Virgin Mobile Huge Over Charge And Thereatened with Disconnection

Barstewards

I've been a loyal virgin customer for 3 years and I'm really annoyed how this company has treated me of late and don't feel like a 'valued' customer at all. A couple of months ago was massively overcharged by £88 for a handful of 'phonecalls' which I believe was a result of the faulty virgin supplied nokia n8 phone, ie the touch screen refusing to hang up! Sometimes it refuses to answer incoming calls too which is really annoying. I did explain this at the time, and also pointed out that I've never gone over my minutes, rarely using them up infact and disputed the lengthy phonecalls, some which lasted 45 minutes! I was forced to settle the amount as virgin threatened to disconnect me within 5 days.

I have 11 months left on my contract and to cancel it I need to cough up £200. Was very tempted to cancel my direct debit but in the long run its not a clever idea. Cannot wait to change providers and will never use virgin mobile again.

Guys_Dad

If it is your handset, then I would get a cheap one to replace it rather than pick up huge bills. (I am assuming you have had it checked out???)

If this is a handset fault with, say, a none-too-sensitive-screen, then, in all fairness, any network could have supplied the Nokia phone, or, you might not have pressed the "off" hard enough.

Equally, 45 minutes is not an exceptional call length, nor is it any network's job to monitor this month's calls as against previous. Obviously if the cost gets huge, then they may take action, but your bill is not that exceptional in those terms.

Cancelling a DD is a very bad idea, as you probably know.

Barstewards

Mobile providers in the USA are now providing customers with 'Bill Shock Warning txts' telling users they are reaching their monthly limits which is a good idea. They could easily implement it in the UK and stop this problem where companies reap the profits. £88 is a lot to me and 45 mins is a long call if you're usually used to kepeing calls brief.

DUTR

Barstewards wrote: »

Mobile providers in the USA are now providing customers with 'Bill Shock Warning txts' telling users they are reaching their monthly limits which is a good idea. They could easily implement it in the UK and stop this problem where companies reap the profits. £88 is a lot to me and 45 mins is a long call if you're usually used to kepeing calls brief.

My bro is always in dispute with O2 and high bills, using the same weak argument about sending alert messages, it takes little time to check the bundle balance, So I agree with post #2

Guys_Dad

Barstewards wrote: »

£88 is a lot to me and 45 mins is a long call if you're usually used to kepeing calls brief.

Just think about it for a minute.

1. How many customers do Virgin have?
2. How are they supposed to know that 45 minutes is a long call to you?
3. So, let's suppose they are able to monitor your call length. Would you want them to pull the plug after 10 minutes? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Or come on the phone and ask you, mid call, if you wanted to continue?
4. Just what would you have expected them to do in the case of your 45 minute call referred to above?
5. And if you had been in a queue waiting for the bank, electricity etc for 9 minutes and had just started talking to the bank agent, what would you think if they cut you off after 10 minutes and you had to start all over again. And don't say "If there was no talking for 1 minute, cut the call" as sometimes banks etc take 2 or 3 minutes to solve a problem.
6. Vodafone and Orange have apps and websites that tell you what your balance is. Don't know about Virgin.

No. It's easy to complain - far harder to find a universal solution. I think you need to take responsibility yourself and see that your call is properly disconnected. It's not difficult.