Small claims court is the only way to get these people behave.

I did this and had a letter from there legal dept yesterday offereing to settle rather than going to court. Do it!

I thought bulldog broadband were bad but VM/NTL take the mickie something rotten!

I also havent signed a contract with them, I recieved it through the post but when all the messing me about started with installation i thought id wait before i signed my life away. Basically installaion never happened on the day so they sent out another contrat with the new date again never signed it and stil ohavent and wont until i have recieved aletter stating about the credit on acount aswell as fixing the billing and sorting out the slowness of broadband.

I saw the new VirginMedia advert for wait for it *faster broadband* errrgghh i do not think so. They have no shame what so ever and there is still no sign off informing customers about the billing ie 3 for £30 being billed 2 different bills.

How do i got about going small claims court. I would love to but seems costly and confusing.

not sure Diamond78 but i have seen it on other threads on the forum. there was a long one about a landlady dispute a while back that had lots of info on it! (just ahd a quick look and i couldn't fins it but this must be covered on the site somewhere!)

I have a nother installment of my virgin media dispute!

After downloading the code of practice file from virgins website and reading the complaints proceedure i needed to send a second letter to the customer concern manager. this was done and sent on wednesday by recorded delivery. It said (obviously personal details and the attached letters have been removed!):

"Firstly may I say how utterly exasperated I am by this whole situation.

After five phone calls and a letter, I find myself forced into writing yet another letter while still in a tedious and extremely concerning situation.

Please read the copy of my letter dated 3rd January 2008 (attached).

Also please find a copy of the corresponding reply for yourselves dated 21st January 2008.

When the aforementioned letter from Virgin arrived I was very pleased with this outcome, thinking that the situation had been resolved satisfactorily and with reasonable compensation to that point.

However, I then received a letter from yourselves dated 26th January 2008 (copy is also attached). STILL demanding payment for an account that Virgin incorrectly set up and are STILL incorrectly billing me for. I called 150 from my landline home phone as soon as I opened the letter and asked them to see if both accounts are still operative. They are.

I am very disgruntled and feel that you are behaving in a truly incompetent fashion.

I deduce from the letter dated 26th January 2008 that the confirmation of ONLY the three for £30 package being operative was incorrect and dishonest.

I have already made an indemnity claim for the first £18 that Virgin took from my bank account for this incorrect broadband account without my permission. To do that I had to take the day off work and go into the bank. Then there are the numerous phone calls I have made and the time taken to make them. And now the time, effort and annoyance taken constructing another letter.

The earlier letters demanding the outstanding sum of money had a reminder on the bottom inferring that my credit rating would be affected by further non-payment. As such I am extremely concerned that my credit rating will be affect by this fiasco. I am very conscientious with bills and always ensure that they are paid in full on time to ensure there is no negative effect my credit rating and consequently my credit history.

I did NOT ask for the separate broadband account.

I did NOT ask to be involved in this farcical series of events.

I want this issue resolved.

The only package I wish to be charged for is the three for £30 package for which I subscribed in September 2007 and the associated costs of phone calls made from my landline.

I do not want to receive any more incorrect and insulting letters demanding I pay a sum of money that I am not responsible for.

I await confirmation in writing that this matter has been resolved fully and satisfactorily.

If I do not receive a satisfactory response then I feel I will have no option but to go to CISAS and also seek legal advice on the matter.

I await your response."

On thursday i came home to find my normal correct virgin bill and guess what...another letter demanding £19.60. this one entitled 'urgent action - final reminder'.

It basically said that if i didn't pay this would be classed as a default on payment and my credit rating would be affected. it also said that i would now be awaremy services had been suspended - how would i be aware they were not supplying me with the service for that account in the first place!

I had a long chat with my mum and my partner and decided to protect my future credit score, although i despised the thought of it, i would ring and pay the £19.60 and carry on with my complaint with a view to claiming the money back.

so on friday morning i called them on the 0800 number ont he letter and spoke to an english speaking (not an indian call centre!) man. i told a shortened version of the story and said as virgin were being completely incompetent i was protecting my credit score.

He was incredibly helpful. the first person yet. he explained i did not need to pay the money and what had happened was that the account had been closed but the account hadnt been credited to zero it and thats why the letters were still coming. he said he was sending an email (while i was ont eh phone) to the department that settels accoutns to sort it out.

I asked if the people dealing with my complaint would be able to see this and he said yes. i said can you make a ful note of this phone call including that i am feeling threatened and frightened by theses letters and he said yes.

I really really really hope this is the end of this situation. although i cant quite believe it at the moment.

I'll see what the reply to my second complaint letter is now.

You poor thing, I so know how you feel and what your going through with VM. The do not realise just what they put the customers through.Im glad you got a proper and proffessional customer service advisor for once as that is very rare as you know. I have again complained via customer care team who was based in india as my broadband got cut off suprise suprise due to non payment, err i dont think so, itstheir mess up again and I really cant be getting such high stress levels anymore. I have yet to recieve the letter confirming the gesture of goodwill the rude woman promised,i have emailed and still nothing. So I am going to do what you do and write again to the customer concern manager. Can you please tell me what address this nees to be sent to, mant thanks and hope you this resolved. I hope watchdog actually take notice as there are so many unhappy customers

Hi diamond78,

It was the strongest letter i could write without swearing or it being construed as liable!

I have been using their code of practice which can be found in pdf format at http://allyours.virginmedia.com/pdf/code_of_practice_0607.pdf . Page 10 refers to complaints and has the phone numbers and addresses to write to. Although originally I wrote to the London address ont he bottom of the payment demand letter. I then recieved a reply saying they were dealing with my complaint and would be in contact within 10 day (from a local office which i never knew existed!). then i recieved a proper response from the manchester based customer concern team (nothing like buttering up the name complaints team!!!).

In case you cant view the PDF the main details to make a complaint to Virgin Meadia are (direct quotation from above PDF booklet):








The team does seem to be english / british based (not sure what the polite term is for not an indian call centre - no offence intended!) so if you are getting through to an indian team it hink there might be something wrong there!

Good luck and let me know how you get on!

(wrt your previous post about small claims court I saw this http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/claims/index.htm and thought of you!)

Kindest regards

Bek

thanks hun,
im going to write a b2nd complaint letter as im so fuming. i sent an email of complaint again an yesterday a guy called me from VM, i explained i wasnt happy and still hadnt recieved letter stating what i was told in regards to the complaint letter i sent.he was not hepful what so ever, he then cut me off and didnt even attempt to call me back which annoyed me more. i was not rude once and stated that i should not be lied to and staff from the complaints dept need training, when he said a letter had not been sent out and he would speak to the rude woman who rang me on another occasion who was from complaints, i stated that hopefully the call she made would be tracked down as they state calls could be recorded for training and thats when he hanged up.

im now on the phone to them, its india and explained what happened yesterday and she told me there is nothing to show i recieved a call yesterday, i didnt get his name i was out and i always get a name but this time i didnt but have proof on my mobile for the call, i asked the woman now to put me through to uk, she said ok at first and now says she cant asd il probaly go through to indi again.

im going bloody mad and my stress levels r going sky high. what more can i do, even if i write its not doing any good.

Oh lordy, this is depressing.

We have had the NTL Freedom (dial up) package for years and were very happy with it. Virgin Media are dropping the package from the end of this month and we were offered their broadband including free weekend/evening calls for £10 per month for the first 12 months. It seemed like a good offer so the gubbins is on the way.

Must admit to not doing any research before we accepted this offer as we were on holiday until last week and needed to get something sorted before the end of the month, thought the quickest thing would be to accept the Virgin Media offer.

Fingers crossed all goes well but now I have my doubts.

Hi TomsMom!

Not really sure what is happening with Virgin as a company atm!

My parents were with diamond cable, the ntl and now virgin as they have all changed over the years and have never had a problem not once! SO i hope this is the experience you have with Virgin!

not sure if its bad luck or rubbish customer services thats causing all these problems.

Thing with mine is someone must have intentionally set up the extra account! thats the most annoying thing!

Diamond 78 - not sure about why they are hanging up on you etc. but make sure you write a 2nd letter of complaint following the proceedure as when i called the CISAS number and listened to all the blurb before you speak to an advisor it says they wont consider it unless you have exhausted the complaints proceedure of the company or a have a 'deadlock' letter - a letter where the company says they can do no more to help.

Just make sure you send the letter recorded or special delivery so you have proof that they have recieved the letter. If they dont respond after so long i seemt o remeber you can then report them for breech of code of practice, but i cant remeber where i read that!!!!!

My stress levels with the whole situation are also very high due to the sheer frustration of the situation. as the customer you are basically helpless until they decide to rectify the situation.....when ever that may be!

fingers crossed that we will all get sorted soon!

funny how the customer used to be king, seems like way to many companies out there couldnt care less about there customers thesedays. A very sad state of affairs.

bekc, sorry to be a pain but did you send your letter to the customer loyalty manager at concord house???I will do my letter this weekend as my sons not well so wont get round to doing it-thanks hun

Hi diamond78. yes i did send my letter to:

Customer Loyalty Manager
Customer Concern
Concord House
Concord Business Park
Threapwood Road
Wythenshawe
Manchester M22 0EY

Yesterday i received their standard reply letter saying that they will be intouch within 2 weeks and are 'sorry i am unhappy with their service's".

what a joke!!!

will see what the reply is but it had better be flipping good!

Hi Dad-of-4. yes i think it is a very sad state of affairs too. the trouble is one complaint to big companies simply doesnt matter! and loss of a customer isn't important to them either!

it's frustrating that as the customer you have to deal with their mistakes knowing that the only one who is inconvenienced is you!

We are now in month 6 of a dispute with BT (which involved cutting us off, not giving us the £75 credit promised to us, not activating our VOIP phone, supplying us with 2mb braodband whilst charging us for 8mb, giving us the one and only telephone number that we didn't want and giving us a mispelt business email address).

Have spoken to over 30 people since August and it still isn't sorted. I have had enough of them now. Was going to move to Virgin. I don't want to now I have read this.

Who should I move to?

Hi grey hound crazy! problems with BT too? thats not good! I really think its luck of the drawer as to whether you get a satisfactory service and the correct bills etc.As i said earlier in the thread my parents have had no problems with them and i do know other people who have no problems with Virgins Bills or service! I have had no issues with their actual services. i have never had a problem with the tv or phone and our broadband is never slow or unavailible!WRT your issues with BT have you actaully written a letter to them? If all your contact ahs been with phonecalls, find their complaints address and write to them! As far as I can see you have NOTHING to loose! All the best x

I appreciate your desire to bring the matter to an end, protecting your credit record at the same time, but there is no way on earth I would pay them.

It will be an easy process to remove any 'black marks' from your credit file when the matter is finally resolved. (I have done this after a 12 month dispute with Orange.) It will be easier than trying to get your £19.60 back from VM.

Hi sponge! i wasnt paying them to bring the matter to the end i was paying them to save the 'black mark on my credit file' and then with a view to small claims action. I was worried that if they screwed up my credit rating through their mistake they wouldn't have the skill to be able to remove it. after their total inability to close an incorrect account I was unable to see how they would manage to rectify the ruining of a good credit score! if you follow me.you say you have just removed your black mark from orange. how long was the 'black mark' on your credit file for? and out of curiosity how did you go about doing that? how long did it take? and did the 'black mark' have any adverse effects while you were trying to get it removed? I didnt pay the amount in the end (as it was actually over £40 although the letter said £19.60!) and because the customer service rep thought he could sort it out! still awaiting confirmation of that though!When i contacted the legal advice team they did say that on their records the majority of people they had had enquiries from regarding Virgin media had settled to stop any further come back on their credit file and then had claimed the money back. they did advise me that that was one course of action i could take alongside the complaints proceedure!

ok nice work

posting for the sake of posting to get your post count up should be banned!!!

I too have had problems with Virgin Media, totally agree with you all.
Come on Branson get yer finger out

I've got a £16 credit from when we moved house and dumped the phone line but kept broadband.

Every month for the last 2 years I get a bill with the credit on it and "you don't need to pay anything" on it. I have written 3 times and phoned twice to try and retrieve the money and stop the paper bills, but nothing happened and I've given up now.

As far as the broadband is concerned I'm paying £25 for 4Mb, soon to be 10Mb apparently. Installed free and out of contract now. I used to phone up every 3 months and they would eventually reduce it to £12.50 but the last call was so painful i gave up.

I called and got the indian call centre. No problem with that, but i couldn't understand the girl's accent and she couldn't understand me. After about half an hour of her telling me I had a mobile and 2 phone lines and me saying I only had broadband, she realised that she had logged into someone elses account (so much for security) and we had changed the password because the system didn't recognise it and the security questions. I asked her if she could reset it but she said she didn't know how. After that I gave up!

Branson is only a 10.5% shareholder in the company - it's just NTL with Branson as a shareholder and paying an annual fee to use the Virgin name.