Early disconnection fee Virgin Media....with a twist

P1ncushionqueen

Hello,

I'm new to the forums so I hope I've posted in the right place.
I became a customer of Virgin media 2 and a half years ago but all bills were in my ex boyfriends name. Then we split up. I moved out but to avoid paying early disconnection fees I kept the contract on and moved the contract to a different address which started again in my ex boyfriends name. On two separate occasions I asked about changing the details to my name and was promised that a Transfer of responsibility form would be sent to me....it never was.
I moved again and took the contract with me to another address....all the while the contract has been in my exes name so I asked again at this point if I could change the contract into my name and was again told I would be posted a form and wasn't. I've now been at this address a couple of years and about 6 months ago renewed a 12 month contract of TV, broadband and phone with them and again, on 8th Feb this year asked them to please at this point switch everything to my name. I was told I would be sent the transfer of responsibility form and i never was. The account still remains in my exes name.
Unfortunately, we are now having to move due to my partner's job, I called to say we would be moving and was told the new area does not provide Virgin media so I cannot take the account with me and so I've been told I must pay a £240 early disconnection fee :eek: I knew I might have to pay something but I am shocked at this amount.
Having sat and had a think about this, I'm now obviously trying to think of any way I can get out of paying and have been told by someone not to pay the early disconnection fee as the account is not in my name and even though I signed a new contract, it was in my exes name and I was promised a transfer of responsibility form at this point (for about the 4th time) which never materialised.
Does anybody know where I might stand legally if I pointed this out to Virgin? Surely they can't enforce this fee if the contract isn't even in my name and it's through their own incompetence that the account has never been transferred to me? They have my new address but as far as I'm aware they don't even know my full name and DOB. I give my exes name when I call.

Any help would be appreciated! Main thing is I don't want to damage my credit rating, I just wondered if I could reasonably say to Virgin that I'm not paying on these grounds.
Thanks in advance!:)

JJ_Egan

The fee is normally the months left on the contracts from most ISPs.

My initial thought as to your get out method is that VM are going to cry fraud .The initial contract you have renewed how many times ??
Contract should have been cancelled at the initial breakup . You could then have taken out your own contract

P1ncushionqueen

That's the point, that I had to keep the contract and carry it on to avoid paying fees initially. I have made it clear to them from day one, when I first took over the contract that it needed to be changed to my name and they have never provided me with the means to change it. I'm sure they record conversations so there will be plenty of evidence of me saying to them over and over again that it is now me paying and needs to be changed to my name. Therefore it's their fault for allowing me to renew it in that name and not providing me with the means to change it, surely!?
And yes, I'm clear that the fee is the months left. I've never deceived them so I'm not sure how they would claim I've been fraudulent...

[Deleted User]

I might have more sympathy for the OP's position if a new minimum term had not been recently agreed.

Does the OP not mind that her ex will have an unpaid debt he likely knows nothing about?

P1ncushionqueen

I didn't post this asking for sympathy and I'm not saying I haven't been stupid entering into a new minimum term contract. I did say in my original post that I'm trying to find a way out of paying it. My ex is aware the bills are still in his name and that I've tried umpteen times to change it to my name....he knows just as I do how useless VM have been in sorting the situation and obviously I would never dump him with debt....but what I'm trying to find out is if I have any wiggle room from a legal stand point, because on the day I renewed the contract on 8th Feb I asked for it to be in my name and was told it couldn't be at that point but that I would need to complete a transfer of responsibility form that would be sent to me....and it never was!!! Therefore I now have a contract in someone else's name which I have pointed out from the very beginning and asked to change more than 3 times.

[Deleted User]

P1ncushionqueen wrote: »

what I'm trying to find out is if I have any wiggle room from a legal stand point, because on the day I renewed the contract on 8th Feb I asked for it to be in my name

If you don't pay the Early Termination of Contract (ETC) fee, then your ex will have to pay or will have the debt.
You have no "wiggle" room simply because you continued to pay on his behalf for years and your mistake was to recently agree a new minimum term.

It's not enough to say that Virgin didn't send you any transfer forms because, clearly, you should have chased them back in February.

Treat this as if you had always had the contract in your name and that the fee is therefore yours to pay.

Sorry if that's not what you want to hear.

P1ncushionqueen

Thank you for the advice