Forum Discussion

ChrisCk's avatar
ChrisCk
Joining in
8 months ago

Is it Virgins’Corporate Policy to Cheat Customers?

Why would anypone want to renew their contract with a company like this? They will not honour their advertised broadband offer.

 

I accepted their broadband offer which said that an “ £80 bill credit will automatically be applied to your account on purchase”. Virgin said that this would result in an average cost of  £22.56 per month and yet Virgin issued my contract at £27 per month with no credit mentioned.  

 

On 10th June  I contacted the customer support chat line and the agent asked me for proof of the offer.  I supplied this as an attachment via the chat system and the agent said, quote “I will submit notes onto your account to get the offer applied”.  He also said “I have sucessfully submitted the notes on your account” - I have the chat script to support this. 

 

As I had still not received the requested confirmation that I would be charged £22.56 per month, I spoke to Virgins’ customer support agent Lisa via a telephone call on 14th June.  She was clearly unable to confirm the update on my account which the previous agent had told me had been made and therfore promised to raise it as a complaint and sent me the reference number C-1406241071.  Sixteen days later and I have still not received any answer to this complaint!

 

At 07:14 on the 15th June I received an email from Virgin saying “All done! Your details on My Virgin Media have been updated”.  Again Virgin failed to confirm that my basic broadband bill will be £22.56.

 

I therefore sent an email complaint on the 15th June direct to the CEO but I did not even receive an acknowledgement.  I sent another email to him on  the 26th June and it still appears to have been totally ignored.

 

I have just been issued with my first bill of £27 per month for each of the first two months and so appear to have been lied to about the update to make it comply with the offer.  As far as I am concerned this is simply  “Fraud in the inducement”.  How can it simply be a mistake when the proof of offer and the notes submitted to my account have been ignored.  The formal complaint number C-1406241071 has been ignored.  The two emails to the CEO appear to have been ignored.  I have therefore come to the opinion that Virgin is deliberately trying to cheat its customers!

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    8 months ago

    Just to say that they are not picking on you in particular. There is a constant trail on here of people not getting the special offer/deal/cashback that enticed them to sign up. Then like you they get passed around, misled and kept waiting until they get fed up and resigned to a contract they didn't want. 

    It is tempting to think that this is a deliberate policy to steal your money, but it could just be an unintentional result of their disorganised method of operating the company on a shoestring. In either case it is the customer who suffers, and this is one of the several reasons why Virginmedia sits at the bottom of the customer satisfaction tables.

    If you feel you have the time and energy to fight this awful company and get your money back, I wish you well. 

  • steve_b's avatar
    steve_b
    Dialled in
    8 months ago

    Not defending VM in any way here, I find their annual (now 18 month) renegotiation challenge totally unsatisfactory like many others, and am looking forward to an alternative coming my way now that CityFibre have dug our roads and pavements up!

    But, you say

    ChrisCk wrote:

    I accepted their broadband offer which said that an “ £80 bill credit will automatically be applied to your account on purchase”. Virgin said that this would result in an average cost of  £22.56 per month and yet Virgin issued my contract at £27 per month with no credit mentioned.  

    ChrisCk wrote:

    At 07:14 on the 15th June I received an email from Virgin saying “All done! Your details on My Virgin Media have been updated”.  Again Virgin failed to confirm that my basic broadband bill will be £22.56.

    I read that as your monthly charge will be £27, but they will credit your account with £80, making the average monthly cost £22.56 over the 18 month duration. So it's the £80 credit you should be chasing, not a £22.56 monthly charge, which they did not agree to.

     

     

  • ChrisCk's avatar
    ChrisCk
    Joining in
    8 months ago

    Virgin telephoned me early in the morning following this post.  In fairness to VM, they quickly recognised that there was a problem and have issued me with a revised contract.

    My thanks to this community for their supportive comments.  If it was not for this post I believe that this problem might still have been ignored.