Virgin Media Penalities - Moving House

Leodogger

I had to terminate my services today with 15 days notice of my moving house after my buyer has messed me around with completion dates. When I rang Virgin they told me I would have to pay a month's penalty subscription for not giving them a month's notice. When i said I could not give them a month's notice when 2 weeks ago I had no idea when my completion date would be, especially as I say, when my buyer has been messing me around with completion dates ! Only today did I find out that he wanted to go for an earlier date leaving me with only 2 weeks to sort all my utility change over dates. Virgin gave me short shrift and said it was standard procedure to charge a penalty payment.

I said i was glad there are no Virgin Media Services where I was moving to as I was intending to bad mouth them to everyone I know and not to use them again under any circumstances.

Cheeky varmint only tried to subsequently try to sell me more of their products despite my obvious anger at the treatment I was given ! :mad:

GlynD

Virgin are actually being very reasonable in only charging a one month penalty in my view. I don't see why you're taking on so at them.

Leodogger

GlynD wrote: »

Virgin are actually being very reasonable in only charging a one month penalty in my view. I don't see why you're taking on so at them.

Why are they being reasonable, they rob people blind who are not competent enough to haggle and argue their prices down (like little old ladies who don't use the internet, our friends included who are in their late 80's), they pay nothing for loyalty, I have been with them for over 20 yrs and that is the thanks I get! Nothing but thieving b*******ds. :mad:

victor2

JWhite wrote: »

I had to terminate my services today with 15 days notice of my moving house after my buyer has messed me around with completion dates. When I rang Virgin they told me I would have to pay a month's penalty subscription for not giving them a month's notice. When i said I could not give them a month's notice when 2 weeks ago I had no idea when my completion date would be, especially as I say, when my buyer has been messing me around with completion dates ! Only today did I find out that he wanted to go for an earlier date leaving me with only 2 weeks to sort all my utility change over dates. Virgin gave me short shrift and said it was standard procedure to charge a penalty payment.

I said i was glad there are no Virgin Media Services where I was moving to as I was intending to bad mouth them to everyone I know and not to use them again under any circumstances.

Cheeky varmint only tried to subsequently try to sell me more of their products despite my obvious anger at the treatment I was given ! :mad:

Your problem is with your buyer, not VM. They are probably just enforcing the contract you agreed to. Tell the buyer you'll meet their new date if they pay the penalties you'll incur.

GlynD

JWhite wrote: »

Why are they being reasonable, they rob people blind who are not competent enough to haggle and argue their prices down (like little old ladies who don't use the internet, our friends included who are in their late 80's), they pay nothing for loyalty, I have been with them for over 20 yrs and that is the thanks I get! Nothing but thieving b*******ds. :mad:

They're a business and for 20 years they've supplied you with a service which you've paid for. You don't owe them anything and they don't owe you anything. That's the be all and end all of it.

Nobody has stolen anything - period.

They entitled to ask for a month's subscription to end the contract and you need to understand that and get over it. You will find that all service providers of this nature will do exactly the same so save yourself some grief by understanding it now.

Leodogger

GlynD wrote: »

They're a business and for 20 years they've supplied you with a service which you've paid for. You don't owe them anything and they don't owe you anything. That's the be all and end all of it.

Nobody has stolen anything - period.

They entitled to ask for a month's subscription to end the contract and you need to understand that and get over it. You will find that all service providers of this nature will do exactly the same so save yourself some grief by understanding it now.

I judge a supplier on the service and the loyalty I am given for paying promptly and on time and what they give me in return, especially when I have a problem.

I owe Virgin nothing ! The times they have let me down when I needed help, they even disconnected my VCR to install the new V box when we last moved house and after plugging it back in to the cable box, never mentioned that in future I would not be able to record programmes onto it making my VCR which was expensive when bought, completely useless, even though I asked if it was connected up properly before they left, completely misleading me.

Years of being given the run around over various issues and I am glad to see the back of them, even today I couldn't understand a bloody word half the time the customer service clerk was saying and had to keep asking for him to repeat it but he never offered to pass me to someone who I could understand, I could hear the impatience in his voice. The customer is always right in any business if a business values your custom ( I ought to know I worked as a customer service person for over 30 yrs), I have never found that withVirgin, they always treat you like they are doing you a favour. A company's good name and reputation should be everything but it appears Virgin couldn't give a toss about a bit of goodwill. As for subscription TV, absolute dross, the lot of it and I am glad I will not have to be subjected to it anymore, it has deteriorated over the years to just being a rerun of a rerun of programmes anything up to 30 yrs old and still they keep trotting it out for money. 970 channels of rubbish, we had much more quality when there were only 4 channels

Good bye and good riddance is what I say ! :T Now where's my new book to read ?

victor2

JWhite wrote: »

As for subscription TV, absolute dross, the lot of it and I am glad I will not have to be subjected to it anymore, it has deteriorated over the years to just being a rerun of a rerun of programmes anything up to 30 yrs old and still they keep trotting it out for money. 970 channels of rubbish, we had much more quality when there were only 4 channels

JWhite wrote: »

I have been with them for over 20 yrs and that is the thanks I get!

Took you 20 years to figure that out?
Mind you, Virgin Media was only formed in 2006, but your 30 years in customer service must have given you the ability to exaggerate somewhat.

Buzby

Just try that with Sky - do you honestly think they'd be any different? I think you know the answer.

As for you Early Terminatipn fee (it isn't a penalty, you agreed the terms already) were caused by your buyer - so add this to your fees to him fot being so accommodating, after all you're facilitating him.

Leodogger

Buzby wrote: »

Just try that with Sky - do you honestly think they'd be any different? I think you know the answer.

As for you Early Terminatipn fee (it isn't a penalty, you agreed the terms already) were caused by your buyer - so add this to your fees to him fot being so accommodating, after all you're facilitating him.

Might do just that.;)

Leodogger

victor2 wrote: »

Took you 20 years to figure that out?
Mind you, Virgin Media was only formed in 2006, but your 30 years in customer service must have given you the ability to exaggerate somewhat.

I have been with Virgin since 2006 but Telewest from when they first introduced subscription services in 1984 (telephone). Virgin, Telewest, Sky, they are all the same (though it has got far worse since Virgin took over), the most important thing is money with them. Anyone with a brain and a problem with any of their services will tell you the same, service is a foreign word and just something they have to include in the contract to get you to sign to pay for what is at worst a dross product package and at best is a clump of services (exaggeration) which they are forced to offer to compete with the rest, reluctantly, to drag in the punters. Customer satisfaction does not feature in their language. over the years I have had problem with little help on : internet when it was first introduced and I struggled to get help with provision of a decent dial up link, telephone when I had problems with the line going dead and it took them 2 months to get it sorted, TV (as described) and the only think stopping me from swapping to another provider was the complaints I have read from other people regarding them also, they are all as bad as one another.

When I lost the use of my VCR and after having vociferously complained on the telephone with no discernible apology for basicly misleading me, only offering to sell me a V+ Box instead which I didn't want, I received a customer satisfaction survey to complete. I hammered them mercilessly in my answers and never even got a call back to apologise for their appalling customer service or to enquire exactly what my complaint was all about (as they obviously already knew (also a call was promised in the survey if my comments included complaints that they would get back to me to try to resolve them), and the completion of the survey was followed by a "thank you for taking the time to offer my comments". :mad:

Same thing happened today after my phone call to terminate the contract, the phone call was an automated response to check I was happy with my treatment :eek: I couldn't even be bothered to take part, I banged the phone down. They go through the motions because they have to and it ends there.

Their loss, not mine ! My life will be much less stressful without them.:D

GlynD

JWhite wrote: »

I judge a supplier on the service and the loyalty I am given for paying promptly and on time and what they give me in return, especially when I have a problem.
<snip>

What I'm trying to say to you is that there is nothing surprising in what Virgin has done. Life's too short to get wound up about these things.

I'm not religious but the words of the Serenity Prayer are as helpful today as they always have been:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

Don't let your daily life be blighted by railing against things you have no control over.