Virgin Media Help!

PrincessPlaty

Ok bit of brief background which is relevant i promise!

My contract with VM (landline and internet) ended end of Sept 2010, I was intending on switching to a new provider on 21st October and disconnection was arranged with VM for the same date. I ended up in a womens refuge in October 2010.
I contacted VM by email to inform them that i wished to cancel my services and explained the circumstances. Told them I wished to cancel all services with immediate effect as I was no longer at the property. Contact was done via email so that I had a papertrail.

Recieved the following reply back from them:

there,
Thanks for getting in touch with Virgin Media.
Unfortunately the reason why you received an e-mail is due to your account is still active. We received a contact from you on 21st September 2010 thinking of leaving Virgin Media and going to Talk Talk however instead of disconecting your account you agreed to cancel the TV service and keep your telephone and broadband. This was the notes left by the agent you spoke with at that time you phoned Virgin.
There were no notes left that your terminating your service but you stated that your keeping your Virgin Media telephone and broadband until we received this e-mail.
Should you wish to fully disconnect your service feel free to call one of our associates at 150 directly from a Virgin phone line or reply to this e-mail.
Kind regards
The Team at Virgin Media

However this is obviously very different to what I had said!

I replied back stating that I wished to disconnect the services.

I got the following response:

Hi there,
Thanks for getting in touch with Virgin Media.
We are having difficulty finding your account with us, so cannot process your order on this occasion.
Please call our team on 150 free from your Virgin Media phone or on 0845 454 1111* from any other line and we'll be glad to help.
Oh - and we're on hand from 8am - 8pm, Monday - Friday and from 9am to 12pm Saturdays.
Kind Regards
The Team at Virgin Media

So I replied back giving them all the details again copying in my original email.

This is the response I received:

Hi there,
Thanks for getting in touch about your Virgin Media account.
We hope you're looking forward to settling into your new place, and we wanted to let you know that if you want, we would like to move with you.
Unfortunately we have been unable to locate your account, from the details we have from your recent e-mail.
Could you re-confirm your details for us and re-submit your move request via the Virgin Media Website, so we can start to get you on your way to your new home, we'll make sure everything's as easy as possible.
Once we have confirmed your new address we'll be in touch via e-mail to confirm that we are processing your request.
Kind regards
The Team at Virgin Media

And this has continued now with the same emails being sent and received each time! :mad:

I really don't want to call up and speak to someone through lack of having a paper trail to back up what is going on!

I have just received an email telling me that my latest virgin media bill is due and the amount of the bill is £446.95 :eek:

Thinking they may have finally disconnected me and had possibly billed me for the remainder of a contract that I was not tied to I logged in to find the following!


Thu 10 Feb 12:12 Spec Serv 08719996363 4:00 £0.52
Thu 10 Feb 21:51 Nevada 0017023347973 4:00 £1.13
Fri 11 Feb 22:03 Ng Mobile 02348385586 5:00 £8.57
Fri 11 Feb 22:09 Nevada 0017023347973 2:00 £0.62
Fri 11 Feb 22:12 Ng Mobile 02348385586 70:00 £118.66
Fri 11 Feb 23:23 Ng Mobile 02348385586 92:00 £155.92
Sat 12 Feb 00:58 California 0017147837851 49:00 £12.62
Sat 12 Feb 10:24 Zw Mobile 0026377237475 5:00 £8.57
Sat 12 Feb 10:31 Zw Mobile 0026373501272 8:00 £13.66

:eek: :eek:

Now as far as I am aware the house is still empty with only the landlord holding a set of keys due to a break in before christmas and the locks having to be changed. I still hold the tenancy on the property also, so there is no chance that it could have been rented out again.

Any suggestions on:

1. How these calls are possible?
2. How I can get VM to disconnect the services? (Baring in mind I am unable to send a letter and get a response due to the fact I am in a womens refuge and it is a PO Box address which I am not allowed to give out)
3. How I can get the bill corrected? (There should be a zero balance as it was paid up to date before I left and I requested to disconnect at the end of contract)

Any help would be much appreciated

manutd99

Id say contact your landlord

Remind him the date you left. Then tell him after you had left there were calls that were made. You had left at this point so could not have been you. He needs to find out who has been in the property whilst you were not there as these calls were made during this period. See what he says and tell him if he doesnt resolve you will be taking it further by taking to court or speaking to the police.

As well as that you can write to Virgin send them a copy of the email you sent to disconnect the services and advise you will not pay as you had informed them to disconnect and advised you were not at the property after the date mentioned.

Buzby

I seriously doubt your landlord would be liable for misuse of your phone line, as you say you are still under contract for the tenancy even though you don't live there. You can use your nearest post office to recieve mail addressed to you - the service is called Post Restante and is free (or was, last time I had to use it). It will really boil down to what VMs computer system says your agreement modifications were, unless you can back up with a witness or paper trail that they are incorrect. Consumers often like making changes by phone, but mistakes can occur - and only when it is too late does the realisation set in that things have got out of control.

I'm aware of calls to customer service staff where both sides are giving the correct information but what is being asked for and what is to be provided are totally wrong, which is why a paper trail is a must.

Sorry, I cannot provide a quick solution - write to VM CS, explain what you asked for, what happened and what went wrong. Perhaps they may agree to looking at it sympathetically, however I doubt they'll reduce the cost of calls made from the phone line, as you were contractually liably for all calls made and the security of the usage of the line itself whilst within your premises.

PrincessPlaty

I actually rang VM in the end who told me the account had been passed to their fraud team and gave me a number to call them on.

When I got through to them they said that they hadn't actually received the case yet but to give him an hour and he would call me back.

Wasn't too hopeful but he did call me back! He said that it was on the system that I had contacted them in October asking to disconnect and on numerous occasions since then. Due to this they stated that it was VM at fault and the line would be disconnected today (was as soon as it could be done apparently) and the full amount was being credited to my bill, which is showing on my online statement now.

They did say they would be keeping a very close eye in future to see if anyone else tried to reconnect services then they would be getting the police involved. They also said they had someone contact them on the 6th Feb stating that new tenants had moved in on the 17th January so it looks like my fantastic (wheres that rolling eye smiley when you need it!) has gone ahead and illegally evicted me anyway! :mad:

It doesn't rain it pours!

Thanks for your help