Virgin phone contract missold! Please Help!

cmnj

Hi all,

I live in the Isle of Man and my partner lives in Manchester. After a couple of huge phone bills we decided to get new contracts. After much searching we found that Virgin Mobile were the only provider claiming to do this.

The site says:
Includes calls and texts to Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. (appendix 2 at the very bottom of the page)

ww.virginmobile.com/vm/genericContent.do?contentId=paymonthly.ourTariff.standardcharges.shop.sm142
(missed out a 'w')

My partner then went to a virgin shop and asked if the contracts included minutes to the Isle Of Man. She was told they were not, but then when she directed the salesman to the website he realised he made an error and that they definately were included. Relieved, she signed up for the contract and left the store.

The next day, a little worried about the earlier confusion about the inclusive minutes she called Virgin Customer Services who told her that the minutes were not included. She then directed this person to the website. He was very confused by this and checked with the manager. A couple of minutes later he came back and said they were definately not included and that they included minutes to UK mobiles taken to the IOM and not IOM numbers (beginning with 07624). He admitted that it was misleading and after checking with a manager said that the contract could be cancelled if she decided she wanted to due to the misselling of this.

She then sent an email about a week ago complaining about this, and that she was offered a big discount to stay on orange, who she had been with for years, but turned this down due to Virgin Mobile's error.

Today, she received a text from Virgin saying she had exceeded her maximum usage (£130 in 2 weeks!) and that she will be disconnected if her account isn't brought back within the limit.

This has been done now but we are not rich and it has caused a lot of undue stress.

Can anyone advise of where to go next or any idea on the legal rights here? There is no response to the email as yet and there is a £130 bill after 2 weeks. Virgin's representatives missold this and admitted to the miswording on the website. In my opinion it isn't misworded so much as it is entirely false.

Thanks for your help,

Jamie

grumbler

The page you refer to is about charges, not about inclusive minutes/texts.

I can be wrong, but I read this as calls and texts to Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man are not included in the plans and are charged 31p/13p respectively.
If the salesmen did make an error and confirmed that the minutes were included, you stand a chance of cancelling, but it will be very difficult if not impossible to prove this.

If you check the Terms & Conditions you'll see:

Included in your tariff (subject to the allowance specified): UK calls to UK landlines (beginning 01, 02 and 03) & UK mobile networks.

originalbob

I have a similar problem, but going the other way.I make calls and texts from the mainland to Isle of Man, to three different mobiles on the Sure network.I have been doing this since I set the contract up in June 2010,when I specifically asked, and had it confirmed by staff that they would be deducted.Minutes and texts since then have been deducted from my allowances and have not been charged for.
Until this month.In the last two weeks over £100 of charges have suddenly appeared on my account which appear to relate to this.I am querying this with Virgin mobile billing, who so far agree that calls to IOM should not be charged for.This apparently has been referred to their technical team, who are investigating, and I am waiting for their respones.

cmnj

Sorry to hear the same has happened to you!

I am pretty sure they aren't included anymore. I have just been on the phone to them and they have offered to halve the bill so far as a 'goodwill' gesture. There were no notes put on the about their previous offer to cancel the contract the contract, so other than a confession by the man in the shop things are looking bleak!

Let me know how you get on, oringialbob!

Jamie

originalbob

I have spent a large amount of time on the phone to Virgin Mobile this afternoon.
Apparently they have arrangements with a number of IOM providers which will allow texts and calls to be deducted from minutes and allowances,but they do not have such an arrangement with Cable and Wireless (Sure Network), which I think are numbers with an 07624 prefix, which of course are the numbers I use,and I think, they are the largest provider on the island.
What I fail to understand is what's changed suddenly-the charges on the web account relate to calls and texts made in the last three weeks!Thankfully (I hope) I'm not being charged for calls and texts I've made since the start of the contract to IOM numbers, and they've wiped off a substantial chunk of the outstanding bill as they've acknowledged their mistake.Next step, I think,is to find a mainland mobile provider that can do what I need them to do.....

cmnj

I think I have resolved my issue today.

Having spoken to the selling store directly the manager there chased it up and found out, as you said, that there was an issue with the Sure network and that these calls were being charged. He did say that the calls should be included in the inclusive minutes and that we would get a refund for the charges so far and that going forward they should not be charged.

Hope this helps,

Jamie

originalbob

Thanks for the useful information.Before I go off and prod buttock with Virgin Mobile, can I be cheeky and ask what tariff you're on?

cmnj

Hi,

Sorry I don't know what contract it is, but it's only about a month old and is £35 a month and includes 1GB and unlimited texts (and about 800 or so minutes I think).

I also have an update on Virgin calls to IOM.

I have now had 7 answers from Virgin, 3 saying they do include IOM and 4 saying otherwise. The last answer, and the most credible is that Virgin include calls to UK mobiles in IOM and Manx landlines. They DO NOT include calls to manx phone networks, definately Sure and I presume Manx Telecom.

They have agreed to refund the £175 charges so far and cancel the contract if we decide to (which we wil!!).

Good luck with your case,

Jamie

originalbob

The plot thickens.I got a similar answer back from Virgin in June.As a result, plugged in the international call option on my (Virgin Media) landline package at Virgin Media's suggestions, and my phone bill has gone up by around £40 per month plus the cost of the international call option.
Now, fast forward to mid July.My contract was coming up for renewal, and I had a call from one of Virgin's retentions people to renegotiate the package.
Got a decent deal, and had a chat with him about the above problems.As far as he was concerned, calls and texts to IOM mobiles should be coming from contract allowances, and he promised a callback within 24-48 hours to confirm.Of course, it never happened.I waited a couple of days, and then sent an email restating the query via the website.No response.Resent the same email a further three times over the next couple of weeks, still with no reponse.
By this time I was getting a bit fed up with this, and phoned customer services, to find no trace of the complaint in place.So, I left it for about 48 hours, phoned the UK call centre, and raised this yet agin with them.
I got an email the same day partially confirming that calls to IOM should be being taken from my contract minutes.It didn't specifically say anyhing about calls to mobiles,and, when I queried it by return of email, I never got an answer.
So, at the beginning of last week I put together a formal letter of complaint, copying everything sent and received to date, and sent it to their office.And this morning (on a Sunday?) I got a call back from one of their complaints people responding to my original email, confirming that they've had a problem at their end and it should now be fixed.
Now, obviously I want something either in writing or email to confim this as I don't now have a lot of confidence in Virgin Mobile or their customer service at this moment.But does anybody out ther have any views as to whether i should be going after them for the additional costs I've incurred as a result of their mistake?

Buzby

Isn't the issue one of whether you were asking about inclusive calls to Isle of Man mobiles, or landlines? I have a vague recollection that landlines ARE inclusive but calls to mobiles are not. Just because the mobiles use 07 does not mean they automatically are treated as a UK mobile, and OFCOM, that bastion of transparency is quite happy for 01 numbers to be used in those localities yet, permit operators to negotiate their own call charges and interconnect rates, even though to the punter they don't look any different. The arbiter is the Virgin Media Price List (landline or mobile) as it is this and this alone that will provide the confirmation you seek.