Forum Discussion

pammy4paws's avatar
pammy4paws
On our wavelength
2 years ago
Solved

Free month of services whatsapp

Hi just received the following Whatsapp seemingly from Virgin. Did a google but could not find anyone else mentioning such a message so have turned to here for help please !

Our Broadband service is ending at the end of December 2023. The retentions price was not great so we went through with cancellation.

Today i was sent this Whatsapp message from Virgin...

Hi, it’s Virgin Media here. We’re sorry to see you leave, however we don’t want to see anyone without connectivity while making alternative arrangements. We’d therefore like to give you your current services entirely free for an extra month. If you don’t want this, simply reply with NO, otherwise, we’ll make the arrangements for you. Your services will still automatically disconnect, so there’s no need to do anything.

Does anyone know if this is genuine ?

Thanks

Pam

 

  • Tom_W1's avatar
    Tom_W1
    2 years ago

    Hi Pamela, thanks a lot for your reply here.

    Victoria has messaged you privately, so please look out for a notification in the envelope icon in your home screen to view and reply to the message directly.

    We hope this helps!
    Many thanks

  • Paul_DN's avatar
    Paul_DN
    Forum Team
    2 years ago

    Hi pammy4paws,,

    Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome, sorry to hear you are leaving us due to the offer given to stay not being what you were looking for,  we are unaware of the above offer however this may be an outbound retentions offer, if this is the case they will try to call.

    Regards

    Paul.

  • pammy4paws's avatar
    pammy4paws
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    Thank you both for your helpful replies.

    @Redwine345   My instinct is its genuine as a scammer would not likely know we have cancelled but hey who knows with devious scammers !

    We also have received our next bill which is £0 so Virgin are clear we are leaving. If it is Virgin retentions and they are trying to get us under a new contract then i guess we have in writing that the month is "free" and our disconnection was promised to still go ahead.

    @ paul_DN  Retentions have already called about a week prior to this whatsapp but maybe they are trying again ?

    Anyway if it is a scam then i dont really want to reply to them so i have decided to wait and see what happens on my disconnection date of December 29th. 

    If the services are still there i will know it was Virgin and that will help others who get this "offer" to know its genuine.

    I will post back after December 29th to confirm what happened and again after January 29th to let people know if the disconnection happened as promised !

    Thanks again !

    • Vikki_M's avatar
      Vikki_M
      Forum Team
      2 years ago

      Hi pammy4paws

      Its not an offer we have been made aware of.

      Have you responded to the message?

      We are happy to send you a private message if you would like us to confirm your disconnection date etc.

      Please pop back to us when you can and we can take from there. 

      • pammy4paws's avatar
        pammy4paws
        On our wavelength
        2 years ago

        Hi Vikki

        No i have not replied because if it is a scam then im aware just by clicking on such messages bad things can happen !

        It would be lovely if you would confirm our disconnection date just send me a private message please !

         

        Thanks again

        Pamela

         

  • pammy4paws's avatar
    pammy4paws
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    Hi

    Just to update anyone who receives the same message via Whatsapp, i received helpful private messages from Mods on this forum (thanks!) stating it appears Virgin are trialling this method of a free month and i can confirm we have not been disconnected on our due date and have been told our disconnection will automatically go ahead a month later with no need for me to phone virgin.

    I will update in a weeks time as that is when our Virgin bill is usually due and hopefully can confirm then that no charge was made for this "free month". I was told a bill credit would be applied to our account so lets hope all goes well !

    So what does virgin get out of this you may ask ?

    Another month to persuade you to stay ?

    Well no phone calls to me with a new deal price so far but its only the 1st day of the free month so will update as to what happens.

    Thanks again to the Mods who helped !

     

     

    • pammy4paws's avatar
      pammy4paws
      On our wavelength
      2 years ago

      DO NOT ALLOW VIRGIN MEDIA TO GIVE YOU A "FREE MONTH"

      Despite assurances from Mods this was something Virgin media was trialling and the extra month was "free" i have just received a bill for over £109 !!!

      Will now take this to the ombudsman as i have all the correspondence saved and will cancel my direct debit.

      Conned beyond belief !

      Pamela

  • pammy4paws's avatar
    pammy4paws
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    I have also been charge a £7.50 "late payment fee" for a payment i was never supposed to make and the direct debit is still active so how have i avoided trying to even pay ? 🙄

    • pammy4paws's avatar
      pammy4paws
      On our wavelength
      2 years ago

      Hi Just to let anyone interested know Virgin did disconnect us exactly a minute into the 28th which was weird as in our billing the 28th was the final full day of a payment month so expected the internet to be disconnected early on the 29th.

      Thanks to Vikki the moderator for putting the billing right which obviously caused a lot of distress.

      So take the chance if offered a "free" month but it ended in so much trouble for us i would not recommend it.

      • Paul_DN's avatar
        Paul_DN
        Forum Team
        2 years ago

        Hi pammy4paws,

        Thank you for reaching back out, we are sorry again for any inconvenience caused by having the extra Month when disconnecting, if you do need any further support, please do not hesitate to reach back out.

        Regards

        Paul.