Took offer from Virgin Media retentions team but now they refuse to honour it

markmcalear

I had a number of issues with Virgin whilst waiting to be installed. In total I waited 6 weeks from my original install date until the date I was finally installed.

During this time I called Virgin to cancel my order. They offered me £25 a month for 2 months followed by £50 a month for 10 months. As my original contracted price was going to be £73 a month I decided to take their offer and await installation.

I have now been installed and my first bill was sent to me. I was expecting it to be less than £50 (viewing from installation day to billing day plus the following month). It was almost £150. This was made up of 1 month full price, part month at full price and an installation charge (which was supposed to be free).

I called Virgin to resolve this issue. Customer Services did remove the installation charge right away. However after escalating the subscription to a John Doyle in their complaints department (he also dealt with my complaints regarding the delayed installation) I have been told that although Virgin do have a log on their system of the discussion I had with their retentions team, which does include a note of the agreed discounts, that they will not be honouring it. I am told "theres no way we can do that offer".

Surely a verbal contract has been entered into and agreed by both myself and Virgin Media? Where do I stand here? John has spoken with his manager who has agreed that I cannot have this offer. Their best solution is that I simply cancel the contract without penalty.

Apologies for the long post...

Pincher

Cancel the contract without penalty.

If you are lucky, some other customer retention person will call up.
This time demand at least an e-mail confirmation of the offer.

You can always sign on again when a good deal comes along.

MeanSnark

The CEO's email address is [EMAIL="neil.berkett@virginmedia.co.uk"]neil.berkett@virginmedia.co.uk[/EMAIL]

That's a disgusting way to treat customers.

markmcalear

After speaking to consumer direct, I have called Virgin in an attempt to resolve the matter, again they refused to stand by the deal offered but said they could go to £47 a month for 6 months but that still leaves me £170 per year worse off than the original deal offered so I have sent them a letter outlining the facts and giving them 14 days to send me their final response in writing before I pursure further action.

I dont want to cancel and go elsewhere as first off if I get ADSL I can only get speeds of around 4mb but on Virgin Im on 50mb, and also theres no way I would get a similer phone, tv and broadband package for £50 a month

macman

If they've already admitted (in writing hopefully) that they agreed the deal but are not prepared to honour it, then you have the obvious remedy of an action via the Small Claims Process to recover your losses (plus expenses) resulting from their breach of contract. On the basis of the evidence given, you should have no problem winning it.
You should be able to recover the monthly difference times the minimum term.