Forum Discussion

davehu57's avatar
davehu57
Joining in
18 days ago

At the door sales perason

Hi new to the forum, but need advice on how to deal with a problem my new signing up for Virgin Broadand. 

Virgin full fibre networks has recently been installed in our area, and as Openreach have not yet reached us, I was interested in Virgin FTTP, however , as I have recently renewed with Sky Broadband a few months ago, termination fees would be a problem to this. 

A week ago, a virgin salesperson turned up in a VM car, showed full VM Id and informed me that it would be no problem as Virgin would pay my termination charges in full directly to Sky. 

In addition to this, he offered to match a money saving expert deal by applying a monthly discount of £3.99 for 24 months as well as a £120 credit to my account. 

He offered this to me in the presence of my wife and son as well as myself, and when I asked to have this offer to be confirmed in writing, I was told that this wouldn't be a problem as I would get confirmation emails from VM with regards the monthly and lump sum credits and an email from Sky Broadband confirming that VM had paid my rather large termination fee.

All I have received from virgin was a contract stating monthly broadband charges at £25.99 - no mention of any introductory offers or payment of termination charge. 

After a week of hearing no more from Virgin, I messaged the salesperson asking him to confirm his offer to me in writing. Heard nothing back apart from one "not in the office today" message despite  leaving messages with him several phonecalls when I have left messages.

I am unable to check my Virgin account despite creating one after receiving my contract  - all I can access is a screen confirming my intallation date in 10 days time.

As my 14 day cooling off period will expire  on 9th October, I contacted him giving him a deadline of monday 6th to respond or I would consider cancelling my order. - I have heard nothing back since !

This afternoon I contacted Virgin customer services, and after about 35 minutes of navigation through their automated call system as I don't yet have a Virgin password, I finally managed to talk to a human who transfered to me to the Solutions Team who were able  to confirm that the only discount to my contract that the sales person had applied was a £3 discount for 24 months - no lump sum credit on my  account  nor any reference to Virgin paying my sky termination charges. 

The guy there also confirmed to me that there is no mechanism in place to allow VM to pay a new customer's  Termination charges from the supplier they are leaving!

The guy was very apologetic for the conduct of the salesperson and told me that he would make a report with regard to what I can only describe as misrepresentation and mis-selling of a VM product.

He has offered me the best deal that he has told me he can offer me, but unfortunetly this is still below the offer that I was given by Virgin Media via their sales rep and on top of this he is also unable to offer me this alternative offer in writing!! Absolute madness!!

What he did say was that if these new offers failed to arrive on my account after my activation I would be able to submit a formal complaint!!  Even more madness!! 

As a compromise, he did say I could call up the Solutions Team in around 72 hours time and they should then be able to confirm the discounts, but again only verbally! 

Surely it isn't too much to expect VM to be able to give a final and accurate summary of their offers to its customers?

Is it really acceptable for Virgin Media to allow the sales employees to behave in this way then claim to have no responsibility to honour offers that have been made to customers??

I really hope that someone in the forum will be able to give me some assitance and advice to resolve this or better still a or Virgin employee would can sort this out for me? 

thanks in advance, 

Dave

11 Replies

  • davehu57's avatar
    davehu57
    Joining in
    11 hours ago

    Good morning fellow comunity members - just a quick update on where I currently am with resolving my issues with VM. 

    I have been offered a partial settlement by the Resolutions Team following an  official complaint being raised - the original offer made to me for a credit of £120 and my Sky broadband termination fees of over £200 have now been credited to my account, but I am still talking to the Resolutions Team with regard to the monthly discount that was to be applied to my bills for 24 months. - I have been told 3 times on the telephone by resolution Team members that a monthly discount of £3.00 per month had been applied to my account on 25th Sept, when the sales agent visted my home   - (unfortunately they are not allowed to confirm this to me in writing!)  and the contract that was sent to me bt VM  on 25th Sept specifically states  under the heading of Promotional Discounts  "Welcome offer 24 months discounts until 13th Oct 2027"

    On the face of it, this should be very easily resolved - "goodwill" credits made to my account as recognition of the product being mis-sold to me and a contact conforming monthly discounts, the only  remaing item to be resolved being the amount of the monthly discount being raised to the £3.99 per month as promised to myself  -(this uplift has also been confirmed to 2 times in my conversations with the Resolution Team members)

    To date, nothing can be seen on my account regarding these discounts - My first Bill isn't available to me yet - its due to be published by VM on 7th Oct - 

    The question I ask the community is - is it normal for such discounts only to arrive on my account when my monthly bills are published and confirmed ? 

    Thanks in advance for your help, Dave

    • Adduxi's avatar
      Adduxi
      Very Insightful Person
      10 hours ago

      I have to admin your tenacity for sticking with this, but I'd have jumped ship long ago.  If this is the treatment you have received so far, I don't know how you perceive it will get any better over the 24 month term?

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    18 days ago

    For VM to come with a rock bottom price for an 18 - 24 months new joiner offer and then to pay out a similar amount for buying out a SKY contract ... how does that sound like good business for VM ? 

  • davehu57's avatar
    davehu57
    Joining in
    18 days ago

    thenks for getting back to me 

    Yes, I have read the reports on the forum on sales persons and that is why I am attempting to get some sort of confirmation from VM's solutions team.

    Acceptance of this type of behaviour from VM by canceling without challenging VM's responsibility for the actions of people they employ does nothing to resolve the situation with sales people promising the earth and then getting way with it.

    My conversations with the solutions team have resulted in an offer that I would have accepted if offered by a sales person albeit being slighty lower than the "pie in the sky" offer initailly made to me.

    So it does pay to complain and stick to your guns - the problem I am now trying to overcome is the inability of the solutions team to do something as simple as send me an email confirming their offer! Something that really should be very simple.

    What I am hoping for is someone from VM to get in touch via the forum and then do what they should be doing -  honouring the offer they made to me via their employee in the first place. 

    Cheers, Dave

     

    • Sabrina_B's avatar
      Sabrina_B
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
      15 days ago

      Hi davehu57 👋.

      Thanks for reaching out to us and welcome to the Community Forums, sorry to hear your experience with us has not been a good one we assure you this is not the type of service we aim to provide. So that we can discuss your account and look into your issues we would need to bring you in for a private message, please look out for the envelope on the top right of your web browser or if you are using a mobile device, it will be located under your profile icon.

       

      Thanks.

       

      Sabrina

    • Adduxi's avatar
      Adduxi
      Very Insightful Person
      18 days ago

      I’ve never seen a termination fee that was paid mentioned on these forums.  
      Just be very careful your 14 days cancellation period doesn’t run out. 

      • newapollo's avatar
        newapollo
        Very Insightful Person
        18 days ago

        Hi Dave,

        It can take a couple of days for a member of the forum team to pick up your post.

        New installs have been known to be delayed due to additional external work being required. 

        Going by the dates you've provided in your post then your 14 day cooling off period won't expire on 9th October, because the broadband hasn't been installed yet.

        You've suggested that your installation date is due in 10 days time.  If it does complete on the date anticipated then that is the date that your 14 day cooling off period starts.

        I don't know who the Solutions Team are, but suggest chatting to the Sales team on 0800 183 1234 to see if there's anything further they can do price/contract wise.

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

      Not just VM but never anything from anybody that cold calls on doorstep or phone. If nothing else you encourage them to disturb the rest of us. I really would cancel whilst you still can, and ignore any more of their porkie pies/ promises. Any response se on here will take days, by which point you'll be stuck with them. 

       

  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Community elder
    18 days ago

    Dave I am afraid the old hands on here will be wryly chuckling - not at you and your family's misfortune - but at the sad familiarity of the story. 

    Cancel VM, avoid charming travelling salesmen, and stick with Sky until OR upgrade you to FTTP.