Contract renewal timing - very confused

[15tc]

My current contract ends 14th October 2024.

My direct debit comes out on 12th of the month.

I paid my direct debit yesterday for what I believe is 13 August to 13th September.

I have been trying to renew my contract. I have been given a deal by someone on Whatsapp but I am confused by the deal as the contract details sent by email do not 1) include the "rolling discount" they promised of £3 a month for 18 months and also do not show the date the direct debit will start.

They have told me if I take this contract renewal it will start today but I have ALREADY paid for this coming month, and now it is implied I will have to pay again to start as the "renewal" is from 13th August.  I am already in contract until 14th October.

Also they are unable to confirm that this is a CONTINUATION of the contract and that I wont get any penalties or charges regarding the "old contract"  being closed.

I am not happy that the email documents don't include the rolling discount as if I go ahead and confirm I am legally stating that £33 a month is the price, when its NOT what I agreed to.  I am also worried I have to pay twice this month when actually all I want to do is keep the service going and just pay the new contract price £30 which includes the £3 discount agreed on Whatsapp, from eg 13 September.

When I renewed my contract last time it took months to sort out the debacle of incorrect direct debit payments, I want to be crystal clear what I am agreeing to and what payments will be taken when.

Many thanks

15TC

[Robert_P]

Hello 15tc

Thanks for posting in regards to your recent renewal offer and questions around the payments. We're happy to advise via the forums. Welcome to the community!

When you spoke to the team, did they advise the 'rolling credit' would be applied separately? There are promotional discounts which will show on the contract but rolling credit's don't as they are manually applied. If you check the overall amount shown on the contract, is it £3 higher than the agreed price?

Your payment dates won't impacted and will remain the same with any payments made already for after the new contract starting will be pro rata reimbursed to your Virgin Media account.

[15tc]

Thank you

Since then I phoned retentions just now and spoke to one of your agents, I agreed a new contract price and she took time to explain the pricing and direct debits etc with me. She emailed me the new details - these are different to the details I received earlier this afternoon and I agreed to go ahead and make the contract renewal on this basis.  

Hurrah I thought.

Then I logged into my email and see that Virgin sent me an email this afternoon to say I have signed up for the earlier offer.

I absolutely DID NOT sign up for the earlier offer on WhatsApp. I left it that I needed to phone to speak to someone.  

SO right now I think that the person I just spoke to in Retentions completed the deal on the contract terms we discussed but ALSO I see that VM have said I agreed to the earlier contract  So now I need to cancel the first one and keep the second one ? 

I am now on the phone again, this is SO stressful, why is it all so hard. All I want to do is renew my contract at a fair price given the number of years I have been with you. I don't need all this hassle. I have NO IDEA which contact is valid now but I know which one I need to be valid. The one I agreed to on the phone and not the one I NEVER agreed to.

Thank you  as you can tell I am very distressed

[Alby41]

The most legal power you have is when your contract has expired legally ... so if your contract expires on 14th October ...next day 15th October you have in law the power of " legal competence " ... so you are lawfully in the clear and you are able to tell and dictate to VM what they must do to engage your renewed subscription and also for you to assess and accept their offer of business having assessed the * competition *  ....AND THERE IS A GREAT DEAL ...may I add ...should VM not fulfill your requirements ... it is adios to VM and hello to an new  ISP ... unfortunately it would appear that you have jumped the gun a tad before the expiry date and a can of worms has been opened up ...hey Buddy hindsight is a great thing ...hope you get sorted...😃

[15tc]

Thank you Alby, the problem is that if I wait until my contract has expired, on 14th October they disconnect me and I have no broadband.

Of course I can let the contract expire, wait a month with no broadband and go back to VM as a "new customer"  but in the meantime I have no connectivitiy at home.

My concern is that no one seems able to tell me in £s what my next direct debits will be and that they offer a price that includes a discount but this is not shown on the legal documents I have to agree to and that they have now applied a contract I did not agree to , then told me its ok that is not the one they are going to use, but have not put any of this in writing to me.

Why they can't operate like insurance companies and send a reminder 28 days before expiry with a number to call to renew on is ridiculous. I spent 3 hours yesterday on this, all that is required is a simple, honest, clear way for a customer to continue with an existing service at the expiry date.  The model is severely flawed.

[Molly_T]

Hi 15tc 👋 Thank you for keeping us updated! Sorry to hear there were further concerns with your contract / package!

At this stage we will need to take a closer look at the account to ensure everything is as it should be. We will just need to send you a PM to confirm a few account details so we can arrange this for you.

I will do this for you now - you can find the PM in the top right corner of the page in your Inbox. 📩 We can then return to this public thread with another update when possible. Thank you for your patience in the meantime!

Wishing you all the best. 🌞