I have been with Virgin Media as a student for five years now, and haven't had any problems. However, in February the wifi contract for our student house ended. I called up the Virgin Media customer service and explained that, as we were moving out in August, we could not sign another 18 month contract, but we were shocked at the difference in monthly price between the contract and the monthly rolling payment option. I asked if there was any way we could have a reduced price, as we were students and genuinely could not afford to pay for the rolling monthly wifi, and we had been loyal customers for the past four years. The customer service person then told me that we could renew our contract and pay the contracted monthly fees, and then when the time came to move out of our house we could transfer the account (and therefore the contract) into my landlord's name. This was perfect for us, as students, as we were all going to live at home once we were no longer students. As our homes already have wifi installed, we did not need our wifi account. Again, I explained all this to the customer service operator and they assured me that we could transfer the account to our landlord and that would be that.
Fast forward to now, I called up the customer service team, thinking it was going to be a quick and easy phone call, to discuss changing the name and bank details of my account to my landlord's and the customer service person says that their policy has now changed and we can no longer do that. Instead, the account would still be in my name but I could change the bank details. This is not what I had previously discussed, and I definitely do not feel comfortable with my name still being on the account, as it means that any missed payments or problems would be under my name, and not my landlord's. I explained that I really did not trust my landlord (as they have also tried to charge us more money for things out of our control and have tried to rip us off multiple times during our tenancy) and did not want my name on the account with them paying. I said that I had discussed this with the customer service team in February, to which the person said yes, they could see what we had discussed due to the notes on the account, however that was no longer the case now.
We now either have to pay £270 to end the contract early, or pay £29 a month until August 2022 for wifi that we don't need. The way we have been treated is absolutely unacceptable, I feel as though Virgin Media has completely taken advantage of the fact that we are students and we would just have to suck it up and pay no matter what. I feel completely blindsided by the fact that their "policy has changed" when we got no phone call, no e-mail - nothing. We absolutely would NOT have renewed our wifi contract if we could not transfer it into our landlord's name. I do not understand why, if VM are still getting paid, the name of the account matters.
I feel completely screwed over. After being a loyal customer for five years, this is how I am treated. I unfortunately trusted them, but I will absolutely not be using them in the future and I will make sure my family changes broadband and wifi providers as well. I have already spoken to the CEDR about filing a formal complaint, but was wondering if there was a complaints service within Virgin Media as well.
