DEFAULT REMOVAL

[MRIHA]

• Hi All,

I'm currently 21 years old and I have been a virgin media broadband & phone customer since the age of 18. 

I have been so busy with work for the last 12 Months and I barely been at home to use my wifi, but I was paying my bills every month. Virgin media randomly cancelled my broadband in January/February 2022 without telling me, I received no phone call, text, email or letter in the post. I called virgin media a couple months ago and the telephone advisor said that my contract finished and if I want to get virgin media again, I need to pay an installation fee etc, so I said no thanks and continued with my life.

Yesterday I get a notification from experian my credit reference agency and my credit score has gone down about 600 points because virgin media gave me a default as I apparently owe £53 debt 

I called virgin media today and the telephone advisors said they will remove on my virgin media account and they said they don't know how to remove it from my credit file.

They told me to pay the £53 money owed on the default so I did.

They were only interested in trying to reconnect me by putting me in a new 18 month broadband and phone contract.

They ran a credit check on me and I failed the credit check to get reconnected 😞

I have been crying all day very emotional because my life is ruined and im now struggling to get a mortgage on a house due to this default on my credit file.

I'm praying that someone from virgin media responds to me 🙂

[Andrew-G]

I've marked your post for staff to pick up and deal with.  If your summary is correct (all bills paid, cancellation by VM without authority, reason or communication, and default on file without reasonable contact and due process) then they owe you substantial compensation, as well as being obliged to clean up your credit history.  There are formal routes of complaint and escalation to an independent complaints adjudicator if VM can't sort this out to your complete satisfaction - give the forum staff the chance to resolve the matter first as that would be quickest and easiest, but if they can't get everything resolved including the compensation, then we'll guide you through a formal complaint and escalation to adjudication.

If the service was cancelled because of something within your responsibility (for example non-payment of a direct debit due to insufficient funds in your account one month) then your case is reduced to a complaint about the poor communication, and the poor customer service trying to resolve the matter for which you'd get some moderate compensation, but if you unwittingly have some responsibility, then the default will stand.  In that case, you can and should try and settle the debt so that it doesn't show as outstanding.  You can also file a short "notice of correction" on your credit history to explain the circumstances, but search for advice on poor credit history with Experian, Money Advice Service, Citizens Advice or similar - stay away from any thieving charlatans who claim that for a fee they can clean up your credit history, they can't.  Experian are one of the big credit reference agencies, but their advice is actually pretty clear and helpful.

If you can, don't renew the VM contract and try and avoid applying for other credit based services at the moment - those companies will run a hard credit check (ie recorded on credit reference agency files) and that worsens your credit score even more.  Not to mention, why give more business to a company with such poor customer service?

[MRIHA]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply!

The person I spoke to yesterday already ran a credit check to reconnect my service/ start a new 18 month contract and I failed the credit check which seems ironic since they are the reason my credit score is extremely  bad. 

The virgin media employee on the telephone said they will call back on Monday and hopefully, The default is removed from the account so that I pass the credit check.

Does this mean my account with virgin media or credit file?
By the way I paid the £53 balance yesterday in full!

I now have changed my mind and I don't want a new contract with virgin media, I want the default completely removed from my credit file as it's wrong and messing up my life.

[Andrew-G]

There will be no Monday callback.  VM agents routinely promise these as a way of offering something to unhappy customers and ending a long and difficult call, but the ratio of promised to actual call backs must run at something like 1000:1.  In terms of correcting the credit history, maybe, but I very much doubt it based on a discussion with customer services.  I could be wrong, but I think you've been fobbed off. 

If the agent was offshore, then they were almost certainly making it up on the spot, because they're supposed to follow very narrow service scripts, and those can't possibly address the complexities of the case you describe.  

[Akua_A]

Hi @MRIHA,

Welcome to our community forums and thank you for your first posts.

Sorry to hear you have been having issues with your credit since leaving our service. We can understand the frustration caused and we want to best help. I have sent you a private message to further look into this for you. Please look out for the purple envelope and provide a response when you can. 

Thanks,

[MRIHA]

Hi, I have replied to your private message!

[MRIHA]

You are probably right, they will not call me back on Monday. 

I spoke to 2 different offshore people.

One sounded south African, the other sounded asian, like Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese. 

Are there no more uk call centres?

[japitts]

I've not exhaustively read and considered all the detail in this post, but there's a few bits that immediately jump out at me as "something not right about this", so please excuse the bullet points...

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@MRIHA wrote:
Virgin media randomly cancelled my broadband in January/February 2022 without telling me🙂

---

Doesn't happen this way - if anything, experience on these boards suggests the opposite should be true and "I couldn't cancel" would be the order of the day. Random cancellations effectively translate to "randomly stopping revenue streams" - not something VM do. There's something more to this.

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@MRIHA wrote:
I called virgin media today and the telephone advisors said they will remove on my virgin media account and they said they don't know how to remove it from my credit file.

They told me to pay the £53 money owed on the default so I did.🙂

---

VM, and other lenders, put entries on your credit file which some agencies then translate into a "credit score". If the entries say that an amount was outstanding for a time (whether correct or otherwise) that shows a debt which you have now "settled". That won't remove the entry, it shows that you were a late payer, and the entry remaining is entirely correct process.

Ordinarily, entries on credit files that are considered incorrect should be emailed to creditfileamendments@virginmedia.co.uk inbox who work on an "upto 28day" basis. They will investigate, and arrange corrections for any entries deemed incorrect. In your case, if the entry is incorrect - it will be removed. By your paying it, you have effectively agreed it was valid and settled it - see my paragraph above.

[MRIHA]

A payment must have failed/not gone through and that's why my service got cancelled, but when I first called up asking why I have no service, the person on the phone said my contract was finished and you know the rest, I don't think I need to type it all again.

My point is that I did not get any calls, texts, emails or letters saying I didn't pay a bill. 6 months later I get a notification from experian saying I got a default for money owed.

I paid the money but did not agree to just settle it like it's my fault.

I'm challenging it because I should not have got a default in the first place. £53 is such a small amount of money to pay, idk why my direct debit failed in January, should they have informed me of this balance?

How can they lie to me saying my contract just finished and not tell me I owe money then all of sudden put a default on my credit file after 6 months???

[Akua_A]

Sorry to hear you were not made aware of the bounced payment @MRIHA.

We typically make you aware of this via email.

In this case, I have sent you a private message in response to you. Please provide a response when you can.

Thanks,