Virgin Media charged me £938 early disconnection fee

2plus2is4

Posting in case it helps others and to see if anyone has suggestions on what to do next.

I was out of contract with Virgin Media, and our new bill was going up to £93 a month. On 22 May 2025, I called to ask about a better deal and said I was considering switching to a CityFibre provider. I was offered a new contract at £45 per month and told I had a 14-day cooling-off period. The advisor said that if I decided to switch, the new contract would be cancelled when Virgin Media received notification via One Touch Switch.

On 23 May, I signed up with Zen Broadband using the One Touch Switch process. Zen confirmed Virgin Media had acknolwedged. On 24 May, I received a text from Virgin Media confirming they were aware I was moving my service. No emails from Virgin.

On 31 May, I noticed the new contract was still showing in my Virgin Media account. I called to check and was told not to worry, that this was just how the system displays it, but the contract had been cancelled. I explained that I wanted to make sure the cancellation had been processed correctly within the 14-day cooling-off period. I asked for confirmation via email, but was told this wasn’t allowed. I was told instead that they could send my final bill, and that the call was recorded with notes added. A bill was emailed the same day it said £93, with no disconnection fee.

The switch happened on 9 June 2025. Then on the 11 June, Virgin Media emailed with a bill that included a £938.87 as an early disconnection charge.

I tried calling Virgin but kept getting cut off. When I got through to someone on web chat, I was told the charge was correct because the switch happened after 14 days. They refused to acknowledge that Virgin received notice on 23 May through One Touch Switch, and again when I called on 31 May both within the 14-day cooling-off period.

I raised a formal complaint, while on web chat. I eventually managed to speak to someone at Virgin via their retentions team who agreed the early disconnection charge should not have been applied and their Manager would issue a credit within 24 hours. I’m still waiting for this to happen.

Virgin Media’s own website says this about One Touch Switch:

“Your old provider will then send you information about leaving your contract, which’ll include your final contract date and any fees you might owe if you’re leaving early. If you’re happy with these terms, you’ll be able to give permission to your new provider that you want to proceed with the switch.”

We received the bill after the switch had already been completed, not before and with no advance warning about any early termination charges.

I had been a Virgin customer for 15 years. We moved to save money. This has been stressful, and I feel misled and let down despite acting within my rights and being told by Virgin Media staff that no fees would apply, but we still have a £900 invoice waiting to be paid.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

Any advice on next steps if they don’t follow through on removing the charge?

Much appreciated.

iniltous

No criticism  (well not much anyway ) but if the £45 offer was never good enough to make you stay with VM , why did you say OK to it in the first place  , especially as you contacted the Alternative Network provider the day after accepting the VM offer , presumably at the time you said OK to Virgin you already knew you were going to be moving to City Fibre and be dumping VM

…..although it’s reasonable for you to to assume that if VM said it’s risk free and therefore it’s OK to sign up again with VM because you had 14 days to change your mind , the fact the next day you sign up with someone else the next day shows you were never seriously considering staying with VM , personally I wouldn’t have said Yes to VM unless I was going to honour the agreement.

FWIW , unless you were moving a phone number from VM to Zen , then OTS is just an unnecessary complication, you could have signed up with CF/Zen and cancelled VM yourself, relying on OTS seems to have screw*d you over ….hopefully VM will not hold you to what they say is the early termination charges you now owe , but if they can ‘prove’ they never received your cancellation within the 14 days after 22 May , they may play hard ball .

2plus2is4

Thanks, just to clarify a couple of points.

I didn’t accept the Virgin deal with the intention of cancelling. I spent nearly 2 hours on the phone trying to get a better deal and only said yes after being told the contract would be provisional, with a 14-day cooling-off period, and that switching provider would automatically cancel it. They even set the contract start date for the next day.

What changed is that I signed up with Zen the following day. On 31 May, still well within the cooling-off period, I logged into my Virgin account and saw the new contract was still showing. That prompted me to call Virgin to say it should have been cancelled. I was told it had been, that no early exit fees would apply, and that notes had been made on the account. They even emailed me what they said was my final bill £90 to reassure me.

So this wasn’t just relying on the One Touch Switch process, I also manually contacted Virgin to cancel the contract, 7 days into the 14-day cooling-off period. What I’ve now discovered is that they chose not to action that request and then hit me with a £938 disconnection charge after the switch completed.

flaneurs_lobster

2plus2is4 said:

Thanks, just to clarify a couple of points.

I didn’t accept the Virgin deal with the intention of cancelling. I spent nearly 2 hours on the phone trying to get a better deal and only said yes after being told the contract would be provisional, with a 14-day cooling-off period, and that switching provider would automatically cancel it. They even set the contract start date for the next day.

What changed is that I signed up with Zen the following day. 

As you've described it, it sounds like that's exactly what you have done.

2plus2is4

Is it not my right to change my mind during the 14 day cooling-off period?

That’s exactly what I did and I followed Virgin’s own process to do it. I called again on day 9 of the cooling off period to confirm cancellation directly. I think it’s completely fair to expect them to action that, especially when their advisor said it had been cancelled and there would be no early exit fees. Then emailed me what the said was the final bill of £90.

QrizB

2plus2is4 said:

Is it not my right to change my mind during the 14 day cooling-off period?

Yes.

2plus2is4 said:

That’s exactly what I did and I followed Virgin’s own process to do it.

It's not entirely clear what you did. You said:

2plus2is4 said:

The advisor said that if I decided to switch, the new contract would be cancelled when Virgin Media received notification via One Touch Switch.

The one touch switch didn't go through until the 9th of June, which is more than 14 days after the 22nd of May. If your contract with Virgin was only cancelled when the OTS happened, you missed the 14-day window.

However you also said:

2plus2is4 said:

On 31 May, ... I explained that I wanted to make sure the cancellation had been processed correctly within the 14-day cooling-off period. I asked for confirmation via email, but was told this wasn’t allowed. I was told instead that they could send my final bill, and that the call was recorded with notes added. A bill was emailed the same day it said £93, with no disconnection fee.

A lot is going to depend on what you agreed with that CS rep and what notes were recorded on your account.

Hopefully Virgin's complaints process will get to the bottom of this and you'll get a satisfactory outcome.

flaneurs_lobster

Can someone confirm, isn't a "cooling-off period" mandated when goods/services are bought at a distance and therefore cannot be fully evaluated before delivery. 

An existing service has already been "evaluated", no cooling-off period applies? 

iniltous

Hopefully you are not taking this post as an opportunity to ‘bash’ you over your choices , but presumably you knew the CF/Zen price when you called VM to see what they could do on their price , if VM’s £45 was inferior to Zen (assuming price was  the overriding factor) then I’d have thought saying ‘goodbye’ at that point was (and may turn out to be ) the better option …..

however VM did say it’s risk free and you also called independently within the 14 days to quit irrespective of the Zen/OTS apparent  screw up on advising VM about your choice to leave VM , and although hindsight is 20/20 personally I’d not have trusted to luck (and Zen) and if £45 wasn’t good enough to stop myself moving to Zen ( although in truth Zen are not the company they once were and in my opinion are trading on their previous good standing ) ,I’d have been upfront about it , even if the VM rep were using all sorts of delaying tactics, but I do hope it works out for you , it’s a huge penalty .

TBH it’s this sort of hassle though that makes me decline any ‘you can’t lose’ offers , you often see similar posts to yours from  people saying  ‘ I signed up with a company, then saw a better offer from someone else so signed up with them , and now I’m being charged twice’ , basically why keep looking once you have made a choice , even if ultimately you get it sorted to your satisfaction, who needs the grief.

QrizB

flaneurs_lobster said:

Can someone confirm, isn't a "cooling-off period" mandated when goods/services are bought at a distance and therefore cannot be fully evaluated before delivery. 
An existing service has already been "evaluated", no cooling-off period applies? 

I am not a lawyer, but if a broadband contract is a subscription contract per section 253 et seq of the DCC 2024 then you get a new cooling off period with each contract.

(The legislation isn't really designed to be read on a phone.)

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/13/contents

2plus2is4

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post and help. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I really appreciate the honest advice. I was with Virgin for 15 years, and I can’t tell you how hard it felt to actually say no and leave, but that’s just me and a lesson learnt.

Quick update:

The complaints team emailed to say the early disconnection charge was correct, but they never mentioned my phone call on 31 May 2025.

So I called Virgin. 

The first person I spoke to looked into it properly, confirmed I had called and they had notes from 31 May, and could see that I had clearly opted out of the new contract during the 14-day cooling-off period. 

They then transferred me to someone else to process the charge removal. That second person also confirmed I had opted out and said their Team Manager would remove the early disconnection charge, with an updated bill to follow within 1–3 business days.

Fingers crossed!

QrizB

Glad to hear that it's all been sorted out