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BIC2025's avatar
BIC2025
Just joined
18 days ago

Virgin Media - A Company That Takes Advantage of People

Virgin Media - A Company That Takes Advantage of People

I had a truly terrible experience with Virgin Media, and I would strongly advise against using their services. I had a contract with them, and when I had to leave the UK due to medical emergencies, I froze my account and informed them that I would no longer be residing at the same address. Despite the circumstances, they still attempted to charge me the full amount for the contract, even though I wasn't in the UK and couldn’t receive any services.

They wanted me to pay for the remaining 18 months of the contract, even though I had made it clear that I was leaving for health reasons. After a lot of back and forth, I agreed to freeze my account. When I returned to the UK, I moved to a new property, and instead of honouring my old contract, they forced me to start a new one and cancelled the old one. Not only that, but they charged me £41 for the old contract, and when it came to the new one, they tried to force me to pay £78.

After complaining about this, the best offer they could give me was £52 – which is still an outrageous price for the service. Virgin Media doesn’t care about their customers or their situations; they only care about taking as much money as they can. They prey on people who are already suffering, and it’s clear that they don’t deserve to be in business. Their customer service is horrendous, and they clearly have no empathy for people facing difficulties.

They are, in my opinion, nothing but thieves. I cannot stress enough how much I regret ever getting involved with them. Please, do yourself a favour and avoid Virgin Media at all costs.

2 Replies

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  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Wise owl
    18 days ago

    Yup all long established on this site. Did you join another ISP and if so which one? 

  • unisoft's avatar
    unisoft
    Knows their stuff
    18 days ago

    In your case you had moved to a VM serviceable address and the rules are a new contract to escape termination fees of the previous address if this happened in the minimum term. It sounds like out of minimum term contract pricing was initially applied as no longer a new customer as you were escaping the remains of your previous discounted contract.  They then reduced to £52 which is £26 per month cheaper than initially. Yes, I agree VM pricing out of minimum term contract is uncompetitive compared to others, just explaining what I believe has happened. Considering the early termination fees were voided, £41 to £52 is less increase than I'd expect from VM in this situation.

    I'm not a stout defender of VM, and I realise your personal situation is just that, but I can't help wonder what medical emergency you had that caused you to have to actually leave the UK. I suspect it may have been family member rather than as I read it being yourself.

    Contracts are agreements that you would have entered into like other VM customers and you would have taken time to read the small print without blindly agreeing to the service definition and terms.

    Although life is unfortunate, the contract legally stands. VM have been known to waiver certain things on production of valid proof. They are a business and thats why a contract is agreed between the company and customer to formalise service provision, which in their eyes, they were able to fulfil.

    Other companies would likely be similar, unless your case fell into their acceptable exceptions and proof was acceptable.

    My explanation probably won't be liked, and in no way try to favour with VM. I hope the medical situation got resolved and let's see what VM may say, though suspect it would be a private message.