Virgin Mobile - Credit towards a new mobile phone cancelled

Sherbet.Lemon_2

Yes, it should go £10 at a time each month if it goes gradually. It made me wonder whether I'd inadvertently bought a phone with it, as I assumed that Virgin wouldn't be so cavalier with their customers' loyalty. I'd be very interested to know if you have any success with them.

noelphobic

Sherbet.Lemon wrote: »

Yes, it should go £10 at a time each month if it goes gradually. It made me wonder whether I'd inadvertently bought a phone with it, as I assumed that Virgin wouldn't be so cavalier with their customers' loyalty. I'd be very interested to know if you have any success with them.

I'll keep you posted. Could do without this at the moment as my son's mobile phone contract (in my name) is due to end soon and I need to negotiate a new contract for him. It's not with Virgin though and it definitely won't be either!

I did get a text from Virgin today though, to let me know that prices will be going up in the New Year because of VAT increases - talk about adding insult to injury!

bcron66

Rang Virgin again, this time was told they had received an email at the begining of the week telling them to refer all customers complaining about missing rewards to ring the phone dept on 08456000668 ( the number I had already been given ) but it did not specify what they would offer. He put me on hold for a few minutes while he contacted the number, when he got back to me he confirmed that they were only giving free airtime and no credit was being refunded, he also admitted that no notice was given to customers about the change. He said there was nothing he could do about it and I should email the Virgin complaints dept.

I thought the days were gone when big companies could take the pi$$ out of there customers like this ( banks being an exception ) but thankfully its easy to change so its bye bye Virgin.

noelphobic

bcron66 wrote: »

Rang Virgin again, this time was told they had received an email at the begining of the week telling them to refer all customers complaining about missing rewards to ring the phone dept on 08456000668 ( the number I had already been given ) but it did not specify what they would offer. He put me on hold for a few minutes while he contacted the number, when he got back to me he confirmed that they were only giving free airtime and no credit was being refunded, he also admitted that no notice was given to customers about the change. He said there was nothing he could do about it and I should email the Virgin complaints dept.

I thought the days were gone when big companies could take the pi$$ out of there customers like this ( banks being an exception ) but thankfully its easy to change so its bye bye Virgin.

If you see one of my posts, I tried to email them twice and it failed. I can't exactly email the complaints department to tell them that due to an error with their systems I am unable to email them!

Free airtime is of no use when you are on a contract anyway! They will be losing me as well if I get no joy when I write to them, and I'm not hopeful.

I'd better start looking at those tenner a month with handset contracts! I think I saw one on Tesco mobile yesterday.

Sherbet.Lemon_2

If this fails to go anywhere, as it seems will happen, I suggest that anyone affected should contact the BBC (bbc.co.uk/watchdog/consumer_advice/) or another watchdog.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they seem to have broken their terms and conditions by not informing us in advance, which means they should be offering the credit to us or potentially face regulatory action.

System

Or follow their complaints procedure and if your still not happy take them to CISAS. Probably quicker than Watchdog!

Sherbet.Lemon wrote: »

If this fails to go anywhere, as it seems will happen, I suggest that anyone affected should contact the BBC (bbc.co.uk/watchdog/consumer_advice/) or another watchdog.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they seem to have broken their terms and conditions by not informing us in advance, which means they should be offering the credit to us or potentially face regulatory action.

noelphobic

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Or follow their complaints procedure and if your still not happy take them to CISAS. Probably quicker than Watchdog!

I've posted a letter by snailmail tonight, complaining not only about losing my Rewards but also the mess-up over the charges on my contract and the fact that I haven't been able to make my complaint online - I copied and pasted the gobbledook I got when I tried! Didn't make it to the Post Office in time to send it Recorded Delivery so they may well claim non-receipt.

If I don't get any joy - and given the posts here it doesn't seem likely - then I will be moving elsewhere as soon as I have sorted my son's new phone out. It's more expensive than mine and therefore takes priority!

noelphobic

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Or follow their complaints procedure and if your still not happy take them to CISAS. Probably quicker than Watchdog!

I would imagine Watchdog would only sit up and take notice (no pun intended!) if they get lots of people contacting them.

ColinAllCars

An email to their CEO often does the trick [EMAIL="neil.berkett&#64;virginmedia.co.uk"]neil.berkett<a>virginmedia.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Also if you phone Ofcom they will log the matter and if enough people call their probaly bring some pressure to bear.

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/

Sherbet.Lemon_2

Has anyone got their new phone credit out of Virgin yet? Virgin says this credit was given to its SIM-only contract customers in addition to the pay-as-you-go customers. Apparently this is something they weren't contractually obliged to provide to us, but for at least two years they have anyway. They say that as they weren't required to give us these rewards, the terms and conditions of the rewards scheme don't matter, and they can cancel it at any time, which is what they have done. I don't know whether they really can do this or not. Either way it seems to be very underhanded of them to give absolutely no information about this change, especially before Christmas. An email to the CEO could be quite successful.

Thanks to Heng and Colin for their info.