@Mferguson23 @orbitalen
Now despite what you may have been told, moving house absolutely DOES require a new contract, the contract is tied to the address not to an individual. But as long as you make no changes to the service you are getting, this new contract is supposed to be adjusted to reflect how much time was left on your old one. It seems that this is done by some sort of manual process after the new contract is setup (and they are automatically setup as a new 18 month minimum term), and although it is tempting to think that VM sometimes 'accidentally' forgets to do this, personally, I tend to think it is due more to incompetence, ineffectual management and poor procedures - but what would I know, eh?
However there is every chance that the forum team will see this and offer to contact you both and, hopefully, sort it all out.
But just in case, I would advise you both to make notes while it is all still fresh in your memory, of exactly when and how you informed VM of your moves, exactly what was said, and importantly what was promised. Now armed with that, and the forum team are unable to help, then you first initiate a formal complaint to VM, the link is here. You request that the contract minimum terms be correctly set, any and all excess payments are refunded, plus a token, say £50 extra off of your bill in recompense for the inconvenience. What actually is most likely to happen, is that the complaint will simply be closed without any further communication, or possibly you will be offered a heartfelt (really) apology with a sentence along the lines of 'we have further explained the bills and costs and we hope this resolution suits you'. With any luck you may even be given the arrestingly insulting resolution of 'education given'
That's all OK, if it is not to your liking, then you reject the resolution and demand a 'deadlock' letter, which VM are obliged to send without delay. They will of course delay and said letter will not be forthcoming, and that's assuming you find someone who actually knows what they are anyway!
Again doesn't matter, either with the deadlock letter or after eight weeks have past since your initial complaint, you take the whole matter to the industry arbitration service CISAS who will look into it. In your submission, explain everything that has happened, request VM be instructed to sort your contracts out, payback any extra costs, oh and of course, extra compensation (£75-£100) for the extra inconvenience. Costs you nothing to make the complaint, does cost VM around £400 in fees just to defend it, so they won't be too keen to go down that route.
But, like I said, no need to take the nuclear option just yet, let's give the forum team a chance to set it right - yes?
