Virgin Media £185 cancellation fee

robandjulie2

I have been with Virgin for 3 years paying just under £50 a month for fibre and phone line, 6 months ago we decided to shop around for a better deal with TV etc. Virgin offered me a deal which I accepted and then found I could get better elsewhere so cancelled Virgin upgrade the very next day, 6 months later I have finally finished negotiating with SKY £49.79 per month for 6 month and then £59.79 for the remaining 6 months of my 12 month contract, F.Y.I my Sky package is family bundle, movies, HD, multi screen so 2 boxes, fibre internet and phone line so excellent deal which took months of negotiating. However I called Virgin to cancel my internet and they have informed me that they upgraded my internet 6 months ago so I still have 6 months on contract and they said they are adding £185 cancellation fee to my last bill and I just cannot afford to pay this or agree with it as I never agreed to any new contract, I said to Virgin that unless they can provide evidence of me agreeing to a new contract (which they wont, as I didn't) then I am not paying it, I am willing to pay the last bill for what I owe and for the 1 month notice period, however the Virgin advisor said she cannot remove the cancellation fee and I will be billed for it, obviously I am not paying this and will cancel my Direct Debit with the bank but my dilemma is that I do not want a default on my credit as it has been around 6 years since I lost my first home due to the financial crisis and my credit rating is finally starting to improve and I was hoping to get a mortgage in 6-12 months, how can I ensure I do not get my credit damaged and also not pay the £185 cancellation fee.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Thank you

JJ_Egan

You said six months ago Virgin offered you a deal that you accepted . That means you started a new contract as per multiple identical posts .New deal new service = new contract .

robandjulie2

Been with Virgin for 3 years, they say I have 6 months left of a renewed distance contract which I didn't agree to and I have to pay £185 to cancel, any advice?

Thanks in advance

Browntoa

you must have made some sort of update to your package at some point that locked you back in so no, you are in contract and have to pay

robandjulie2

Thank you for the reply, however I cancelled the upgrade within 24 hours which is well within the cooling off period and I didn't agree to a new internet contract.

Browntoa

and I merged your 2 identical posts into one thread

robandjulie2

Thank you, got confusing, I have never entered a forum before and am not the most computer savvy lol.

I thought by law that if you are being put into a new contract then you have to

a) agree to it

b) be told about it.

Mav6215

If you cancelled the upgrade with Virgin would that not have meant you went back on the package you had previously or did you specify you were cancelling everything?

In the 6 months that followed did you access any of Virgin's services? If not what did you do for internet access during that time?

Cancelling the Direct Debit is not a good idea until you have got things clarified with Virgin.

JJ_Egan

robandjulie2 wrote: »

Thank you for the reply, however I cancelled the upgrade within 24 hours which is well within the cooling off period and I didn't agree to a new internet contract.

Might want to show evidence of this cooling off period for an upgrade . Where does it exist on the VM site/ T&C .
Its true for a new install customer but for an upgrade ??

http://store.virginmedia.com/the-legal-stuff/terms-and-conditions-for-national-services/national-broadband.html

facade

Virgin usually let you downgrade a package whilst on contract, then you pay less per month, going down to the minimum and keeping it is probably cheaper than paying £185 to cancel early.

Anyway, Virgins minimum broadband will still likely knock Sky into a cocked hat (sky don't even offer free newsgroup access AFAIK)

macman

No cooling-off period on an upgrade? Totally different to a new contract.