Misold contract renewal!!

[Boatsandstars12]

This is going to be long and rambley so please forgive me.

My mum,who's not good with tech/internet/TV providers or even social media joined virgin in approx October 2020 on an 18 months contract that was X month untill month 12and then it was XX amount. (I'm X-ing the amount because it's not super relevant and I'm not positive on the figures) .

We were explicitly told that after 18 month,we could ring up and shop about for any new deals you had on. We did this and my mum agreed to go on to MAXIT TV,for what she thought was the remainder of the contract. 

So in May my mum rings to give her notice of leaving as she believed she was well out of contract and had found a much better provider. She was offers all-sorts but said no,thankyou.

Now,she's been told she has to pay the early cancellation fee as she is infact still in contact but she was absolutely 100% unaware of this,she was never told explicitly that by moving to MAXIT it was a new contract.

So after she received the final bill,she called and called and called trying to reach someone to discuss this with.

Eventually she spoke to 4 different people and it took her about 3 hours to be told that she had been sold the max it package,my mum explained she didn't know and was misold it and an 'investigation' began where they told her they would be in touch in 72 hours. That was 2 weeks ago. She's tried ringing since,cannot get through.

She received an email today for outstanding balance (which is 40 less than the initial early exit fee calculated)

Again,she tried to ring up,she eventually got through, couldn't get through security (she's never successfully managed as God knows what the memorable word is) so they instead ask her for her bank details!! (To try pay the balance maybe) my mum refused and explained the situation and she was rudely cut off. Shes so stressed with this whole situation and we're at the end of our tether. We cannot speak to anyone about this,no one seems to be interested. She can't even follow the online complaints procedure because her "email address is not recognised" when it's the very same email that received the bill this morning. The whole thing is an absolute joke and to be honest I think the system is designed that way to catch people. She just wants someone to look at all the information,check if she was misold the new contract,and the fee to be squashed. If they can prove that she was fully aware or that it was explained to her then she will pay,on a payment plan but I literally cannot find anyway to sort this for her except the ombudsman.

[Boatsandstars12]

This is happening to my mum right now! They've managed to leave but have a huge exit fee even though they fully believed they were out of contract,turns out they were misold a renewal unbeknownst to her that she was entering into another contract. She's trying to fight it but can never get through on the phone and when she does they put the phone down,again and again 😞 

[Martin_N]

Hi Boatsandstars12,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the community. 

I'm very sorry to hear about the issues your mum has had with the cancellation of her account. 

Cancellation is something we normally deal with over our community site. 

We will take a look into this and see what we can advise though. 

I will private message you now. 

^Martin

[Lin47]

Yes me too! As well as this, we were told we couldn't move the broadband service so a year and a half ago we entered a new contract, stating we would pay £54 every month for 18 months. Today we finally managed to get a hold of cancellation, we have to pay an early disconnection fee, fair enough because we didn't realise there was still a few months left, however, was billed £87 during the last month which is within the contract period. Apparently, the discount within the contract expired and it was all written within the contract, but my mum was completely unaware of this. So now the bill has racked up a couple hundred because of the cancellation fee, it's ridiculous. Is it not safe to assume the amount would be the same throughout the 18month contract period? Having the sudden rise from 54 to £87 gave the impression the contract was over. The phone operator was not helpful as they kept saying everything was in the contract. 

[Megan_L]

Hi Lin47, 

Thanks for using the forums to get your concerns with your cancellation and bills aired.

I am sorry you've had a poor journey whilst trying to get your cancellation through, along with the confusion with your final bill and the early end of the promotional offer. Most of of promotional offers added at point of sale do now run for the whole 18 months along side the contract, however there are still some discounts that end before the contract. This would have been outlined in the contract summary and on your Online Account package details. 

Do you know if you still have the contract summary or any evidence of the contract you took out?

Could be within an Email or physical letter 🙂

Thanks,

Megan_L

[Lin47]

I understand some offers expire before the whole 18 months. We decided it was best to just pay the final bill and leave it at that. However, we were told the final bill would be an estimated total of £172, yesterday received a bill for £183 and assumed since the £172 was an estimate the £183 was correct. Today called up to pay, the phone operator said we owed £262.01, apparently all valid charges. My mum did call in July to question the rise from £54 - £87, the phone operator did agree to change it back to £54, nothing was changed, apparently nothing was in the notes. Now we owe this incredibly high amount and told not even the managers manager could waive anything. Any advice? 

[Martin_N]

Hi Lin47,

Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry to hear about what happened. 

If you have already spoken with a manager then you should have been through our complaints process.

If you are unhappy with the managers response then you can escalate the complaint as per our complaints code of practice: https://virg.in/comcop

^Martin

[Lin47]

Unfortunately did not get to speak to a manager, they would not transfer me to one. Just told that the fee was non negotiable and their no one in a higher management position could help.