Joining virgin media

[Davied23]

Hi there, can anyone tell me if virgin pay towards an early cancellation with bt. They chancer that called me to sign up told me that virgin would pay off or pay towards my early cancellation fee with bt, but has never answered the phone since. I called cs & they said once I was connected I was to call them. I don't think this is right somehow. 

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

Under UK consumer law, information provided by a company verbally or written is binding if the consumer relies upon it when entering a contract (Consumer Rights Act 2015), so VM have to honour whatever was promised, whether they like it or not.  If the payment of a BT ETF was specifically stated, then VM have to honour that, although as far as I can tell it is not normal practice for VM, but due to poor training or poor governance, some sales agents just make any offer they have to get the sale (because that's what earns them a bonus).  

If there's a call recording of that sales call (and there should be), and that shows your recollection is right, VM have to pay up (failing which you complain and then escalate to the industry arbitration scheme CISAS, which is slow for you but will find in your favour).  If VM can't or won't find the call recordings, then there's no evidence for any original agreement to a contract, and with the terms disputed they would have to either honour what you say, or release you without penalty - again if need be using complaint and escalation.

I'll flag this for the staff to advise - they can usually sort out these occasional contract problems, and if they can it will be a whole lot quicker and easier than formal complaints and escalation, which would take several months.  Don't start a complaint until you've seen if the forum staff can get this sorted, because I believe they can't get involved once it has become a formal complaint. 

[Kath_F]

Hi Davied23, 

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forums. It's really great having you on board with us in the Community. 

As mentioned by Andrew_G, it is not normal practice for us to cover all or part of your early termination fees with another service provider however with saying that, sometimes the Sales Agents have offers available to credit your account with an amount which you can use to pay towards the early termination fees. 

It is worth noting that the credit we apply gets applied to your VM account and not given as cash. Have you already signed up for an account? 

If not, make sure you get any offer in writing or that it is on your contract to be sure it will be applied to the account. If it's not, then we will be able to add this for you with the proof at a later date. 

Let us know if you decide to join 🙂

Thanks,

[Davied23]

Hi kath_f, thanks for your reply. Yes I joined up when he called as he was giving me a cheaper package than the guy that called a couple of days earlier. His name was Jack (the lad) I think lol. He was trying to speed through his sales pitch, but after slowing him down a bit I specifically asked about my contract with bt. He stated that virgin would pay all or some of it and he would speak to his manager in the morning. He then said he would call me at 10.15 the next morning,  but I got no call. He had sent a text message with his number if I had any issues. I tried calling a couple of times the next day, but got no answer. After calling him for the next couple of days, with no answer, I called Cs & they had to change the package & some of it wasn't right what he sold me. That's when they said I was to call back once I was installed to speak about bt. Thanks again. 

[Davied23]

Andrew-g, thanks for your reply, it was very helpful.

[Tom_F]

Hi Davied23. 

I'm sorry to hear about the confusion around your new deal. 

Call recordings are there for training and monitoring purposes only - not all calls are recorded and we do not have access to them from here unfortunately. If the offer of a credit to cover your BT Early Disconnection Fee's was made by the Sales agent, this should be noted on your account as per our internal process and policy - and communicated in the confirmation email sent out after signing up.

We are more than happy to look further into this for you and will do all we can to help get things cleared up, please look out for my PM (the purple envelope) and we'll take it from there.

Tom