Forum Discussion

erdia's avatar
erdia
Joining in
3 months ago

Unauthorised Contract Renew - Being Charged £870 for Early Disconnection

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice or shared experiences regarding an issue I'm having with Virgin Media. They are trying to charge me a disconnection fee of £873.32, even though I haven't had a valid contract since June 2023.

Here’s a timeline of what happened:

  • My contract with Virgin Media ended on 12 June 2023.
  • I continued using the service on what I believed was a rolling basis - I never signed a new agreement.
  • On 10 March 2024, I received an email from Virgin Media regarding a price increase.
  • On 8 April 2024, I used the chat service to request a downgrade of my package. I explicitly stated that I did not want to enter into a new contract. I only wanted a cheaper package without any new commitment.
  • Today (May 2025), I tried to schedule a cancellation for 5 July 2024 or later, and I was told that I’m in a new contract - something I never agreed to - and would have to pay £870+ to leave early.

This has come as a complete shock to me. I was never informed, and I never signed or verbally agreed to a new contract. I’ve submitted a complaint to Virgin Media (Ref: C-0905255923) but am still waiting for a proper response.

Aside from the financial concern, this whole situation has been really stressful and has impacted my mental well-being. I feel pressured into paying for something I didn’t agree to, and I’m now wondering if others have faced similar experiences — and whether anyone has successfully had such charges overturned.

Also, if anyone has experience with claiming compensation for distress caused, I’d be grateful to hear how that process works.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer guidance or share similar stories. It would really help to know I’m not alone in this.

Best,
Erdi

3 Replies

  • Molly_T's avatar
    Molly_T
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    3 months ago

    Hi Erdi 👋 Welcome to the community forum! Thanks for posting and sharing your experience. 
    So sorry to hear about these concerns regarding your contract and Early Disconnection Fees, and that a complaint has been raised to help get this resolved. 

    You can find full terms of the EDF policy here 👉 virg.in/EDF and general Terms and Conditions 👉 https://virg.in/legals . 

    We'd need to take a look at the account to investigate and offer and insight or guidance about the case, so I will send you a PM to confirm a few details. 

    You can find this in your Inbox 📩 in the top right corner of the page. 
    We can then return to this public thread with another update when possible. Thanks for your patience in the meantime! 🌞

  • unisoft's avatar
    unisoft
    Knows their stuff
    3 months ago

     request a downgrade of my package.

    There you go. Changes to packages usually almost always these days mean a re-contract by the system, especially if you managed a downgrade and the item removed was not an add-on. The agent either didn't want to hear you properly, was incompetent and didn't realise the system would re-contract.

    In any event, legally, if they re-contract you, they have to read you your rights on the phone call/chat session. If they did, that should have been an alarm bell. You should have also got a new copy through of the revised contract too.

     

    • erdia's avatar
      erdia
      Joining in
      3 months ago

      Thank you, that's 100% correct. I exactly said that I don't want any contract, as I knew that I would be moving. 

      The most concerning thing, I haven't received any email confirming my downgrade or renewing the contract. I received literally nothing. I checked all spam folders etc., nothing was there.

      I’ll keep you updated on how it goes, and I’ll definitely fight for my rights.