Virgin Media Cancellation, Argh!

MissCellaneous

Hello all. I'm having such an awful time with Virgin Media (or rather, Virgin.net) at the moment. Just sent them the below email (to support@ and credit@ gleaned from the web form) along with my contact details and all the usual stuff. I'm not very good at blagging or being an angry customer. Do you think I have a leg to stand on?

I recently attempted to move home with my Virgin ADSL broadband + Talk package, and was told that I would have to start a new minimum 12month term. I was told that there was no other option, and although I thought that this was underhanded, I was forced to agree just to move my services!

Now, I started out with NTL cable years ago. I was then moved over to Virgin Cable bb+phone etc for a long time (all great services), and was then forced to move down to the BT line ADSL service when we moved out of a cable area. Staying with Virgin in another form was the only way to avoid charges, although the new service was to cost me more!

Since then (6mo) service has been dreadful, even incurring a loss of earnings for my partner, who relies on an internet connection to do his job ‘on call’ from home. Now, as you can imagine, I was loathe to start a brand new contract just to move house. So although I had been forced to put the home move order through, today I thought ‘That’s enough’, and rang up to cancel, intending to join Sky instead. Although I’ve been a loyal customer for years, I was told I would still have to pay a cancellation fee due to my minimum term, which you’ve managed to keep running in different forms for years! I mentioned the figure £50 as being the only charge I had seen documented on the website, and was not told that this was incorrect.

I was so angry that this morning I then cancelled my Direct Debit (ok, not the best idea I ever had). I then rang through to the debt collections dept, to see what effect this would have. I was told that I would be sent a letter asking for payment, and would only be defaulting if I did not then pay that request, which is fair enough. But he then told me that my charge is actually the remaining 6 months of my contract, and not just £50, since I took up a ‘bundle’, with the call package too. That was not made clear to me.

So, now I’m stuck with the option of paying around £90 (and obviously any remaining call charges etc, plus a £5 fee for not paying by Direct Debit, I bet) following a letter from your debt collections dept – or, staying with my bundle (i.e. cancelling my cancellation!), which I don’t want to do, and suffering with bad broadband service for another 12months.

I feel bullied and trapped by your company. Can you please help me with this, or pass my request on to someone who can? I’ve been a customer for years - is there nothing you can do?

johnbakie

I'm in a similarly annoying situation with Virgin Media, and i never even recieved any services from them apart from about 50 letters.

I called them last summer to get internet and asked them to send an engineer to sort it out for me. Took the day off work to wait for this engineer and they never turned up. I called back and said they'd have to send someone at the weekend as i wasn't going to take another day off for them. They said they would and of course, no one ever showed up.

I called them on the Monday and said i didn't want the service and didn;t expect to be charged, which i was told was fine. I got a BT deal and it was all ok.

However, i checked my bank statement a few months later and found that they had gone and charged me. I called them up to complain and get a refund and they said i need to get an indemnity claim form to get the money back (why they couldn't just send a cheque i don't know). However, my bank (who i trust more to give me correct information) said Virgin need to send a letter confirming how much i need to be refunded (and they also said sending a cheque would be far easier for everyone). I went back to Virgin and they just keep insisting that i don't need this letter, despite my bank saying I do. Does anyone know who is right in this case?? Also, i keep getting letters demanding money because i cancelled the direct debit as soon as I found out about it. My advice to everyone is NEVER under any circumstances should you use a Virgin Media service as they are one of the most disorganised bunch of clowns i've ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

Jamz

If your partner needs internet for work then his work should be paying for business ADSL on your homeline

Blacksheep1979

as Jamz says - you would have been wise not to mention using the internet for work, it probably puts you in breech of contract.

MissCellaneous

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

as Jamz says - you would have been wise not to mention using the internet for work, it probably puts you in breech of contract.

6. Prohibited Uses of Virgin Media's Systems, Services and Equipment

• ...
• 6.1.4. trade or business use of the Services of any kind unless used during the course of working away from the usual place of work (“home working”). The Services are for residential use only.

It's just 'home working' when he's on call, so we should be fine, but it just makes things even more difficult for us. I've had no joy anyway - I even got my bank to reinstate the DD to avoid extra charges and nasty letters. I'm just waiting to pay them a huge load of cash. I'm signed up to a great Sky deal as of Saturday, but I'm well out of pocket. VM totally won.

johnbakie, I agree, and I sympathise with you - steer clear of VM, everyone.

emmadibbs

We couldn't even cancel our Virgin contract when we were not tied in. We moved to a non cable area and so rang to give notice thinking it would be cancelled but NO, they kept sending bills and it took a good 10 phone calls to them and the threat of court action to get the contract cancelled.

dan.jan

Just found myself in a similar situation - had a Virgin Broadband account for years (with the rather attractive no-contract feature). However, a couple of months ago, I switched to a Bundle (Broadband + Talk). Unbeknownst to me, they sneaked a 12-month term into this, meaning getting out now is looking to be very expensive.

They insist I would have received notification of the revised terms via email, but I can find no mention of it in the various confirmation emails I received at the time. As far I am concerned, I never agreed to change my notice period so I've demanded they honour my original terms and terminate without charge. Reading the other comments, I'm not very optimistic.

Has anybody had success with escaping in these circumstances? Please post to let us know how and who you contacted.

It's a shame; I always found Virgin to be a friendly, honest company, but recently my experiences have soured. The call centre staff are unhelpful and arrogant, technical support is via a premium rate number, and as I recently found, you can easily rack up £20 of calls to get something fixed which is arguably their fault. Finally, their website is a shambles - I can't believe that they still haven't managed to consolidate their various acquisitions into a coherent set of web pages.

Actually the only reason I was looking to quit was because I was so impressed with the website and reviews of Plus.net - roughly the same price but looks like a company who actually knows a thing or two about being an ISP, rather than the shoddy outfit that Virgin Media has become. I can't help thinking that Plus.net might even deliver something close to the promised 8MB, which Virgin has never even come close to.