How do they get away with it?

[IvesyM]

Two days after only enquiring about broadband in chat , a sales person, let's call him RAY knocks at the door.

He tells me he will:

1. Pay off what I owe to Plusnet (£105)

2. Make sure my price doesn't increase due to RPI

3. No bills for first 2 months 

4. No set up fees

5. Increase  500mb speed to 1gig "I'll tell them you have an O2 sim"

6. Knock £5:a month off the monthly fee

7. Be there for any help or queries after I'd heard of the terrible customer service.

Next day I get a contract via email. 500mb speed and bill for £60 odd quid covering next two months. App confirms no credit.

Smelling a rat already I use texts to get this written down. Firstly, when he said he'd pay Plusnet he meant he'd credit my Virgin account with £150 to cover this and first two months. Explained the contract I had was automated. I responded so I'll get an updated one? No answer or my request to give me a ring. Getting frustrated I said please send me a new updated contract or even confirm (all I had was verbal) what and how much I was paying for.  Reasonable request?  Nope! "Well just cancel, this was the best deal I've offered to anyone this month"

So guess what? I cancelled.  And that was a process that took nearly 90 mins to do. I was repeatedly asked for proof of my offer as they has NO record of it. I've registered a complaint as after doing a quick search I'm not the only person who this has happened to.

I don't get it, they spend millions of glossy TV adverts and advertising and then employ muppets like RAY who turn up at your house, promise you the earth then won't confirm in text or email what they've offered as they are obviously LYING. 

This is the second time I've tried to join and had to cancel at the last minute. I don't need this hassle, I've had to explain to my young son with Asperger's that the 'nice ' man from Virgin was actually a liar. We'll see what the complaint brings but I'm not holding my breath for a good outcome.  

How do they get away with it? It just tarnishes the Virgin name and everything associated.

[Cardiffman282]

Very well done for demanding the fantastical offer in writing and sticking to your guns.

IvesyM Jnr has learned a very important (if a rather sad and disappointing) lesson in life on the back of this squalid little episode.

In fairness to them VM forum staff are usually pretty hot on this stuff and I am sure they will want to know all about Ray via DM. 

[goslow · Accepted solution]

Well, at least you were wise to it all and didn't fall for any of it. Time and again we read on here of people complaining about the antics of VM's door-to-door sales people after they have been promised things like points 1 to 7 above, and more, only to find the actual deal which comes through is nothing like as described.

[Paul_DN]

Hi IvesyM,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us Via our community and welcome, we are sorry to see you were advised information around the package and credits which didn't happen by the person who knocked on your door selling our services,is is very disappointing to hear, and we can assure you that this is not the level of service that we want to provide.

So we can look further into this and make sure this is investigated, I have sent you an invite into a private chat, please click on the white envelope to accept.

Regards

Paul.

[IvesyM]

The complaints team tried to contact me this morning.  I missed the call but was sent an email with what they have found.....

'We are sorry you are having issues with your contract price, we do understand how disappointing this is for you when expecting the agreed price with one of our sales agents, not being recorded correctly'

'We do need you to cancel us directly and speak to our Pre install cancellation team as soon as possible, who will then take your instructions to cancel'

So after all that's happened regards being told a load of porkies AND telling the complaints team I WAS in the process of cancelling through the PRE INSTALL cancellation team, this is the best they can do?

What an absolute shambles!

[IvesyM]

I thought I was getting somewhere from Paul_DN from here yesterday, but I gave the wrong last 4 digits of my bank account.  It seems the doors been slammed shut there.  Shame, as he seemed genuinely interested in helping.

[unisoft]

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@IvesyM wrote:

The complaints team tried to contact me this morning.  I missed the call but was sent an email with what they have found.....

'We are sorry you are having issues with your contract price, we do understand how disappointing this is for you when expecting the agreed price with one of our sales agents, not being recorded correctly'

'We do need you to cancel us directly and speak to our Pre install cancellation team as soon as possible, who will then take your instructions to cancel'

So after all that's happened regards being told a load of porkies AND telling the complaints team I WAS in the process of cancelling through the PRE INSTALL cancellation team, this is the best they can do?

What an absolute shambles!

---

Wow, a company actually asking you to cancel as a new customer/order 🙂

I guess that just can't give what the salesman claimed in the end due to profit margin, but you would think they would say something around that and then try a negotiation, i.e. good price but not pay off the Plusnet as an example.

[unisoft]

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@IvesyM wrote:

I thought I was getting somewhere from Paul_DN from here yesterday, but I gave the wrong last 4 digits of my bank account.  It seems the doors been slammed shut there.  Shame, as he seemed genuinely interested in helping.

---

Security, if you get it wrong, one would hope they slam the door if no other viable security questions 🙂

Engage again, and get the digits of your bank account number this time.

The forum staff are your LAST hope of sorting anything out.....

[IvesyM]

That's fair enough and I've already supplied the correct details so we'll see what happens. The price quoted to me  by the salesman was, £28.99. But how is this allowed? Complaining doesn't seem to make much difference. I was expecting them to say something like we'll investigate this or at least reprimand the sales man. Or as you say see if they can 'do something ' it just confirms all the bad stuff I'd heard about Virgin, sadly.