Virgin Media have me over a barrel

jack900

Hi All,

I am hoping someone will have an amazing suggestion I haven't thought of which can save me money on broadband, otherwise this will just be a big rant!

My situation is that I recently moved house on September 27th, where previously we have virgin TV, broadband and phone service (which started in January this year, and the contract being 18 months long). So I gave notice to Virgin to move my services, and after a while they said there was a blockage in the road and would take 6-8 weeks to resolve. So that time passed, we got very frustrated, after a few phone calls we haggled to get £105 credit on our £46.99/month package - (which by the way starts a new 12-month contract). We had an installation arranged for today, but yesterday I was told they will have to cancel that, as they have found another blockage in the road and it will now be another 6-8 weeks. I would like to quit virgin and go with another provider (especially given that the new 12-month contract isn't a particularly good deal), but due to the fact there are 10 months left I would owe Virgin approximately £180 to terminate with them.

We have really struggled the past 6 weeks with no internet (first world problem I know) but coming up to Christmas and everything I really can't imagine having no access any longer.

So I can't afford to cancel and switch, and I can't afford to wait for Virgin Media. Does anyone have any helpful ideas? Thanks for reading!

p.s. As far as I know we have not been subject to any price rises from Virgin to be able to use that clause.

littleboo

I think that as you haven't received any service, there is no suggestion of of service being provided imminently and VM have have had more than a reasonable amount of time to resolve the issues, you should contact them and asked to be released from the contract. You may need to escalate beyond the normal helpdesk level.

chanz4

Because you were in contract before, they could still charge you instead the same for the other contract

pompeyred

Well I am not sure they can charge you for a previously renegotiated contract. The only contract that is in place now is the one you have for your new property. You can't bring into a force an 'old' contract in this manner.











It sounds a little over the top but the quickest resolve might be a legal route although I doubt from your comments that you have neither the fight or potential costs to go through this.



My advice would be to visit their social media sites and attempt to get your complaint escalated. You do have a case for non supply.

duchy

Talk to their cancellations team.
I work for one of their competitors and we wouldn't hold you to contract with such a long term loss of service-however the standard customer service agents won't have the muscle to cancel it cancellations should have.

I really don't like the way Virgin insist a home-move restarts the clock on contract length-again not everyone does it that way.

If you continue to get nowhere - tell them you want to raise a formal complaint (if you haven't already) follow the process and then take it to Ofcom.

kwikbreaks

duchy wrote: »

I really don't like the way Virgin insist a home-move restarts the clock on contract length-again not everyone does it that way.

I thought it was pretty much standard practice. A new install costs the ISP money so they set a minimum term. Just about the only alternative (in the ADSL world as there are no other cable providers) would be to pay the non-MAC termination charge plus an install charge both of which Openreach charge ISPs.

You need to call VM retentions (thinking of leaving option) they may well let you go - doing so will cost them less than unblocking all the cable ducting and putting in a new run which is what they seem to think is needed rather than piggybacking a neighbour.

iniltous

If you took a 18 month contact at your old address, and then moved before the minimum term you have broken that contract and may be liable for any early termination charges, many providers won't hold you to term if you agree to take services from them again at your new address, in return for a new minimum term contract, so if you ask them to cancel the contract at your new address because of the time taken to provide service, this should be done, but they may well insist on the ETC at your old address, if you don't want to pay the early termination charge, then you probably will have to wait until they eventually provide service at the new address, but make sure they only start billing you from the date the services are provided, or credit you with the time from when they were supposed to provide service, and the time the service actually starts
I doubt they will release you from your new contract and waive the ETC on your old contract, it will be one or the other, but asking costs nothing

jack900

Thanks everyone. I agree that without either following some legal recourse of filing official complaint with OFCOM I am unlikely to receive any favourable outcome. I have decided to arrange a broadband connection with another provider today, so it is now a case of getting what I can from Virgin.

My thoughts are that if I continue with the installation, hopefully it will mean if I later wanted cable services to the house years down the road I may not have to go through this madness again. Unfortunately, Virgin haven't exactly been transparent with regards to what blockage exists and where. Once the new contract is under way (and I have £105 credit to my account) I will get three months free broadband used up, and can cancel with 9 months of termination fees, which I'd have to work out how much that would cost.

duchy

kwikbreaks wrote: »

I thought it was pretty much standard practice. A new install costs the ISP money so they set a minimum term. Just about the only alternative (in the ADSL world as there are no other cable providers) would be to pay the non-MAC termination charge plus an install charge both of which Openreach charge ISPs.

You need to call VM retentions (thinking of leaving option) they may well let you go - doing so will cost them less than unblocking all the cable ducting and putting in a new run which is what they seem to think is needed rather than piggybacking a neighbour.

Sky don't ........

kwikbreaks

What about a Sky broadband only service?