Dispute not resolved for 6 months with no contact.

[Imadmalik]

On February 17th I agreed a new subscription price over the phone for the same package from £84 to £67.46 with the retention department. I received an email stating this also. But when April came I saw my future bill was gonna be £166 so when I called on April 17th they said it was an offset price for 3 months to which I said this is not what the agent said and nor does the email say this which I can forward to them. They advised I should send a screenshot of the email to their live chat service which I did on 2 different occasions and being told someone will get back to me but no one did. I called back on 14th May and explained no one has contacted me so if they could listen in to the phone call from February 17th to verify what was said. I was told this will be done and someone will get back to me. I waited and no one got back to me so I called again on 6th June and explained the situation and asked for the call to be listened in to again and if I could forward the email to someone to which they said no and someone will get back to after the call has been listened in to. Again, no one correspondence so I called on 12th June to which they said they are not sure if this will be possible now as the time has elapsed for the call to be listened in to, so I said I have been requesting this for 2 months and give screenshot to the live chat so it's not my fault it is taking so long. The agent also said if I don't make a payment of £166 my services will be suspended as I am not in a contract. I stated I have been trying to sort this and don't understand why it's taking so long. They said they will raise a complaint and get back to me, raising it with the compliance team and that should resolve everything. I paid £166 with the hope this would be resolved and the difference would be paid back.

I waited and no one still got back so on 3rd July I called back and the agent (Georgina) said the call can't be listened in to anymore but she will honour the £67 agreement and I can expect an email confirmation within 2 days. I didn't receive any email so I called on 12th July asking for the confirmation email but the agent said there is nothing on his system regarding the agreement. I asked if that call from July 3rd could be listened in to, to confirm this. He said someone from the compliance team will get back to me within 24hrs, I asked how he could guarantee this as I've been told this numerous time before, he promised someone will get back to me within 24hrs. No one called so again I called on 18th July asking for an update so he said he will call the compliance and someone should get back to me. I asked the agent (John) if he could give me a courtesy call at least the next day to update me on the progress to which he agreed, he didn't call back either.

I called on 21st July and after a combined 2 hour phone call an agent agreed that he will add the credit on my account for it to come down to £67 but the line got cut off and this couldn't be confirmed. When I called back I spoke to Connor who asked me to forward the email i received of £67 to him so they could verify my claim which I did. He said someone is looking in to it and will get back to me. The line got cut off so I called back and spoke to Jamie who asked to forward the email to her manager (Myra Gracie) which I did. Jamie said she will call me back on 24th July with a resolution. She didn't call back. So on 25th July my services got suspended because I was out of contract and I didn't make a payment of £166. I called on 26th July and forwarded the email again to Ahtisham, she showed her Manager and she said how the agreed price of £67 was for an off set price for 3 months and the email I received doesn't say its for 18 months to which i said that i cannot assume its an off set price if it doesnt state it. I asked how they came to this conclusion as the email doesn't say it's an off set price and the phone called couldn't be listened in to. And if they listened in to the call when I first requested everything would've been cleared up. Moreover, Georgina agreed that the new price will be £67 as the call couldn't be listened in to and the agent on Friday said that has been agreed and the credit just needs to be applied. On at least 7 occasions I was told that I was gonna get a call back regarding this but it didn't happen. I've had to make a second payment of £166 to resume my services as I need it for work purposes. I argued how I shouldn't have to pay this amount twice sending me in to overdraft, if this was resolved in April when I requested then I could've moved over to a different package or cancelled my subscription if indeed I was mistaken. I am still waiting for my questions of how they came to the conclusion that it was an off set price as they claim the call cannot be listened in to, I haven't been provided any evidence but I have shown them the email I received stating £67. I have been given many promises and claims, which none have been fulfilled. This has been very stressful and in total I would say I have been on the phone to them for more than 12hrs. It has also left me out of pocket and in to overdraft due to their delay in resolving this.

If I could have a swift resolution to this matter as it has been months and I'm no closer to getting this sorted.

Customer account number: [REMOVED]

Complaint reference: [REMOVED]

[MOD EDIT: Personal and private information has been removed from this post.]

[goslow]

If you have been trying to deal with this with VM since February, there seems little likelihood that VM has any intention of resolving for you.

If you have made a formal complaint to VM you can reject the complaint 'resolution' which was offered (usually a daft, meaningless kind of reply such as 'billing advice given'). Once you have done that, VM should provide you with a deadlock letter. With the deadlock letter, or 8 weeks after you first made a formal complaint to VM, you can go to arbitration via the Communications Ombudsman.

https://www.commsombudsman.org/

You can also make a DSAR to get all relevant info on your account (but call recordings are shown as having a 180 day retention period so probably will not be available back to the initial time period). This will help you gather evidence for the ombudsman.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar

OFCOM launched an investigation into VM on 13 July 2023 specifically into VM's cancellation and complaints processes.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/bulletins/enforcement-bulletin/open-cases/cw_01275

Case ref. no. and an email at the bottom of the above page or submit with same info via the contact form

https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

Submitting information won't help your individual complaint but it will contribute to the OFCOM investigation and it sounds like your experience is directly relevant to the terms of reference of the investigation.