Forum Discussion

samhew94's avatar
samhew94
Tuning in
2 months ago

False Advertising Renewal Deal in App

My contract is due to expire this week. On the My Virgin Media app, I was offered a deal to renew at the exact same price as my existing contract. On the 24/01 I received the pre contract agreement and was told on the phone that my deal has been manually processed.

On 04/02, I received a call from Virgin trying to sell me a new deal. I explained that I had already been told my new deal was being processed. There were extremely rude throughout and put the phone down on me. I then had to call them back, explain what I had already done. I was again told that the deal was in process and should be complete by 10/02.

On 10/02, I used the Virgin Media WhatsApp to ask if the deal had completed as I didn't want to move to the standard rate and pay almost double. The people messaging be continually ignored my messages and just tried to sell me different deal that were all more expensive than what I had already agreed. They then told me that there was no deal in the system but they could offer me the exact same deal. They then transferred to a different person who ignored the previous messages and offered me a more expensive deal. They told me the couldn't honour the original deal from 24/01 or what the previous person had just told me.

At this point I'd had enough and asked to make a complaint. They logged the complaint and told me someone would call me within 48hrs. I then received an email stating my complaint had be resolved without being contacted. I still haven't received any call.

I have since called again today chasing the complaint, only to be told that the Virgin App is offering deals that are incorrect. Apparently, it is a known issue within Virgin and they can't honour it. 

My thoughts:

This is false advertising as I have accepted the deal and the Virgin Media App states it has been accepted

In all of the correspondence over the last 2 weeks, why has no one told me there is an App issue and why is it still live.

I'm now 2 days from current deal expiring and will have to pay nearly double the amount. If I want to cancel, I'll have to give 30 days notice, so will still have to pay the expensive bill for next month

Questions:

Has anyone else experienced this and how was it resolved

Does anyone know how I can escalate the complaint within Virgin

What is the best channel to complain outside of Virgin. Is it Trading Standards or Advertising Standards Authority

app
complaint
deal not honoured
false advertising
  • Mr_K's avatar
    Mr_K
    Knows their stuff
    2 months ago

     

    Does seem common,   they make an offer  then fail to honour it. 

    For complaints to VM:-

    https://my.virginmedia.com/my-cases/make-a-complaint

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    2 months ago

    Cast your eye over the many similar topics in this 'Managing Your Account' forum and you will see that you are far from alone in experiencing this.

    The usual complaint on here is that the customer receives a renewal offer to 'keep everything the same' (or words to that effect) for £X. The customer goes ahead with the order but later finds that previous services are no longer included/downgraded (often this is to do with Netflix subscriptions or TNT sports are missing/downgraded after renewal). Other variations on the problems/claims from VM are that VM never received the order, the order was incorrectly offered, the order was not processed. Often the customer gets an 'oops something went wrong message', cannot place the order so has to phone up only to find that the telephone agent knows of no such offer. Net result is that customer is offered a different (often more expensive) package to renew (not 'the same' package as originally advertised).

    Some on here have suggested that this amounts to fairly blatant 'bait and switch' advertising. VM usually puts forward a defence of admin or technical problems as its excuse.

    AFAIK, no one has ever put any of this to the ASA for an authoritative answer (and fed the outcome back on here) but there is plenty of case history on here for similar patterns of behaviour from VM over a long period of time.

    https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html

    Might come under the category of 'switch selling' section 3.30

    https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html

  • Paul_DN's avatar
    Paul_DN
    Forum Team
    2 months ago

    Hi samhew94,

    Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome back, we are sorry to hear you were offered a new deal via your online account which hasn't been added, when did you accept the offer, is this a Volt deal including a Sim?

    Regards

    Paul.

    • samhew94's avatar
      samhew94
      Tuning in
      31 days ago

      Hi Paul, 

      I accepted the original offer on 24/01/25. This was mirroring my existing deal which is Volt, without a SIM. However, I didn't receive any order conformation. Despite me calling numerous times and being promised the deal was being processed, nothing happened.

      When I called yesterday afternoon, someone at Virgin Media told me that there is a know issue with the App offering deals that cannot be honoured. I explained that the App is still showing me that I can accept an offer. I went ahead with this offer and received order conformation. This deal was still more expensive than the one previously promised. However, considerably cheaper than the offers everyone else had been trying to sell me. 

      I then called again yesterday evening and was told something completely different again. This person was very helpful and explained that if I had received the order conformation with the XS number, the deal will be processed. They agreed to call me in 2 weeks time and if the deal hasn't been processed, they will credit my account each month so the correct amount is charged. I'm hoping this person stays true to their word and this situation is resolved. Can you confirm any of this by looking at my account?

      There are so many posts on here from other people experiencing the same pain as me. Can you escalate this issue internally and provide people with some clarity. The customer service has been awful and amounts to a breach of Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.

      • Matthew_ML's avatar
        Matthew_ML
        Forum Team
        31 days ago

        Thank you for confirming this.

        Online orders can take up to 14 working days to go through, can you advise if its been longer than this?

        I can also see you spoke to somebody this morning did they help at all? 

  • unfit's avatar
    unfit
    On our wavelength
    31 days ago

    Ive just cancelled everything as contract coming to end next month. Offers in chat were a **bleep** take. Internet only offered at £50 a month. Dick Turpin wore a mask. I didn't see any renewal offers in the app. Would have taken same price. 

    • Kath_P's avatar
      Kath_P
      Forum Team
      31 days ago

      Hi unfit, 

      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 feel this way. Offers and Discounts do change quite often and we're sorry that there wasn't one available that you're happy with at the time of contacting us. 

      The best offers will be available during the last 30 days of your minimum term. Feel free to check back in with us to see if there are any new offers available.

      Many thanks,