Hi, I was hoping for some help with this as it's an extremely stressful situation.
I started an 18-month contract with Virgin Media in August 2020. In February 2022 I received an email that my contract was coming to an end on February 22nd. I then called Virgin and asked if I could get a 6-month contract as I was moving in August 2022 and did not know where, therefore I did not know if Virgin would cover the area. The representative said that I could either have an 18-month contract for £25 a month, or a month by month for £51. Due to the timing issues, I opted for the month by month at £51.
Shortly after, I contacted BT to get a contract with them for much cheaper. They planned to install their broadband on March 10th. I then contacted Virgin again in order to cancel my services. This was all completely fine.
However, as I had paid for Virgin until March 22nd, I expected the broadband to work until then. However, on March 5th, the broadband turned off. I contacted Virgin who said that I’d get a refund for the missing days, however I asked if I could switch it back on until March 12th. The representative was happy to do this, and I have confirmed with other representatives that there was an order to cancel my services on March 12th.
Here's the major issue, on March 10th, BT could not install my broadband, so I called Virgin to continue my month by month until BT could get me set up. BT came back to install my broadband on April 6th and were successful. However, when I contacted Virgin to cancel, they told me that I’d have to pay a massive early cancellation fee.
I was told that on March 5th, an 18-month contract had been started. I absolutely did not request, agree to, or acknowledge an 18-month contract on this call. I simply asked if I could have an extra week of broadband as I had expected it to run until March 22nd. I think that when the representative switched me back on, they must have done a quick workaround and set up an 18-month contract with a disconnect a week later. But then when BT were unable to install my new broadband and I had to continue Virgin, the 18-month contract kept going with me being completely unaware. I expected the representative to continue my month-by-month contract but they obviously did not.
The evidence is obviously in my favour, if they listen to the call on March 5th, they’ll find that I never requested an 18-month contract nor agreed to one. Additionally, I had already entered into a contract with BT, so why would I ever agree to one with Virgin as well. Also, I was offered an 18-month contract for £25 a month at the start of February, so why would I accept one for £51 at the start of March?
Now, a representative filed a complaint for me on April 6/7th, as I did not agree to enter an 18-month contract. However, today I saw that my complaint has vanished from myvirginmedia. I’ve submitted another complaint but I was wondering how this will impact the 8-week deadline until can contact CISAS, can I still go to CISAS on June 1st? Obviously if someone from Virgin can resolve my issue before then I’d be much happier.
Thank you.
