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Contract

Lucylia9
Joining in

I have nowhere else to turn so please help

This is the timeliness

 

  • Tuesday 11th January-Phoned and secured contract for £29.99 for 18months. Given £75 credit and advised nothing to pay till May 2022
  • Tuesday 11th January email received confirming the above and saying first bill will be £15.02 credit. Nothing like I will have nothing to pay till May as it is clear after this, I will be paying the following month billed.
  • Monday 17th January 2022-Received new contract by email for £59. Why would I change my contract for the same thing and pay £59?
  • Contact made by phone several times and advised that the code had not been applied at the initial sales call 11/1/22 and agent would do this, and all would be fine.
  • Not fine and bill issued for £43
  • 28th January 2022-Contact made again by phone regarding this and advised I would be given a £58 credit.  I did not want this. I wanted my money back. During this call I was advised that the code was still not applied previously, and this would be done by the call handler that day.
  • Received email detailing “resolution” which was not a resolution as contract remained at £59 per month.
  • Email said that I would have a credit of £29.99 each month which doesn’t make any sense whatsoever if the credit is to make my monthly payments of £29.99

 

Because of all the errors and being charged at a contract of £59 the bills are impossible to understand unless you really look at them very carefully. The bills are incredibly difficult to make sense of and I have only really been able to do that now with support of my friend but what they do show is you have got it so wrong for me and never resolved the problem.

What I know now which I didn’t know then is he applied a credit each month for 4 months on 28/1/2022,which made no sense to me.

I paid 2 months upfront of £59 for the months of January and February. This is nothing like the Sales call “nothing to pay till May”

 

Multiple attempts to contact Virgin regarding this

 

8/5/2022 I wrote a complaint and had no response from it

 

I placed a call 3/6/2022 Case C/030622337 and the call handler listened to me and I explained everything to him and said I wanted a manager to deal with this as no response from my complaint. He said he would escalate, and I would receive a call within 7 days. No call received.

 

11/7/2022- After a lengthy discussion I was told that you would apply the rolling credit and then you sent me an email to say that my issue was resolved! It is not.

It says I owe £36.51 from my last bill now as my contract is £59, and it says I now owe £96.51 for the month of July, payment date 11th August. I just do not have that money and you are wrong!!

 

Overall, the customer service has been of a below average standard. The agents have not once resolved my issues.

Because of all the errors and being charged at a contract of £59 the bills are impossible to understand unless you really look at them very carefully.

It’s not my job to do that.

I am left feeling scared, anxious, and incredibly frustrated with everything

 

I continue to be in a position where my contract is for £59, and all your agents are trying to do is to add a credit to my account each month which means I am having to call so many times.

I feel you are in breach of the original contract of £29.99 per month for 18 months, taking me up to August 2022. The contact in my online account is for £29.99. The nicest and most helpful advisor was in your sales team the one securing a contract otherwise they have not been helpful.

 

Please trust this has had a serious impact on my mental health. I have had a recent diagnosis of ADHD I am left feeling scared, anxious, and incredibly frustrated with everything. The anxiety is very very real. Every time I see a Virgin email or logo, I feel stressed.

 

I am a single mum and had a hip replacement last year for osteoarthritis.

 

  • I was left skint in the month of February needing to borrow money as the £43 came off my account and I had not accounted for that
  • I was left fearful for the month of June that £59 would come off as that is what I was billed for, and I could not afford it
  • I am left fearful yet again that although you may have applied a credit last month your bills do not show that and now, I am being billed for August for the amount of

 

This is unbelievably stressful as the deficit is following me every month as the credit has not been applied correctly so my bill is increasing. The fact is my daughter needs school shoes and a new uniform, I currently don’t know if you will be taking off money, I don’t owe you again? It is making me ill with worry. I will be overdrawn if you take £96.51 out of my account on the 11th of August and I will get charges and will not be able to pay any other bills or food.

I get the impression you have made this difficult for me since January so I will just give up as it is so much effort and just go with the £59, as vulnerable people just may well do that.

 

Any time I have asked for my money returned the call handler simply disconnects the call

Having been on the phone for hours.

 

I believe I am entitled to a new contract of £29.99 per month and a credit of £75 and some other compensation.

I believe the sales girl requires more training because the affect this has had on me is overwhelming and it has affected those close to me too.

I am at my wits end contacting you at least twice a month with the anxiety each moth of a bill that is not agreed or affordable. Please help me.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

Lucylia9 - the forum staff can sometimes get all these things sorted out ie the deal you agreed being implemented, fully backdated, plus compensation for the wasted time, anxiety and distress caused by VM's incompetent customer service, and for the poor complaint handling.  I'd suggest you're looking for at least £150 in compensation.

If they can't offer all that, then you can escalate your complaint for independent review by CISAS.  There's some primary requirements - that you must have formally complained to VM (as you have) and that either you have  deadlock letter (sound like no), or the complaint is over 8 weeks old and still not resolved to your satisfaction (which is the case).  So unless VM sort things out and offer decent compensation quickly, then you're in the clear to involve CISAS immediately.

And finally, sheesh, Virgin Media!  Aren't you individually ashamed when you read that post?  What does it take to make VM's executives sort out the festering carbuncle that is your customer service? 

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

6 REPLIES 6

Lee_R
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi Lucylia9, thanks for posting and welcome to our community.

Sorry to hear that you're receiving conflicting information regarding your billing and I am sorry to hear of the distress it is causing you.  I would like to take a closer look on your behalf.  I am going to send you a private message.  Please look out for the purple envelope in the top right of your screen.

Regards


Lee_R

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

Lucylia9 - the forum staff can sometimes get all these things sorted out ie the deal you agreed being implemented, fully backdated, plus compensation for the wasted time, anxiety and distress caused by VM's incompetent customer service, and for the poor complaint handling.  I'd suggest you're looking for at least £150 in compensation.

If they can't offer all that, then you can escalate your complaint for independent review by CISAS.  There's some primary requirements - that you must have formally complained to VM (as you have) and that either you have  deadlock letter (sound like no), or the complaint is over 8 weeks old and still not resolved to your satisfaction (which is the case).  So unless VM sort things out and offer decent compensation quickly, then you're in the clear to involve CISAS immediately.

And finally, sheesh, Virgin Media!  Aren't you individually ashamed when you read that post?  What does it take to make VM's executives sort out the festering carbuncle that is your customer service? 

Lee_R
Forum Team
Forum Team

We're here if you need us @Lucylia9

Regards


Lee

Hi Andrew. Thank you so much for your response. This is the first I have felt supported, listened to and valued since this fiasco started back in January 2022. I have wished for this kind of sensitivity along with sound and practical advice for 8 months so your message is invaluable to me and I will certainly be looking at compensation as at times it feels like a full time job. Unfortunately every time I have asked for compensation I have been disconnected, leading me to think perhaps there is some kind of penalty issued for call handler if they even discuss this??? For now I just want to know they will not be taking £96.51 out my bank account on the 11th as my daughter will have her new uniform by then and their request will be rejected due to insufficient funds. Thank you again Andrew.


@Lucylia9 wrote:
Unfortunately every time I have asked for compensation I have been disconnected, leading me to think perhaps there is some kind of penalty issued for call handler if they even discuss this??? For now I just want to know they will not be taking £96.51 out my bank account on the 11th as my daughter will have her new uniform by then and their request will be rejected due to insufficient funds. Thank you again Andrew.

Well, fingers crossed that it gets sorted out, but given VM's corporate track record, I have limited confidence that they will have this resolved in three days - perhaps Lee_R can make sure this does get fixed?  If it doesn't then the direct debit will be requested at the full amount, and depending on your banking arrangements will either be refused, or put you overdrawn and potentially result in bank account charges.  It then gets worse - if the DD is refused, VM's systems will handle it as a late/defaulted payment under a credit agreement and advise that to credit reference agencies.  That may or may not matter to you, but for most people preserving a clean credit history is very important as black marks linger for six years and can affect new services agreements, phone deals, all forms of loans and borrowing, even new property rental applications.

If either of those things happen, and your account would otherwise have had the funds to meet the correct amount of the agreed contract, then that's an additional mess caused by VM's failure in the first place and subsequent Keystone Kops performance in not putting things right despite repeated opportunities.  And it becomes another mess that VM will have to clean up (=more compensation in my view, and almost certainly will require formal complaint and then involving CISAS).

Thanks for getting back to me Lucylia9.  I have responded to you privately


Lee_R