How exactly do you get VM to pick up return kit?

Under government regulations, Virginmedia are required to take back their redundant equipment for recycling. But there is a gap in the regulations that means they do not have to collect it from you, they can send you the packaging and insist that you take it to a collection point.

If you are lucky, one of the forum staff might offer to arrange a pickup when a technician is in the area, but that is not guaranteed. 

As for any charge that they might make, their accounts department are merciless. If they cannot collect what they say you owe, you have no appeal. They will register a default on your credit files and pass the debt to a collections company who will come and pester you. 

Well, let's hope I'm lucky! They didn't seem to have any problems following up when I cancelled to ask if I needed anything, or indeed collecting when I asked them for my hub swap. I guess you become a de facto non-entity once you're established as no longer one of their customers.

And the debt collector is welcome to the kit (and a full explanation) if they come 'round. I can probably even get someone to help me file a notice of correction on my report(s) if it comes to that. Sigh. Treating a major ISPs' customers like economic adversaries is so 20th-century. Nothing like my new provider CommunityFibre who've basically been absolutely wonderful the whole time, accommodated my needs during the install, etc.

I'll try calling them again ...

There was a link, in the farewell email, that took you to a page that listed steps once you were logged in. Does anyone know what it was? I can't Google it, but maybe that has details for booking collection? I know for a fact that they *do* have such a mechanism, because they employed it for my hub swap.

Rang again, this time got straight through without any waiting whatsoever. Well it's Sunday. Very helpful, once again confirmed I'd get a booking text, apologised for the problems.

And to answer my earlier question, you can just log in and the cancellation page is linked from the banner. Although it says you'll get better results once you log in, if you log in again from the page by using the provided button, it will instantly re-authenticate and then give you a full log which doesn't make it possible to book collection, but *does* confirm that the number to call is the regular support number (choose change of package). Ugh. Here's to hoping it worked this time.

All right, so today they finally came to collect, which is great (friendly engineer). But not before they billed me £65 for the kit. They said they'll refund it; let's hope they do it before they attempt a DD charge, which will fail.

VM has a problem of competence which its CS people, though they are clearly blameless of it, need to be aware of. Nobody should have to make multiple attempts to arrange collection for legitimate reasons, though really, why it would be beyond them to just ask when the customer cancels is a mystery. It's also very, very uncool to be threatening people with charges they should never have accrued, for crimes they didn't commit.

I'm now a happy Community Fibre customer, VM's advantage having been exhausted in my area, for now. I hope that among the many things VM takes from customers leaving is their need to improve on the customer relationship, even after they cancel.