Moving from Virgin Media – Contract Issues – Broadband

Doobydools

Hi everyone

Virgin (in the 'new' sense of the word!) poster here. Hope I've posted in the right place for this. Here goes...

Back in the Dark Ages (about 4 years ago), I signed up with NTL broadband. No problem there. Last year, I believe, Virgin Media took over and I noticed the drop in service, just as most people seem to have here.

Then I moved house (last Sep).

The good news: VM could transfer my cable broadband...

The bad news: It wasn't the quick and pain-free transfer they promised.

After a couple of rounds of what felt like being in the boxing ring with VM customer 'care' reps, and a few ensuing calls with the tech and management departments, all was sorted out. Eventually.

The thing is the service is still no way near that which I am paying for (£18/m - the 'M' broadband, I believe).

Worse, I get a letter today telling me that from my next statement (I have little under a few weeks to do anything about this), VM will start to charge me £5 PER month for continuing to pay the way I have always paid right from the start - by automatic credit card monthly payments.

That made my blood boil. Why they can't 'incentivise' customers by saying they'll slash off a couple of quid on their bill IF they opt for Direct Debit payments, as opposed to the punishment route if they don't, escapes me. What a strange world this is becoming. Customer care seems to mean customer 'slamming'.

Anyway, I just wondered whether I'm in my legal right to leave VM, and opt for another broadband service provider instead.

BTW, my original contract was with NTL, which was taken out years ago. Although VM told me a few weeks AFTER taking over NTL and later transferring the service to my new address that they would be sending out a new contract for me to sign, I still haven't received it.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

PS Sorry for the long post :A

poppy_f1

Doobydools wrote: »

Hi everyone

Virgin (in the 'new' sense of the word!) poster here. Hope I've posted in the right place for this. Here goes...

Back in the Dark Ages (about 4 years ago), I signed up with NTL broadband. No problem there. Last year, I believe, Virgin Media took over and I noticed the drop in service, just as most people seem to have here.

Then I moved house (last Sep).

The good news: VM could transfer my cable broadband...

The bad news: It wasn't the quick and pain-free transfer they promised.

After a couple of rounds of what felt like being in the boxing ring with VM customer 'care' reps, and a few ensuing calls with the tech and management departments, all was sorted out. Eventually.

The thing is the service is still no way near that which I am paying for (£18/m - the 'M' broadband, I believe).

Worse, I get a letter today telling me that from my next statement (I have little under a few weeks to do anything about this), VM will start to charge me £5 PER month for continuing to pay the way I have always paid right from the start - by automatic credit card monthly payments.

That made my blood boil. Why they can't 'incentivise' customers by saying they'll slash off a couple of quid on their bill IF they opt for Direct Debit payments, as opposed to the punishment route if they don't, escapes me. What a strange world this is becoming. Customer care seems to mean customer 'slamming'.

Anyway, I just wondered whether I'm in my legal right to leave VM, and opt for another broadband service provider instead.

BTW, my original contract was with NTL, which was taken out years ago. Although VM told me a few weeks AFTER taking over NTL and later transferring the service to my new address that they would be sending out a new contract for me to sign, I still haven't received it.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

PS Sorry for the long post :A

BT won a case where a customer took them to court over the charges made if you didnt pay by DD so i dont think theres much chance of winning agains virgin

and even tho you dont have a written contract with virgin its can be agreed verbally

only think i can think of is to go down to the lowest possible tariff and go somewhere else but still pay them til the end of contract in september

sorry but i think your stuck with them

TenerC_2

2 things call them and ask for a copy of your contract, and keep calling, with there charged going up again soon they wont want you to see it. on there there could be a get out clause in your favour i.e if we increase the amount you pay you can leave within a set time (partner used that clause with a mobile contract, free itemised billing for 12 month 3rd month he was charged so got out) so if they where happy for you to pay one way for free but now want you to pay a £5 admin charge it`s not in your favour. and #2 IF you want to stay with them try and haggle your £18 down to £9 there new charge for 2mb is £9 but they TRY and say it`s for new customers only, they put our charge up to near £30 for bb and phone phoned up told them to shove there phone we`ll go to bt then move bb to sky they put our price down to 2 for £20

slowrunner

I am with this lot after moving from NTL, I can't wait until the new contract is finished so I can move. A bunch of t*$$ers.

Glad

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

cheap_charlie

I would recommend you find another provider. We had Virgin ADSL broadband and when my husband died they refused to give me the MAC code or transfer the account to my name. Result was I was cut off and left with no internet at a time I needed it most.

Strictly they were acting correctly as I called OFCOM to complain but every other provider I contacted said they would have shown more compassion in my situation.

They even left a tag on the line after cutting off the broadband, and gave BT information that resulted in my phone line being cut off.

I wouldn't willingly give any company with the word "Virgin" in it any money ever again.

normanmark

cheap_charlie wrote: »

They even left a tag on the line after cutting off the broadband, and gave BT information that resulted in my phone line being cut off.

Well all it sounds like was that the access to the service was stopped as opposed to cut off. The tag refers to the physical service that exists on the line. With regards to the phone line, Virgin have nothing to do with it. They only provide the broadband to one half of that line, the other to BT. The companies wouldn't talk to one & another and i can pretty much safely say, with my industry experience, that the line being cut off wasn't down to Virgin.

With regards to the payment, this is not a reason for being able to cancel a contract. I don't see why you don't have a direct debit set up? It's cheaper in the long run & also offers more protection to you as a consumer!

cheap_charlie

normanmark wrote: »

Well all it sounds like was that the access to the service was stopped as opposed to cut off. The tag refers to the physical service that exists on the line. With regards to the phone line, Virgin have nothing to do with it. They only provide the broadband to one half of that line, the other to BT. The companies wouldn't talk to one & another and i can pretty much safely say, with my industry experience, that the line being cut off wasn't down to Virgin.

BT assured me that the fact my phone was cut off was partially down to Virgin and partially down to themselves. Virgin refused to accept responsibility for the tag on my line or my phone being cut off, whereas BT did and more importantly, BT removed the tag on my line and came out on a Sunday morning to restore my phone line.

Customer Service is something thats going down the pan these days and that offered to me by Virgin was a joke. I would try to make a simple enquiry and have to speak to 5 different people in one phone call, and each time have to tell them my husband had died. It was upsetting, distressing and completely unnecessary.

I also will never forget it, and that's why I have made a choice to do all I can to ensure Virgin don't get a penny from me ever again.

normanmark

cheap_charlie wrote: »

BT assured me that the fact my phone was cut off was partially down to Virgin and partially down to themselves. Virgin refused to accept responsibility for the tag on my line or my phone being cut off, whereas BT did and more importantly, BT removed the tag on my line and came out on a Sunday morning to restore my phone line.

Its a near physical impossibility for a broadband service on the line to cut off your PSTN phone line. So I can only assume that BT might have done the same as Virgin in terms of cutting off the service for non-payment, however given the circumstances BT seemed to show a bit more empathy for your situastion & got it reconnected

duchy

I've given up with Virgin taking my Mother's name off the bill. She died SIX years ago-they have had forms completed galore and even copies of the death certificate. I suppose if I ever move and want to leave Virgin behind there's not much they can do about it.

epz_2

virgin recently admitted to packet filtering, basicly slowing down web sites that dont pay them money.

if you sue them over that im betting you'll get plenty of news coverage since the bbc are one of the sites they are trying to extort i would bet they bottle it to avoid the pr disaster.

its a real shame, they have aways been clueless at customer service and sky were better at tv but at least had a good internet service, now i cant even get ebay pages up at decent speed.