Hi All,
Long spiel ahead...
I have had a recent bereavement (my wife) and have used the VM account transfer form (sent via email 31st December 2022) and things seemed to be going well - see portion of VM email response below. However, I have since received a complex bill and other information (both in the post and via email) which I copied to the Bereavement team on 8th Feb 2023 and which I have followed up again today as I have received no response from the bereavement team (I appreciate you'll be busy Bereavement team).
What happened: My wife passed away late 2022 and as part of the estate administration I carried out the VM account transfer (the account was/is in my wife's name - to transfer to me) per their instructions.
--- Start of portion of email received from VM 5th January 2023 -----
"Thank you for the e-mail requesting that the Virgin Media account be changed over into your name following the account holder’s passing.
We would like to take this opportunity to offer our sincere condolences, we know this may be a difficult time, so we’re here to help we want to make this process as simple as possible for you.
You may have noticed a short interruption; this will have occurred when we made the changes to the account.
We can confirm the package and its price has remained the same. If you receive any contract letters in the post please refrain from signing them and there is no need to return them to us. We will not be putting you in any contract today. Any letters to advise your e-mail will be lost please ignore them as this will not apply to you. “
—-- End of portion of email recieved from VM 5th January 2023 -----
After this email I received a new contract in the post (the initial contract was a new customer 18 month deal for £24) for £44. Strange as VM told me "We can confirm the package and its price has remained the same." I have never signed and returned this contract, as instructed by VM, yet am being charged at the new rate of £44. VM state "We will not be putting you in any contract today.". They have put me on a new contract and I have not signed and returned any documentation allowing this - this strikes me as fraudulent.
I also received a bill for £60.42 which appears to be for the remainder of my wife's contract plus £44 for the new contract plus £1.75 for paper billing (we had e-billing so why was this added in the transfer?).
There is also the very important matter that I cannot login to the account with the credentials I supplied to VM on their account transfer form (I expected to use the credentials I supplied on the transfer form)... I can still however login using my deceased wife's credentials and when I do this I see the "new" account number charging at £44 not the contract, which I "transferred" and which is priced at £24 (a deal until June 2023).
Re my wife's credentials still being "live" I find it hard to believe that this cannot be altered to reflect my credentials. This is a serious issue, in my view, that I can only login to an account with the credentials of a deceased person - also that the account number has changed but not the credentials. This is very poor system control.
Any advice welcome on how I might seek resolution from VM for what appears to be 1)a new contract being issued, unsigned by me which indicates a level of fraud to me when it was clearly stipulated there will be no change to costs and 2)using my deceased wife's credentials to login to a different account number from that which she was provided initially (VM transferred the credentials to a new account).
I am somewhat stressed out by all this at a difficult time for me but am receiving nothing back from VM so far.
I hope the above makes sense.
Any advice gratefully received.
Thank you.
chrisk
