Hello,
I've just been on the phone to a virgin media representative, to a very unsatisfactory end. Before phoning up to sort an engineer coming to look at my router (the wireless signal has been terrible for a few month now), I checked my online banking and realised that I'd been overcharged by Virgin since April 2021. For 12 months I was charged £35.50, from April 21 until May 22, on which month I was charged £38.75, then the month following £39.48, then since that month, I have been charged £60.75. Now, that is double what was agreed. And this whole 18-month discount situation was not explained to me, nor did I receive any terms or a document of my contract via email or otherwise to suggest this was the case.
I agreed to an indefinite (until I phoned to renegotiate) contract of £32pm for 200mbps in January 2021. I was thinking about leaving Virgin for EE at the time and this is how the Virgin representative convinced me to stay. To reiterate, he did NOT say that the contract was temporary and that the 'discounts' would be lifted in 18 months' time, and that I would suddenly be paying twice that amount. I was also never sent the terms of the contract, via letter or email. In fact, in the entire 20 years I've been a Virgin customer, I've not once received an email from them, despite trying to fix this situation several times to no avail.
I think given that these the actual 'terms' of the contract were never explained to me over the phone, nor did I receive an email outlining them, I feel as a dedicated customer of 20 years I should be refunded. I was not made aware of these terms in any way shape or form, except for some vague letter last year about prices going up by 3,9%. As I was technically aware of this, I wouldn't consider the £35.50 payments to be particularly unfair (it seems everyone was effected by this) but the gradual increase from the agreed price to £60.75, I find completely unfair and unacceptable. Like many I am in financial hardship and cannot afford to throw away £115.
The Virgin representative said that someone would be in contact after reviewing my case, but after looking at other similar cases on these forums, I think I can be forgiven for not holding out much hope. I cannot afford to pay double the amount I agreed to, and it was not made clear that I would have to. What's more, the representative could not even give me the same deal I had previously been offered, and said that I would have to pay £35 for 100mbps or £41 for 200mbps. Though, when checking online, I see they are offering new customers 213mbps for broadband and phone for £29.99? I think that this is an absolutely appalling way to treat a customer of 20 years. How are new customers getting better prices than someone who has been a loyal customer for this long?
I do not trust Virgin to review my case, or if they do, with any degree of equity - and I would really like to speak to someone on here to help me with this. I will absolutely be leaving EE if this is not resolved, as I will take it as a clear indication that my loyalty means absolutely nothing to Virgin, and that they are happy to treat me I don't matter.
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer me.
