Free month of services whatsapp

[pammy4paws]

Hi just received the following Whatsapp seemingly from Virgin. Did a google but could not find anyone else mentioning such a message so have turned to here for help please !

Our Broadband service is ending at the end of December 2023. The retentions price was not great so we went through with cancellation.

Today i was sent this Whatsapp message from Virgin...

Hi, it’s Virgin Media here. We’re sorry to see you leave, however we don’t want to see anyone without connectivity while making alternative arrangements. We’d therefore like to give you your current services entirely free for an extra month. If you don’t want this, simply reply with NO, otherwise, we’ll make the arrangements for you. Your services will still automatically disconnect, so there’s no need to do anything.

Does anyone know if this is genuine ?

Thanks

Pam

[Paul_DN]

Hi pammy4paws,,

Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome, sorry to hear you are leaving us due to the offer given to stay not being what you were looking for,  we are unaware of the above offer however this may be an outbound retentions offer, if this is the case they will try to call.

Regards

Paul.

[pammy4paws]

Thank you both for your helpful replies.

@Redwine345   My instinct is its genuine as a scammer would not likely know we have cancelled but hey who knows with devious scammers !

We also have received our next bill which is £0 so Virgin are clear we are leaving. If it is Virgin retentions and they are trying to get us under a new contract then i guess we have in writing that the month is "free" and our disconnection was promised to still go ahead.

@ paul_DN  Retentions have already called about a week prior to this whatsapp but maybe they are trying again ?

Anyway if it is a scam then i dont really want to reply to them so i have decided to wait and see what happens on my disconnection date of December 29th. 

If the services are still there i will know it was Virgin and that will help others who get this "offer" to know its genuine.

I will post back after December 29th to confirm what happened and again after January 29th to let people know if the disconnection happened as promised !

Thanks again !

[Vikki_M]

Hi pammy4paws

Its not an offer we have been made aware of.

Have you responded to the message?

We are happy to send you a private message if you would like us to confirm your disconnection date etc.

Please pop back to us when you can and we can take from there. 

[pammy4paws]

Hi Vikki

No i have not replied because if it is a scam then im aware just by clicking on such messages bad things can happen !

It would be lovely if you would confirm our disconnection date just send me a private message please !

Thanks again

Pamela

[Tom_W1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Pamela, thanks a lot for your reply here.

Victoria has messaged you privately, so please look out for a notification in the envelope icon in your home screen to view and reply to the message directly.

We hope this helps!
Many thanks

[pammy4paws]

Hi

Just to update anyone who receives the same message via Whatsapp, i received helpful private messages from Mods on this forum (thanks!) stating it appears Virgin are trialling this method of a free month and i can confirm we have not been disconnected on our due date and have been told our disconnection will automatically go ahead a month later with no need for me to phone virgin.

I will update in a weeks time as that is when our Virgin bill is usually due and hopefully can confirm then that no charge was made for this "free month". I was told a bill credit would be applied to our account so lets hope all goes well !

So what does virgin get out of this you may ask ?

Another month to persuade you to stay ?

Well no phone calls to me with a new deal price so far but its only the 1st day of the free month so will update as to what happens.

Thanks again to the Mods who helped !

[pammy4paws]

DO NOT ALLOW VIRGIN MEDIA TO GIVE YOU A "FREE MONTH"

Despite assurances from Mods this was something Virgin media was trialling and the extra month was "free" i have just received a bill for over £109 !!!

Will now take this to the ombudsman as i have all the correspondence saved and will cancel my direct debit.

Conned beyond belief !

Pamela

[pammy4paws]

Hi Tom

Just to let you know i have been charged £109 for my "free month" please get this sorted as my husband is furious and making complaints to the ombudsman and various consumer websites.

Pam

[pammy4paws]

Hi Redwine

Looks like your warning was very wise as i have just been charged £109 by virgin !