Virgin Media attempting to force upgrade to my subscription.

shug1722

Hello All,

I've had some difficulty with Virgin Media lately regarding a change to my account details. Please note, I am writing this as a third party and do not have the precise details to hand.

VM have provided a combined DTV, Broadband and Phone package to the house for the last few years. It is a fairly basic package, costing ~£20pcm, and there have been no complaints as to the service itself. The house is shared between six tenants and the account was held in the name of K, one of the tenants.

As K is moving on, the housemates have tried to arrange for the package to be transferred into M's name (another tenant).

VM have responded as follows:

1) There will be a £20 transfer fee;
2) The existing subscription cannot be transferred as such, rather it must be terminated and M must be registered as a new customer;
3) As a new customer, the best package available will cost £42.50pcm; and,
4) VM have already made the switch-over and the house is now able to view 160+ worthless channels.

My initial thoughts are to write to VM before the next billing date (which I believe is the 20th Dec), rejecting their offer of a new service package and requesting the old package to be re-instated. Further, I would note that if this is not possible, it will be necessary to switch providers.

I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who has experience of this situation or can offer any good practical advice.

Many thanks,

shug1722

Kurtis_Blue

Well, if the offer is not to your liking then cancel you have 28days from installation if these are terms that the named person agreed to, if for some reason the named person feels they were mislead in those terms you will obviously need to cancel stating that fact.

Clearly the other tenants could not have taken over someone else's account, however its a shame they couldn't be more flexible in the terms of the new account, but they weren't forcing anything the customers had a choice.

shug1722

Just to give a few more details:

VM have sent a "Transfer of Responsibility" form to be signed by the new account holder. I accept that this is normal, along with the £20 fee. I also accept that a condition of the transfer form is to sign up to a new 12-month "minimum period". However, this is where the difficulty lies. In discussions to date, VM have refused to continue the existing services plan and are insisting on an upgrade to the more expensive plan as a condition of the transfer of responsibility.

TheSaint_2

Why transfer? If you close the account there will be no £20 fee. Just set up a new one. Yes you won't get the same deal, but the package I am on is £25.99 per month for all three services. There are cheaper deals too.