Virgin media dispute

Gremlin47

Hello everyone, 

I'm hoping for a bit of advice regarding a Virgin Media dispute. 

I've had broadband with them for sometime and recently moved house. When we moved I transferred over my existing contact to my new home. Or at least I thought I did. 

We continued to use their service in our new home but last month I noticed a price increase on my direct debit (£21.50 to £54.50 which is a whopping 153% increase).

I called to question it and have been told that when we moved our contract was not in fact transferred over, instead we were given a new contract period of an 18 months. Now our discount period has expired and we have to pay the new amount until August 24.

This was absolutely not explained at the time. We were told that our contract was being transferred and the our period and bill would remain the same.

Am I now told that our options are to buy out the contract, pay the increased amount for 10 months, or agree a new deal at a new rate for 18 months. None of these are an acceptable solution for me. 

I am told that an email would have been sent outlining the new contract when we moved house. That may be the case, but it wasn't explained over phone so I wouldn't have read the email (silly I know).

I have not consented to the period increase verbally or digitally.

Does anyone know where I stand here? 

They've offered me a new price of £38.50 but I have to agree to a new 18 month contract which, obviously, I don't want to do as that is still a 79% increase. 

Am I stuck here? Do I have to pay this legally? What happens if I cancel my DD?

I feel like I've been lied to, ripped off and now held to ransom.

Their call center staff were unhelpful. 

Why they treat existing customers like this I don't know. 

Any advice would be really appreciated. 

Thanks all 🙂

ladruid

Cancelling your DD could be a bad idea. It could effect your credit rating, and possibly your debt could be passed to a debt recovery agency.

I would start by raising a formal Virgin complaint, outlining the timeline of events and see where you get with that. The complaints team have so much more power than the call centres.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

iniltous

When moving home and remaining with the provider, they often , as the ‘price’ of not holding you to term at the old address ( depending if the customer was within a minimum term ) is they require you to start a new minimum term at the new address, basically it’s not the continuation of the existing arrangement, it’s a new one.
If someone only had one or two months left on a ‘contract’ , at the old address , then there is nothing in it for the provider if they had the  expense of providing service at the new address but potentially would only have the customer for one or two months, and  TBH , it’s not really that onerous, if the customer was out of contract at the old address ( so no termination charges ) and decided to not use the same provider at the new address , whatever provider they did decide to use would undoubtedly require a minimum term , in other words if you had dumped Virgin as you moved , paid any ETC ( if there were any ) and then  used ( for arguments sake ) Sky ,at the new address , then you would be within a minimum term with Sky .
Having said that , the terms of the ‘deal’ at the new address should have been provided both verbally and then by email or letter 

Gremlin47

Thank you both for your advice. I have submitted a complaint and will see what they say. 

ladruid

Gremlin47 said:

Thank you both for your advice. I have submitted a complaint and will see what they say. 

Good luck and hope you get a positive outcome.

Rubyred27x

Hi, just wondering what happened here. I’m in the same boat and I have been arguing over the phone for six weeks now. I had four months contract left and told them that I will under no circumstances change my contact. I was told it was now rolling and it would sort its self out. After lots of reading they do this with everyone. On each of my calls I have asked them to be recorded for future reference and told they re recorded any way. I will never ever use Virgin Media again when this is sorted. Never ever have I had such rude rip off company in my life.