Forum Discussion

amitjha's avatar
amitjha
Joining in
4 days ago
Solved

Accidentally bought an adult channel night ticket

Hi! I think I accidentally bought an adult channel night ticket few minutes back. I was browsing channels when I came across an adult channel and it asked me to enter pin. I inserted the pin once thinking that it will give a preview of the channel, but then a pop-up message appeared saying I’ve purchased a night ticket from 10pm-5:30am without me even realising that I made a purchase. I was only browsing the channels and I was under the impression that you need to be warned before making a purchase and being asked for the pin twice. I immediately switched to another regular channel and did not even watch that adult channel, as it was not my intention to watch it. Can someone from Virgin Media please help me check this and cancel it if necessary? Thanks a lot in advance. 

Virgin Media TV
  • Gareth_L's avatar
    Gareth_L
    19 hours ago

    Hello again amitjha.

    Thanks for your reply.

    So we can look at refunding this charge for you.  I'll need to send you a private message to pass security. 
    If you can check the envelope at the top right of your screen that would be great. 
    Gareth_L

     

     

  • Kath_P's avatar
    Kath_P
    Forum Team
    4 days ago

    Hi amitjha, 

    Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums. ⭐

    We're sorry to hear you've done this. Whenever anything is chargeable, it will advise the cost and ask you to enter the PIN to confirm that you wish to purchase. We wouldn't be able to credit the charges back, even if you've not actually watched the content so the cost will show on your next bill. 

    Going forward, it's worth making sure that you're reading the information on the screen, before entering your PIN to avoid purchases such as this again. 

    Many thanks, 

    • amitjha's avatar
      amitjha
      Joining in
      4 days ago

      The information on the screen was not at all clear. It just said that due to parental control setup, you need to enter the pin. It never said that you need to enter the pin to “buy” the night ticket. It did not even tell me the cost of the night ticket. It’s a very sly way to get people to buy the subscription. Usually, you get a preview of the channel and if you want to watch, you select the option to buy it. In this case, as soon as I landed on that channel, it asked me to enter pin (without telling me that it’s for buying the night ticket). Can this be made more clear in future? And in the meantime, can you please remove this charge from my bill as it was accidental, due to unclear instructions? Thanks. 

    • Plummet's avatar
      Plummet
      Joining in
      4 days ago

      Kath the information given doesn’t mention a charge at all, these should be refunded asap

    • amitjha's avatar
      amitjha
      Joining in
      23 hours ago

      Hi Kath! Please have a look at the screenshots that I’ve now added. Nowhere does it advise the cost, and it never asked me to enter the PIN to confirm that I wish to purchase. Can you please look at it again? Thanks. 

  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Trouble shooter
    4 days ago

    Out of curiosity can you please post a picture of the screen(s) you get just prior to the entering of the pin so we can see what charging information (if any) is given (suitably censored of course). This sort of query is a common one on here and I am puzzled how so many people seem to somehow get caught out by the PPV charges. Ta. 

    • amitjha's avatar
      amitjha
      Joining in
      4 days ago

      I wouldn’t go anywhere near that channel now. Just to get the screenshot, I don’t want to get stung again by accidentally buying it one more time. I can describe what happened. I got an email from Virgin Media that I’ve got an extra sports channel (Red Bull) at no extra cost. So I was browsing channels to see if there is any other new channel that’s added, when I landed on an adult channel, number beginning with 900 something (don’t remember exact channel number, name was Channel X or something). When I landed on the channel, I got a pop up to enter pin. It said something like watershed channel, due to parental control, I need to enter pin. I entered my pin and got another pop up (which disappeared within seconds) that I’ve bought a night ticket until 5:30am (I couldn’t even read the message fully as it disappeared quickly). I don’t even know what was the price. There was no info, no confirmation before buying, nothing to indicate that by entering my pin, I’m buying a nightly subscription to the channel. 

  • Plummet's avatar
    Plummet
    Joining in
    4 days ago

    This has just happened to me, you click on it and it asks you to enter PIN to view without any mention of cost.

    virgin media know this and are allowing it to happen to charge more.

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    3 days ago

    The memsaab must be a truly formidable woman ! 

  • amitjha's avatar
    amitjha
    Joining in
    3 days ago

    Can someone from Virgin Media please look into this and respond? As you can see, it’s not just me but many others, who think that there are no clear instructions and hence purchase is accident prone. Can you please revert the charge and I’ll be very careful from next time. Thanks. 

    • Martin_N's avatar
      Martin_N
      Forum Team
      3 days ago

      Hi amitjha,

      Thank you for your post. I can see one of my colleagues has already responded to your post to confirm we would be unable to refund the amount. 

      As confirmed, we cannot refund the cost for this. Going ahead we do advise not to enter your PIN for a service if you do not wish to purchase it.

      ^Martin

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Trouble shooter
      3 days ago

      If you had no charge warning screen raise an official written complaint with a view to escalating to the Ombudsman. 

  • amitjha's avatar
    amitjha
    Joining in
    24 hours ago

    With great deal of apprehension, I went to that adult site again to capture screenshots, as I was told that I wasn’t reading price and instructions on the screen. 

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Trouble shooter
      24 hours ago

      Yup looks like you have a genuine grievance in that case. What platform are you on eg 360/tivo/flex?

    • Gareth_L's avatar
      Gareth_L
      Forum Team
      18 hours ago

      That's security passed. Do you mind if I went away for a few minutes and checked the account?
       

  • amitjha's avatar
    amitjha
    Joining in
    23 hours ago

    As you can see from the screenshots, when I landed on the adult channel, it said that the adult channels are PIN protected, which makes sense (to protect showing adult contents to children). At bottom left, it said that it is Adult Previews and said that press OK to unlock this channel. Anyone would assume that you are unlocking the channel to preview the channel (not to buy the subscription). When I clicked OK, it asked me to enter PIN. Even on the PIN popup, it did not say the price of the subscription or that by entering the pin, I'm going to buy the subscription. I don't even know till date, how much the charge is as it doesn't mention that anywhere. In light of the above, can I please request someone from Virgin Media to look at it again and remove the charge from my bill, as it was nowhere made clear to me that by entering the PIN, I'm buying the subscription. To sell a subscription, you at least need to tell how much is it for. As you can see from the screenshots, there was no mention of cost anywhere and no mention of entering PIN to buy subscription. 

  • amitjha's avatar
    amitjha
    Joining in
    18 hours ago

    Thanks a lot @Gareth_L for stepping in and issuing the refund. Your help is much appreciated. I hope that Virgin Media will update the interface soon, so that subscription process is more clear and people like me don’t accidentally buy night tickets. It will be good for Virgin Media support staff also, who won’t have to deal with issues like these. Anyways, all is well that ends well (at least for me 🙂 ). 

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Trouble shooter
      18 hours ago

      Very well done for taking a stance and perservering. I wager there are many many more customers out there too embarrassed to query the charge. We now have an evidenced thread to point to until VM sorts out its charging interface for these channels. 

      • amitjha's avatar
        amitjha
        Joining in
        15 hours ago

        Yeah, there could be lots of other customers stung by this unclear process and they would either be too embarrassed to admit or may think that it’s not worth spending time to chase it. For me, it was not about money (which wasn’t a lot) but about principles. Hence I kept fighting for it and I’m pleased to see that once I provided sufficient evidence, Virgin Media staff immediately listened to me and reverted the charge. That shows that they do care about their customers by keeping an eye on all the messages in this forum. I was thinking that there are too many messages now in this thread and my new message will be lost among them. Glad that, that wasn’t the case. 

  • carl_pearce's avatar
    carl_pearce
    Community elder
    17 hours ago

    I wonder how many £1000's VM have cashed in on people who'd rather not disclose their 'mistake'?

    • amitjha's avatar
      amitjha
      Joining in
      15 hours ago

      I believe it’s not intentional (by Virgin Media) but poor designing of the interface, which is causing this issue. 

      • Matthew_ML's avatar
        Matthew_ML
        Forum Team
        3 hours ago

        Hey amitjha, thank you for reaching out and I can see you are in currently in DM with my colleague.

        Please do go back to them if you need any further information on this.