Virgin Media scamming customers by overcharging (with MSE's help)

JimmyPickles

I've spent the last 3 months trying to get Virgin Media to correct a billing mistake and it's been the most frustrating experience I've ever had from a provider.

In December and signed up through a Virgin Media's M50 Broadband deal through the MoneySavingExpert unbundled site. The deals still being advertised - there's no setup or activation fee and you get £75 credit on your account. That's a saving of £110 over a year compared to similar deals.

I checked the offer on Virgin's site after clicking through and I got an order confirmation email from Virgin that had the details of the deal. I later got a copy of the contract via email and noticed that it didn't mention the discount from the deal so phoned them up to check it was correct.

Over the next three months I was told lie after lie from Virgin each time I contacted them-

• They said I'd be charged correctly. I wasn't after the first month.
• They told me I could go to a part of the site to message them after my account was activated to send them the order confirmation. This part of the site didn't exist.
• They said they ALWAYS charge an activation fee and I was wrong. I have an email from them saying the activation free is free.
• They said I needed to talk to the web-sales department even though there was no way of getting in touch with them
• They said my complaint was deadlocked and I would receive an email explaining my next steps. I never received the email.
• When I did get through to someone, they said they would contact me the next day. They never got back to me.
• They blamed MoneySavingExpert and said I needed to contact them to correct the deal, even though Virgin confirmed the terms of the deal themselves.
• 90 Days after my initial complaint they sent me a letter saying they had tried to call me. They hadn't.

After 3 months, 1 complaint, 3 emails, 2 hours of phone calls I got through to someone who understood my situation and correct it. They still didn't believe me and I had to forward my original order confirmation email from them back to them. I've now received credit to my account equal to the value of the original deal but have not received an apology or explanation for why the problem happened and why it was so hard to fix.

I contacted Money Saving Expert and they were no help at all. They seem happy to keep advertising the deal even though Virgin wasn't honouring it. I'm not the only one who's had problems.

If you followed the deal and are in a similar situation my advice is to submit a complaint as early as possible. To follow up the complaint, call during UK office hours and select the 'thinking of leaving us' option and insist on getting the agent's email (or their managers email) to forward your email confirmation to.

If you're looking for a broadband deal, don't pick Virgin.