@MadHatter52 wrote:
Help! Been trying to cancel my account every day for over a week now! I moved out of my mums flat and moved with partner who already has broadban last week. Mum getting broadband installed tomorrow (not virgin). Unfortunately ive tried and failed to cancel my account for 8 days now every single day! Today I almost got there twice and have been on phone with four different departments they put me through to each time but twice today I was listened to and told to hold the line while cancellation and final bill was sorted out and both times I was hung up on after waiting on the line for final details! Cant believe they hung up on me twice today after 90mins waiting in queue once and 48mins 2nd time and altogether today 3 and half hours on phone! Tried online but was told to use whatsapp which I dont have!. What else can I do anyone please??? Mum getting her broadband installed tomorrow morning 3rd feb and I need mine cancelled and pay final bill as I'm not paying over what I owe till 3rd feb as im out of contract and tried constantly to cancel and they just hang up on me every time. Ive been hung up on 7times in 7 days and twice today! Need help asap!
Oh dear, the usual tale of woe regarding problems with cancelling. So here's what you do, you write two letters to VM (yes, letters, how quaint but still, there are good legal reasons for doing so), to their Sunderland Office (details on their website somewhere). The first specifies in no uncertain terms that you wish to cancel, quote the account number, address etc. give a cancellation date as of 30 days plus two days from the date on the letter. Now the second letter is in the form of a formal complaint - in this you set out how you have been frustrated with the cancellation process, you demand that your cancellation be processed in a timely manner* and that you claim a reasonable compensation of £20 for the sheer inconvenience involved.
Now the likelihood is that this complaint will be treated with VM's usual diligence and be completely ignored - which is paradoxically good news for you, after eight weeks you can escalate it to the industry Ombudsman, but in the meantime, do not cancel any direct debits, yes it sticks in the craw to be paying for a service you aren't getting, but in the long term....
And when and if (no; when) this gets escalated, you request a complete refund of all excess payments plus compensation of £150 (I don't think is unreasonable) for the extra inconvenience etc.
On the other hand, it may not come to that, as possibly a member of the forum team (VM employees) will get to this thread and offer to resolve it without any unpleasantness. Oh and if any of you do, please spare us from the 'of course no support agent would deliberately put the phone down' rubbish - because you know, and I know, and everyone else on here knows, this is exactly what they do when the issue is ever so slightly problematic and they don't want to deal with it? No? And if you want to argue that is isn't the case, then please don't make me trawl through, and link to the many, many, many posts on here which report a similar experience* and no doubt you will be able to adequately explain every single one of them - won't you?
* of course VM, as a 'communication company', might well be using the world's least reliable and flaky telephony provision which they are not competent to rectify, manage and maintain - which would explain things; but not a good look either way!