Contract upgrade issues

[Rammstein94]

Our contract is up on the 30th December. We signed up and the intial 18 month deal is coming to an end. On the 27th November we logged into our account on the Virgin Media website and checked out the "upgrade deals for you". We saw one for 1gig broadband for £41.12 per month, just over £5 a month more than what we are currently paying.

We went through the order and received pre contract documents and we told to receive a new hub and the new contract would start within 7-10 days. 

We've not heard a single thing since. There's no orders on our account and a few days ago I contacted the live chat team and over the course of TWO HOURS was told it can take up to 15 days for orders to be processed. 

A couple of days ago we received a bill for nearly £68, as our initial contract would be carrying on. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE AS WE HAD ALREADY SIGNED UP TO UPGRADE! 

Today I have got back onto the live chat and been called 'Richard' which shows that my messages aren't being read, my problem is t being dealt with and to add even more insult have been told that the best deal we can get is £51 a month. When the one we signed up for was £41.12. 

ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!

 

 

 

[Kath_P]

Hi Rammstein94, 

Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums. ⭐

We're sorry to hear you've been waiting for a deal that you accepted online to be applied. 

Whenever you take an offer online through your My VM account, it goes to a back office team who processes this. It can take up to 14 days to apply to the account however this is only an estimate which is mentioned on the screenshot you've posted. In times where they have received a very high number of orders, this can be delayed. The teams are working hard to process these as quickly as they can. Once the deal has been processed, they will complete this and you'll receive a new email confirming the changes have been processed. 

Your account would continue as normal with your billing but once the changes are done, you'll receive a pro-rata credit for the days you were charged at the higher rate. 

Going forward, if you're looking for the change to be done immediately, it's best to contact the team on 150 / 0345 454 1111 or via WhatsApp on 07305327112. This way the agent can process the change there and then for you without the need for it to go to a back office team.

Apologies for the delay but rest assured there is nothing more you need to do. 

Thanks, 

[Rammstein94]

Hi Kath, 

Thank you for your message. 

I did contact the team and request that this happen and as I am showing by my screenshots, I was completely fobbed off and the agent tried to sell us an even more expensive package. Totally unacceptable! It is not our fault that this takes so long for Virgin Media to action. I mean requesting it on the 27th November gives it plenty of time to be actioned before our initial 18 month deal comes to an end on the 29th of December. 

To get a bill now for £67.90 is disgusting. When you're trying to renew and stay with a company yet you feel penalised for doing so, leaves a lot to be desired. 

We will not be paying the £67.90 and expect the new contact to begin as was agreed, once it does we will happily pay and then restart the direct debit to go forward.

 

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us Rammstein94, the team will be working on getting your contract applied to your account and as my colleague suggested it can take up to 14 days for the new contract to be added to your account. 

Also, cancelling your direct debit may cause issue with your credit report as your account will continue to be billed and a late or missing payment could be added to your credit score.

Kind Regards,

Steven_L

[Rammstein94]

Good morning Steven,

This is why we have written a letter to Virgin Media, escalating the case and from then there will be an 8 week window before the Ombudsman is involved in this. We are not the only ones being led to this action, looking at the forum there are a lot of other people being treated the same way. Held in limbo for loyalty to your company. It's shocking. Do you realise how ridiculous it is to take 14 days to implement an order yet when we are told to 'contact an agent directly' they can skip this step? When all they try and do them is sell you even more expensive packages. It's really wrong and I am sure illegal. 

As for this affecting our credit report, this is why the Ombudsman will be involved and the only people who will be affected are Virgin Media and their reputation. 

[Rammstein94]

We are having exactly the same problem with them now (please see my forum posts) and have been told that we don't qualify for the deal, even though it was in our accounts upgrade page. Please keep pushing them and the Ombudsman is our next port of call after 8 weeks. It's disgusting they're treating people this way. 

[Akua_A]

Hi @Rammstein94 

Sorry to hear you are facing a similar issue. We can understand the frustration of the ongoing issue. I can see you are currently in contact with a member of the team on another thread. Please remain in contact there and our team will do their best to help.

Thanks,

[Rammstein94]

Good morning,

So we are now at day 14 and STILL no orders are showing on our account. What the hell is happening? To us as well as dozens of others who are commenting on this forum?! Where do we stand? If this order isn't going to go through just be honest for once!!

[Alex_RM]

Hi Rammstein94,

So I can get a few more details from you regarding this, I've popped you over a private message.

Alex_Rm

[dazeb2 · Accepted solution]

Yet again more cut and paste responses. Your system was at fault, not us. You sent a contract, we accepted. Virgin did not honour the contract. This goes against trading standards and can be filed with the Ombudsman because a contract exchanged between two parties (written or otherwise) must be upheld. I have decided to go to the Ombudsman and i am confident that the case will win. You cannot send a contract then decide not to honour it.

Look on Reddit for many winning cases against VM via the Ombudsman. I am shocked because i genuinely thought Virgin was one of the best if not the best and fastest internet. I wanted that Gig1 because i run a cluster of servers and 500Mb was not enough. Now im just bitter about a company i thought i could trust. They robbed me of a black Friday discount and basically laugh at you lol. City fibre has been ordered. Virgin is terrible and i will never recommend them to anyone. Word is getting round quick VM. You cannot keep treating people like this. Hopefully enough people see this and decide to take action because we are not the only ones.