Virgin Media marking a late payment on my credit file, but the error was theirs.

MichaelRRR

Hi,

I became a Virgin Media customer last year. When I signed up, they got my bank details wrong for my direct debit, which resulted in them not being able to take my first payment. The error was at their end. I contacted them immediately, found out they had bank details that were nothing to do with me, and gave them the correct details. The next payment missed because my details were incorrect again - despite me giving them the correct details. For some reason, there was a problem at their end with my account and they kept trying to take payments from an account completely unrelated to mine, which resulted in the bank account holder reversing the charges through their bank.

Virgin finally managed to fix this problem. Saw and acknowledged my efforts to make sure they had the correct details for me, and acknowledged the error at their end. (I spent hours on the phone trying to pay my bill). I consistently provided them the correct details to take the payment and they consistently tried to take payments from an account that had nothing to do with me. They never explained how this happened, but finally managed to fix it after about three months. They gave me a credit by way of apology for their error and finally took the payment. I've not had any reason to check my credit file before now, but I can see in January they've marked me down for a missed payment. Technically it was a missed payment, but they've acknowledged it was a problem at their end and not mine.

What's the best way for me to go about complaining / amending that negative mark on my credit file? It's the only blemish on my credit file, but has had an impact on me. How do I go about making sure the resulting impact of Virgin's error is amended?

[Deleted User]

Call them up and ask them to remove it. Pretty straightforward.

Fighter1986

Raise it as a formal written complaint breaking the complaint into three sections:

1. What the issue is
2. What steps have been taken so far to attempt resolution of the issue
3. What you require they do in resolution to the complaint (e.g. remove the late payment markers from your credit file).

Close by explaining that should the late payment markers not be removed within 56 days you'll be escalating the matter to the Communications Ombudsman. 

Mal85

I have had something similer with Virgin. I have had to go to the Ombudsman about them. Woefully incompetant. 

maxximus75

If they have notated your account with the fact it was their error then, it should be pretty straight forward for them to resolve.

Wozza85

Exactly the same thing happened to me. Ended my TV and broadband and they put a missed payment on my file. I called Experian and they put a note on my account saying I was contesting it and 1 week later it was corrected by Virgin and the account is now settled and all ok. I've never missed a payment so I was fuming when I saw it and made sure it was corrected