Lied to by renewals awful customer services

[pau1200]

Hi,

I am having an awful experience with virgin, I had email come through saying renew my services, same channels, same speed same price which was 55 a month. Great so I renewed, well I noticed that my online account hadn’t been updated so I called and was told that for some reason it wasnt applied but not to worry they will sort it for 94 a month. I just laughed and said to cancel it to which got me put through to another team. I had to email the offer and the order confirmation and they would sort it. After a long time he said the monthly amount would be highe4 but they would put a rolling credit on the account to bring it back down to 55. They couldn’t put it writing bu5 added lots of notes on the account. So the bill comes through and guess what no credit. Back on the phone again and said I’ve had enough you are in breach of the agreement I want out penalty free. I can’t do that because you’re in contract and this is what you signed. I lost the plot a bi5 and back through to the other team and spent a couple of hours on the phone again and he assured me he will sort and put back tnt sports as per the original offer and would call me back in a week to confirm everything. He raised a complaint and credited my account the over charged amount. TNT went off after a day and no call back either. Bill has come through again wrong so back on the phone, another team and could see the issue, she said we need to rebundle the contract will be down as 121 a month but it will be discounted to 55 as it’s the right way to do it. A guaranteed call back today which never happened so I guess it’s another few hours wasted on the phone.

customer services are just lying to you, for a long time customer the way I have been treated is awful and think the only way is to cancel all services but it won’t be easy. As far as I care they are in breach of the agreement and should allow me to leave penalty free.

Has anyone else had a similar experience and can give me any advice

[MarkK11]

Hi,

You can escalate the matter by filing a formal complaint with Virgin Media and if unresolved, contact CISAS, the independent dispute resolution service. Additionally, Ofcom, the communications regulator, may investigate if Virgin Media has breached contract termination rules. Keep records of all communications and ensure you follow the official complaints process outlined by Virgin Media.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey pau1200, thank you for reaching out and I am so sorry to hear about this.

When you made the deal, how did you go it online was it through the app or that email?

Also these deals can take around 10 - 14 working days to become activate, I take it to confirm 100% it has passed this deadline? 

Also on the paperwork you got does it state it would be £55  for the same deal? 

[DuncanM1]

Very similar experience I think this is widespread in Virgin. It's got a technical name "lowballing" it's an unscrupulous sales strategy in which a customer agrees to purchase an item at a competitive price, after which it is claimed that the price was an error (or a deal they cannot trace or is no longer available) and then raises the price, betting that the customer will agree to make the purchase at the inflated price, which he or she often does.

[pau1200]

Hi Mathew,

I received an email from yourselves which I clicked and had all the precontract and order confirmation come through, this was in march. When i realised my contract had not updated thats when the fun started. I have been told multiple times that it would be sorted but never has. The original paperword said £55 but that order was not applied for some reason, since then as I said I have had to sign other contracts for 76 and 119 as I have been told they will be either discounted or rolling credit applied to my account, neither which has materialised. The one agent managed to credit my account for the first over charge, that means this months bill should have been £0 but its now £26. Spoke to your cancelations team again today and he said couldnt do anything even though I agreed to the £55 and the best he could do is £146 a month. I am only asking for what I agreed to and I have been called a liar by some of your teams and have had to email in screenshots of the email and contract paperwork. The advise today was to cancel and they would do that penalty free so they have processed that. He could not confirm what the final would be and gave me 2 figures of £19 and £191. No one there seems to know what they are doing. I had no intention of leaving but have spent over 8hrs trying to sort out this mistake by virgin with no success. The complaint i raised as been closed so i have been told without resolution.

[Matthew_ML]

Okay, sorry to hear this so just to confirm this the pre documents did state everything the exactly the same for £55? 

Please can you confirm what you would like are you looking to cancel or to get this deal?

By the way can I just confirm before we take this to DM do you still have this paperwork to hand? 

[GRW1964]

Yip, going through the same. Was looking at a new contract @ £51pm, when sent through jumped to £89pm after month 7. When I knocked it back, was told I couldn't go back to the previous one (which still had a month to run) as it had been cancelled and the new one set up !! I didn't authorise that. 2 weeks later the guy reviewing the complaint did exactly the same thing, told me £51pm for 18 months and contract stated the jump from month 7. This is no mistake !!

[pau1200]

Yes, the predocuments showed the package for £55, i have the email link with the offer on too. 

As it stands there is a cancelation going through because of the time spent trying to resolve this, and I dont mean any disrespect but I have had at least 5 members of retentions, cancellations and network management or something that the manager messaged trying to sort this out and all have failed. I will be out of pocket when i pay the bill this month has it was charged at the higher rate. 

I am happy for you to have a look and you can see what has been going on, I wont decide if i will stay until you can say yes.

[Ayisha_B]

I'm going to pop you a PM 📩 now @pau1200 to help further.

Thanks

[45RPM]

Absolutely @pau1200 When I renewed recently, I was told my package would remain exactly the same.  However, I lost TNT Sports.  So I wasn't at all happy.

Happened before where I lost free access to 0845 numbers. 

Also, since the upgrade happens mid-month and payment is in advance, it is impossible to work out if VM's calculation. With gas/electric, they bill you at X-days at Y-pounds and Z-days at A-pounds; so it is transparent and foolproof.  VM make it so convoluted, it is impossible to argue the case with some kid in Outer Mongolia.

Why the regulator allows such shenanigans is beyond me!

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