Virgin Media Community

[craibh]

As long standing customer (20+ years) I renegotiated my contract on the phone with Virgin in mid-February.The deal was confirmed at that time in an email from Virgin to me.About 3 weeks later I received an email from Virgin telling me that my contract was being renewed much more expensively than I had agreed with them in February and for a  poorer service!

I made a complaint to Virgin but did not even get an acknowledgement so I contacted their Complaints team using their WhatsApp service- and was told that the deal that I had agreed in February was "invalid"- whatever that means!

I pointed out that if Virgin took money out of my account at the higher rate specified in their March email they were taking it without my authority and I might have to tell the police.As that "conversation" took me nowhere I emailed Lutz Schuler the CEO and I recived an email from their Executive Team on Monday saying they were looking into it. As earlier this week Virgin took out of my bank account money I had not authorised I tried to day to contact the Executive Team but my emails to them, then to Lutz Schuler and then to Michelle Beville, described as te Head of Executive Complaints all failed ,apparently because Virgin classified them"SPAM Content Found (VM603)". 

It seems that Virgin want my next move to be reporting them to the police- but does Virgin simply not care  about their customers or how they are seen to behave?I see other topics about the performanace of the Executive Team on this blog but I thought that I should report this experience so that people know how Virgin behave.

[Anonymous]

Their contempt for customers can at times feel criminal but instead of the police they actually have more to lose from CISAS https://www.cedr.com/consumer/cisas/complainnow/

[David_Bn]

Good Afternoon @craibh, thanks for your post on our Community Forums, and I'm sorry to hear of the issues you've experienced when renewing your agreement with Virgin Media

Check out the purple envelope in the top right hand corner for a private message from me

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[craibh]

Cardiffman 281,

My aplogies for the long delay in thanking you for your very swift and helpful response.My wife had the virus.Very shortly after your response I received an email and private message from David _Bn on the Team for the website.He was very helpful and within a very short period of time the matter was resolved satisfactorily.If only the rest of the Virgin world behaved in this way! 

Craibh

[Anonymous]

Great to hear! The team on here are indeed great. Wishing your wife a full recovery. 

[Zach_R]

Hi @craibh,

I'm really glad to hear that we've been able to help address and resolve the concerns that you've raised with us.

Please do let us know if there's anything more that we can assist you with.

Thanks,
 

[craibh]

Incredibly, this morning I received a letter from Virgin telling me that the deal which was agreed through the Reolutions Team in March this year to settle my complaint described above, is stopping on 09/08/22 - depite the fact that the deal agreed in March 2022 states it is in force for a minimum of 18 months!This is termination is  about 4 months after that deal was agreed.In addition they have removed Netflix Access from the deal.

I wonder if Virgin ever care about breaching what they have agreed to before.No reason from breaching their agreement with me was given this time and it seems to me pretty obvious that Virgin simply do not care how they behave.They seem to be willing to do almost anything to make more money. During my earlier dispute with me Virgin took money out of my bank account without my authority!

My past experience of Virgin is that they only try and sort out their own mess if it is likley to embarass them if they do not.Any suggestions as to what I might do now, will be gratefully received.

[Anonymous]

Reminds me of what happened to me a few years ago. Things got so bad that they eventually offered me a "lifetime" discount which they confirmed in writing. 3 months later they renamed all their packages. Needless to say the "lifetime" discount ended as they said it only applied to the package at the time. Quite clearly they knew this was the case when they made the offer, although there was no mention of it. I don't know why I persisted with them so long, until now because nothing ever changes for the better, if anything customer services is now worse than ever, in my experience. Even though you keep a record of everything and record conversations, it does not help you.

[Natalie_L]

HI craibh, 

Thank you for getting back in touch. 

I am very sorry to hear your discounted period is ending sooner than agreed. I would be happy to double check this from our side. 

I will pop you over a private message to grab a few details and we can go from there. 

Speak soon, 

[craibh]

I simply cannot believe it.On two occasions over 2022 I had tremendous service from two of the Team at Virgin who deal  with this website .A little while ago the problem that both of them solved arose again.The problem is that first Virgin had twice tried to deny that I had a  contract for a package at an agreed price, and they increased my charge substantially, and then,second, they tried to charge me separately for Netflix which is included in my package.On each occasion the members of the Team confirmed that there was overcharging and set up a credit to reduce the charge to what I had agreed to in my contract.

A couple of months ago the credit stopped appearing and my charges went up substantially.When I sent a private message to the member of the Team who had dealt with Virgin's last attempts to overcharge me, I received a message  from Virgin telling me to raise the issue on the Forum.I replied pointing out that if I raised the issue again it would merely further publicise Virgin's bad behaviour- but I have had no reply, hence this message.Can someone at Virgin please contact me now as notice of my January  payment has come in from Virgin which again omits credit due to me?Preferably one of the team who helped me before so I do not have to go through the whole story online again.One of my friends pointed out that the Police and the law have a name for people who take money that they are not entitlled to!What irritates me a great deal is that the hard work done by members of the Team on this wesbite- which included a Manager- is destroyed by someone else in Virgin issuing the wrong invoices- repeatedly. 

Craib