Virgin Media disconnections

yacein

Virgin are almost laughably dishonest. They're employing tactics that verge on fraud to stop people leaving.

Forgive the long story, but let me explain, in case it can help anyone else.

I got a letter saying my price would go up by £3.25/month, and I could cancel with no disconnection fee. So, since I found a better deal with Vodafone, I ring them to cancel. As soon as I get through he menus to the disconnection dept I get an automated message telling me they've applied a discount of £3.25. (The same amount - this is not a coincidence, as you'll see).

I hold anyway and eventually get through to someone in customer retentions. They offer me a better deal (£2 less for 5x the speed), but still worse than their new customer deals (and much worse than Vodafone's promo). I persist and say I would like to cancel.

This is where the kicker comes.

The person tells me that not everyone's price is going up, but the letter about the price rise was sent out to ALL customers (because VM are super lovely and conscientious like that). If I'm not one of the people whose package price is going up, I "might" be charged a disconnection fee for my remaining months. She checks and says my old last bill was £40.50, and my next will be... (dramatic pause while she supposedly checks) ...£40.50. She says I "might" be charged a disconnection fee, but she can't decide - the system decides, only after I cancel. Am I sure I want to carry on?

Obviously this is complete horseradish. The price is the same because of the automated discounted applied at the start. I insisted on cancelling and (surprise) the system decided my cancellation fee was £0.00.

But the suggestion that it's basically a roll of the dice, is clearly a lie to scare people off. I write about it here because I'm sure it will work on people less stubborn than me, and, honestly, I think this kind of tactic should be talked about. It's so dishonest. I will never go back to Virgin, they're just crooks.

Anyone else had anything similar?

HaroldWren5

yacein said:

Virgin are almost laughably dishonest. They're employing tactics that verge on fraud to stop people leaving.

Forgive the long story, but let me explain, in case it can help anyone else.

I got a letter saying my price would go up by £3.25/month, and I could cancel with no disconnection fee. So, since I found a better deal with Vodafone, I ring them to cancel. As soon as I get through he menus to the disconnection dept I get an automated message telling me they've applied a discount of £3.25. (The same amount - this is not a coincidence, as you'll see).

I hold anyway and eventually get through to someone in customer retentions. They offer me a better deal (£2 less for 5x the speed), but still worse than their new customer deals (and much worse than Vodafone's promo). I persist and say I would like to cancel.

This is where the kicker comes.

The person tells me that not everyone's price is going up, but the letter about the price rise was sent out to ALL customers (because VM are super lovely and conscientious like that). If I'm not one of the people whose package price is going up, I "might" be charged a disconnection fee for my remaining months. She checks and says my old last bill was £40.50, and my next will be... (dramatic pause while she supposedly checks) ...£40.50. She says I "might" be charged a disconnection fee, but she can't decide - the system decides, only after I cancel. Am I sure I want to carry on?

Obviously this is complete horseradish. The price is the same because of the automated discounted applied at the start. I insisted on cancelling and (surprise) the system decided my cancellation fee was £0.00.

But the suggestion that it's basically a roll of the dice, is clearly a lie to scare people off. I write about it here because I'm sure it will work on people less stubborn than me, and, honestly, I think this kind of tactic should be talked about. It's so dishonest. I will never go back to Virgin, they're just crooks.

Anyone else had anything similar?

Agreed on them being crooks. Did you manage to get with Vodafone then?