BEWARE - VIRGIN MEDIA - Never sign up for Direct debit

Infidel

Here is a warning, never sign over your account details (pay by direct debit) to companies like this with such shocking customer services. As it gives them complete control to take whatever money they decide from your account.
This complete sham of a company has been stealing from my account.
I only have one internet service with them for which i pay £10 a month (this included a £25 up front fee to cover the first 2.5 months).
Then upon receiving my end of the month bank statement i notice they creamed a mysterious £36 extra out of my account this month for no reason.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Check your statements carefully.

superscaper

Have you asked them why? Can't tell if it's legitimate or not until we know what their explanation for it is.

soolin

Whilst I have had problems with the service i am getting from Virgin I've never had problems with them adjusting my DD without informing me in plenty of time beforehand.

What do they say when you ask them what the additional payment is for?

li'l_p

I have had problems with Virgin Media since I added telephone to the broadband we already had. To add the phone it was only an extra £2 per month, plus any call charges on top of that. It was part of the 2 for £20 bundle deals.

I spoke to them in March to get it set up and they said an engineer would call out to the mains box in the street to connect the neccessary and the equipment would be sent to me. On receiving the equipment I merely had to connect a phone to the socket, which I duly did. On trying to dial out I got the engaged/fault tone. I phoned Virgin (on my mobile) who advised that they would again send someone out to the mains box outside the property as there was clearly a fault. This was carried out and I received a card from the engineer through my door stating that the work was complete. I once again tried the phoned but got the faulty tone. At this point, I was getting a tad frustrated so once again got on to Virgin Media. The advisor I spoke to at this stage asked what socket I was plugging the phone into so I told her that it was the white standard telephone socket that I was originally installed by BT some 3 years ago. I had never had a Virgin Media telephone socket installed in the property and at no stage from the point of contacting them to get the telephone services was I asked if I had a Virgin Media socket. Therefore an engineer came out again, this time to install a socket within the property (...which resolved the problem, surprise surprise!).

I have so far had no problems with the telephone service so had no further cause for complaint with Virgin Media.

Yesterday I received a 'final demand for payment', stating that I owed some £32.00. I was shocked as I have all my household bills set-up on direct debit so that they are all collected automatically and I don't have to worry about forgetting to pay, etc, and I have never failed to pay any bill in my few years of having my own house. I immediately got on the phone to VM and after querying why they had managed to take £18 on 9th August but not this payment, it was soon explained to me that there was no direct debit set-up for the telephone services so the payment taken only related to my broadband services.

I am fuming with their total incompetence; first they failed to mention that I needed a socket installing and second they failed to mention that I would need to set up a sperate direct debit for the telephone. What sort of service is that? Before people shoot me down and ask why I ignored the two bills before the final demand - I get the very same 'bill' every month for my broadband however as I have the direct debit set up there is no need for me to take action as I know the payment is taken automatically from my account, which I assumed would happen in this instance.

badmumof1

i would ring and ask them to explain before you start damming them
because only hearing your side of the story without their explainantion we cannot comment on whether you have good reason to say they are a rip off

im with virgin media btw, have been since the days of telewest and have no problems what so ever with service or DD

iceicebaby

Whats the extra amount for ?? I am with virgin and have no problems

tin_cup_2

Tell me about it!

I informed them I had moved bank and they never took the subs from the new account, next thing I know they have cut me off and are making legal threats against me.
It took many hours of calls over several weeks to resolve and was very stressful to say the least.

Avoid if possible

tin cup

poppy_f1

im with them, have been for years, ex telewest been on dd off nd on for ages and never had a problem
i get my bills online so i know exactly whats coming out

italiastar

Infidel wrote: »

Here is a warning, never sign over your account details (pay by direct debit) to companies like this with such shocking customer services. As it gives them complete control to take whatever money they decide from your account.
This complete sham of a company has been stealing from my account.
I only have one internet service with them for which i pay £10 a month (this included a £25 up front fee to cover the first 2.5 months).
Then upon receiving my end of the month bank statement i notice they creamed a mysterious £36 extra out of my account this month for no reason.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Check your statements carefully.

I was with Telewest for several years without problem before NTL took over. The customer service problems started at that point, but now I've got billing issues - as you describe. I was offered the television package for an extra £1 for 12 months - when my bill came through it went up by £9. After much discussion, they've agreed to honour the £1 deal for 6 months and I must then phone them again to see what they can do. A work colleage and my boss is having similar problems with them, but to be fair, they had problems before as NTL customers.

I'm just off ............... to check my latest bill.

Lavendyr

And direct debit is actually the best way to be charged without authroisation from you as you can contact your bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee and tell them the charge was made without your authorisation, for an immediate and full refund.

However I'd call Virgin Media first and find out from them what the charge was for.

changkra

If it is an unauthorised debit then go into your bank on Monday and firstly cancel the DD and then ask to file an indemnity against Virgin Media. The money will be back in your account within 24 hours. Problem solved.