Missold twice!

[smish]

I'm steaming mad with virgin right now.  I've spoken to 3 people today, and all of them have told me different things.  I was apparently missold when I signed up for the TV, and then missold again when I made changes to it a few days ago.  If you can't be bothered to read the whole story, I've made a complaint to virgin and am waiting for a call back, but have been told that it's useless, so I'll have to go down the legal route.  Has anyone had any experience of that with virgin?

Long story: I bought a 4K TV and signed up for a TV package in lockdown to help with the boredom.  I wasn't sure what I wanted as it was my first time having TV at all and was almost decided to go with sky before speaking to a nice virgin agent to check my options.  I like movies so signed up for the sky movies add on and UHD add on (this one) https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/tv/channels/sky-movies which I was told I could give 30 days notice to cancel whenever I liked, and there was a half price discount on the sky movie package.  I got a 3 month discount as well, so thought I'd probably cancel the add ons after that when the price went up by about £20/month. 

I went on webchat to ask what the price would be if I cancelled the add ons, and was upsold a really good deal, which involved me getting better speed internet, and paying a bit more, but getting a better discount so the price actually went down.  I double-checked that I could still cancel the add ons and pay £15 and £6 less per month, and was told yes.  So I signed up.  Was supposed to get an email confirmation and I didn't get one, which I realised today and called up to ask about.  The package had been changed properly and would change on my online account after my next bill, but apparently removing the add ons would only take about £10 off my bill, rather than the £21 I'd been told.  Aside from this, apparently taking them off would also cause other discounts to be removed from my package, resulting in a higher price again - which I definitely wasn't told about.  I even did a summary when signing up via chat, and checked that the price would stay the same throughout my contract and that my contract dates wouldn't change.  I didn't trust doing it without confirmation/record of the chat, so on the agent's advice I screen-shotted the whole chat, which took ages. 

Today I firstly spoke to 1 person called Anna who hung up on me when I was speaking (not shouting or anything btw).  I called straight back and was told by the next agent that Anna lied on the notes and said she lost me while transferring me to retentions.  The 2nd person was nice, though she told me something different about my contract, who knows if she was correct or not (said if I cancelled the addons it would be £41/month).  She transferred me to retentions as they were the only department that could get it sorted, she said.  The retentions agent told me it would be £45 or something if I cancelled the add ons, and that I had never signed up for sky cinema as an add on (even though it's on my contract) and that I was getting too many discounts so it didn't matter what I'd been quoted by the agent when I signed up.  She said that the initial call when I signed up probably couldn't be listened to for some reason.  She lied about things and tried to fob me off, but did raise a complaint, though told me it would be pointless.  So yeah, now I'm in the position of having to take virgin to court as they won't fulfil the contract we both agreed to.  😞  I'm supposed to get a call back within 48 hours from virgin complaints... Help! 

Surely this is illegal - if I have it in black and white then virgin has to honour the agreement?

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

@smish Surely this is illegal - if I have it in black and white then virgin has to honour the agreement?

These "didn't get the deal I agreed" situations happen from time to time.  However, your legal rights are crystal clear - 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 and accepted, whether they like it or not.  Don't be fobbed off, or allow the company to settle merely by agreeing to release you from the fixed term contract.

Hopefully the forum staff can pick this up and get it sorted - by which I mean that you get exactly the deal you were promised, not some less attractive compromise, although if it is already a formal complaint they may have to defer to the (not very impressive) complaints team.  If the company can stop messing around and deliver the deal agreed, that would be the cheapest outcome for them, and the quickest resolution for both parties, and the best way of trying to recover some goodwill in a bad situation.  In the meanwhile, don't do anything daft like stopping your direct debit, that'll be recorded as a credit default, and opens up whole new realms of difficulty for you.  Don't worry if VM contact you claiming that they couldn't get hold of you, so will close the complaint if they don't hear to the contrary, or otherwise mishandle the complaint as this doesn't stop you being able to take the matter further.

If VM still won't honour the contract despite the complaint, then you follow the process and escalate to the industry arbitration scheme no sooner than eight weeks after your initial complaint was received by VM.  Explain the background and request that VM be required to give you the promised deal, fully backdated, and add on a request for compensation for the hassle.   Sadly that's not quick, and VM have up to eight weeks to resolve the complaint before you can go to CISAS, on the other hand your legal rights are very clear.

As I said earlier, hopefully the forum staff can get this resolved quicker and without the formality.

[Corey_C]

Thanks for your post and welcome to the Community Forums, smish,

Thanks very much for choosing our services for your first TV, although I am sorry that you went through such an unpleasant event just to change your TV package. If the offer is something you have in black and white, we will do our best to honour that offer. Generally speaking, there are bundles that come with preset discounts that are dependent on the bundle remaining intact, therefore if there are changes to the bundle, it can result in a price change. An example of this would be the SKY bundle you have mentioned, where once you remove the SKY bundle then the associated SKY discount will also go away. We do value our customer interactions but also encourage customers to check their online account and online contracts regularly.

I have taken a look at your complaint and it does appear to have been resolved since your post, but if you would like further help with this, please let us know. Also along with the pretty thorough advice from Andrew-G, if you do want to learn more about our complaints process and what the steps are you can find them here:  https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-complaint

Cheers,

Corey C

[smish]

@Andrew-G Thanks for your reply. I wish I'd read your response before complaints called me back. I spoke to an awful guy who tried to guilt trip me, make the situation into a moral judgement on me, (because supposedly I must have somehow known that the deal I agreed to was incorrect), and he made the analogy that the situation was like if I'd bought something online and the order was cancelled and not sent because the price had been wrong. I explained to him that that was false equivalency and that I knew what my rights were regarding being mis-sold, and that the chat conversation I'd had was actually a contract, but after about 1.5 hours on the phone with him, where he made the same stupid arguments over and over, I said that I'd accept his latest offer provided I was given a free subscription to Starzplay. I was told that this would be a total of £35/month but the advisor again told me false information as it's actually £35.49 per month. As soon as this contract is over I'm moving to sky, where I was quoted £55/month for phone, internet and TV including their movie service, and I had a £50 cashback offer through my bank - this was the offer virgin initially matched, when I signed up for this contract in April. Retentions called me back and that's how I got the price I signed up for - I didn't trick anyone as he seemed to suggest. I have been a virgin customer for about 7 years, but only internet and sometimes home phone if it was cheaper to have phone too. I'll give info on what services I signed up for in April, what I have now and what I'm paying, for anyone else going through this s*** with virgin, or it's a good education for anyone who believes their advertised prices are anything other than a rip off. If you think this is a good deal, also look what you can get for £90/month with the oomph bundle (which I would have signed up for initially, if I'd needed a simcard).

April 2021 - 18 month contract - Mixit TV, home phone with weekend calls, M350 Fibre broadband. 2 removeable TV add ons (30 days notice) - Sky collection (usually £22/month, half price for duration of contract) and sky UHD add on, £6/month. I was told that I needed this add on to watch the virgin UHD channel, but that wasn't true.

The total cost came to £45.50 for the first 3 months, and then £60.50 for the remainder of the contract, as there was a separate discount on the package for 3 months.

I explained that I wanted to try the Sky movies service in 4K but wanted to be able to cancel it, and was assured that I could with 30 days notice, and that the discount then would be £22/month plus £6/month, but I was getting a half price offer on the Sky, so I would lose the £11/month discount on that if I no longer had the service, therefore it would actually be £17 less, meaning my normal monthly cost after the 3 month discount ended would go to £43.50. I was happy with that.

BTW in March 2020 when I was mid-contract for internet only, and called virgin twice to try to get TV service too, I was quoted over £90/month with or without home phone, and nothing could make virgin budge, despite telling them that my parents who live very close to me were paying £60/month for Mixit TV, sports, the best home phone package, etc. I was told that I didn't have the same discounts available as I haven't been a customer for very long (only 7 years?) They were blatantly profiteering on the covid situation, lockdown, etc, which disgusted me, so I was determined to leave and go to sky, which I told the retentions advisor too. I wish I had signed up with sky - virgin customer service has been so bad.

As I said, the chat advisor offered to upgrade my internet to M500, and said it was a special offer to reduce my package price (which had been £45 but was rising to £60.50) to £51.50, with everything else the same and no change to my contract end date. I asked if I could still cancel the Sky collection and UHD add on and she said yes, I'd have a £15 and £6 reduction in price, but she couldn't take the add on's off herself, I'd have to be transferred. I was undecided and she then offered me £25 credit if I agreed to the change. So of course I said yes! She did everything she said she would, though she forgot to transfer me and I forgot about it until a few weeks later. And you were right Andrew - the complaints advisor did try to get me to go back to my original agreement, and he would then have removed the addons as I was advised when I spoke to the retentions advisor.

Currently have 15 months left on contract: Mixit TV, home phone with weekend calls, M500 Fibre broadband, Starzplay TV add on (usually £4.99). Agreed total £35/month, actually paying £35.49/month. Hope nothing else goes wrong!

[smish]

As you can see from my other reply, it hasn't been a satisfactory experience for me - not at all. Even the solution isn't exactly as I agreed with complaints. What a nightmare. Wish I'd never agreed a new contract with virgin.

[smish]

If I were you I'd make a complaint about this. Mis-selling is illegal for one thing, and you aren't getting the extra service you are paying for, for no fault of your own. The law is on your side.

[Lee_R]

Hi @smish thanks for getting back to us.

I am sorry you're still unhappy.  Please can you confirm whether or not you wish to pursue your complaint further?

Regards

Lee_R