EXACTLY 30 days' notice (no more, no less)

[iida]

My 12-month contract is coming to an end on the 29th of July and I am trying to make sure it does not continue automatically as the new rates are simply unaffordable. On the phone today, after a fair amount of queuing, I was told I need phone VirginMedia _exactly_ 30 days beforehand in order to avoid early disconnect costs or adiitional charges. This means I need to call them again on the 29th of June. However, that day I will be at a conference in Germany and really do not fancy calling an 0345 number and waiting in the queue for an unspecified amount of time because it gets expensice AND because I have better things to do that day. I cannot imagine why the cancellation period is set at exactly 30 days unless its intention was to deliberately make life difficult for people wanting to cancel - even if they happened to know they wanted to cancel 2 months in advance. This is very poor customer service in my opinion (unless there is a sensible reason for the 30 days - but why not more? Why not 30-60 days?). The online chat option is never available when I check.

On another forum post, I found an alternative: I could cancel my contract by writing to Virgin Media Sales Operation Support, Diamond Plaza, Daleside Road, Nottingham, NG2 3GG. However, it is not specified whether the letter needs to arrive there _exactly_ on the 29th of June, or it needs to be postmarked _exactly_ on the 29th of June. Could you please confirm what you need and when? I am incredibly frustrated by this nonsense.

[Shaun-Reading]

Hi Megan,

Thanks for looking in to this. However, I doubt the reply to this will come from you as VM has no process of handling a call by one person untill it goes to the next stage.

I agree that the information given in Katie's reply is correct, but if only someone can tell that to the next person answers my call to 150 (VM support line). Is there any way you can arrange someone to contact me (over the phone or via email) and discuss the issue, so that I know the person handling the issue knows the VM policy as you are publishing in this forum.

I am surprised that the VM advisors in the forum can not communicate with the customer advisors of the phone in team. Why isolate two understaffed help desks when they can do better working together.

In addition to the telephone coverstaions, I have been informed officially by VM via email that my services will be downgraded 20 days before the end of minimum period, still I will be charged the full monthly amount + £8 penalty for that month.

And, this is a customer untill now didn't want to leave the VM, but was trying to reduce certain services after completing the minimum contract period.

[Lisa_CC]

Hi Shaun-Reading,

I understand the frustration but unfortunately to downgrade you will have to give us 30 days notice. As you will be abroad, you can give us the notice via this link and select the top option to avoid any Early Disconnection Fees. 

Regards,

Lisa

[Shaun-Reading]

Hi Lisa,

Have you notices how contradictory your answer, to the previous replies given by your colleagues. Scroll up and all other variations of solutions offred can be read in this thread.

- there is nobody to take the ownership of the incident and take it forward. Instead, each one tries to cut & paste something that includes keywords of the query, and leave it for the next one on duty to pickup.

- all comunications are designed in a way, customers can not contact the relevant people straight. I have received an email stating my services will be changed 20 days before the minimum period of contarct, but still I will be charged the full monthly payment+ penelty charge. There is no way to contact anybody regarding this as I have not requested any early termination. Only way is to call 150 and wait 40mins in the queue, then listen to some un-related information which no way explains the situation. It seems this is very much deliberate.

- if a company of this scale is trying to save money by cutting customer services, and earn money by charging arbitory, people has a right to know about this. So that they can decide when they are subscribing to a service provider next time.

[nexus1972]

I'm going through the same pain - had two 50 minutes plus calls and the cancellation people just dont pick up. 

Not to mention that when I joined virgin from BT via a cashback offer they claimed i didnt purchase it despite ensuring I used a freshly built machine with no cookies.

Now i'm stuck having to contact via phone - ive never in my life experienced such abysmal customer service. Its the first time I have been back to virgin in 18 years and this will be the last. at least with bt and sky i've been able to cancel very easily.

There must be ofcom regulations governing how easy it should be to cancel contracts - whilst I look it up does anyone here have a reference or alternative contact?

[Lee_R]

Hi Shaun-Reading

Sorry for the experience you've reported.  You've said you've received notification your services will change and do so before the contract end date, but not at your request, please you confirm if you're transferring a landline telephone number from Virgin Media to your new provider?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Lee_R

[Shaun-Reading]

Hi, All VM staff who are replying,

I am not sure whether you have taken this as something funny, or it is a strategy to frustrate the customer, leading to give up the attempt to get an issue rectified.

I have now explained the issue five times in this forum to different VM Team members who pretend interested in providing a solution, but never heard from any of them again.

It even could be the same person asking same question under different names? Seems customers' stress is a way to make fun for you.

[Megan_L]

Hi Shaun, 

I can say with confidence that we are not here to frustrate you in any way, we are all trying to help you with your issue which is from what I understand -

You want to downgrade your services after the minimum period, however you've been met with frustrating and unhelpful information. 

I dutifully apologise about this and I understand where you're coming from, however we would only be able to direct you to the retentions team as we cannot do package changes here on the forum or within PM's. 

Please kindly call 0345 454 1111, choose option 1, 4 then 4 again. I am sorry that we cannot provide the help you're asking for on this post, however the agents on the phone will be able to help. 

Kind regards,

Megan_L

[Shaun-Reading]

Hi Megan,

I have contacted them twice and got the same response. (recodings can be provided if required). What you are saying is not an existing solution. May be in theory, but prctically not.

My question is, why the forum advisors are providing false info, making customers spending time on the phone, only to get no help at the end.

[Lee_R]

Hi Shaun-Reading.

I am sorry you feel the way you do.  Please can you clarify what it is that is the false information you're being provided?  I am sorry, it's not our intention to frustrate you, but in order to address, this we would need to understand this.

Regards

Lee_R

[Shaun-Reading]

@Lee-R,

I (and many others with similar issues) have been given assurance by forum advisors, that we can get the downgrade done by calling the help desk on tel.no. 150. All the time they knew that such call will not get any result. Still they are giving the same advice to hundreds of customers with no hesitation.

11 times I have been asked to call 150 by forum advisors after this query. As a result, I have spent more than 100 minutes on phone in several calls to Virgin Media support team and was unable to get anywhere near a helpful information.

I am still in this forum as I am collecting evidence that how irrelevant or un-concerned the VM support mechanism when it comes to 'supporting' a customer.