Forum Discussion

JulieWilliams's avatar
JulieWilliams
Joining in
2 months ago

Contract Renewal Netflix Changed to With Ads

Offered a contract renewal on 12/12/24, accepted offer. Received email with Contract Information Sheet, clearly states Netflix Standard. Today, 17/12/24, received email saying thank you for accepting changes to your package, changes being now Netflix with Ads. This is not what I agreed to.

Tried to contact via message service but advisor disappears for 5-10 mins at a time instead of answering my questions.

Rang Customer Services, who understood my complaint and said they did not want to lose me as a customer and would escalate this to Customer Relations, explained that they had endorsed the call, wrote the notes and would put me through. Guy who answered the phone basically asked what did I want. He obviously hadn’t read any notes on my account, I tried to explain but was told Virgin don’t offer Netflix Standard anymore and I would have to upgrade. Not interested with the fact that’s not what my contract was. So I said I would cancel contract, to which he said OK service will be terminated in 30 days.

So much for customer service

  • Matthew_ML's avatar
    Matthew_ML
    Forum Team
    2 months ago

    Hey JulieWilliams, thank you for reaching out and a warm welcome to the community I am sorry to hear you are leaving us due an to Netflix issue.

    We have recently changed our T&C's with Netflix, we now only offer Netflix Stanford with adds, if you was on add free before a renewal or change to the account would put you on the new Netflix bracket.

    Did your contract confirmation say this was add free, it would mention it on there if it was?

     

    • JulieWilliams's avatar
      JulieWilliams
      Joining in
      2 months ago

      The first email I got said Netflix Standard, then I received an email saying thank you for making those changes, 'Netflix Standard removed, Netflix Standard with Ads now included in your package'.

       

  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Trouble shooter
    2 months ago

    I would say that you have statutory Consumer Rights Act 2015 protection here as Netflix Standard is a distinct subscription tier. Raise a formal written complaint with a view to escalating to the Ombudsman. Keep all comms (including the typo-ridden staff push backs on here). 

    • Barstaff's avatar
      Barstaff
      On our wavelength
      2 months ago

      I would also suggest everyone in this position making a complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency on the grounds that they are being offered ‘X’ and then having accepted they are then told ‘sorry you are getting ‘Y’ - which is actually illegal. Not that such practices have stopped VM in the past!

      The above post from Mathew_ML (a VM employee) is particularly disingenuous, if not an outright lie.

      "We have recently changed our T&C's with Netflix, we now only offer Netflix Stanford (sic) with adds,"

      Tough; what VM have negotiated with Netflix (hint, they haven’t - this was a lie), is irrelevant. Netflix offer a ‘Standard’ package, VM offer to give the Netflix ‘Standard’ package, and that is what customers should expect to receive. Nothing more, nothing less. VM are attempting to rip people off.

      So yes, complain to the ASA and the Ombudsman service.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 months ago

    Typical VM price gouging. If you were offered Netflix Standard then you should be getting Netflix Standard.

    Netflix Standard with Ads is a different product.

    • Barstaff's avatar
      Barstaff
      On our wavelength
      2 months ago

      I assume that ‘Netflix with Ads’ is cheaper than ‘Netflix Standard’, no?

      So VM pay Netflix for the former, but charge the customer for the latter!

      • Steven_L's avatar
        Steven_L
        Forum Team
        2 months ago

        Thanks for coming back to us JulieWilliams. I can see that you have spoken to the team since you last posted. Would you like this to be looked into further from here and see if we can get this problem resolved for you?
        Kind Regards,
        Steven_L