No dial tone; incoming calls show "Number not valid"

[Fortwilliam2]

I spent 45 minutes on my landline trying to cancel my services and then was put through to the cancellation team. After another 10 minutes or so and being put on hold several times I was put on hold again for the guy to finalise the cancellation, I never heard from him again; at 1 hour 35 minutes on the call I gave up. I tried to make a call from the landline straight away and got no dial tone. I made a call to my landline from my mobile and got a notification that the number is not valid; my daughter and 2 grandchildren all got the same message.

I did these checks - disconnected the phone and reconnected, tried my old corded phone, disconnected for 10 minutes and then 30 minutes all to no avail.

Another call to VM from my mobile and after 50 minutes and 3 sets of 'tests' I am none the wiser... 24 - 48 hours...

The cancellation was confirmed by the staff member.

A coincidence that I made the cancellation and the phone not working straight away? I have been a customer since the days of NTL and never experienced this before.

Can anyone shed even a glimmer of light on what has happened?

[goslow · Accepted solution]

Just out of interest, are you cancelling via a price-rise get-out letter to leave VM early? A recent past topic did discuss instant disconnection of services. I'm wondering if there is a link.

If you have had a total loss of your phone service where VM is at fault, phone in to VM via mobile and report it as you will be eligible for compensation

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/automatic-compensation

There have been a few mentions of this 'instant disconnection' of the phone line after giving notice to cancel on here recently. Here's one from earlier today

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Leaving-Virgin-next-month-landline-already-disabled-...

Doubt anyone at VM willing be asking any searching questions as to why this has suddenly started happening.

One of the VM forum team will reply here within a few days and may offer to try to help.

While waiting for a VM forum team reply ...

You can share your unhappy cancellation (and early loss of phone line) experience with OFCOM.

They launched an investigation into VM on 13 July 2023 specifically into VM's cancellation and complaints processes.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/bulletins/enforcement-bulletin/open-cases/cw_01275

Case ref. no. and an email at the bottom of the above page or submit with same info via the contact form

https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

Submitting information won't help your individual complaint but it will contribute to the OFCOM investigation and it sounds like your experience is directly relevant to the terms of reference of the investigation.

[Fortwilliam2]

Thank you goslow, very interesting.

I'll follow your links now.

Best regards.

[Fortwilliam2]

"Just out of interest, are you cancelling via a price-rise get-out letter to leave VM early?"

My contract ends on 17 Nov, price is rising from £53 per month to £82 per month, was offered £63 PM on trying to cancel. Asked to proceed with cancelling, got as far as being informed my final bill will be £9 something then he disappeared.

[goslow]

One of the VM forum team may be able to confirm the cancellation is going through OK when they reply here, which should be within a few days time.

The line going dead during cancellations is mentioned regularly along with other obstructive behaviour from VM, hence the OFCOM investigation.

On the similar topic linked above, it was also asked if the customer might be porting the phone number to a new provider which might be the possible cause of the disconnection of the phone line. That could also be an explanation if you have set that up with your new provider (although usually the new provider has to be installed and working to port the number).

[Martin_N]

Hi Fortwilliam2,

Thank you for your post. I'm sorry to hear about how the call went. 

I am happy to take a look on the account to see if the cancellation has been processed. 

I will private message you now to confirm your details. 

^Martin

[Fortwilliam2]

Is it normal for a Forum Team member to ask for my bank sort code? I have already give my account number and full name. Along with the sort code I have been asked for my email address and how much my last bill was - these I can understand.

[Fortwilliam2]

Just got a call on my landline from a 'Withheld' number - VM presumably, letting me know the landline is working again. I would still like to know what happened though.

[goslow]

The bank sort code question is one which the form team do ask to verify the account holder. A rather daft question to include IMO as it immediately puts people on a 'security alert' during the process.

You should only exchange any personal info like that on here only via a PM and only with one of the VM forum team. They have the words 'Forum team' under their forum name alongside the VM infinity logo.

[ephemerol]

Same thing is happening to me at the moment - I'm now starting to wonder if Virgin do this intentionally.