Virgin Media unfair £22 default, need advice

Stefanovic85

Hi there hope someone can help me

From 2007 till 2009 I was a happy Virgin Media customer, I paid £25 monthly without fail for almost 3 years for broadband in my room at my parents house. Until in Dec 2009 I called to cancel as my parents had entered a contract with a different provider for the whole house. I don't remember exact details but I called first, then cancelled the direct debit thinking everything was sorted.

Fast forward till now and I am in a lucky enough position to hopefully purchase my own house, only to discover there was two defaults which I was unaware of, Virgin being one of them. My last payment was Nov 2009 but Virgin have given me a default of £25minus vat in Feb 2009, I was totally stunned by this.

Obviously I was straight on the phone and absolutely everyone from collections, customer services and complaints department seemed to agree that this was harsh. It was a very small amount which I had paid every month for 3 years why would I suddenly not pay my last bill, it didn't make sense but obviously I had been careless as I was told two bills had been sent, which I cannot remember. I paid the debt owed and remained very confident I could get this 'D' against my name ammended.

To make matters worse, in 2007 when account was opened they mis-spelt my surname, I called to get this ammended which they did - to the wrong surname again! So I am now struggling to obtain a mortgage for a £22 default to a compant who cannot even get my name right!

Also, I got Virgin services installed at my new address early 2011, they asked my previous addresses etc. which I gave them and told them I had Virgin broadband but they spelt my name wrong but could they link the two accounts, the salesperson never thought to tell me I had £22 outstanding on my old account. Incompetence!

I disputed the default via Equifax and also posted their underwriting services department a letter. I tried to speed things up a bit and also my mortgage application, I managed to find the phone number somewhere in this forum (great help this site btw) which is not supposed to be published. I called up confident I had been unfairly treated as Virgin made no reasonable attempt to notify me of this small debt, I presumed a higher amount would have warranted a phone call or debt letter and this £22 debt was not important enough for them to chase. I politely explained to the girl on the phone I was not happy with the default and would like it removed, she was not as helpful as I'd hoped though and seemed to take offence I had even obtained this number.

The girl was not interested at all about ammending this default and maintained it was legitimate debt I hadn't paid. I stated my claim and told her most of what I've told you.She then went on the offensive and I was stunned, unknown to me my parents and previous tenants also owed virgin and ntl money from years ago, she preceded to interrogate me who these names where and why money was outstanding etc. I told her I couldn't say as I was only on to sort my own problems. She said the debt shouldn't be a huge obstruction in getting a mortage and refused to even accept I had a case.

I need this default removed, I really want to obtain a mortgage for my young family and can hugely affect my personal life. I regret not being meticulous when I was younger but I feel Virgin have been unfair.

A few questions, I would be grateful if anybody could advise...

-Does being a current Virgin customer who has never missed a payment and previously never missed a payment help me in any way?

-Other members of staff told me this should be taken off? Can I use this to my advantage?

-I'm not a guy who complains of foreign call centres etc but there was language difficulties with me having deep Glasgow accent not helping, thus why my name was mis-spelt twice and i've had numerous frustrating phone calls with them. How does the wrong surname on my default affect my claim?

-Can I take a settled debt to court (last resort) if so, how do I go about doing this?

-Am I being self-righteous here? Am I to blame and theres nothing I can do here but wait for the default to fall off in 2 years?

Any advice is appreciated, thanks

taffy056

Well if there was a legitimate reason to put the default there you'll have a hell of a job with virgin to remove it, when I had a dispute with virgin over a similar thing though I could prove I paid the last bill I had 4 or 5 months of arguing with them. I am not sure you will get this removed.

As for them discussing other peoples accounts, that is clearly a data protection issue and should never been raised with you as you are a third party.

e8_pack

How have you got on? I am in the same boat and have written to them. Mine wasn't even on the credit file until last week when they decided to process information a year after the contract finished.

I've been told that they send the last bill to your address, I.e. the one I moved out of, hence why I didn't know about the last payment.

If they don't remove the default I'll be taking it further, they can't go giving old inaccurate info out when they feel like it, there are laws against that, just read the data protection act. The info says I was in default until last week yet it was settled in January. They really are a bunch of cowboys.

taffy056

If you owed them money it's a legitimate default mark, just because you weren't aware of it is not an excuse I think, it's your responsibity to ensure the final bill is paid. But if they have messed up your account maybe you have grounds to complain.