Cancelled My Package - Just Received Another Bill...

[Caatalyst]

Hello there,

I cancelled my Virgin Media broadband on the 7th February over the phone. I pay a month in advance so was paid 12th Feb -11th March. Sadly Virgin would not cancel this period despite the fact I wasn't tied in any contract.

Everything looked fine, I received my "Virgin media disconnections" email with instructions etc in Feb.

Fast forward to today and I've just received another bill covering March - April..

Does anybody know why I would get another bill? I absolutely cannot bring myself to call their support team as it took me an entire morning to get it sorted when I first called to cancel. I kept getting passed to different operators and put on hold.

If anybody has any suggestions on how to proceed I would be grateful.

[goslow]

Does the info here fit with your situation and help explain the additional billing?

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Why-is-it-so-hard-to-leave/m-p/4957...

[Caatalyst]

As far as I can tell they should not have sent me another bill.

My direct debit is paid a month in advance.

A) I called up to cancel on the 7th Feburary and this was authorised.
B) I am not in a contract with Virgin currently as mine has expired and so I was on a rolling bill
C) The operator told me I would still have to pay in February despite not using the service. A direct debit payment was taken on the 21st February covering 12th-11th March

That should have been everything finalised but I have now just received another bill covering 12th March - 11th April so I'm basically going to be charged for two months past the cancellation date.

Despite having the email confirming the cancellation and that I will at some point receive a box for return the hardware I cannot find anything information on my account page saying what the final bill is or that the account will be closing.

[japitts]

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@Caatalyst wrote:

A) I called up to cancel on the 7th Feburary and this was authorised.
B) I am not in a contract with Virgin currently as mine has expired and so I was on a rolling bill
C) The operator told me I would still have to pay in February despite not using the service. A direct debit payment was taken on the 21st February covering 12th-11th March

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Let's just check a few basics here...

Being out of minimum term, you were on a rolling 30day notice contract - whether you're using the service or not is immaterial. If you gave your 30days notice on Feb 7th, that runs until 9th March or thereabouts. So you remain a paying customer with all your services until that date.

You would be able to cancel your cancellation at any point upto actual disconnection, hence the monthly bills continuing. After disconnection, you will then receive a final bill with any appropriate credits etc.

[Caatalyst]

Thank you for the response.

Just so I understand...

I will be disconnected on the 9th March so the new bill I have received which covers 12th March - 11th April will be refunded? This is due to go out on the 28th March. 

[goslow]

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@Caatalyst wrote:

As far as I can tell they should not have sent me another bill.

<snip>

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Morally, I would agree if I have understood your timings correctly and you have no usage charges. Your last day of usage would have been 9/3/22 and disconnected on 10/3/22.

If I have understood VM's billing processes correctly (which I am still grappling with myself), then they will look at the account when it ends and create the final bill (which for some might include usage charges in arrears). You get billed in the next period which covers any charges in arrears, during which time you return any equipment and VM still has your credit to cover any of the above possible charges or non-return of equipment. In theory, they refund you the balance once the above has been paid off and any equipment has been returned.

I am in a similar situation crossing into a second billing period yet not using the service at all, having no usage charges and using an ancient hub 2ac which I do not expect they will want back yet will still have to pay for a further month then wait, at VM's leisure, to generate a cheque.

If the above isn't correct, you'd have to put together your case for VM to review. In the meantime I think all you can do is track what is going on and make sure the steps along the way are being completed correctly. Very difficult with a company that has made itself non-contactable and whose administrative processes are so unreliable and opaque.

[Caatalyst]

I think I'm going to have to wait and see what happens when the 9th March passes.

As that is the disconnection date I cannot understand why they have sent me another bill for the period which covers beyond this date 12th March - 11th April). This is where the confusion comes from. I will essentially be paying for the services covering 2 months beyond the cancellation date and one month beyond the disconnection date.

This entire process has been so incredibly stressful. From contacting Virgin to trying to get information on the cancellation process. Having done a very quick scan of these forums and google searches it seems that this type of experience is not uncommon. I just do not understand how this is acceptable and a company of this size can get away with it.

I will never again use Virgin Media services.

[japitts]

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@goslow wrote:

If I have understood VM's billing processes correctly (which I am still grappling with myself), then they will look at the account when it ends and create the final bill (which for some might include usage charges in arrears). You get billed in the next period which covers any charges in arrears, during which time you return any equipment and VM still has your credit to cover any of the above possible charges or non-return of equipment. In theory, they refund you the balance once the above has been paid off and any equipment has been returned.

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That is a good summary and about the size of it.

[Paul_DN]

Hi Caatalyst,

Thank you for reaching out to us Via our community and welcome back, sorry to hear you have cancelled your services with us, as rightly advised above, when you give your 30 Days notice the system will continue to bill you as normal as it doesn't see the disconnection, as you have advised the services would go off on 07/03/22 you would get an amended bill generated just after the disconnection date, if you haven't paid the bill already then we would only take the amended amount, if we had already taken a bill and this had gone past the disconnection date we would send a cheque for the difference around 42 Days after the disconnection date.

If you haven't already we would advise cancelling the Direct Debit then paying the last bill manually where possible.

If you require any further help around this or anything else, please do not hesitate to reach back out.

You can find out more information around what to expect when you cancel including returning your Kit here.

Regards

Paul.

[EmberQ]

Hello, 

Did you manage to get a resolution to this please? The exact same issue has happened to me. I am being billed 1 month for which I have not used the broadband at all as it should have been cancelled as of Mid May however, I just received a bill for broadband services up until the Mid of June. 

I have cancelled my DD already but I am worried that I will continue to be hassled for a bill that should not have been charged and this will be put against my name for other credit checks. 

Any advice or help is much appreciate. Thank you.