Virgin Media and Debt Collection Agency

adouglasmhor

After over a year of problems with my Internet, and TV service from Virgin Media, multiple call outs, time taken of work by me (losing annual leave) and lost days of for my partner who works shifts, and damage done to existing equipment on my house by Virgin installers. After giving several warnings that if it was not resolved I was leaving their services, I gave them one last chance to resolve them, an area manager was supposed to call me to arrange an inspection, instead he called at the house with 10 minutes notice, spoke to someone who was not the account holder then did not return my calls, he did point out that the original pull through to the house was not good enough and this had caused all the problems (why was this not done at any of the other call outs by their engineers?). I left their services and found a new supplier. I listed my complaints and sent them on the 15th of January by recorded delivery asking for a reduction on my final bill in lieu of compensation for the reduced or intermittent service and inconvenience under the Supply of goods and Services act, after receiving no reply I wrote to them again by recorded delivery on the 5th of March.

Yesterday I received a letter saying their policy was in the case of a complaint about damage to property was to contact an area manager to inspect the damage and as I had not given them a chance to do that the complaint was now closed. This ignored my complaint under the Supply of Goods and Services Act and the fact that I had agreed to this then THEY failed to carry out what was arranged.

To top it all today I got a text to contact BPO – which turned out to be a Debt Collection agency working on their behalf. 1 day after closing the case in their opinion. I told them to refer back to VM and contact me only in writing from now on (which was something I had already told VM).

I have never asked for them to disregard the whole bill, just reduce it slightly to reflect the hassle I and my partner have been put through over more than a year due to their failures. Instead they ignored much of the complaint, got it wrong over the rest and passed the bill to a debt collector at the drop of a hat.

They did not even acknowledge the original complaint until I sent a copy of the Royal Mail receipt for the original letter with the second one.

wealdroam

Is there a question in there somewhere, or is this just a rant that would be better placed on the Praise, Vent and Warnings board?

adouglasmhor

It was more of a general statement of what happened looking for opinions and advice as to what to do next, maybe I could have been clearer on that. I am wondering if a small claims action for a proportion of the services already paid for would be worth pursuing?

Fire_Fox

Are you saying you have defaulted on the final bill? Not sure you should have done this unless you clearly disputed the full amount, asking for a reduction is too woolly. For small claims you generally have to demonstrate your losses - unpaid leave, damaged equipment, etc - and/ or a list of the days without service and would need to send a letter before action.

http://store.virginmedia.com/content/dam/eSales/Downloads/Consumer%20Complaint%20code%20Jan%2011.pdf
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/

Buzby

Have you looked at your Credit File lately? This may be your hidden bigger problem.

adouglasmhor

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Are you saying you have defaulted on the final bill? Not sure you should have done this unless you clearly disputed the full amount, asking for a reduction is too woolly. For small claims you generally have to demonstrate your losses - unpaid leave, damaged equipment, etc - and/ or a list of the days without service and would need to send a letter before action.

http://store.virginmedia.com/content/dam/eSales/Downloads/Consumer%20Complaint%20code%20Jan%2011.pdf
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/

Yes I have but I told them it was under complaint. I did tell them if it was not resolved a letter before action would follow. They would not accept a partial payment when I spoke to them.

adouglasmhor

Update- one of the posters on MSE forums kindly gave em an email address for a director of VM and their office contacted me this morning and I got the reduction I was asking for and the DCA has been called off, thanks everyone especialy MM.