Contract end date confusion

[gcogger]

I updated my broadband contract late last year.  When I look at my current contract, I think I know what it's saying, but not 100% sure whether Virgin will agree - maybe I'm just being paranoid!  This is what I see when I go to my current contract (all personal info removed):

That says to me that, if I want to cancel, I only need to give one months notice since that's the remaining period. 

The only bit I'm unsure about is the fact that there are 2 separate contract start dates shown - I'm assuming the 20th Dec 23 one is actually just the date of the contract amendment.  The promo period also goes to June next year, but it says nothing about being 'locked in' for that long.

Can anyone confirm that I can freely cancel with one month notice, and no further charges?

Cheers

[Carley_S]

Hi @gcogger 

Welcome back to the community forums 

Sorry to hear of your confusion with your contract and that you're thinking of leaving us. 

To me that does look like you're on a rolling 30 day contract and would be able to provide your 30 day disconnection notice and not be impacted by early disconnection fees. Though I can see why all those dates would make this confusing. 
When you contact the team to provide notice they'll be able to confirm whether you have any an active contract or not at that time, but as far as I can see on the screenshot, the contract is either in a 30 day rolling contract or you have 1 month left remaining on your contract, either way if these are the cases, you'd be able to provide notice should you wish without incurring early disconnection fees. 

In terms of additional/further charges, the bills will continue as normal until your disconnection date and then once completed, a final bill will produce, so you might find you do get another bill after providing your notice, depending on your billing cycle. Any prorates would of course be shown on the final bill with any days of service you've already paid for or are still owed when the final bill is produced. 

There are also charges for requested equipment that has not been returned 1 month after the disconnection date. The team would be able to confirm all this to you at the time you provide your disconnection notice. 

Any further concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to let us know and we can assist further if needed. 

[unisoft]

---

@gcogger wrote:

I updated my broadband contract late last year.  When I look at my current contract, I think I know what it's saying, but not 100% sure whether Virgin will agree - maybe I'm just being paranoid!  This is what I see when I go to my current contract (all personal info removed):

That says to me that, if I want to cancel, I only need to give one months notice since that's the remaining period. 

The only bit I'm unsure about is the fact that there are 2 separate contract start dates shown - I'm assuming the 20th Dec 23 one is actually just the date of the contract amendment.  The promo period also goes to June next year, but it says nothing about being 'locked in' for that long.

Can anyone confirm that I can freely cancel with one month notice, and no further charges?

Cheers

---

It's a service change receipt not a new contract. Whoever did it was being nice or did not realise. If you received no contracts after this, then you are on rolling monthly as that is what it states there.

I had similar a couple of years ago. Nice Scottish chap who was chatty renegotiated my contract even though I had months left to go, and just did a service change receipt.

I left this time after many years because the offshore people were 100% efficient at reducing VM's customer base and insisted on 18 month contract, with no escape clauses for unknown price increases each year whilst in 18 month contract, just a formula which was legally binding.

They could have waived 18 months and I would have accepted the deal. Given the  amount of time with VM I am hardly the type that starts a service then wants to can it soon after. No common sense. Another supplier is now slurping my money up with no 18/24 month tie in.

[gcogger]

OK, thanks Carley.  Not 100% sure I'll be leaving, but I now have an available alternative provider, with possibly a 3rd in the near future, so I should really consider my options.

While that's somewhat helpful (thanks again), it doesn't seem very reasonable that "When you contact the team to provide notice they'll be able to confirm whether you have any an active contract or not at that time".

There should be no ambiguity in the contract I was sent and, given my experience with failed promises from telephone support in the past, I'd have little faith in an answer I received over the telephone.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if one agent told me I only need to give a month's notice, but I was then billed until next June ☹️

I have to admit that it's exactly this sort of uncertainty that makes me more likely to leave!

[gcogger]

Thanks unisoft - that screenshot is what I see when I click on 'View contract' and is the last entry by date.  I hadn't spotted the difference between the 'Contract' and 'Update' (service receipt) entries.  The last thing in the drop down list that says 'Contract' is from July 22, so it looks OK, I think.

Looking back at the email chain when I was making the change, I had an email 10 days before the change with 'pre-contract documents' that mention an 18 month minimum term, but don't specify the start date.  Once the change was in place, I had an email stating "Thanks for making those changes to your Virgin Media package. You won't need to sign a new contract.".  That sounds pretty clear cut, I think.  Funnily enough, they sent that last service receipt as a PDF named "eContract.pdf"... which didn't help my confusion!

Thanks again.

[Carley_S · Accepted solution]

If you still have any concerns @gcogger after what has been advised and you're happy for us to take a look to see on the account itself and double check if you're still in contract we can do this. Please join me on private message so I can locate your account and pass account security. You can see your private messages at the top of the page, in the envelope icon or if you're using a smaller device, you can see your private messages by clicking on the Virgin Media logo at the top right and select 'Messages' from the drop down. 

[gcogger]

Just wanted to say that Carley has checked into it for me and it appears I am on a rolling 30 day contract.

[Carley_S]

You're welcome @gcogger 

Glad we got this clarified for you. Please let us know if you are having any further issues or have any questions at all. We'll be here to help on the community forums if needed :).