I Tried to Cancel my Contract with Virgin Media and Then This Happened...

Sleepless_in_London

After being a customer of Virgin Media for 6 years I noticed my bills creeping up from £20+ to £40+ over the years so I called them up a month ago to cancel a bundle I had with them. I tried to cancel the 'broadband-phoneline+cableTV' bundle every year as they would always ring to push me to renew and I used to go with it. Every year, on the call, they said that that's all they could offer and it was actually the cheapest deal that VM could do for me. I've only ever used VM's broadband. It's all I ever wanted from them (Virgin's service is very fast) and have not used the landline or the cable TV at all. Every year I'd tell them that I just wanted a broadband service and they would simply say that 'Actually, I know this sounds crazy, but it works out cheaper if you take this bundle than if you went on a broadband-only deal'.

I have since discovered this to be a lie. 

Through VM's website I rang up, waited for 50 minutes to speak to someone and basically told them I wanted to leave. They made it quite difficult by concocting some rubbish about how, as a company, VM can offer differently priced discounts on different days and that they could only offer me a £2.50 discount off my bill that day if I wanted to go ahead or, if I rang back over the weekend or on the following Monday (I rang on a Thursday) they could probably offer me some more discount. That just sounded like a load of nonsense, so I told the lady that I wanted to cancel and wasn't prepared to ring back again and wait another 50 minutes to speak to someone.

There was some back and forth and then she put me on hold. I believe she was probably speaking to her team leader who was coaching her on how to 'manage' me. Sure enough, she came back on the line and said that she had spoken to her manager and that he told her she could call me back herself next week and offer me a better discount. I've since talked to a friend about this and believe it is Virgin Media's strategy to offer this because they bank on the fact that most people will forget or won't be bothered to call back (therefore no contract is cancelled and the customer is retained). 

I pushed to end my contract and then it was done. I was told that I would receive confirmation of my cancellation which I received.

The next day, some man from Virgin Media's loyalty team rang me very apologetically and put on quite an incredulous tone as if he was hugely siding with me and explained how it was crazy that the 'other department at Virgin Media' wouldn't offer me a much higher discount because he could.

Previously, I used to pay around £45 a month for that horrid bundle every VM agent I ever spoke to would say was the best deal that they had and could offer. This guy, however, from VM's Loyalty Department, said that he could offer me a broadband-only deal at £20 per month which is what I originally wanted at heart (as I could see VM offered this to new customers on comparison sites). He then said he would arrange it for me and I said 'That's great thank you. I will accept that. Please email me confirmation'. He said it was no problem, that he was happy to help and would email me the confirmation and set it up for me.

That was over 10 days ago and since then I have received nothing as a confirmation. In fact, what I have received is another confirmation of cancelling my account instead! Whenever I look and check my online account with Virgin Media it still says I am on my old package still.

Can anyone explain what is going on? I suspect that Virgin Media are trying to buy time so that I think I'm back on with them at £20 per month so that I don't sign-up with another internet service and then end up staying with Virgin out of desperation (I understand that it can take several weeks, if not more, to set up with other service providers so need to sign-up with them early.

Has anyone else experienced this? I have found my whole dealings and experience (all that's been described above) with them this past month as very, very dodgy and unethical.

Like most people who are busy working, I don't have lots of time and opportunity to deal with phone companies and internet providers and this experience has been a shocker.

I just can't stand how these large companies employ all of these crazy tactics to try and get their customers to stay. It's like how I recently was sent a cheque from EE. Why, in this day and age, would a large company like that not simply credit a debit/credit card of mine but instead send me a cheque!? It's because they know, statistically, that people lose their cheques or simply don't have the time to queue up at a bank and pay them in (therefore they, in theory, get out of paying that customer back!) 

[Deleted User]

Sleepless_in_London said:

I just can't stand how these large companies employ all of these crazy tactics to try and get their customers to stay. 

You're confusing 'crazy tactics' with simple disorganisation.

They're not trying to buy time.  They're just suffering the usual interdepartmental confusion of a large, disparate organisation.

Sleepless_in_London

Deleted_User said:

Sleepless_in_London said:

I just can't stand how these large companies employ all of these crazy tactics to try and get their customers to stay. 

You're confusing 'crazy tactics' with simple disorganisation.

They're not trying to buy time.  They're just suffering the usual interdepartmental confusion of a large, disparate organisation.

So you don't think telling me that they offer different discounts on different days one of those tactics? What about asking me to call back, i.e. spend another 50-min phone call to play Discount Bingo with them? 
I get that your point refers mostly to the way VM has gone quiet on me, but it doesn't explain the above behaviour at all. 

OrbitHeadache

I have paid at most £24 for the last 5 years for either 50 or 100 fibre virgin broadband. At the end of every contract they try to double the price every time I have managed to stay on the same price or lower.

That's why I can never understand why some virgin customers like the op have a big issue when they approach the end of contract.
 Maybe the OP should have insisted on cancelling instead of agreeing to ring back a week later?

binao

OrbitHeadache said:

I have...................................
 Maybe the OP should have insisted on cancelling instead of agreeing to ring back a week later?

I like it. Then V would have been ringing the OP.

I'm convinced hard ball player's accounts are marked HBP🏋️🤗

moneysavinghero

They view you as a mug that is willing to pay £45 for a service that costs £20. They don't want to lose mugs like you (you are very profitable for them) so they are pulling out all the tricks that they know the mugs usually just go along with.

Gary1963

I am now paying £14.20 for M100.  I too don't understand the prices that people are prepared to pay. 

OrbitHeadache

Gary1963 said:

I am now paying £14.20 for M100.  I too don't understand the prices that people are prepared to pay. 

Is that via cashback? A brilliant deal.

Has to be said I do agree with others, the fact that people just agree to pay double than they were paying as a new customer is mind boggling.

Just be organised and play the system and eventually the price always goes down.

Gary1963

I was paying £18,20 for M100. Then was offered M500 for £22. Decided I didn't need that speed and asked to be put back to M100. 
No idea how this price came about. I thought the agent said £18.20. But contract arrived.