Cancelled account via phone and signed for letter, now a fictitious account increasing costs

[Yozzer]

I apologise in advance, I did open a thread when I could not make contact with VM to cancel early September, and asked how to do it without hassle, but I could not find it.

Following advice here, I doubled up, and cancelled by phone, and also sent a signed, recorded, next day before 1pm delivery, giving 30 days notice, which should have ended my account tomorrow, which was signed and the delivery recorded. The new provider transferred the landline earlier than I had requested, the 13th September, and within hour, I was sent and updated contract, increasing my monthly charges from £58 at the commencement of the contract last year, to £93.  two of the team here, I was assured my cancellation was being actioned, and the final cancellation date o the 11th October was scheduled, and I should not worry, for which I was very grateful, as my wife and I are in our 80's, and neither of us are well enough to have the hassle so many people have reported here. I still have had no formal notification, but looked forwards to tomorrow. But, I have just received notification of my "new" package, bill date the 8th October, collection of charges two weeks hence. I have notified Vikki by PM what has happened, and hopefully she will check. Then, I tried to  look at my account, and I use sticky password to auto log me in, and looked just a few days ago, and there was none of this about the "new" package, but I was unable to sign in using Sticky, which has never failed me. I eventually created a new password, and got in, and saw the new package, exactly the same as my old one, but less the landline.

I cannot describe the concerns I feel, this is simply appalling. II can only assume this is just yet another mistake, but whatever it is, I will not forget the upset VM has caused for me and my large family. I ask Vikki to get back to me as soon as possible please.

[TableTop]

Honestly, right now, I wouldn’t bother too much about this, it is likely just an odd effect of the dates of your billing cycle.

VM bill in advance, so let’s say, for example that your particular billing cycle starts on 8th of each month, you call up and give your 30 days notice on say 10th September, that means that your contract should terminate on 10th October. All fine. In the meantime on say 1st October, your new provider prematurely ports the number across, that means that, yes, as far as VM are concerned, there has been a contract change, you no longer have a landline provision from them and hence the price may well go up (having a landline often gives a hefty discount). From their perspective, you ‘might’ change your mind, cancel the cancellation and stick with them, hence they work on that basis, until the actual termination date comes around, you haven’t ‘cancelled the cancellation’ and from then it all gets sorted out.

In this example above, on 8th October, you get billed as normal at the new (higher rate) for the next month, on 10th, the contract finally gets terminated and VM then owe you the balance of the month’s bill, less two days - if that all makes sense?

Yes, I know, does seem a bit convoluted, and all sorts of things can go wrong, but it is what it is - you will almost certainly be OK, and if not then do post back on here for further advice.

[Kath_F]

Hi Yozzer, 

Thanks for coming back to us in the Community and apologies to hear you've had some further issues when it's come to cancelling things down. 

As mentioned by user TableTop above, when a port is completed, we're unable to keep this service active on the account so we would remove the landline service and as a result your price would change and contract too. We send these documents to ensure you are kept up to date. 

I can see the relevant forms are filled in for your full disconnection so I'd like to give you a more specific review including letting you know of final amounts etc but in order to do that I will need to confirm some information with you to pass security. 

I have sent you a direct message to allow us to do this with you in a private space. If you are using a PC/Laptop then you can just click on the little ✉ at the top right-hand side of the page to access your inbox. If you are on a mobile/tablet device then instead click on the little circle icon in the top right then select 'Messages'. 😊

Thanks, 

[Yozzer]

Hello Kath.

Info sent as requested

[Kath_F]

Hi Yozzer, 

Thanks for sticking with me via private message. 

I'm glad I was able to get things sorted and resolved. 

We can only apologise that things weren't plain sailing but assure you, things are sorted now. 

You know where we are if you need us 🙂

Thanks, 

[Yozzer]

Hi Kath, thank you so much, I just plugged the internet back into my PC, (I had witched off VM after my new supplier finished installing last month), so I was able to check when VM closed the broadband. It worked, but only for about 20 minutes, then was gone. I never thought I would ever be so pleased to see no internet.

I would just like to say, over the 20 odd years I have been with the same fibre, and whoever took it over, NTL and then VM,  (cannot remember who actually put it in), and it has been almost trouble free, the worse problem being lost emails a few months back. The reason I have left VM, is the spiralling costs, and when I tried to negotiate, the appalling failures in communicating, even worse when I tried to cancel. But the humans, when I actually got to speak with anybody, were always polite, just, in the end, clearly not able to do anything.

The team here, and those who tried to support me, have been great, but it was you Kath who actually seems to have aced it, and my wife and I give you a big virtual hug.  Kind regards Brian

[Carley_S]

Hi @Yozzer 

Glad to hear this is all resolved for you. 

I have passed your kind words of thanks back onto Kath and their manager. 

We do hope to see you back with us in the future, until then, we wish you all the best 🙂