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Blue3000's avatar
Blue3000
Joining in
2 days ago

Elderly parent had her TV package upgraded without her knowledge - and subscribed to extra channels.

Hello there,

I would like to know how it is possible for an elderly person without any technical abilities to upgrade her basic TV package and subscribe herself to broadband and two different add-on channels (Kids TV, and Asian Mela) without her even knowing about it. 

She is still using her old ViVo box. She doesn't own a Smart TV, and has never used the Internet. She can't even call Virgin Media because she doesn't know how to look for their phone number - (Her landline is with BT). And she doesn't own a mobile phone.

But somehow Virgin Media via the online chat service are claiming she MUST have done this all by herself. Despite not knowing her own PIN number or any associated password.  So they are refusing to refund her.

I checked last night and the 2 add-ons that she is apparently subscribed to - are still ticked. She cannot unsubscribe herself from them through the TV. When I attempted to do it for her last night a box pops up asking her to go to the MyVirginMedia website to cancel - and unfortunately- she has no ability to do that by herself). She doesn't own a computer or a mobile phone.

All of her bills are paid by direct debit so she didn't notice that these extra services had been added on. She just realised that the amount she was paying had gotten a LOT higher. 

With her permission I took a look at some of her emails and apparently she has been subscribed to these extra Virgin Media services for over a year - she just didn't know about it. 

My questions are - How could this even happen? And also - how is Virgin Media not responsible for giving her a refund if she didn't subscribe to those services? The online chat was unfortunately very unhelpful when she tried asking about it yesterday. They just ran her around in circles with their security questions.

Any advice you can offer would be VERY much appreciated. Thank you!

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  • Steven_L's avatar
    Steven_L
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    2 days ago

    Hello Blue3000,

    Welcome to the Community and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums.

    I'm really sorry to hear of the issues that your parent and our customer is having with their Virgin Media account. Virgin Media should be able to refund for these issues as clearly something has gone wrong here as the services couldn't have been subscribed to from the details that you've provided to us. 

    What has been advised so far when you've tried to speak to the team and resolve the issues or is it just that no refund could happen on the account?

    If we were to look into this via a private message, would you be able to pass account security for us to investigate this further? 

    Kind Regards,

    Steven_L

    • Blue3000's avatar
      Blue3000
      Joining in
      2 days ago

      Hi Stephen,

      Thank you so much for responding. Yes my mother (with a little bit of assistance from myself) attempted to speak with three different individuals online yesterday about the issue. 

      The first gentleman explained that because she was out of contract she had been charged the standard price of the package. Only she had NEVER been asked beforehand if she would like to upgrade to a different package, or if she'd like include broadband with her service (she didn’t even know it had happened). She has no experience of using the Internet by herself and has no real need for it.

      She especially didn’t sign herself up to any add-on subscriptions (she wouldn't even know how to do that). Kids TV is obviously of no interest to an elderly person like herself, and neither is Asian Mela - as she has no ties whatsoever to Asia and doesn't understand any of the languages. It just wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for her to subscribe to either of these channels.

      The second lady she spoke with online was trying to gather all of her security information but unfortunately after a long chat the window closed down unexpectedly and the page refreshed - so she had to begin an entirely new conversation with someone else.

      The third lady was friendly, but after everything had been explained in great detail - she only offered to cancel the two add-on subscriptions. She is also the person who told my mother that a refund wouldn't be possible. But gave no explanation as to why. She also told my mother that she had raised a complaint for her and that the team would be in contact tomorrow (which unfortunately never happened). And both of the subscriptions both appear to still be active in her TV entertainment subscriptions area (I just had another look).

      I would be INCREDIBLY grateful if you could look into this issue for us, as it doesn't seem very fair at all. 

      Please feel free to send me a private message so I can supply you with all the information that you need to proceed. (I would do it, but I'm not entirely sure how yet).

      Thanks again! 🙂👍

      • Tom_W1's avatar
        Tom_W1
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
        21 hours ago

        Hi Blue3000 thanks for your reply here.

        We can invite you into PM but for security purposes, we can't make any changes to the account without speaking to the account holder but let's see what we can find out for you.

        Expect the PM from myself to arrive shortly, and respond directly when you can!

        Many thanks