O2 charging for mobile I was told was included in my Virgin Media package

alfiethecat

VM phoned me on 24.2.24 to renew my contract, offering a discounted package of £59/month that included O2 mobile. I didn't and don't want O2 mobile but was told I couldn't get the discounted VM package without it and repeatedly assured the £10/month O2 charge was included in the package so I may as well have it and didn't have to use it if I didn't want to. The call was unexpected and I felt under pressure to go ahead though I wasn't convinced the sales agent understood anything outside her script. On 27.2.24 O2 charged me £8.97 for a SIM. On 3.3.24 I manaed to get hold of VM on WhatsApp who said this was a one-off extra so I got VOLT (??) and thus qualified for the VM discount, and I wouldn't get any more O2 charges til the contract expires in August 2025. On 26.3.24 O2 charged me £10 "monthly charge". Having managed to get through to a customer services rep to challenge this (no mean feat, I may add), I was told my belief that the O2 charges were included in the VM contract was my misunderstanding and "that's not going to happen". I've raised a complaint with VM but wondered if others have had this experience? I've been with VM for years and happy to recommend them until a year or so ago when their formerly excellent customer service turned into bots and getting hold of a human takes half a day and then they can only do what some machine tells them they can. And question 2, if I may: how do I find a different provider that's any better than VM? It seems they're all as bad as each other and customers have no choice but to put up with being ripped off.

born_again

Have been with VM & 02 for years. Since Volt came in merged with my 02 contract.
You get billed separate for both, but get cheaper price on the bundle & double data.

In effect you only get Volt package deals when you have both Virgin & 02 packages.

Billxx

I can concur with born_again.  We used to have a VM sim with un-limited data.  This was migrated to o2 (who charge separately), but the overall package is cheaper as a result, with faster broadband.

I can also concur that VM customer service is atrocious.   

dazzaofdagenham

I agreed a retention deal with VM / O2 last October which included a sim only deal on O2 for calls and texts and small amount of data.

Was chasing them for months and each blamed the other….Had copies of WhatsApp that backed up what i said…
After complaint was ignored, went to ombudsman who decided in my favour…and still VM ignored me..

So I’ve issued a “letter before action” to them.

will update,,,

alfiethecat

Thank you for taking the trouble to comment on my issue, I really appreciate it and it's helped make me feel less resentful while also not wasting any further time and blood pressure on it. I still feel like I was tricked into this but I guess I am getting a cheaper package than I would have had otherwise. When my contract comes up for renewal next time, I'll be more proactive in shopping around ahead of time - in true MSE fashion - rather than being caught on the hop by Virgin bouncing me into something I don't properly understand.

saajan_12

Hope you got this sorted. I had something similar, where I was looking to move away after the end of my minimum contract. Virgin Retentions called back and after much back and forth, they offered £x for the broadband / tv / phone line / o2 mobile, being very explicit what the data would be with the Volt benefits and that £x – 10 would be charged by Virgin, and £10 by O2. Accepted, and billing comes through at £x by Virgin, £10 + VAT by O2 (no business line involved, so no idea why it would be a pre-vat price discussed).

 

Complained to Virgin, and eventually after someone listening back to the recordings of my calls, they agreed to my interpretation of the offer. They gave me a bill credit for the £10 each month, which still meant that any RPI increases would be higher than they should be (as the £x increases, but the -£10 doesn’t) but was close enough and I couldn’t bear any more calls.  Also got O2 to reduce to a slightly smaller data for £10 inc VAT which again was close enough to the original deal.

 

So OP, expect some hassle and an imperfect solution, but you should get close to what you bargained for. The answer for me was getting them to listen to the recordings.

prowla

VM CS is awful; I've always had to call multiple times before I get to someone who: a. has a clue and b. isn't lying to me (yes, I've had one of them tell me that the previous one I spoke was lying).