Virgin Media fake usage charges and fallout

StewDart

Hello all, I wonder if I could please beg some advice.

• Sat 15 July: Virgin Media suspend services, no warning. Call them and find out I have 'unbilled usage charges on phone'. Obviously I object to having services suspended for not paying for something I haven't been billed for. They say they have to send an engineer.

• Tue 18 July: services mysteriously restored, and now the unbilled usage charges have appeared on the account. There are £500+ of calls, all to the same number, which is the Virgin Media customer service line. For example:

There is a landline service on the package, but there has *never* been a phone installed.

• I immediately cancel my direct debit, so they don't take the £500 from me.

• Later on that day an engineer visits, concludes he can't do anything and they need to send a 'second level' engineer.

• Time passes. Nothing happens. I lodge complaints. I call them again. Get promised an investigation into complaint within a week. Complaint is simply deleted in that time. I lodge more complaints. Eventually a second engineer is booked 1pm-6pm on Fri 25 Aug. By this point, I'm getting warning calls about my account being in arrears.

• Fri 25 Aug: engineer turns up at 18:15—i.e. too late; everyone has assumed they're not coming and has had to leave the house. I try to explain what is happening on the phone to the engineer. Engineer says they will call their manager. I hear nothing further.

• Today. Services now suspended, no rebooking of engineer. No response to complaints.

What should I do?

Neil_Jones

What you shouldn't have done was cancel the direct debit, because all that does is trash your credit file for the next couple of years or so.

Have you put your complaint in writing (email or letter) or by phone?

Detail_Merchant

I've never experienced anything like that, but it sounds horrendous.
My only thought is to follow the VM complaints procedure: https://www.virginmedia.com/legal/consumer-complaint-resolution-code-practice

I notice in there it talks about first talking to a Customer Service Advisor, then a Manager, then a Senior Manager.
I guess you've done the first, but maybe you need to push for the Manager / Senior Manager route.

If all that doesn't work you may even need to go to adjudication with the Ombudsman, but hopefully it won't need to go that far.

Other angles might be to post about it on https://community.virginmedia.com/ (a customer forum, but posts can be referred to VM in some cases) or posting to https://twitter.com/virginmedia if you have a twitter/X account. 

iniltous

Try contacting the VM executive complaints team , the CEO , or even Beardy Branson himself, advise them that if this isn’t sorted out immediately you intend to contact your local or even  a national newspaper , considering ‘Which’ are asking for VM to be investigated ( for a different matter ) you would imagine that they won’t want further negative press.

Neil_Jones

iniltous said:

Try contacting the VM executive complaints team , the CEO , or even Beardy Branson himself, advise them that if this isn’t sorted out immediately you intend to contact your local or even  a national newspaper , considering ‘Which’ are asking for VM to be investigated ( for a different matter ) you would imagine that they won’t want further negative press.

Branson hasn't had anything to do with Virgin Media since 2007.  The whole "Virgin" thing is purely a licencing agreement.