Very angry with virgin - watch out

olma

hello
Just a little warning and any advice regarding this would be appreciated.

On 27th December a sales rep from Virgin called at our house to inform us that they were rolling out super fast 30mb Broadband in this area. I informed him that we were already customers of Virgin Media.
Anyway... he ran a check and we are on 10mb. We have been happy with this. He said FOR FREE he could upgrade us. While in our house he made a phone call and managed to negoiate a package of home phone and this 'new faster Broadband' for £21 a month, a reduction from the existing £30 a month. I was very happy with this as I have recently just become a stay at home mum and am watching the pennies. I signed a contract and off he went.
Last Friday I received TWO contracts in the post from Virgin - both the same, nice to see they like saving paper. Both stating that our package would be £30 a month increasing to £40. AND a £79.99 installation fee for the new service. I phoned them. Very cross. Was told the installation would be free but they could not reduce my package to what I was promised. I was told the guy had offered us something they could not give. I informed them that I had a signed contract. This did nothing to sway them at all. They would not even give me the sales man ID so I could make an complaint about him. I also found out that our any time calls which we have (got them last year when I threatened to leave) was taken off and we were back to weekend only. Not better off at all. I was told that our old package would be reinstated and that no changes would be made. I am furious and I am going to write to them today. I was also thinking about going to trading standards as I have a contract saying calls and broadband for £21 which I have signed . Anyway....once this is sorted out I am going to leave Virgin.
Thanks for reading

spike7451

Chances are he's not from Virgin but from a marketing company,therefore he's paid on commision only so the'll tell you anything to get a sale.Sounds like he signed you up as a new customer & not an upgraded one.
NTL made 80% of sales staff redundent in the mid 90's before they merged with Telewest/VM.

olma

Hello. Thanks for reading. I have just emailed Virgin media's CEO regarding my complaint. I have tried to find an email for their customer services and there doesn't seem to be one.....hmmmm. Phoning them is just too painfully frustrating and I will not waste a postage stamp on them.
According to a Virgin forum if you write to the CEO things do seem to get done. Looks like it happens a lot.
I do feel a tad OTT doing this but I feel very annoyed that they can do this to people and I wasn't even offered a 'goodwill Gesture' or apology by customer services. I do think I would have gone away slightly less cross if they offered i.e. a £10 voucher or a few quid off my next bill.
But no, nothing. They wouldn't even agree to send me a letter to confirm reverting back to my old package in the post. That's definitely the last time I even let a sales man in my house.