Warning about ending your contract with Virgin Media

kaevad

I'm new to the site, and what a better way to begin than to have a bit of a rant, and give a warning to you about virgin media when it come to cancelling your contract.

I’ll try to keep it simple.

I became a customer in 2006, and had phone (eves and weekend) and medium broadband; I was given a router as well.

Last year (September 2010) my router developed a fault, so I called the call centre (I think they were in manilla), reported the problem and was told the only way I could get a replacement router would be to upgrade my broadband to large, and as soon as I received the router I could cancel and go back to medium/keep the router (Still with me?)

So I got the new router, and then contacted virgin again to put me back down to the medium Broadband. I couldn’t get my old pricing plan back, but that was just one of those things (only £2 a month out), anyway….

This year in June I purchased a house which was in an area that Virgin could not provide their fibre optic broadband service, so I decided to cancel my services with virgin, as I saw that sky could provide a cheaper and better alternative. I thought it was be simple…

I was told by Virgin that I was still in contract with them, as when I took the new router I was placed onto a whole new 12 month contract. When I went back to my old Medium broadband I had actually cancelled the contract in the cooling off period, and began a whole new contract with the Medium Broadband!!! I would have to pay cancelation fees.

(Notes: I was not informed by at either time that a new contract would start, nor did I receive them in the post and I felt really cheated that I may have been misold).

Of course it was time to complain, so I called them, and was told to contact them in writing via their website – I went to their web site, and the complaints area (after hunting very hard for it) said to call customer services – good start eh? Anyway I tried the website again and used a general enquiry form.

A few days later (yesterday) I received a call from Virgin Customer Services.

Their view:
1) I was still in contract with them
2) They had sent the contract documents out to them
3) Their files said I had been notified about the contract
4) They were not going to do anything about my cancelation charges, apart from provide my feedback to the overseas call centre (the person was a robotic type who just keep repeating them self, refusing to give any kind of refund at all, even when I mentioned about contract law that an offer had to be communicated and accepted etc)

My view:
1) I did not know I was in contract (not been informed)
2) I did not receive any contract
3) I should have my cancelation fees returned out of a gesture of good will, for being a long customer, and it was not my fault I moved to an area that they could not provide fibre optic broadband too.

I’m only talking about £40 odd in cancelation fees, its not a lot of money to some, but to me it is. As a result of this I am very disgusted with the service provided by Virgin Media. My wife and I will also be cancelling our virgin mobiles as a result. I even mentioned this to Virgin. I told them, that with them not refunding my £40, they would lose potentially hundreds from our mobile costs. No- luck, they didn’t care, just kept saying if you read our terms and conditions blah blah blah.

Moral of the story:
Virgin are good when your staying with them, but they don’t make leaving them easy!

My view of the entire brand has now change. I :mad:hate:mad: Virgin media.

kwikbreaks

That's one long rant for you being (correctly) charged an early termination fee.

MrsBartolozzi

I think the OP is peed off because they were not told that a new contract would begin when they downgraded to Medium. Surely this should have been made clear and a copy of the new contract sent to the OP for perusal?

Aol did the same thing to me, but as I'd been stung before I asked whether it would mean a new contract and for how long it would last. I was fobbed off for a bit and then after some humming and haahing I was informed that yes it would be another 24 month contract. To which I replied "No thanks!"

kwikbreaks

Virgin don't dish out free routers from the goodness of their hearts. There is no need to sign anything but they should have told him if the contract was renewed for sure though. Any change always kicks off a new VM contract.

visidigi

kaevad wrote: »

My view of the entire brand has now change. I :mad:hate:mad: Virgin media.

They are all as bad as each other - you wait till you try to leave Sky - to say its not your fault they don't have optic where you moved to could be put on the other foot, Virgin could say its not their fault you moved.

Cancellation fees and contracts are just one of them things I am afraid - and assumption doesn't unfortunately count for much...

macman

VM have only about half the UK cabled. You chose to move to an area not supplied when still in contract. Therefore an ETC is payable.
Your contract was for supply at the old address-not to any other location in the UK.
The issue of VM starting you on a new contract following a tariff/package change (however small) is well documented on here, there are several posts about this each week.