Forum Discussion

ioglesby's avatar
ioglesby
Tuning in
15 days ago

Trying to get a clear picture

I am trying to leave and have given notice today as I can get 900m BB cheaper than my current 125m. Do not want to sign up and then get the contract altered in a few weeks to become uncompetitive again.

Since giving notice I have been given 4 figures on how much I will have to pay, including a Early Disconnection Fee even though I am to leave one day after my contract expires.

I have called customer service a number of times and been on chats to get the 4 different figures to leave. The only one confirmed in email is the additional early disconnection fee, which customer service say will not be taken but they cannot give a cost breakdown confirmation email after repeated requests.

What does it take to get a clear picture from Virgin.

Currently I am thinking about cancelling my direct debit and pay the bill manually as the customer service just seems a complete shambles.

The customer service reps on the chat constantly asking for 3 letters of my password, which I gave, but didn't work as they actually wanted 3 letters from my memorable word.

As it stands, I as the account holder doesn't know what is going on and Virgin just seems a disorganised mess.

I am going to contact OfCom and raise the lack of clarity and poor customer service handling the matter. It shouldn't be like this.

I have been with Virgin media since 2012 bar short break using mobile broadband whilst predominately working away from home, but I cannot see myself coming back as I have spent about 6 hours on this and I am still none the wiser.

Any guidance as to what to do would be appreciated.

Thanks

Iain

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    For clarity, are you trying to cancel your existing VM package M125 and take out a new 900 Mbps package with a different service provider?

    If your VM disconnection date is after the end of your minimum term period with VM then you should not pay any early disconnection fees.

    Usual advice on here would be that cancelling your DD with VM is never a good idea until you are 100% certain all dealings/payments with VM are concluded.

  • Yes, I have a deal for 900m BB that is cheaper than what I pay with a different provider. The account has been cancelled, I was told I would receive £8 back from the last bill of 32.35, but then they sent an additional email saying I would have to pay an early disconnect fee.

    £19.38 Early Disconnection Fee 

    I have spent most of the day trying to get a clear picture and was promised a call back from someone at Virgin, whilst writing this update I have 2 calls from 0345 454 1111, rang less than a second each time. I assume this is so that the monitoring systems can show they tried. I didn't have time to move my hand from keyboard to phone sat side by side.

    It has just called a 3rd time and I had the phone in hand and they hung up before I could answer.

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Trouble shooter

      Yup the second long callback is becoming a thing on here. 

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta

      VM continues to bill you right up until the day you are disconnected, as per normal, so your DD payments continue on their usual schedule right up to disconnection.

      If your disconnection date happens after the end of your minimum term period you should not pay any early disconnection fees. If your disconnection date is one day after your minimum term you would be charged one day pro-rate at the undiscounted cost of your current package.

      How this all pans out will also depend on when your direct debit payment goes out and the period covered by your last regular bill and how those fit with your disconnection date. A few days after you are disconnected you should get a final bill showing you the final balance on your account. If the account is in debit you pay that and leave VM. If your account is in credit you should get a refund from VM (although not necessarily very quickly).

      https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payment/bill-explainer/my-final-bill-explainer

      A VM person from the forum team should get to your topic and make a reply here, usually within a few days from when you first posted.

      They may offer to look at your account for you and give you an expected final balance. The information you get from the VM forum team on here is more likely to be reliable than the info you get from VM's telephone agents IMO.

  • Thanks Alessandro for the info, I'll leave the DD for now as with all companies after your money, it is fine for them to take too much, but if the customer tries to protect themselves from that there's hell to pay, so I don't really want to do that. I suppose I will just have to wait in the dark until Virgin confirms what I owe, I'm not sure what the problem is as the service is broadband only and I should only have to give 30 days notice as per contract and it should be calculated straight away. I shouldn't have been given 4 different figures if they can't be confirmed.

    I can't believe how painful this has been, it would have been fine if they hadn't sent me an email with the early disconnection charge. This came minutes after I hung up from giving them 30 days to terminate the service where they stated I would get a partial refund due to when my next bill occurs.

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta

      While waiting for a VM forum team reply ...

      You can share your unhappy cancellation experience with OFCOM.

      They launched an investigation into VM on 13 July 2023 specifically into VM's cancellation and complaints processes.

      https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/bulletins/enforcement-bulletin/open-cases/cw_01275

      Case ref. no. and an email at the bottom of the above page or submit with same info via the contact form

      https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

      Submitting information won't help your individual complaint but it will contribute to the OFCOM investigation and it sounds like your experience is directly relevant to the terms of reference of the investigation.

    • Tom_W1's avatar
      Tom_W1
      Forum Team

      Hi ioglesby thanks for your post here, so sorry your experience in trying to leave has been difficult.

      I'd like to look into this for you so please expect a PM from me to arrive shortly and respond directly when you can!
      Many thanks