Contract renewed without consent

[SRK64]

New to community. A long post due to ongoing issues from September.

Was on M250 BB contract for 18mts fixed price £28 coming to an end in 3-4mts. Purchased a O2 SIMO contract for my son and was eligible for Volt boost free of charge. O2 activated boost without problems but BB boost not done.

Contacted VM few times and finally agent Pooja promised action in mid september. Nothing happened. Contacted VM again,  agent Mary initially didn't understand what volt / boost was but later agreed to do it. But she initiating a new contract for £40 for 18mts. 

On receiving the confirmation email and verifying the web account, contacted the VM agent Roselyn again to reverse the changes. I was lied by agent that as the contract is activated nothing can be done ( 14 day grace period / activation without customer consent) but a credit note will be raised for £12 pm for the remaining contract of 18mts bringing the cost to £28pm.

I receved a bill for £42 next month, so I contacted VM agent who agreed an error was made by her colleague with no credit being raised as promised. She promised a complaint has been raised for action and I will receive an response in 24H. Also She has raised a credit for £12pm for rest of the contract keeping the price at £28pm. I contacted again next day as there was no confirmation email or changes in my account page. I was promised action and received an email for credit note for £14 but nothing for rolling credit but was assured it is all in place.

But nothing was actioned and my next month bill was again £40 (40-14=26). Contacted VM again discussed with agent Hermie who only offered to raise a complaint which was not sufficient as previous complaints had no response. Asked for escalation to manager Isabel who promised action and will respond to my complaints. But nothing happened.

I contacted again in weeks time and discussed with agents Maria,Rose and Jan who were not helpful. Asked for escalation and discussed with manager Victor who said "I have reviewed the original conversation last 26/9/22. I've seen that new contract was generated without consent which resulted for this ongoing issue. I am fully ashamed and no words can appease your frustration. I can offer a cancellation without penalties for all the inconvenience you had for this issue." Eventhough it was problem created by them he said I had to give 30days notice and disconnection was processed for 18th December and he promised response for all my complaints raised so far i 4-10 business days. But I never received any cancellation email promised nor response to my complaints.

Received a call from Imran in the evening saying his manager requested him to call me and he offered the same contract for £23pm and wanted my o2 number and other details. As I was busy I said send me an email for me read and understand what he was saying. He agreed and also said he will call next day at same time. No call received but a message arrived on my mobile to check pre-contract docs. On opening the document shocked to see "we got your order" , "approved - you approved your documents on 26 November 2022" and "18mts contract for £26". I immediately logged into my account to check and a new contract had been issued on 26th November. 

I tried to contact VM immediately but unsuccessful. Contacted on 27th Nov and connected to agent Grace who was unhelpful and Manager Nicole refused to contact me to resolve. Grace said the contract was for £28 when challeged said sorry it is for £ 23 but contract letter says £26. In the end she processed another cancellation request with 30 days notice for 27/12/2022 in my absence from chat eventhough I had told her that  Manager Victor has already processed one for 18/12/2022.

I tried to contact VM today spoke to agent Ji who refused to escalate to Manager I have been waiting wholeday no progress.

Please help me.

[Ilyas_Y]

Hi @SRK64, thanks for reaching out to us and a warm welcome to the Virgin Media forums.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with the complaint and the case you've had, this really isn't what we wish to provide.
I will look in to this for you and assist on getting the matter resolved.

I will send a private message - watch out for the purple envelope inviting you in.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[SRK64]

Hi all,

I'm facing problems where my contract was renewed / modified twice without consent and agents lying repeatedly about cancelling my contract and charging me extra on bills for two months. Not processing my refunds on time. This is ongoing since September. I have asked for dead lock letter and they are refusing or fobbing it. 

I want to raise a complaint but a group complaint will be better. If you are interested please contact me.

Any advice / tips for bringing group action against VM?

I'm not on twitter but if possible can we start a trend # ViginMedia_scams or something similar? Any way we can bring these issues on public domains to name and shame VM / agents / Managers / CEO etc?

Kind regards.

S

[Corey_C]

Hi SRK64,

Please do not make multiple posts or spam our boards. We have removed your duplicated posts and merged the remaining one to your original post.
If you have any questions please have a look at our Community house rules.

Cheers,

[Andrew-G]

I want to raise a complaint but a group complaint will be better. If you are interested please contact me. Any advice / tips for bringing group action against VM?

Why will a group complaint be better?  Who's going to fund a serious legal action against a company with a legal budget of millions of pounds a year?  Who can prove they have the necessarily deep pockets to pay VM's legal costs if VM win?  Who's going to co-ordinate all this, make sure that all group participants have complaints that are similar to yours, and which will be legally valid?  A former boss of mine has been trying to bring together a group action against RBS.  He's intelligent, taken legal advice, worked tirelessly and persistently (since 2008) and still got nowhere.  You too can join him the Hotel of Lost Causes.

As a single plaintiff, you could sue VM in the courts for very modest court fees, but you really need to be clear on the legal grounds of your claim, and have the evidence to convince a judge (even if you use the online process, it's still reviewed by a judge).  Whilst your potential losses are only your court fee for small online claims, it's still a bit of a gamble taking to the courts.  Far better to use the Alternative Dispute Resolution process.  Which means if you're not happy with VM, you need to formally complain to the company (getting an acknowledgement and reference number), telling them what the problem is and what is required for you to consider the matter settled.  That then has three possible outcomes:

1) They agree and settle on your terms.

2) They offer a resolution that doesn't meet your expectations.  In this case you reply rejecting the resolution and asking for a deadlock letter, with the deadlock letter you immediately ask CISAS to investigate the matter and adjudicate.

3) They lose, close, or simply ignore the complaint.  In this case you wait eight weeks from the date you submitted it, and can then take the matter to CISAS without a deadlock letter.   

[SRK64]

Thanks. Sorry got carried away - I wasn't sure which part of the forum would my post fit.

[SRK64]

Thanks Andrew. Point noted. I wasn't talking about legal action which is very expensive unless there is a no win no fee or we use crowdfunding. My thinking was more in the lines of forming a group with similar complaints and approaching CISAS and OFCOM together for solution. Highlighting the problems on social media or watchdog or panorama, involving the law makers for better protection of consumers etc.

[SRK64]

Today I have received an email saying my complaint is resolved.

"Hello SRK

Thanks so much for the chat on 08/12/2022. We’re very happy to be able to resolve things for you.

Here’s a quick recap

Your complaint was:
Cable -> Customer Experience -> Complaint Handling

And here’s what we agreed:
Customer Experience -> Time to answer call or respond to enquiry - Internal feedback provided"

I didn't chat with them and neither they called. This is the way of they are cheating customers and the complaints system by marking complaints as resolved without actually doing anything.

[Andrew-G]

The poor handling by VM of complaints is normal, and must therefore be intentional.  VM complaints were (a long time ago) handled reasonably competently by the Swansea contact centre, but that was closed, all the staff made redundant, and complaint handling shifted to some forsaken third world sweatshop location, with the results we now see.  You might be wondering "why bother?" and the answer is simply that it is a requirement of Ofcom that all ISPs have a complaints process.  There's no requirement for that process to be run competently or deliver good outcomes for customers.

From your perspective, the reason for you using the complaints process and being fobbed off is because you're required to do that before you can escalate a complaint to CISAS.  You now reply to the comedy resolution by rejecting it and asking for a deadlock letter.  If all customers who get fobbed off did this, it would cost VM a fortune and they'd have to sort out their s***e complaint handling.  The fact they don't tells us that far too many people get a fob-off resolution, throw it in the bin in disgust, and take no further action.

[Jodi_S]

Thanks for the update SRK64,

We will be more than happy to take a look at why this complaint has been closed and discuss this matter further with you. 

I will pop you over a private message to take some details. Please click on the purple envelope to accept the chat.

Kind regards Jodi.