I switched broadband to Sky 2 months ago but I am being billed by Virgin

7Kristian

Hi there

I would appreciate if someone could give me his/her thoughts.

 

My contract with Virgin ended up 25/4/2023. I was abroad at that time so called them in second-half of May when back. I did not like their new offer and did not sign for a new contract. Instead I decided to go for Sky and was given the impression they will take a complete care of the switch.

My contract with Sky started on the 1st of June and their engineer connected their router and disconnected the old Virgin one.

Again I was in the impression Sky took care of the administrative side of the switch and I cancelled the direct debit I had with Virgin. I went abroad soon after leaving this behind. I returned in the UK in the first week of July. On Thursday next week  I received an email from Virgin suggesting I am overdue payment for past 2 months and I owe them well over £100.

Only then I realised I have no proof of the switch. . I was naïve for not double-checking the switch actually happened but again I was travelling at that time and had different thoughts.

I spoke to Virgin representative yesterday and he insisted they have no proof of me switching so they have to proceed with the bill. I said well, since 1.6. I could not receive any data from you since the Virgin router is disconnected. I offered to pass them a copy of a my Sky contract  as a proof. 

That did not win it at all.

I obviously do not want to pay for a service I was not receiving.  Is there anything I can do?

 

To summarize it:

My contract with Virgin Ended by the end of April

I went for 2 months on a rolling month to month basis

My switch to Sky happened on the 1st of July.

They were supposed to handle the switch but completely but it did not happen.

 

 

Thank you for your time in advance

Peter

fine27

Hi
I believe virgin uses it own cable copper/fibre-optic coaxial cabling system where as sky uses Openreach cabinets to provide internet. They are both completely different. if you were changing from BT to Sky or Talktalk to Sky then they will be able to look after the whole switch for you however sky can't switch you over from virgin and take over the line as sky is different.
Sky should have made this more clearer to you when you purchased it over the phone. Have you reached out to their customer complaints and say you werent advised of this? They will have recording of the calls

QrizB

As above, Sky and Virgin use separate infrastructure and it's quite possible to have simultaneous service from both.

If you haven't cancelled your Virgin service, you have probably rolled onto their out-of-contract rates.

Peter999_2

Your contract did not end in April, all that happened was that the minimum term ended.    The contract itself does not end until you cancel it with them.

The switching service you expected to work does NOT work with Virgin, you have to manually contact them yourself to cancel the contract.

This has been an issue for years and years and OFCOM said in 2021 that there would be a "ONE TOUCH" switch where the new provider would perform the admin and cancel Virgin for you from April 2023.

Unfortunately, "broadband" firms were unable to complete to this timescale and it has now been delayed indefinitely.   No fines, not even smacked wrists.     What should have happened is that the companies should be meeting OFCOM every month since 2021 and shown what work they have done to facilitate the one touch switch.  If this had happened and they'd let OFCOM know that there was an issue and what they were doing to hit the deadline it would probably have happened or at least been heavily fined.      This is how the financial services ombudsmen works as I've been in the monthly meetings.  It's all civilised and we'd explain why we hadn't done something and the reasons why, and what we were doing to fix this.   I've never known it still being a problem after 2 years - usually it's a few months and the longer it goes on they let us know that they are going to fine us massive amounts which usually focuses the efforts somewhat.     

Ayr_Rage

Unfortunately it is your mistake.

Virgin would only have known Sky were involved at all if you had asked Sky to port you landline number over from Virgin, which I guess you didn't do.

Virgin would likely have contacted you but even then you would have to confirm that you wished to cancel their service.

iniltous

TBH , whoever installed your Sky service ( and that could  have been a Sky employee, an Openreach employee or an Openreach contractor shouldn’t have touched the Virgin Media equipment at all , their kit should only be interfered with by VM themselves ( or a VM contractor ) , so arguing that you couldn’t use VM after the Sky service was installed won’t sway VM at all , as already stated, if you had spoken to Sky ( rather than on line ) to arrange getting Sky broadband, and they were aware that Virgin were your existing provider they probably should have told you that getting Sky in itself changes nothing with VM , with ( as stated ) the exception of telephone, if you asked Sky to arrange porting the phone number from VM to Sky ,VM would know the phone service was no longer needed, but even if you did  this , it wouldn’t cease the VM broadband , just the phone .

Unfortunately, this is one where it’s not VM fault , and no refund is due 

prowla

Until recently I had both Virgin and Sky BB to my house - they run over separate infrastructure, so there's no porting for the incoming provider to take care of.

(I ditched Sky BB when their price went up by too much and I decided I no longer needed both.)

7Kristian

Thank you for your comments. I do not have a landline just a broadband I forgot to mention but I guess it makes a little difference. I am going to call Sky tomorrow and question them. I doubt it will change a thing.

So just to confirm where I am standing , although I haven't been using Virgin broadband service since end of May I am still forced to pay for it.

QrizB

7Kristian said:

Thank you for your comments. I do not have a landline just a broadband I forgot to mention but I guess it makes a little difference. I am going to call Sky tomorrow and question them. I doubt it will change a thing.

Correct. This isn't Sky's problem and Sky can't cancel your Virgin service.

7Kristian said:

So just to confirm where I am standing , although I haven't been using Virgin broadband service since end of May I am still forced to pay for it.

Correct. If you haven't cancelled your Virgin service, they will still be supplying it to you under the terms of your contract.

I hope you still have your Virgin box? They may well ask for it back.

onomatopoeia99

7Kristian said:

Thank you for your comments. I do not have a landline just a broadband I forgot to mention but I guess it makes a little difference. I am going to call Sky tomorrow and question them. I doubt it will change a thing.

So just to confirm where I am standing , although I haven't been using Virgin broadband service since end of May I am still forced to pay for it.

You should speak to Virgin and cancel their service, you are still "in contract" with them, but with a reduced notice period (probably 30 days), the unhelpful "out of contract" language used on sites like this is completely incorrect and should not be used. 

Don't know why you think speaking to Sky will help, as it won't.

7Kristian

Thank you for your reply.

I did that today, called them, cancelled the service and with a heavy heart paid for 2 months I was already physically disconnected.

Lesson learned.