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Virgin Media Default Preventing Mortage
Hi everyone
I've seen a few of these Virgin Media default threads but seems there haven't been any for a few years so thought I'd ask the community again.
We switched to Vodafone from Virgin last year, and were issued a final bill of 100 quid
I assumed it would have been taken by direct debit as normal but for some reason I had to pay this one manaully which I wasn't made aware of.
The bill went unpaid and now I have a default.
We never received it by post. And were never warned about an incoming default.
We have found emails since issuing the final bill that were filtered into spam.
But no warning about teh default was made. We contacted virgin about a seperate matter months latter, and they never mentioned anything.
They also continued to take money from our direct debit months after the final bill, when they charged us for the old set top box.
Once it came up on a credit check we called and eventually found someone to pay (we were originally told it had been sold off to a debt collector but that turned out to be false)
We're not getting the usual "it will come off in 6 years" two line email from the credit file amendment team.
I see Virgin aren't covered by the Ombudsmen, and teh ICO turnaround time is 40 weeks according the their automatic response email.
Chatgpt / Google etc seems to think we have a case of disproportianlity, poor customer serivce / communication etc
Just wanted to get the boards opinon on whether it is pointless to keep trying to get this removed, or whether anyone has ever successfully had a default removed when it wasn't applied in error?
Thank you in advance!
Comments
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I see Virgin aren't covered by the Ombudsmen
Virgin Media's nominated ADR provider is CISAS:
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints#72b3c991-3ffa-45a4-bec4-73d3ea71bff4
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What are you aiming to achieve?
There is no legal requirement to issue you a notice of default, it's only a recommendation
Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness:
People are rich because they spend less money. A poor man buys $10 boots that last a season or two before he's walking in wet shoes and has to buy another pair. A rich man buys $50 boots that are made better and give him 10 years of dry feet. The poor man has spent $100 over those 10 years and still has wet feet.
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Cheers for the response, aiming to get the default removed.
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I'm not suggesting this wouldn't be possible. But viewing it entirely objectively, the fact is that you were in default. The fact that the emails went to your spam folder is a tenuous defence at best - it's always a good idea to give your spam folder a quick eyeball every so often, it's not at all uncommon for genuine mails to find their way in there. So the default marker is factually correct.
By all means, try and negotiate with them to get it removed - and I sincerely hope that you succeed. But you must bear in mind the facts, and try to interpret them as a totally impartial third-party would, if that make sense.
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Complaining like the AI is suggesting is somewhat pointless as it automatically puts them against you, rather than working with you. You owed £100, you missed the bill and reminders as they were spam - so they sent them and did what they need to do to issue a default for missed payments. You could ask nicely by explaining the impact, emphasise you were a good customer etc but I suspect it won't make a difference if they are already saying no. A single payment issue will lessen over time on an otherwise well managed file but you might need to work with a broker who specialises in this area
Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness:
People are rich because they spend less money. A poor man buys $10 boots that last a season or two before he's walking in wet shoes and has to buy another pair. A rich man buys $50 boots that are made better and give him 10 years of dry feet. The poor man has spent $100 over those 10 years and still has wet feet.
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I can't get the quote function to work but the OP said:
"They also continued to take money from our direct debit months after the final bill, when they charged us for the old set top box."
So why didn't Virgin take the last bill via the same Direct Debit?
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It is astonishing that they did not collect their money via a mandate that they held
It is even more astonishing that other forum members think this type of behaviour is acceptable
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How is the OP in default when Virgin Media held an active direct debit mandate ?
If they did this to me they would be explaining why to a district judge
( Well they more that likely wouldn't in practice because I imagine they would remove the wrong default before it got to that stage)
1 -
Not sure that anyone has said, or even implied, that failure to take payment for a final bill by DD was 'acceptable', but it's legitimate to highlight that in itself this doesn't give OP some sort of 'get out of jail free' card to get a default removed - as OP admitted:
Just wanted to get the boards opinon on whether it is pointless to keep trying to get this removed, or whether anyone has ever successfully had a default removed when it wasn't applied in error?
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Perhaps they cancelled it, perhaps it is their contractually agreed process that final bills are not paid that way
Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness:
People are rich because they spend less money. A poor man buys $10 boots that last a season or two before he's walking in wet shoes and has to buy another pair. A rich man buys $50 boots that are made better and give him 10 years of dry feet. The poor man has spent $100 over those 10 years and still has wet feet.
0
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