Virgin Media's antics - is this legal?

Loster

Hi there everyone,

wow, the broadband industry certainly is a murky underworld! So many problems.

I'm with Virgin Media (oh dear! I wished I'd research it a bit more before going with them. Speeds awful, and locked in for 12 months by £50 "cancellation fee". Better for same price elsewhere I've discovered) and I am currently in the process of having my current account switched over to Alliance & Leicester. That meant that the direct debit to Virgin Media was off, so to speak, for a total of three days (I know this because I received emails from them on the 24th asking where had my DD's gone, and one of the 27th confirming the re-setting up of the DD)

With me so far? Good.

BUT: In their infinite, unethical wisdom, they decided to bill the debit card I originally signed up with without any authorisation from me whatsoever! Worse thing is, it put me over my overdraft on that account (only by a small amount, but, again, without my authorisation!)

This doesn't sound legal to me. The date the direct debit was to come out has not even passed yet. Does anybody know the legalities of this? I should check the t's & c's I suppose....

I am going to email first and ask for it to be refunded, and then phone if I get no luck there. It would be good to have some legal back up with this.

Thanks in advance,
Carl