Free LG TV Offer

[antderoche]

When signing up some 3 months ago I was offered a free LG TV. VirginMedia rewards said it was dispatched on 13th March - nothing received. 

[Ayisha_B]

Thanks for the update @antderoche,

If DHL have sent your order back to the supplier, Edenred should be able to assist further and arrange re-delivery.

Keep us posted!

[antderoche]

Ayisha/Molly

Edenred failed to live up to your expectations.

This saga continues and who knows how much time and effort will go into no doubt hoping that I will just give up.  Edenred was sympathetic but ultimately relatively useless. I had to upload various documents during a morning (09:15 through to 12:51) of Whats App table tennis and of course they didn't believe that the free gift was originally on offer. Then they didn't believe me that the DHL was the supplier. Then I had to upload the email from the supplier telling me that it was nothing to do with them.

Spell is right in his conclusion - that it is down to Virgin Media to sort this out as it is clearly them who have made, accepted and confirmed the offer. The problem is that I am facing a torrent of whoevers and whatevers, who are happy to hide behind the screen and shout "nothing to do with me Guv"!

Anyway tomorrow I am calling Exertis - and I tell you I cannot wait! I cant wait for a lengthy hanging on pressing all manner of numbered options and getting through to anyone who will prevaricate, obfuscate, bemuse and flummox many hours away and its not that I have a proper job to do.

I used to work for a leading London local authority who made it clear 2 years ago that they were not prepared to offer its residents a gold standard service - but were prepared to bluff and bullsh!t there way through it. I left because I wasn't prepared to keep up the pretense and lies. It seems many companies etc are now taking advantage of a silent customer to race to the bottom and the public suffer the consequences.

I will keep all updated as I have no intention of chucking in the towel just yet. 

A

[Akua_A]

Thank you for the update @antderoche.

I can see you contacted our team recently regarding this. 

Please do let us know how it goes after contacting Exertis and if you need any further help.

Thanks,

[spell]

Wow I can almost hear the hands being washed from here.

The bottom line is that VM are contracted to supply you with a tv and they have total direct responsibility in ensuring that this is done.

Can I suggest that at this stage you invest in a phone call/email/appointment with your local Citizens Advice Bureau who provide an excellent free service although I suspect at present they will be swamped with people unable to meet their media/energy bills

In my case all was resolved via email even to the extent that on identifying that the civil law had been breached it was referred to the Consumer Protection Department - something they stated they were bound to do.

In the meantime it is all about evidence evidence evidence - hard copies for an evidence package and recordings of phone calls - there are several free apps

From hereon VM will be evasive and attempt to distance you to the extent of not responding to solicitors letters and a refusal to give a contact point where court papers can be served

It would be far easier to ensure that you just get your telly which at some stage might happen if VM identify that this is the cheapest option - although nothing to do with wanting to do the right thing

I can appreciate the sick and angry feeling of being scammed but you seem on top of things and capable of effectively pursuing it so I will bow out although an update with the outcome would be of interest not forgetting others who have been treated in a similar manner

Good luck 

[Andrew-G]

@antderoche Who made the promise of the free TV?  If it was VM themselves (rather than say something through a third party website) then as per @spell 's excellent advice it is VM's problem to fix, although it seems you already know that.  You entered a contract with VM presumably on the basis of a free TV offer?  Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, any information provided by a company (whether written or verbal) is legally binding and forms part of the contract if the consumer relies upon it when entering that contract. 

All this crud about "speak to EdenRed, speak to DHL, speak to Exertis" is unlikely to work because you have no contract with them, probably no customer reference, and under data protection rules there's probably little they can say.   I'd suggest you stop wasting your time fighting with VM's choice of low rent marketing logistics providers, and taking this all at face value, raise a formal complaint with VM, giving them 28 days to either:

1) Deliver the promised TV, new and in working order.

2) Credit your VM account or issue a cheque for the full retail price of the promised TV.

3) Absent either 1 or 2, to issue a deadlock letter to enable you to immediately escalate the matter to the industry complaints adjudicator, CISAS.

If for some obscure reason I've not spotted CISAS can't help, then it's off to MoneyClaimOnline (sounds a bit iffy, but is actually just the online version of what used to be the Small Claims Court).

[antderoche]

@spell and @very insightful person - you are both the voices of reason and I truly appreciate the support. I finally got through to Exertis earlier and they asked me to send them an email with the details. As I am writing I am thinking of only one word in full capital letters in red neon lighting...... "SUCKER"!

Anyway the email has been sent and this is the last throw of the proverbial dice. My patience goes far but once it snaps - then all niceties are thrown out of the pram alongside the dummy and to boot I will be back eating all humble pie cosying up to the rival company (who can be equally as bad) - SKY.....but not without the damn tv though.

A

[Andrew-G]

Well, if your patience does run out, then you'd still need to complain to VM, and then likely escalate to CISAS, as you're presumably three months into an 18 month fixed term contract with high exit penalties, and you can't just stop the direct debit (well, you can, but you really won't like the consequences). 

I'm confident you could use non-delivery of the TV as evidence of breach of contract entitling you to cancel your broadband agreement without penalty, but I'd be very surprised if you could both cancel without penalty and claim the TV or equivalent cash.