Charged to call Customer Services

[Tetsujin28]

After having changed contracts in August, every month we have had to ring up again in order to get some semblance of order from what we had agreed. Wrong amounts charged every month, sometimes double what the contract should be.

After finally thinking we had it all sorted in last month's call a new bill arrived today, including 4 quid for calling the helpline.
We called 150, it's itemised as 03454541111

I'm not ringing back again just for 4 quid. 😕 
The amount itself should give some indication of just how long it took last time.

[Gareth_L]

Hello Tetsujin28.

Thanks for your post. 
Sorry to hear about the issue with your billing and call charge.

As much as we would love to help, Sadly we are unable to deal with billing or package issues on our Community.

You can use the contact methods here 

Sorry again.

Gareth_L

[Tetsujin28]

I didn't expect the 4 quid back. That help page is as tortuous as it's possible to design - there is no route to actual assistance. You click through Billing & Payments, then Refunds & Credits to arrive at a page about cheques & bereavements.
When you click the "this was absolutely no help whatsoever" button, you get links to accessibility for sight & hearing impaired users… and one back to the Community here.
It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

I've been right round Virgin's 'help' pages a hundred times since August. They are designed to keep you away, not to aid contact.
Knowing the 150 number is about the best you can do, so it would be nice if the system at least recognised that was what you dialled.

[Gareth_L]

Hello Tetsujin28,

Thanks for the feedback.

It would be best to give us a call 150.

Gareth_L

[japitts]

I vaguely recall an issue similar to this quite a while ago, but that time there were many threads reporting the same which was good evidence of a widespread problem.

Are you on a plan with inclusive landline calls?

[Tetsujin28]

Apparently we have 'Talk Weekends - Unlimited weekend calls to UK landline (01, 02, 03) numbers, Virgin Mobiles and 0870 numbers.'
…which we don't ever really use. The landline is unplugged except when we need to ring Virgin. 'CSR calls' is all it's been used for in 20 years, since long before we switched from BT to Virgin. All it does if plugged in is attract spam callers who are ignoring the Preference Service 😕 I haven't given that number to anyone in two decades, at least.
If there was a contract without landline, we'd be on it already.