Mad contract policy for new customer

[grt87]

Hi, I recently joined (5 days ago) as a new customer on the Big Bundle deal (£33 per month). Having found our M250 speed a little slow, and the TV channels a bit limited, I would instead like to switch to the Bigger Combo Bundle deal at £39.99 per month. However, on contacting Virgin media I was initially told that the only way to do this would be to cancel then re-sign onto the new deal. When I was put through to the department to do this (after waiting over 90mins!!) I was told that no, I still couldn't do this and would have to cancel, wait up to 90 days without any services and then try to re-sign. Obviously I don't want to be without an internet connection for 3 months just to get a slightly better deal.

I am essentially asking Virgin media if I can move from their cheapest deal to a slightly more expensive one, and given that I am still well within my cooling off period I would have thought that would work for all concerned. But apparently not - Virgin have said that they simply can't do it, and that my onl;y options are to:

a. stay on the £33pm Big Bundle that I don't particularly want, with an internet that isn't quite fast enough

b. cancel my contract, pay whatever I owe, send my equipment back then wait up to 90 days to re-apply

c. Pay £68 per month to switch to the Bigger Combo bundle as an existing customer

Seems ridiculous to me but wondered if anyone has had the same experience, or if it's possible to contact a department that might see the upside to having a customer who wants to pay a little bit more each month. Given how poor their service has been so far I'm otherwise tempted to just cancel my contract and look elsewhere (could do without the hassle though!)

Any advice would be great, cheers!

[bhaskarsamani]

Look at what other companies in your area have 

[HavencroftKev]

If you're only 5 days in you have a perfectly legal right to cancel your contract. 

You have a 14 days cooling off period, meaning you are perfectly able to cancel penalty free.

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @grt87 

Thank you so much for your post and welcome to the community forums, it's great to have you here. 

If your account has now been installed then we would not be able to offer a new customer deal as this would be an existing account. We would be happy to check and see what deals we have available with a higher speed but cannot guarantee they would match the same new customer offers. If you did want to take a new customer offer then you would likely need to cancel and wait the advised time so you would qualify for this. 

You are within your 15 day cancelation period so you are more than welcome to cancel if you would like by contacting our teams on 0345 454 1111 or you can give this number a call to see what offers the team have in regards to a higher speed, as a may offer may be available since you last spoke with your teams.

[grt87]

Thank you for your response but that is simply crazy. So in order to get the deal I actually want and would work for me, Virgin Media are going to make me cancel a contract, return the equipment (at your expense) then live without the internet for up to 90 days, then re-apply, wait to be sent the exact same equipment (at your expense). That's your actual policy for this?

When what you could do is simply switch my deal. Instead you are going to keep me on a cheaper contract which doesn't provide me with the service I want.

If that's your real policy then you are one of the strangest companies on the planet. I will stick with your inferior internet for my contracted period, raise multiple complaints every time your service drops out, (which based on the last week will be often) then at the end of the 18 month contract I will give money to one of your competitors and NEVER sign up to your services again. Great business.

Alternatively you could .make an effort to show the most basic customer service and just help me move my deal to one that will actually provide me with the service I need. Then I won't have the problem of poor internet connection, won't need to complain, will get the service I am paying for and will probably stay with Virgin media long term.

[HavencroftKev]

Welcome to Virgin Media, sadly Common Sense doesn't exist at times with this company.  

[japitts]

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@grt87 wrote:

raise multiple complaints every time your service drops out,

Alternatively you could .make an effort to ...move my deal to one that ...won't have the problem of poor internet connection,

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How do losses of service fit into a pricing policy? And what difference would it make to a service fault, which bundle a user is on?

[cje85]

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@grt87 wrote:

Thank you for your response but that is simply crazy. So in order to get the deal I actually want and would work for me, Virgin Media are going to make me cancel a contract, return the equipment (at your expense) then live without the internet for up to 90 days, then re-apply, wait to be sent the exact same equipment (at your expense). That's your actual policy for this?

When what you could do is simply switch my deal. Instead you are going to keep me on a cheaper contract which doesn't provide me with the service I want.

If that's your real policy then you are one of the strangest companies on the planet. I will stick with your inferior internet for my contracted period, raise multiple complaints every time your service drops out, (which based on the last week will be often) then at the end of the 18 month contract I will give money to one of your competitors and NEVER sign up to your services again. Great business.

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If you're already having reliability problems. upgrading to a higher speed won't fix that. It would be best to leave within your cooling off period rather than get stuck with an unreliable service that isn't meeting your speed requirements for 18 months.

Raising a complaint is futile on VM, you only ever get a senseless reply in broken English that does nothing to address the complaint. 

[Ashleigh_C]

As you have already excepted a new customer offer @grt87 the new customer discount code will not work on your existing account, new customer deals are a one time offer for new customers. 

We are sorry again that you are unhappy with the offer that you have initally accepted but the steps to change this are outlined in the previous message.

[unisoft]

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@grt87 wrote:

Thank you for your response but that is simply crazy. So in order to get the deal I actually want and would work for me, Virgin Media are going to make me cancel a contract, return the equipment (at your expense) then live without the internet for up to 90 days, then re-apply, wait to be sent the exact same equipment (at your expense). That's your actual policy for this?

When what you could do is simply switch my deal. Instead you are going to keep me on a cheaper contract which doesn't provide me with the service I want.

If that's your real policy then you are one of the strangest companies on the planet. I will stick with your inferior internet for my contracted period, raise multiple complaints every time your service drops out, (which based on the last week will be often) then at the end of the 18 month contract I will give money to one of your competitors and NEVER sign up to your services again. Great business.

Alternatively you could .make an effort to show the most basic customer service and just help me move my deal to one that will actually provide me with the service I need. Then I won't have the problem of poor internet connection, won't need to complain, will get the service I am paying for and will probably stay with Virgin media long term.

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Its management are incompetent and inept at transforming the company into a customer centric one that keeps customers and grows the customer base. It resorts to questionable tactics as MANY people have posted in these forums. I agree, what you have asked for is perfectly reasonable in your 14 cool off period and any competent provider would just be able to change the tariff.

As competition increases with proper fibre roll out programmes, VM could find itself in decline. It's hoping to buy up struggling ALTNETS to cancel out competition (and bought Upp) but you need customer and income to do that over time. Its a complete failure at the top of the company to have list/out of contract prices for £78 for FTTC GIG1 broadband. Even BT aren't that expensive and theirs is lower latency full fibre. The fact that the customer service lead does not read the forums and takes action on repeated failures around provisioning, billing, contract renewals etc. and the fact that VM do not seem to operate a "known error database" - that's a DB where previous incidents and issues are logged with resolution so that a repeat in the future speeds resolution if it happens again.

If you have competition in your area, whether BT full fibre or full fibre from an ALTNET that operates in your area, you need to decide if the hassle and compromise of service tier is worth it, along with the lack of customer service (and you are a new customer, it should be the best experience at this stage!). I don't know how many service faults you are getting, but is that not enough to go elsewhere anyway if not fixed?

In the meantime, on this simple, online form, please let the regulator OfCom know about your experience of joining VM and if you have multiple service faults that do not get fixed. Ofcom have been investigating various complaints since 2023, but many customers have not reported because they did not know or thought it would take lots of time.

https://ofcomlive.my.salesforce-sites.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

P.S. If you cancel in the 14 day cool off, I believe you can re-order after disconnection happens without waiting 90 days OR put into someone else's name at your address as many have done on these forums throughout history. You may still have the service continuity issues and you may still have to get an engineer out to check signal levels and cable etc.