Forum Discussion

BahnStormer's avatar
BahnStormer
Up to speed
6 hours ago

Bill summary is misleading

I admit that the first part of the current issue is my mistake - I saw my last renewal date was May 2024 and I thought this meant  that with the 24 month contracts, I had to renew by May 2026 to avoid going onto the "normal" price.

The main concern is the bill summary: last month, the bill summary said "£65pcm" and I didn't notice that it took £151... this month I noticed because it took £225 and I am getting "unauthorised bank overdraft" warnings from my bank.

THE BILL SUMMARY STILL SAYS £65pcm!!!

I get it -  I should have realised that I was only on an 18 month contract and renewed before the November bill, but how is it legal to send somebody a bill summary of £65 and it is only clear if I download the PDF that I will actually be charged £225?!?

(or wait for my bank to tell me I'm overdrawn as I was supposed to head out to do the main Christmas dinner shopping, thinking I still had £150+ in the account after Virgin Media were going to take the £65 as indicated on the bill summary)

It's only when I drill down for the details that I see the summary is completely misleading....

 

4 Replies

  • BahnStormer's avatar
    BahnStormer
    Up to speed
    15 minutes ago

    And yes, maybe you're right: 31-Dec might be last year's billing... it just says "Latest Bill" and "31-DEC", but no year... but there's no way to scroll forward, so I thought it was just showing the upcoming bill as I know the billing isn't quite in line with the actual dates.

    I've tried to raise a complaint, but it gets auto-closed as "resolved" - which probably looks good for their stats, but it is losing them customers!

  • Richardr1's avatar
    Richardr1
    Fibre optic
    2 hours ago

    My bill summary on the website has been last December's all year - not a single bill this year has agreed with it [as I would expect given my services changed].

    Yours is almost certainly the same, not least as it says 31 December and paid similar to mine, something that won't be true for this year's 31 December bill until your payment date in January [hence your detail showing your November bill to be paid in December].

    Quite how this is allowed to happen, who knows. If you don't get this sorted here, perhaps an official complaint will jog them into recompensing you and sorting the website out.

    • BahnStormer's avatar
      BahnStormer
      Up to speed
      59 minutes ago

      Richard, it isn't allowed - it is an Ofcom breach:

      Ofcom C3.2 - "bill accurately"
      Ofcom C3.7 - "make adequate and up-to-date billing information available"

      I advised my bank of the above screenshots and they immediately reversed the most recent direct debit and we've agreed to leave the remaining charge in place, since that is £151 and I will owe Virgin Media £65 for that month, £65 for this month and £65 to settle my account before the 30 days' notification period is up.

      This way I have very slightly overpaid for now, but I will still owe a further ~£44 for the last month, if I can't get them to acknowledge the billing misrepresentation and I need to follow through with the cancellation.

  • Jamaal_A's avatar
    Jamaal_A
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    3 hours ago

    Hi BahnStormer 👋

     

    We're sorry to hear your recent bill amount was miss communicated to you, the last thing we want is our customers going through more stress during the Christmas period. Thank you for flagging this to us. 

     

    We will be dropping you a PM to discuss this further 🙂