Vrigin media cancellation query

[Deleted User]

Hi all!

I'm in a bit of a predicament and I'm not sure what I am able to do.

I moved to a place 6 months ago and took a Virgin Media service, the contract of which runs for 18 months. After 6 months, I wanted to move somewhere new. I had a place in mind I wanted to move to, so checked if Virgin Media had services there. They did. I had my application for a house approved, and so went through the process of moving my Virgin Media service there. All went well, and I received multiple communications regarding the engineers visit on the first day in my new place.

The day BEFORE moving in, I received a phone call, stating that in fact there were no services at my new property, and that it would take 4-6 weeks for Virgin to apply for permission from the council to dig up the road outside in order to install their services. I am heavily reliant on a fast internet connection, so thought it best to cancel my service with Virgin and instead go with BT so that I could get a working broadband connection sooner than later. I advised Virgin that I would be cancelling my contact, to which I was told I would have to pay out the remainder of my contract, totalling approx £160. I told them that they could send the payment demand letter to me, but I would not be paying it.

I fully understand that if I had chosen to move outside of a Virgin Media area, that I would be liable to pay for the remainder of my contract, but since I was essentially lied to about the service that could be provided to me, until it was too late, am I able to get around paying this amount? The funny thing is that I was with BT in the place previous to where I was before here, and moved to a place that did not have BT services. They cancelled my 18 month contract with no problem whatsoever, with no payment due and 6 months remaining on the contract. I thought it would be the same with Virgin.

Any advice is very much appreciated!

unforeseen

When you were told makes no difference. If they had told you when you first asked then you would still have to cancel as they could not meet YOUR timescale

JimmyTheWig

unforeseen wrote: »

When you were told makes no difference. If they had told you when you first asked then you would still have to cancel as they could not meet YOUR timescale

According to the OP they checked that VM had services there before they applied (?) to move there.
I presume they're arguing that if there were no VM services at this property they wouldn't have chosen it.

JJ_Egan

( I told them that they could send the payment demand letter to me, but I would not be paying it)

Be aware if you break the contract then refuse to pay they simply pass the debt on and trash your credit record for the next 6 years .


Why did you think their was a VM supply ?
if VM actually said their was then a letter to head office pointing out the fact may help .

[Deleted User]

When I knew that Virgin Media was in the area of the new house, since I was already with them, I had no problem in going forward with both the application for the new residency and the moving process I initiated with VM, after they assured me that there were services in the new place. It was only the day before that they had organised an engineer to come and connect my services up, a good two weeks before I moved, that I got a phone call saying that there were no services there. They had said there were services there up to that point. So then since they essentially lied or gave the incorrect information, information that went into my decision to move to this particular property.

Since they said it would take 4-6 weeks to connect me up, with even the person I was speaking to on the phone when cancelling said would most likely take much longer than this, I proceeded to cancel the account. I was then directed to a different department, that then told me I would have to pay for the remainder of my contract (12 months @ £160).

Am I being stupid or is this not enough ground to make a significant complaint in order not to pay this amount?

JimmyTheWig

KingPrawn22 wrote: »

Am I being stupid or is this not enough ground to make a significant complaint in order not to pay this amount?

Basically, Virgin Media got it wrong when they initially said that you could get their services at the new address.
If, from the word go, they'd have said that you couldn't get their services there and you went ahead and moved you'd be in the position you are in now.

So it's just a question of what would you have done differently had they told you the truth.
You could have moved as you did and paid the £160 bill.
You could have not moved and not paid the £160 bill.
You cuold have moved somewhere else that was covered and not paid the £160 bill.

Now in either of the latter two, you'd not really be £160 better off because you'd living somewhere less ideal than where you've chosen.
How much was moving where you moved to worth to you over moving somewhere else? I.e. if someone said "don't move there, move to this one instead and I'll give you £10" would you have taken it? What about if it was £50? £100?

My point is that you're not really that worse off than if they'd got it right in the first place. And that's all that you can ask to be. If it went to court, that's the theoretical position you'd be put back in.

Generally, a better solution than going to court is to speak nicely to a company's customer service team and hope for a goodwill gesture. The problem with that here is that you're no longer a customer and so they've got no real incentive to be nice back.

I know it seems unfair, but I don't think you've got much choice on this one but to pay it and move on with your life.