usually £100) which is used to pay your contract after you've been with them for 3 months (ie, no bills for a while which would be good over Christmas).

smcaul

Escalate it within VM, I have had similar problems with them in the past!! By any chance are you a virgin media customer as well (TV, Broadband, Phone!!) If so this can cause a problem.

From what I was told and can work out, they sometimes only allow you between 1 and 3 products on their "Credit Scoring" and each product/line is a separate entity in VM's eyes. So it is quite easy to get refused on their credit check if you have more then, say 2, of their products. I'll rephrase that, they seem to allow (for instance) a credit limit of £300 total, but you may have £150 on media, then £150 on a mobile line, that is then your total allocated over two products - if they put another product on then it will take it over the £300 limit so you get refused!!! Hope that makes sense!!

I had to escalate to quite a high level before this became apparent, they can override this if they want.

I have the equivalent of 7 VM products, but only pay 2 bills (one mobile, one media) and yet I got caught in this trap!! Funny considering they want to sell you more and more products but wont actually let you buy them without having to argue with them!!!

vixmony

I sympathise with you especially as it was a business handset, as well, having come across your experience and as mentioned above with regards to them credit checking during every renual of contact I better ring up my mate he took out one last week but he has bad credit which makes it very hard for him to get a contract but virgin accepted him when he took out a phone , broadband and tv deal, which surprised him. Now he was actually going to cancel his 3 uk contact for this one, so am going to tell him to stick with 3 and return the virgin contact. As mentioned yea surely you would expect them to happily renew the contract, because contract renual, proves the customer was loyal and profitable, like the op, so t me it doesn't make any sense for them to do this.