Forum Discussion

Bill_Scott's avatar
Bill_Scott
Tuning in
4 months ago
Solved

Contract changes

Hi Everyone,

Back in June 2024 there was a lovely offer for Sky Sports at £15 per month by email. The email stated that as a 3rd party add on it would not affect the contract and could be cancelled at 30days notice.

My Core services contract was due to end 11th Nov 2024.

I was somewhat surprised to find out that when discussing my current deal with the rep my contract would now run until January 2026. Confused about this and after a lot of emails and calls I was told that ANY changes to the addons (third party or not) automatically amended the contract. 

I was somewhat surprised and feel a bit cheated to be honest that simply changing the existing Sky Sports Channels to the HD pack had triggered an entirely new 18-month contract.

They have asked for a copy of the email THEY sent which after this time I am unable to locate. Surely they are aware of their own offers?

This seems to me to be rather shady and underhand as on a number of conversations (online, contact centre, and email) I have never been informed that ANY changes adding or removing add on's will affect the Core services contract (Broadband, Telephone and basic TV).

There method of handling is to ask for emails or call dates which inform me the changes will NOT affect the contract. As its never been mentioned by the company reps this is obviously ridiculous. Shouldn't the company be telling me WHEN I was informed - they know they will be unable to do so.

I feel very let down as the package is now too expensive for me, but I am trapped within the Virgin Media bureaucracy. Whatever happened to caring customer service.

Obviously NOT a professional company so please be aware of this issue. NEVER change your package!!

 

 

  • David_Bn's avatar
    David_Bn
    4 months ago

    Good Morning Bill_Scott, thanks for reaching out to us and a very warm welcome to our Community Forums!

    Sorry to hear of the issues you have been experiencing with our Sales team when agreeing an offer in relation to Sky Sports. 

    I'd be happy to look into this for you, to see if we can get to the bottom of this and confirm if this indeed should or shouldn't be a locked in minimum term.

    Thanks,

    David_Bn

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    This has more than a whiff of VM 'confusion' about it. Is this the offer you were referring to, an upgrade to UHD from June this year?

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Sky-Sports-UHD-offer/td-p/5533183

    If it is, I read the extract quoted at post #2 as fitting in with your own understanding. You have accepted an offer of Sky UHD for £3 per month for a limited 18 month period after which it becomes £7. To get the offer you have to have Sky Sports which can be cancelled at any time with 30 days notice.

    So, as I read it, your Sky UHD offer is limited to 18 months and you can cancel Sky Sports with 30 days notice (at which point Sky UHD would also end).

    VM sales agents have plenty of form in past topics on here for converting customers to new minimum terms when they should not have been so this would not be surprising if it had happened to you too. If VM claims you signed up to a new 18 month contract they should be able to evidence that.

    If it is as VM states, taking the UHD offer did sign you up to a further 18 months, I would agree with you that it is a very underhand sales tactic.

    • Bill_Scott's avatar
      Bill_Scott
      Tuning in

      Thank you for your reply.

      No, the offer was actually for the Sky Sports channels at £15 per month. As Virgin Media had removed the TNT sports (does this invalidate the contract?) this seemed to be a more economical way of keeping football access (TNT was priced £28 after Virgin removed it without warning even though, as I stated, it was on my package).

      Sky had a much better customer service so may return to them (eventually) as I have learned my lesson. Basically DO NOT TRUST Virgin Media, and beware their their little unannounced 'tricks'.

      • David_Bn's avatar
        David_Bn
        Forum Team

        Good Morning Bill_Scott, thanks for reaching out to us and a very warm welcome to our Community Forums!

        Sorry to hear of the issues you have been experiencing with our Sales team when agreeing an offer in relation to Sky Sports. 

        I'd be happy to look into this for you, to see if we can get to the bottom of this and confirm if this indeed should or shouldn't be a locked in minimum term.

        Thanks,

        David_Bn

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    If you log into 'My VM' and view your contract info, what does the breakdown of your package into its component parts show?

    Unfortunately I don't know sufficient info about VM TV to make any further suggestions. Some other regulars know a lot about TV options and may advise.

    Make a DSAR and request all relevant info.

    https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar

    There is a section for 'Emails sent from Virgin Media to the customer Organisational email communication between the individual and Virgin Media held for 12 months'.

    If you get the relevant info, make a complaint to VM first of all (a required first step)

    https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

    and then to the ombudsman

    https://www.commsombudsman.org/our-process

  • Latest update. Well, after David_Bn reached out to me an online conversation began. This was after an email to the ceo office and a very pleasant discussion from a very helpful lady.  All I can say is that the service was first class and the issue resolved. If only the call centres could match this level of service I am sure Virgin would swiftly become no1 for customer service. Thanks for your help.