Virgin media sent me a credit default notice for a bill they told me TWICE I do not need to pay!!

ewokuk

So basically I have moved house. I told Virign Media on 6th July that I was leaving (my 12 month contract was due to end on 31st July anyway). After a slightly confusing conversation where I told them I would be moving the phone number, they said thats fine and what I thought was agreed was that when the new phone supplier had submitted the move request, Virgin would see this and then sort out cancelling the entire lot. The new phone supplier had done this on 8th July so I was then expecting all my Virgin services to end on 8th Aug.

I left it at that, until 12th Aug after I had moved when I thought I would log in to my Virgin account just to make sure it had all be correctly cancelled. I then noticed that they had seemingly not cancelled anything other than transferring the phone line as of 8th Aug, and had apparently put me onto a new contract for everything else (which I knew nothing about). I rang them the same day only for them to try and tell me they have it on their file that I had agreed they would ring me back and see if they could do some sort of deal because I told them I would be moving to NowTV. They never did call me back and that was not my understanding of my last conversation with them. A previous call I did say ok ring me back, they said they would ring me within 1 hour or something, I called them back after a few hours waiting, and that's when I told them to just sort out cancelling it, which they seemingly recorded as me being willing to wait for another call from them (which was not true because they never did call me back again).

After arguing with them that this was not correct and I was expecting it to have been cancelled on 8th August along with the phone, and after going through 4 different departments I eventually got through to a guy who would cancel it there and then, which he did. After explaining to him that it should have been cancelled already, he said it seems I have a very good case for nothing having to pay anything further as a result because it looks like their screw up, and that I should ring billing to sort that out. He also said from what he had worked out based on the cancellation date, I would be owed something like £12 back.

I waiting for the bill to come through, which then seemed to be mostly made up of "early termination charges". I rang billing on 17th August to tell them I had no intention of paying anything more, it was their screw up and in fact I was probably owed money by them, not the other way around. She told me that this was fine and that I should cancel the direct debit with my bank to make sure no charges went through and that I would not have to pay anything more.

Then a few weeks later I get a letter saying I had not paid the bill. Since I had been told by their billing dept that I would not need to pay it, I just ignored it. They have now decided to send me a "credit default notice" threatening to screw over my credit file and appoint debt collectors for it if I don't pay it in 14 days from the date of the letter (and even more hillarious, the letter HAS NO DATE, not a single date anywhere on it, nor is there a date when it was posted)......and this is for a bill that they have told me TWICE I should not need to pay, and after they had advised ME to delete the direct debit so that the payment was not taken!!!!

I am now going to have to call billing yet again tomorrow to sort it out before I get my currently perfect credit record screwed over and have debt collectors at the door.

My advice, avoid this company like the plague. The thing is such a joke I would consider taking THEM to court for wasting my time due to their own incompetence!

esuhl

I'd give up speaking to untrained muppets on the phone. Send a letter by recorded delivery.


On the phone, they'll be tempted to make up any old nonsense to get rid of you. They'll be more hesitant to put nonsense in writing... and it will give you hard evidence should it go to court.

onomatopoeia99

There is precedent here regarding big companies harrassing former customers for money not owed, see [2009] EWCA Civ 46 (Fergurson vs British Gas Trading Ltd)


http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2009/46.html


The plaintiff won damages for harassment from British Gas over their handling of her final bill when she switched supplier.

ewokuk

The fun continues. Rang the number on the default notice and was told the movers team would have put those charges on there (the same team that did the disconnection and told me i should not have to pay anything and to sort it out with billing...). She checked to see if the movers team had left a note about it....they had not. She also said those early termination charges would be because i was in contract, and I told her I was not, my contract had ended at the end of July and I had no conversation at any point about a new contract, why would I when I am leaving?!!? The whole point in me leaving when I did was because my contract was ending!! So I was transferred to the movers team, and then after sitting in the queue for 10 minutes, it cut me off!!!

So I then had to ring back yet again to talk to the movers team. Another 10 minutes in the queue and at this point I simply cannot be bothered with it anymore. Apparently there is a 30min queue so I am going to have to try once more on Monday, at which point I will just have to pay it, its so not worth the time and effort trying to get these muppets to sort it out.

Chino

ewokuk wrote: »

and I told her I was not, my contract had ended at the end of July and I had no conversation at any point about a new contract, why would I when I am leaving?!!? The whole point in me leaving when I did was because my contract was ending!!

Your contract didn't end at the end of July. What happened was that the minimum notice period you had to give to terminate the contract changed to one month.

ewokuk

Chino wrote: »

Your contract didn't end at the end of July. What happened was that the minimum notice period you had to give to terminate the contract changed to one month.

Same difference, as far as I'm concerned they were given a month. The fact they failed to disconnect it when they should have is not my problem. Instead the phone line was transferred and the remaining disconnection was never processed, until I rang up to find out what the hell was going on, only to find it had not been disconnected at all.

satchef1

Pay the bill. Lodge a complaint through Resolver:

https://www.resolver.co.uk

Complaints through Resolver are dealt with by a separate team. It'll take a month or so for them to reply to your complaint, but you'll generally get a clear (and final) answer.

I've had to use the service twice with VM; first because I hadn't had my welcome pack and therefore couldn't access my account, and second because they were overcharging me. In the first case, telephone customer service did nothing; they offered to send me my account number and a copy of my contract. Every time they told the they'd sent the requested information, nothing arrived, whether by email or post. They then set to accusing me of lying about not receiving it (:huh:). And in the second case, VM was overcharging me; my tariff didn't match the agreement I had made with the sales representative. I had written proof of this; an agreement signed by myself and the sales rep. The first person I spoke to told me that document is irrelevant; it's what is on their system that matters. The second told me that it's not Virgin Media's fault the sales representative mis-sold me my package, and I should take it up with him (:huh:); the price is correct and will not be changed :rotfl:. I'm still waiting on a resolution to that one.

They're a joke.