Was misinformed by VM customer service about nature of my contract
Renewed my contract in July 2023 over the phone, and was assured by the agent that it was a fixed contract paying. a fixed sum of £47 per month. I was surprised to see that my contract has gone up with the April 2024 price rise. I was misinformed by VM customer service about this not applying to my contract, and never would have agreed to this. Whilst I see that the price rise was mentioned in the very small print on my Virgin media bills, this is a very sneaky way of making me aware of this issue - and is easily missed. I would like to cancel and have my early disconnection fee offset, as this is totally unethical. I was essentially lied to in order to sell me another contract, which I am then supposedly locked in to unless I pay a ridiculously high early disconnection fee. I cannot afford the new rate of £52, and if you check back my correspondence at the time, I was very clear that I cannot afford further price rises. Needless to say, I cannot afford the early disconnection fee either. Short of battling it out in court, what can I do please?
jakerhodeskay wrote:Renewed my contract in July 2023 over the phone, and was assured by the agent that it was a fixed contract paying. a fixed sum of £47 per month. I was surprised to see that my contract has gone up with the April 2024 price rise. I was misinformed by VM customer service about this not applying to my contract, and never would have agreed to this. Whilst I see that the price rise was mentioned in the very small print on my Virgin media bills, this is a very sneaky way of making me aware of this issue - and is easily missed. I would like to cancel and have my early disconnection fee offset, as this is totally unethical. I was essentially lied to in order to sell me another contract, which I am then supposedly locked in to unless I pay a ridiculously high early disconnection fee. I cannot afford the new rate of £52, and if you check back my correspondence at the time, I was very clear that I cannot afford further price rises. Needless to say, I cannot afford the early disconnection fee either. Short of battling it out in court, what can I do please?
If your contract (viewable in My Virgin media online) has "Discount" on it - usually in small print towards the bottom, then VM will say you have a fixed discount for period agreed and not a fixed price. As you have a cool off period they will say you should have checked the contract. I agree though, I had a deal where they said fixed and no price increases and then the contract said "discount" in small print and the expiry dates of the two discounts applied....
Price increases and insistence on 18 month contract for negotiating a package change (without supply of any new kit or upgraded kit) at the moment are why I left after being long term customer. VM removed the penalty free exit clause and expect customers to sign up to 18 month contract which will likely have two price increases in that period that are legally binding, yet the customer does not know upfront what amount those price increases are; so you are blindly signing up to an unfair contract, with the original penalty free escape clause removed now.
