I switched to the Virgin Media Talk Anywhere 400 plan four months ago and every month I've been charged for local and national calls for the last 6 days of the billing period despite not using up all my free minutes.

This month was the limit. According to my bill:
Minutes available at start of billing period 557
Minutes used 355
Minutes carried over 202

Yet they charged me £23 for standard calls between 14 Dec & 20 Dec.

When I called them and spoke to the billing I was repeated told I had gone over my allocation on the 14th Dec yet they couldn't explain why I had 202 minutes carried over. Finally she credited the £23 and advised that I speak to technical faults. I did and they advised me it wasn't a fault and advised me to call Customer Services. When I called them I was told that despite what the bill said about available minutes, I had exceeded my allocation. When I asked what the minutes available/used and carried over referred to she said it referred to a different time period than the billing so should be ignored (what???). Basically, for the last four months I have received bills that have told me that I haven't used all my free minutes and some have been carried over yet I have been charged for all calls made after 14th of the month because I have exceeded my allocation!!

This sounds like nonsense to me. Can anyone confirm or advise???

Can anyone point me inthe direction of a broadband provider which doesnt require a BT line please? We were moved to Virgin when they took over from Telewest in 2006, and ever since, what started out as a £13 bill from Telewest has turned into between £23 - £28 a month depending on how Virgin feel. They have the cheek to charge me £5 a month for a paper bill which I have never once received - then £10 charge for the reminder - which strangely always manages to get through my letter box when I least expect it. I've spent ££s on the phone trying to get it sorted, and now Ive had enough and need an alternative.....any suggestions?

ps reason I need one with no BT line is that tey want £160 to put a phone line in.

Personally I wouldn't go with Virgin. A relative who has it finds it goes very slowly at busy times, and can't even get on sometimes. If you have an NTL subscription already maybe it's right for you, but if you have a BT line I'd go with one of the phone-line based ISPs.

Virgin do not know what they are doing.I received a bill again 2day stating £48 plus £10 late charge.Like what the hell.Seriously guys I feel I am loosing the plot with them when I was told I different-I have taken all names down of ppl I have spoken to so when you speak to them ask there name and note it down with the date and time.On the site there is a section where yo can email them.As well as eamiling your complaint send a letter to the address ive provided above someowhere in my pervious post and have a copy for yourself.

I had to ring them up again today due to the landline they provided me.I keep getting calls for someone else who had the number b4 me.I was told they will change the number free of charge as this was an error, how many more errors by VM.I had my 3rd box put in yday and so far no probs but seriously i have had enough.I want out of vm, I cant afford a bt line as they are asking for over £100 quid but I would rather go without.I saw an advery today cant remember if it was carphone warehouse stating you can have broadband for £10 a month and you dont need a landline. SO if i can get rid of virgin then i will do that, my only problem will be tv.I live in a basement flat and have no signal whatso ever, even with freeview.Sky want to charge me over £50 which may not be alot but to me it is and im not going to be here for long-when i say long i will be here for atleast 4 months min .I paid VM a deposit of £25 so if i could get that back then maybe i could think of sky but my landlord wont let me so im stuffed.I emailed bbc watchdog also about virgin,on facebook there is a group or several should i say about unhappy customers-they have also emailed watchdog.Maybe if you email watchdog we might have some luck.

Wow Diamond! sounds like they are giving you a hard time too! I checked my bill online yesterday, and even though I paid them about a week ago my account says there's £53 outstanding ?! I just dont get it. I also looked at their prices on line and basically, for the broadband only service that I have, they only charge £4.99. I sent them an e-mail about my charges and threatened to move elsewhere, but like you, I dont have £100+ that BT want, so if you get any info on the carphone warehouse please post it or PM me. I may be in town today so will try to look into it too!

I was wondering if your building has a TV ariel on the roof that you could link into for freeview, or have a word with your neighbours upstairs who may let you link into theirs?

Hi donnadoop, i did check it and actually saw it in the shop window of three, i was on the bis so didnt actually get to see the details.What package are you on with virgin?I dont even know how to check my bill online, I dont want to coz I bet they have not corrected there errors.Well my 3rd set top box is working fine now-so far.As for the landline that was changed yesterday and they said it would be free of charge after being on hold for ages and being put through to someone else.I recieved 2 more bills yesterday and dont know what the hell it was about and the weird thing is, it is dated 18/12/07 and the other is 1/1/08.My other bill was dated 18/12/07 which only arrived last week so why are the bills arriving so late.I feel so stressed lol honestly If i know i can cancel with them i would.My building doesnt have an ariel and I wouldnt know how to go about it as my landlord isnt the nicest landlord-his a moany and grumpy old man.I am below a office and above me is the office and on top of the office is some flats,how they view tv i dont know.There is noone that can fix one up for me either as I dont know anyone.

I dont know how to post a link on here sorry hun but i just checked three website and its on there-its pay monthly and its basically like a usb thingy and theres different packages starting from £10 a month.
http://threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/?id=1201
tried that and see if it works
good luck and let me know x

Virgin Media aren't a Virgin company.

They are NTLelewest and just pay Richard Branson a annual fee to use the name, and Richard happens to be a 10.5% shareholder after selling Virgin Mobile to NTLelewest.

It's the same company / people running the service, just it has a Virgin name.

They do offer an excellent support newsgroup - UK staff there 08:00 - 22:00 every day.

Newsgroups were around before www, if you haven't used newsgroups before they are like forums.

http://www.virginmedia.com/newsgroups has details on how to set up newsgroups.

If xNTL use: news.cable.ntlworld.com

If xBY use: text.news.virginmedia.com

As the news server in your news reader.

virginmedia.support.broadband.cable

Is the group for support.

VM for phone calls are a rip off, cable has been dearer than even BT for over 5 years and the prices are rising again.

I heard an advert on local radio that if you get a contract with 3 (didn't say how long the contract was) you can pay £10 a month to get wireless broadband on your pc. You insert your dongle ( ) into the pc and hey presto, instant broadband. I presume the dongle is attached to your phone. Personally I don't like 3, but if you need broadband with no BT or Virgin connection then it's an option.

Hi i was browsing this forum and i see im not the only one with problems with VirginMedia. I would like to say since richard "the greedy !!!!!!!" branson bought a share of NTL, their services are a disgrace, im paying for upto 20mb and it cant even bring up a webpage properly, times out every day about 50 times a day, im going to complain about their services because its a joke, i pay for upto 20mb and im getting 6-7mb max to me thats just taking the !!!!, never known such a greedy !!!!!!! as branson, no wonder virgin are so big seeing how many people hes ripping out of money, a pound a minute to fone up if their modem screws up shocking.

Ive just got off the phone with LEE from Virgin media- and was disappointed with his response!!! Heres the story...

...moved into student house at uni and set up the broadband and tv with ntl back in aug 06- was going for a package which was £23 p/m i think but the nice lady on the phone said that for £27 p/m I could get 8mb speed which would be better for a house where we would all be using the net at the same time. I thought it was a great deal and so agreed and it was all set up the week later.

8 months in and after looking at my bank statement I noticed I was being charged £41.50!!! £25 for the broadband and £16.50 for the tv! After trying to get hold of someone (the customer service advisors were useless, pretended to go get a supervisor i asked for, said they wern't there and said theyd call me back the next day!! NEVER happened!) I decided to write a letter. 2 months later and I get an automated letter back saying they are lookng into my complaint and will be in touch in 10 days...NEVER happened!! eventually spoke to LEE who 'as a goodwill gesture' credited my account for the next few months and refused to refund the money they had taken from my account without permission. Now, £41.50 is being taken out again each month and have been since October- and guess what Lee said- he won't give me that money back as I should have called him back in October?!?! This is utter b%$3£&*s!!!!

I successfully got my bank charges back last year after threatening the small claims court. Does anyone know if this is a viable route to take with Virgin??! I just don't see how it can be legal for them to take money outa my account without my agreement and then flat out refuse to give it back??!!

My problems still havent been solved with VM.They are utter rubbish. I dont care who owns it and who doesnt, it has the name VIRGINMEDIA. I have been told that the name is rented-huh I dont understand it.

I had a rather rude woman ring me up after i sent a 8 page letter complaint. She was actually unprofessional for someone who works in complaints. I have worked in customer service when I was a travel agent, we dealth with complaints and never in my life would i be rude to a customer. She gave no apology for the muck ups, could not explain why I was given another customers no, couldnt explain why I was given faulty set top boxes and had a cheek to try and belittle me. She told me as a goodwill gesture £90 had been credited to my phone bill acount as the 3 for £30 is actually to different bills.Broadband at £18 and tv and fone £12. What a load of rubbish. The broadband is so slow that it makes me want cry sometimes. Many times, there has been no broadband, Im told from the 0906 number that my modem is faulty then hey presto i dont need an enginner coz they sent a signal thru, other occasions, im sorry madam there is engineering works going on in the area, same with tv, u loose the channels, ring up oh i will send a signal thru so you can view the channels again.Im like WTF.

Im so fed up with it, I really want to cancel now. I was told an enginner would come but again had a no show, then was told someone had been and left a carde.No1 had been as I waas in as my son was poorly and never went no where.

They keep mucking up on my billing aswell. Again and again.I was due to have a months free due to the inconvinience as I was told by VM. Then they charge me £10 for late payment.Again WTF, they have my direct debit details, I have not stopped no payments so how can I be charged for paying late. That £10 is oart of the £90 goodwill payment credited to my account.£30 is the installation charge credited back, £30 for the months free and cant reme,ber at the mo wot the other bit was for but none of that is a good will gesture, it what they should of done anyway as they were wrong to do the charges in the forst place for all there own mistakes. makes me laugh but so angry.

I asked for everything this woman said to me in writting, she said no problem haha no suprise havent got a thing.

They are quick to take payments out of your account but they will never pay you back-only credit it to your account.

I too want to take my complaint further, i have wriiten, emailed ect but no luck. I emailed watchdog too after seing a forum on facebook called I Despise VirginMedia, there are 342 members currently all have problems so its qute shocking that they are so bad yet there are also happy customers. We are just unlucky.

What is our next step then??

Can anyone offer any advise on this. I cancelled my contract with virgin a few years ago. signed up with another isp and virgin continued to take money from my account. I stopped the direct debit, then the fun began!!

promise after promise by staff saying they'd acknowledge problem and a refund was on the way and nothing turned up. I threatened them with court action then silence.
I'm now going through small claims and they're going to defend it!!! I supplied bank statement as proof and they still denying it!!!!

Help!!!

I am also having problems with virgin media.

In september we registered for their 3 fo £30 package and to be honest is has been nothing but trouble since then.

In october i received my fisrt bill charging me for the 3 for £30 package of xl tv, broadband and landline phone. i was happy with this. then 3 days later a further £18 went out of my bank to them via direct debit.

I called them demanding to know what was going on as i hadn't authorised them to take £18 and they said that a broadband account had been set up in error and that it was now being cancelled but i would have to claim my money back through my bank as an indemnity claim. i was very annoyed as i couldn't see whay they could not recredit my account as everyone knows what a pain it is to get to the bank when you work full time.

anyway i went to the bank made an indemnity claim and cancelled the incorrect direct debit (leaving the correct one open). Lucky i did as in november i recieved a letter saying that they were unable to take payment for the seperate and wrong broadband account and i needed to ring them and pay.

I called them again and spoke to a lady inthe indian call centre who said that she was very sorry and that she had escalated the problem to her manager and £18 would be refunded on my next bill. i assumed as compensation a welcome guesture at that point.

nothing credited to the december bill and i then recieved a letter for the incorrect account saying that if i didnt pay now my credit rating would be affected. I was very mad and wrote a letter to them explaining everything that had happened and telling them in no uncertain terms to close this extra account.

i recieved a letter saying they were looking into my complaint and that it may take up to ten days.

then i received a letter dated january 21st 2008 apologising for the problem, assuring me the only bill i would recieve from now on would be the 3 for £30 and refunding £25 in compensation to my next bill. I was pleased it had been sorted and glad of the refund.

I was also glad that it was all sorted as we live on a tight budget but i am very conciencious with bills and payments and wish to keep a clean and healthy credit rating for the future.

then i received a letter dated the 26th january 2008. final demand for outstanding bill. oh yes it was for the incorrect account AGAIN!!!!

As you can imagine I WAS FUMING!!!!

I immediately called virgin to check that it was not just a simple overlap of letters going out, but both accounts are STILL open.

I have found a copy of their complaints proceedure (took a lot of looking - finally found under code of practice) and have just sent off my second letter to the 'customer concern manager'.

I also sought legal advice from my work union and they refered me to the financial services ombadsmun (due to me worrying about my credit rating) and offcom as the service regulator. virgin media ARE registered under both. I have registered a concern with both of these. offcom informed me that virgins ombadsmun is CISAS. i called them and onthe recorded information before you speek to someone it says they will only deal with cases where it has been 12 weeks since the date of your first letter or where the provider says they cannot help you any further and that it is a dead lock situation.well my first letter is dated 03/01/08 so i have a while to go yet.

the legal advice i got also said that i was well within my rights to take virgin to small claims court and sue for all the inconvienience and anguish they have caused me. I havent really considered this at present - i just want to get this sorted!!!

I am getting in touch with watchdog later today.

I am so mad with them. they are completly incompetant. I am just very worried about my credit rating as if Virgin are unable to close an incorrect account, how will they fix my credit rating when they ruin that???

Its good to know i'm not alone!!! but also frustrating as we cant afford the same package of services form another provider!!!!

Dont give up people!!!

They seem to have gone shockingly worse over the last year. Me and other family members have been overcharged (some resulting in returned direct debits and bank charges), had poorly installed cables, missed appointments the list goes on and on.

The fact is that even if they do save a couple of pounds which they dont then its still not worth allthe hassles.

Have just ordered sky 2 mix £17 8 meg broadband £5 and sky will also credit my account with £125 as I need a new BT line installed. (Its called BT subsidy offer). Free evening and weeked calls £0 BT line retal £10.50 a total of £32.50 a month plus I went through quidco for £130 cashback (dont know if its going to be paid yet?).

So virgin might be able to do it for £30 not worth the hassle for a saving of £2.50.

Believe me Id rather a pay a few pounds more every month and avoid this shabby service.

Me my friends and family are all ditching virgin ASAP (no retention offer in the world will stop us). Just to sum up the reasons why.

-Bill overcharging (leading to bank charges)
-You never know what your bill is going to be, even though you sign up to a set price and expect it to be that price.
-Numerous phone calls trying to get an appointment and sort out incorrect bils (still no joy each customer service rep lies or has a different story.
-Missed appointments.
-Poor service.
-Poor installation of wires.
-Broadband very slow during the evening.

And theres more

A poor sub-standard shabby, over-rated, over-priced service

DITCH AND SWITCH

I have been fighting VM for over 12months. They have affected my previously good credit rating and all because they say I owe them £54 for services they have not supplied. They treat their customers like dirt. Send your complaint to Watchdog, many are doing this and the more the merrier. They Cannot be allowed to win.
Toni Round

Same here for the poxy sum of £4 which they send me another bill for every month even though I dont owe it?

Yes everyone, we must stick together with this and not back down,I am utterly disgusted with the way VM go on, no other company is known to have such bad service, rude staff, over charging ect. They confuse us aswell by telling us differnt things and make promises.

Im so angry and so stressed by it all, i feel like ripping the box out,my broadband has got worse, i get told my modems faulty then i get told its ok, then it stops working then its on again, its so slow too, i know how to delete cookies and i do that so i know that is not the problem.

If you joing facebook or anyone is a memebr on facebook joined the group *I Despise Virgin Media*

I was told by the complaints department that the 3 for £30 is billed broadband for £18 and tv and phone £12. I ws told that most customers dont have 2 differnt bills like I currently have and most customers was being billed once-like they have advertised. It did not state anywhere that you would be billed twice seperatly and apparently in the summer i should get one bill for £30 plus any charges on top.

I am now worrried about my credit rating as I never thought of that. I mean how can they charge me a late fee charge of £10 when ive not stopped the payments???They have taken money from my account aswell as the deposit,i get bills saying my account is overdue how the hell can it be overdue, when im getting so many differnt bills which are all wrong. A gesture of goodwill of £90 has been credited to my account, whatever it is not a gesture of goodwill, those charges should not of been on my account anyway-they think they can fool me but they themselves do not know what they are doing.

Do you not all think its strange that there is no number to ring in regards to complaints????We have to write to get a response and even then we dont get a response. Do you not think its strange that when we eventually get a response majority of us do not get a letter, well i havent as mine have been phone calls.

Please I urge everyone that is not happy to contact watchdog, keep emailing them as i have done and members of the group on facebook have.

This is wrong as they are not providing us the service we war paying for. I have seen posts from other MSE users stating how happy they are with the service although not as many as the unhappy MSE users.

I will keep emailing watchdog until i get a response.

As for CISAS, i have looked into that and will put in a complaint once my 12 weeks is up.

Goodluck to u all oand keep updating x

Thanks just joined the group on facebook

Thanks for the info about Sky Stiffnuts69. Thats very useful info!!! I really didnt think i could get another provider so cheap and the knowledge about the BT subsidy offer is very good to know.

If you are leaving with all the issues (which i would like to seriously consider) how are you getting out of the 12 month contract with virgin?

I think i may have a loop hole for me but wonder what you guys think? When i first joined i was sent a letter saying 'we would like your autograph' basically a letter asking me to return the contract they have previously sent with my signature on it.

I never received the contract and i called the help desk where an indian lady told me to wait another 2 weeks and one would arrive. it never came so i can only assume i havent signed a contract for the services?

if this is the case can i leave them at any time with no come back? or after a certain amount of time do i take on the contract regardless of no signed contract?

I joined them in September 2007.

Would really like to hear what you guys think!!!

(ps. Diamond78 will join the face book group today !!! )