Virgin Media/NTL

hardboiled · 4 February 2008 at 1:03PM

Can anyone offer any advise on this. I cancelled my contract with virgin a few years ago. signed up with another isp and virgin continued to take money from my account. I stopped the direct debit, then the fun began!!

promise after promise by staff saying they'd acknowledge problem and a refund was on the way and nothing turned up. I threatened them with court action then silence.
I'm now going through small claims and they're going to defend it!!! I supplied bank statement as proof and they still denying it!!!!

Help!!!

LEA-422 · 5 February 2008 at 1:42PM

This is my experience with Virgin!! I sent them the following leter last week, still waitting for reply, i have been on the phone with them for HOURS, still not get an answer!!! rubbish!

To whom it may concern

I am writing to you to complain about the appauling treatment that i have recieved as a customer of virgin. The reason i went with your company is that when i called and spoke to one of your sales people i was advised that i would be able to get a large tv package, large phone and xl broadband for the monthly cost of 27pounds. When i got my first bill it seemed i was being overcharged so i contacted your customer service and every time i called i was told something different. Eventually after over 2 hours on the phone i spoke to a supervisor and he told me that he would put recurring credits on my bill to reduce the bill so that it works out at 27pounds. Even though he has meant to have done that for the last 3 months i have been charged as follows:

November 99.46 pounds

December 52.93 pounds

January 74.78 pounds

So according to this, if i am paying 27pounds for my package i have been charged 146.17 for phone calls in 3 months, and i know for a fact i cant have spent anything like that as i dont use the phone very often as i am deaf.

This means that i am either still paying more than 27 pounds for my monthly package or i am paying a rediculous amount for my phone bill, which i know is not that much. Also i feel that your customer service is diabollical, i have spent many hours on the phone to your customer service team, some of them have told me that i was just sold a wrong package and that it is just my bad luck and i would have to pay more, others say there is nothing they can do, others say that they cant see the recurring credit others say they can, someone even had the audacity to recommend me leaving virgin alltogether. I even (just to show how incompitent they are) tried to get my phone bill itimised i was toild that there would be a 1pound charge which i agreed too, two days later my wife was speaking for me to the customer service advisor and she asked to check to see if they had the itimised bill for me, and they had not done so, she was told they would do it for her but at a cost of 2pound per copy. But they told me 2 days earlier that it was done at half this price. No-one seems to know what they are doing, whats happening or happened. I have been promised by managers that they will call me back and they never do, the whole system seems to be a shambles, a communication company that cant communicate.

I require this to be sorted asap and require in it writting as to what has happened.

Problem number 2

I have also had a problem with my phone-line being broken for over 4 weeks with 6 people having come to fix the problem but yet without doing so. Two people came out and said that they had fixed it but it was still was broken, one said it is the junction box on side of house and called to get someone with a ladder and advised us we did not need to be there, he advised your customer service that if they had any problems then they should call him, but when we got home from work that day we had a note saying that the work was not done as we were not there and they obviously did not call the engineer. Next one even though we told your customer service all that had previously happened and that they needed a long ladder he turned up without a ladder as he was not aware. His name was Matt, he was very appoligetic but even admitted that it was no consolation, he arranged for someone else to come the next week on the monday and made a point of saying required a long ladder. On the Monday i took the day of work to wait for the engineer again, when he arrived he just told me that he has it on his paper that he needs a ladder and so he cant do it, as "im not allowed to have a ladder" as he stated and then said he did not know why but that was the policy. So now we have to wait for nearly 1 more week for someone else (with a ladder) to come and fix the problem, but still not fixed.

Every time you call you get told something different, and no-one seems to know what they are talking about, they insist that they are right and that they have fixed everything but nothing gets fixed and they always seem to be wrong and in some cases are particually rude and arrogant in stating that they are correct and that i am wrong.

We are very unhappy with the service that you have given us and feel let down by your company. We require this phone as it is used for emergencies as we have a disabled person at home. Not only is there the hassle of all this but the extra added cost, as we are now having to use our mobile phones instead of the landline and it is costing us large amounts of money which we have not been reimbursted. We have now had to take 5 days off, every time we are told that an engineer is coming only to be let down time after time, which costs us even more money in lost wages.

And lastly, i am still getting charged for the service charge (which i should not anyway) even though the phone has been broken for over 1 month.

I expect to hear back from you as to what you are going to do to gain my trust as i am loosing faith in this company and i wish to have compensation. Also i would like to warn you that if anything happens to my disabled mother-in-law and she is unable to contact us or the ambulance for help due to our phone line still broken after over 1 month, we may have to consider court action against you as you are putting her health and safety in jeppardy due to general incompitence.

Hope to hear from you very soon

bekc · 5 February 2008 at 4:34PM

I am also having problems with virgin media.

In september we registered for their 3 fo £30 package and to be honest is has been nothing but trouble since then.

In october i received my fisrt bill charging me for the 3 for £30 package of xl tv, broadband and landline phone. i was happy with this. then 3 days later a further £18 went out of my bank to them via direct debit.

I called them demanding to know what was going on as i hadn't authorised them to take £18 and they said that a broadband account had been set up in error and that it was now being cancelled but i would have to claim my money back through my bank as an indemnity claim. i was very annoyed as i couldn't see whay they could not recredit my account as everyone knows what a pain it is to get to the bank when you work full time.

anyway i went to the bank made an indemnity claim and cancelled the incorrect direct debit (leaving the correct one open). Lucky i did as in november i recieved a letter saying that they were unable to take payment for the seperate and wrong broadband account and i needed to ring them and pay.

I called them again and spoke to a lady inthe indian call centre who said that she was very sorry and that she had escalated the problem to her manager and £18 would be refunded on my next bill. i assumed as compensation a welcome guesture at that point.

nothing credited to the december bill and i then recieved a letter for the incorrect account saying that if i didnt pay now my credit rating would be affected. I was very mad and wrote a letter to them explaining everything that had happened and telling them in no uncertain terms to close this extra account.

i recieved a letter saying they were looking into my complaint and that it may take up to ten days.

then i received a letter dated january 21st 2008 apologising for the problem, assuring me the only bill i would recieve from now on would be the 3 for £30 and refunding £25 in compensation to my next bill. I was pleased it had been sorted and glad of the refund.

I was also glad that it was all sorted as we live on a tight budget but i am very conciencious with bills and payments and wish to keep a clean and healthy credit rating for the future.

then i received a letter dated the 26th january 2008. final demand for outstanding bill. oh yes it was for the incorrect account AGAIN!!!!

As you can imagine I WAS FUMING!!!!

I immediately called virgin to check that it was not just a simple overlap of letters going out, but both accounts are STILL open.

I have found a copy of their complaints proceedure (took a lot of looking - finally found under code of practice) and have just sent off my second letter to the 'customer concern manager'.

I also sought legal advice from my work union and they refered me to the financial services ombadsmun (due to me worrying about my credit rating) and offcom as the service regulator. virgin media ARE registered under both. I have registered a concern with both of these. offcom informed me that virgins ombadsmun is CISAS. i called them and onthe recorded information before you speek to someone it says they will only deal with cases where it has been 12 weeks since the date of your first letter or where the provider says they cannot help you any further and that it is a dead lock situation.well my first letter is dated 03/01/08 so i have a while to go yet.

the legal advice i got also said that i was well within my rights to take virgin to small claims court and sue for all the inconvienience and anguish they have caused me. I havent really considered this at present - i just want to get this sorted!!!

I am getting in touch with watchdog later today.

I am so mad with them. they are completly incompetant. I am just very worried about my credit rating as if Virgin are unable to close an incorrect account, how will they fix my credit rating when they ruin that???

Its good to know i'm not alone!!! but also frustrating as we cant afford the same package of services form another provider!!!!

Dont give up people!!!

stiffnuts69 · 5 February 2008 at 4:37PM

LEA-422 wrote: »

This is my experience with Virgin!! I sent them the following leter last week, still waitting for reply, i have been on the phone with them for HOURS, still not get an answer!!! rubbish!
To whom it may concern
I am writing to you to complain about the appauling treatment that i have recieved as a customer of virgin. The reason i went with your company is that when i called and spoke to one of your sales people i was advised that i would be able to get a large tv package, large phone and xl broadband for the monthly cost of 27pounds. When i got my first bill it seemed i was being overcharged so i contacted your customer service and every time i called i was told something different. Eventually after over 2 hours on the phone i spoke to a supervisor and he told me that he would put recurring credits on my bill to reduce the bill so that it works out at 27pounds. Even though he has meant to have done that for the last 3 months i have been charged as follows:
November 99.46 pounds
December 52.93 pounds
January 74.78 pounds
So according to this, if i am paying 27pounds for my package i have been charged 146.17 for phone calls in 3 months, and i know for a fact i cant have spent anything like that as i dont use the phone very often as i am deaf.
This means that i am either still paying more than 27 pounds for my monthly package or i am paying a rediculous amount for my phone bill, which i know is not that much. Also i feel that your customer service is diabollical, i have spent many hours on the phone to your customer service team, some of them have told me that i was just sold a wrong package and that it is just my bad luck and i would have to pay more, others say there is nothing they can do, others say that they cant see the recurring credit others say they can, someone even had the audacity to recommend me leaving virgin alltogether. I even (just to show how incompitent they are) tried to get my phone bill itimised i was toild that there would be a 1pound charge which i agreed too, two days later my wife was speaking for me to the customer service advisor and she asked to check to see if they had the itimised bill for me, and they had not done so, she was told they would do it for her but at a cost of 2pound per copy. But they told me 2 days earlier that it was done at half this price. No-one seems to know what they are doing, whats happening or happened. I have been promised by managers that they will call me back and they never do, the whole system seems to be a shambles, a communication company that cant communicate.
I require this to be sorted asap and require in it writting as to what has happened.
Problem number 2
I have also had a problem with my phone-line being broken for over 4 weeks with 6 people having come to fix the problem but yet without doing so. Two people came out and said that they had fixed it but it was still was broken, one said it is the junction box on side of house and called to get someone with a ladder and advised us we did not need to be there, he advised your customer service that if they had any problems then they should call him, but when we got home from work that day we had a note saying that the work was not done as we were not there and they obviously did not call the engineer. Next one even though we told your customer service all that had previously happened and that they needed a long ladder he turned up without a ladder as he was not aware. His name was Matt, he was very appoligetic but even admitted that it was no consolation, he arranged for someone else to come the next week on the monday and made a point of saying required a long ladder. On the Monday i took the day of work to wait for the engineer again, when he arrived he just told me that he has it on his paper that he needs a ladder and so he cant do it, as "im not allowed to have a ladder" as he stated and then said he did not know why but that was the policy. So now we have to wait for nearly 1 more week for someone else (with a ladder) to come and fix the problem, but still not fixed.
Every time you call you get told something different, and no-one seems to know what they are talking about, they insist that they are right and that they have fixed everything but nothing gets fixed and they always seem to be wrong and in some cases are particually rude and arrogant in stating that they are correct and that i am wrong.
We are very unhappy with the service that you have given us and feel let down by your company. We require this phone as it is used for emergencies as we have a disabled person at home. Not only is there the hassle of all this but the extra added cost, as we are now having to use our mobile phones instead of the landline and it is costing us large amounts of money which we have not been reimbursted. We have now had to take 5 days off, every time we are told that an engineer is coming only to be let down time after time, which costs us even more money in lost wages.
And lastly, i am still getting charged for the service charge (which i should not anyway) even though the phone has been broken for over 1 month.
I expect to hear back from you as to what you are going to do to gain my trust as i am loosing faith in this company and i wish to have compensation. Also i would like to warn you that if anything happens to my disabled mother-in-law and she is unable to contact us or the ambulance for help due to our phone line still broken after over 1 month, we may have to consider court action against you as you are putting her health and safety in jeppardy due to general incompitence.
Hope to hear from you very soon

They seem to have gone shockingly worse over the last year. Me and other family members have been overcharged (some resulting in returned direct debits and bank charges), had poorly installed cables, missed appointments the list goes on and on.

The fact is that even if they do save a couple of pounds which they dont then its still not worth allthe hassles.

Have just ordered sky 2 mix £17 8 meg broadband £5 and sky will also credit my account with £125 as I need a new BT line installed. (Its called BT subsidy offer). Free evening and weeked calls £0 BT line retal £10.50 a total of £32.50 a month plus I went through quidco for £130 cashback (dont know if its going to be paid yet?).

So virgin might be able to do it for £30 not worth the hassle for a saving of £2.50.

Believe me Id rather a pay a few pounds more every month and avoid this shabby service.

Me my friends and family are all ditching virgin ASAP (no retention offer in the world will stop us). Just to sum up the reasons why.

-Bill overcharging (leading to bank charges)
-You never know what your bill is going to be, even though you sign up to a set price and expect it to be that price.
-Numerous phone calls trying to get an appointment and sort out incorrect bils (still no joy each customer service rep lies or has a different story.
-Missed appointments.
-Poor service.
-Poor installation of wires.
-Broadband very slow during the evening.

And theres more

A poor sub-standard shabby, over-rated, over-priced service

DITCH AND SWITCH :mad:

toniround · 5 February 2008 at 9:14PM

I have been fighting VM for over 12months. They have affected my previously good credit rating and all because they say I owe them £54 for services they have not supplied. They treat their customers like dirt. Send your complaint to Watchdog, many are doing this and the more the merrier. They Cannot be allowed to win.
Toni Round

stiffnuts69 · 5 February 2008 at 10:21PM

toniround wrote: »

I have been fighting VM for over 12months. They have affected my previously good credit rating and all because they say I owe them £54 for services they have not supplied. They treat their customers like dirt. Send your complaint to Watchdog, many are doing this and the more the merrier. They Cannot be allowed to win.
Toni Round

Same here for the poxy sum of £4 which they send me another bill for every month even though I dont owe it?

Diamond78 · 5 February 2008 at 10:33PM

Yes everyone, we must stick together with this and not back down,I am utterly disgusted with the way VM go on, no other company is known to have such bad service, rude staff, over charging ect. They confuse us aswell by telling us differnt things and make promises.

Im so angry and so stressed by it all, i feel like ripping the box out,my broadband has got worse, i get told my modems faulty then i get told its ok, then it stops working then its on again, its so slow too, i know how to delete cookies and i do that so i know that is not the problem.

If you joing facebook or anyone is a memebr on facebook joined the group *I Despise Virgin Media*

I was told by the complaints department that the 3 for £30 is billed broadband for £18 and tv and phone £12. I ws told that most customers dont have 2 differnt bills like I currently have and most customers was being billed once-like they have advertised. It did not state anywhere that you would be billed twice seperatly and apparently in the summer i should get one bill for £30 plus any charges on top.

I am now worrried about my credit rating as I never thought of that. I mean how can they charge me a late fee charge of £10 when ive not stopped the payments???They have taken money from my account aswell as the deposit,i get bills saying my account is overdue how the hell can it be overdue, when im getting so many differnt bills which are all wrong. A gesture of goodwill of £90 has been credited to my account, whatever it is not a gesture of goodwill, those charges should not of been on my account anyway-they think they can fool me but they themselves do not know what they are doing.

Do you not all think its strange that there is no number to ring in regards to complaints????We have to write to get a response and even then we dont get a response. Do you not think its strange that when we eventually get a response majority of us do not get a letter, well i havent as mine have been phone calls.

Please I urge everyone that is not happy to contact watchdog, keep emailing them as i have done and members of the group on facebook have.

This is wrong as they are not providing us the service we war paying for. I have seen posts from other MSE users stating how happy they are with the service although not as many as the unhappy MSE users.

I will keep emailing watchdog until i get a response.

As for CISAS, i have looked into that and will put in a complaint once my 12 weeks is up.

Goodluck to u all oand keep updating x

stiffnuts69 · 5 February 2008 at 10:48PM

Diamond78 wrote: »

Yes everyone, we must stick together with this and not back down,I am utterly disgusted with the way VM go on, no other company is known to have such bad service, rude staff, over charging ect. They confuse us aswell by telling us differnt things and make promises.

Im so angry and so stressed by it all, i feel like ripping the box out,my broadband has got worse, i get told my modems faulty then i get told its ok, then it stops working then its on again, its so slow too, i know how to delete cookies and i do that so i know that is not the problem.

If you joing facebook or anyone is a memebr on facebook joined the group *I Despise Virgin Media*

I was told by the complaints department that the 3 for £30 is billed broadband for £18 and tv and phone £12. I ws told that most customers dont have 2 differnt bills like I currently have and most customers was being billed once-like they have advertised. It did not state anywhere that you would be billed twice seperatly and apparently in the summer i should get one bill for £30 plus any charges on top.

I am now worrried about my credit rating as I never thought of that. I mean how can they charge me a late fee charge of £10 when ive not stopped the payments???They have taken money from my account aswell as the deposit,i get bills saying my account is overdue how the hell can it be overdue, when im getting so many differnt bills which are all wrong. A gesture of goodwill of £90 has been credited to my account, whatever it is not a gesture of goodwill, those charges should not of been on my account anyway-they think they can fool me but they themselves do not know what they are doing.

Do you not all think its strange that there is no number to ring in regards to complaints????We have to write to get a response and even then we dont get a response. Do you not think its strange that when we eventually get a response majority of us do not get a letter, well i havent as mine have been phone calls.

Please I urge everyone that is not happy to contact watchdog, keep emailing them as i have done and members of the group on facebook have.

This is wrong as they are not providing us the service we war paying for. I have seen posts from other MSE users stating how happy they are with the service although not as many as the unhappy MSE users.

I will keep emailing watchdog until i get a response.

As for CISAS, i have looked into that and will put in a complaint once my 12 weeks is up.

Goodluck to u all oand keep updating x

Thanks just joined the group on facebook

bekc · 6 February 2008 at 10:58AM

Thanks for the info about Sky Stiffnuts69. Thats very useful info!!! I really didnt think i could get another provider so cheap and the knowledge about the BT subsidy offer is very good to know.

If you are leaving with all the issues (which i would like to seriously consider) how are you getting out of the 12 month contract with virgin?

I think i may have a loop hole for me but wonder what you guys think? When i first joined i was sent a letter saying 'we would like your autograph' basically a letter asking me to return the contract they have previously sent with my signature on it.

I never received the contract and i called the help desk where an indian lady told me to wait another 2 weeks and one would arrive. it never came so i can only assume i havent signed a contract for the services?

if this is the case can i leave them at any time with no come back? or after a certain amount of time do i take on the contract regardless of no signed contract?

I joined them in September 2007.

Would really like to hear what you guys think!!!

(ps. Diamond78 will join the face book group today

!!! )

hardboiled · 6 February 2008 at 11:15AM

toniround wrote: »

I have been fighting VM for over 12months. They have affected my previously good credit rating and all because they say I owe them £54 for services they have not supplied. They treat their customers like dirt. Send your complaint to Watchdog, many are doing this and the more the merrier. They Cannot be allowed to win.
Toni Round

Small claims court is the only way to get these people behave.

I did this and had a letter from there legal dept yesterday offereing to settle rather than going to court. Do it!

I thought bulldog broadband were bad but VM/NTL take the mickie something rotten!

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