Virgin media credit file hell

Leyshon20042000

Sooooooooooooooooo way back in the day in 2010 I payed off all my debt and went off to uni with no debt and no credit :beer:
All except one phone contract. However back in the day 2011 I told them I was terminating my contract as they were in breach of service to me.
Over 3-4 months they kept cutting me off for going over my credit allowance and each time I'd have to call them and get it reinstated because my account was actually in good standing and the issue was caused by anow issue caused by an upgrade meaning I stupidly had two tarrifs on one account which kept wiping each other off. After 3 months of 20 times each being cut off without notice I informed virgin I was ending my contract as I had spent well over 20 hours on the phone trying to sort their error out.

Well role on 2017.
1st time I've needed to apply for credit as not in debt and rejected. And rejected and rejected. On inspection of my credit file virgin have kept this account live and have been reporting delinquency since 2011 with a reported balance of around 600 pounds

What are my options
I'm loathed to pay it because I cancelled the contract because they were unable to sort out their technical issue causing me to be cut off multiple times a day over 3 months and many hours spent getting cross with them and yes up till then each payment was on time.

I'm sure 600 pounds is OTT

Why haven't they defaulted me instead of reporting a live account for 6 years.

What are my options for me to tell them where to go and get this craziness off my credit file???
:cool:

DCFC79

Leyshon20042000 wrote: »

Sooooooooooooooooo way back in the day in 2010 I payed off all my debt and went off to uni with no debt and no credit :beer:
All except one phone contract. However back in the day 2011 I told them I was terminating my contract as they were in breach of service to me.
Over 3-4 months they kept cutting me off for going over my credit allowance and each time I'd have to call them and get it reinstated because my account was actually in good standing and the issue was caused by anow issue caused by an upgrade meaning I stupidly had two tarrifs on one account which kept wiping each other off. After 3 months of 20 times each being cut off without notice I informed virgin I was ending my contract as I had spent well over 20 hours on the phone trying to sort their error out.

Well role on 2017.
1st time I've needed to apply for credit as not in debt and rejected. And rejected and rejected. On inspection of my credit file virgin have kept this account live and have been reporting delinquency since 2011 with a reported balance of around 600 pounds

What are my options
I'm loathed to pay it because I cancelled the contract because they were unable to sort out their technical issue causing me to be cut off multiple times a day over 3 months and many hours spent getting cross with them and yes up till then each payment was on time.

I'm sure 600 pounds is OTT

Why haven't they defaulted me instead of reporting a live account for 6 years.

What are my options for me to tell them where to go and get this craziness off my credit file???
:cool:

How did you cancel it ?

Did you follow the procedure to cancel ?

Leyshon20042000

I had several phone calls with them. Wrote a complaint which they upheld and gave me credit but then continued to cut me off. So I wrote to them stating that they were in breach of contract and due to being unable to use my phone in times of need I used it for work as a carer in the community that I had no choice but to terminate as they were not providing the agreed and paid for service.

ashp_2

See so many posts where people have credit file issues over phone contracts which come back to bite them many years later. In the vast majority of cases you don't really get to just cancel a contract.
You state that you wrote to them saying they were in breach of contract and you terminated the contract. You don't explain what happened after that? Did you cancel your direct debit?

GingerBob_3

It's another example of credit file abuse. Essentially blighters such as Virgin Media use credit reporting to blackmail their customers. Cases such as this should always be reported to the ICO.

PixelPound

ashp wrote: »

See so many posts where people have credit file issues over phone contracts which come back to bite them many years later. In the vast majority of cases you don't really get to just cancel a contract.
You state that you wrote to them saying they were in breach of contract and you terminated the contract. You don't explain what happened after that? Did you cancel your direct debit?

OP, what part of the contract did they breach and did you specify that. Also did they confirm it?

The problem is many people don't understand the consumer contracts, don't read them, and think they are just like financial contracts. I've seen posts where people have smashed their phones and simply think that because they cannot use their phone that simply letting the provider know they no longer want it and cancel means they aren't liable for the remainder of the rental costs.

There is often some shocking small print in terms of costs they can add

Arleen

Leyshon20042000 wrote: »

I had several phone calls with them. Wrote a complaint which they upheld and gave me credit but then continued to cut me off. So I wrote to them stating that they were in breach of contract and due to being unable to use my phone in times of need I used it for work as a carer in the community that I had no choice but to terminate as they were not providing the agreed and paid for service.

And what happened then? Did they confirm cancellation of the contract? You cannot just send off a letter and then assume it were all and done based on your understanding of what constitutes a breach of contract.

What was the correct way is to keep on paying until the matter was resolved, and if they refused to cancel it and you think that you have grounds, escalate it with Telecomms ombudsman.

As for why it's 600, you will have remainder of the contract there, of course, then late fees, missed payment fees and whatever other fees you've agreed to in your contract for that situation.

Leyshon20042000

Yes I did confirm to theme which part of my contract they were in breach of. Basically someone had made an error and had added 2 different tarrifs to my account. These would cancel each other off at different points during the day and then my bill would rise to over 100 ponds and I'd get cut off I'd then have to call them multiple times a day to yet again explain this was their technical error. And each time was told it wouldn't happen again. And then it would. This went on at least 3 times a day for well over 3 months to the point where they never sorted their technical error and my phone was unusable as they kept cutting me off.. I had to pay for a separate pay and go phone to make sure I could phone others I was a community care worker so relied on my phone heavily . I told them that my phone was unusable ( not the handset) because of their technical errors and reported to offcome who upheld my complaint.
What I want to know is how do I stop them as reporting delinquency when I had no choice but to terminate my contract as my phone was unusable

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Leyshon20042000 wrote: »

Yes I did confirm to theme which part of my contract they were in breach of. Basically someone had made an error and had added 2 different tarrifs to my account. These would cancel each other off at different points during the day and then my bill would rise to over 100 ponds and I'd get cut off I'd then have to call them multiple times a day to yet again explain this was their technical error. And each time was told it wouldn't happen again. And then it would. This went on at least 3 times a day for well over 3 months to the point where they never sorted their technical error and my phone was unusable as they kept cutting me off.. I had to pay for a separate pay and go phone to make sure I could phone others I was a community care worker so relied on my phone heavily . I told them that my phone was unusable ( not the handset) because of their technical errors and reported to offcome who upheld my complaint.
What I want to know is how do I stop them as reporting delinquency when I had no choice but to terminate my contract as my phone was unusable

All you've done here is repeat yourself and not actually answer the questions. You've been told that you cannot simply write and cancel a contract - not matter how justified you think it is. There is a process to follow. What we are trying to ascertain is what happened after you cancelled. Did Virgin write back to you? Did they confirm the cancellation? Have you kept copies of your letters?

I do agree that they should have defaulted the account. I think you need to contact Virgin, make a formal complaint and if you don't get any joy then you'll need to escalate the issue with the Ombudsman.

Leyshon20042000

Virgin didn't write back to me but the ombudsman did. They the ombudsman upheld my complaint that I had been unable to use my phone and contract due to Virgins ongoing failure to correct the technical error so they upheld that in effect I was paying for a phone contract that I couldn't use they gave virgin I think it was 28 days to sort the problem out however virgin failed to sort the problem again so I made a further complaint to the ombudsmen to the effect that I could not use a service I was paying for over a prolonged period of time and that due to this needed to end the contract. Again the ombudsman upheld my complaint.

What I need help with is do I start again by complaining to virgin or do I just go straight back to the ombudmen?

anna_1977

do you still have copies of all the letters - I hope so!