My account is a mess and 6 hours on the phone hasn't solved it. Help would be greatly appreciated.

[Oneonefour]

Hopefully someone here can help resolve this issue once and for all. This is going to be a long story I'm afraid but it is the culmination of 6 hours on the phone to customer services over about 10 phone calls. Everyone I speak to is very friendly and seemingly helpful but no-one actually fixes the issues despite promising to. I am very friendly, patient and polite with everyone I speak to. I have never raised my voice or lost my temper. One of the recent customer service reps even thanked me for being so patient and polite despite all the issues and phone calls relating to my account.

I’m a guy who waited 18 months to sign up to Virgin after they laid cables on my road, (with no broadband at the address in the meantime) I am a very patient person.

I finally signed up in mid-September 2022 with a Volt Gig1 package for £35.99 as part of the Network Expansion program. I was told I would receive an O2 sim/contract at no extra cost with this package, but this never materialized and I’m past the point of caring about that now as no-one seems to be able to resolve that. It seems the sales rep who signed me up probably lied to me to get the sale and his commission. Anyway, I’m over it.

Installation was scheduled for the end of September. This ended up getting delayed by 25 days with 1 missed appointment which should have been added as a credit to my account. The eventual installation in October went fine and the broadband is excellent. I was told to expect to see 2 months worth in my first bill, so this should have been £71.98 (2 x £35.99), with the compensation added as a credit. Simple.

My November bill (my first bill) came in at £112.25 which included an unspecified “package change” of £11.51 and a £1.75 paper bill charge, despite refusing paper bills when I signed up and making no changes to my package. There should have been compensation for a missed appointment and for 25 days of delayed installation as well. None of this was present on my account. Several people at Virgin have tried to resolve this issue with no success as of yet despite all of them agreeing that the compensation should be there and most of them claiming to have resolved it. At the start of December, a customer services rep at Virgin told me he had sorted everything out, and the best thing to do is let him cancel my direct debit and when my next bill lands (with the correct amount), I can call them, set up a direct debit, pay, and all will be well. I took his advice and let him cancel the direct debit.

My December bill (second bill) arrives at £150.23 including late fees of £7.50. The compensation is still not shown on my account at all, despite everyone I speak to at Virgin agreeing that this should be a credit on my account. I call again and try to solve the issue, I get told by one person that they will call me back when they get their manager’s authorization for the credits, I ask them as politely as possible, what should I do if they don’t call me back. The lady assures me that when she says she will call back, she will. No-one ever called me back.

December 28th, I woke up to find Virgin had disconnected my services due to non-payment. To be completely clear, I am perfectly able to pay and I want to pay, but I want to pay the correct amount. My contract very clearly states £35.99 per month. I don’t know what is so difficult about this. Anyway, I ring up yet again and end up paying £117.22 which I am told will put me up to date until mid-February, at which point the credits will be applied. Virgin switched my internet back on (very quickly I may add, I appreciate that, it only took about 10 minutes.)

I received my January bill today (the third bill) and Virgin want £109.51. Another late payment fee of £7.50 has been added. Again, the compensation is nowhere to be seen and as has been the same with all 3 of my bills, my package price shows as £69 when my contract is £35.99.

As if all this isn’t confusing enough, there has, for reasons I can’t explain, been 3 different account numbers associated with my account. I am a first time customer with Virgin and this is the first time Virgin has supplied this property. Every time I ring customer services I have to give them a different account number to the one they have associated with my mobile, otherwise they can’t access my account. It’s complete madness.

Every time I ring and ask for help the mess seems to get bigger and bigger as each customer service rep adds notes to my account which the next person has to trawl through. All said and done though, it’s actually very very simple. I have currently only made one payment of £117.22 to Virgin. My contract is £35.99 a month and my installation date was the 22nd of October. I am owed 1 missed appointment and 25 days of delayed installation in credit and at this point I will insist that the late fees, the unspecified package change and the paper bill charge will be credited. As I said earlier, it has never been a problem to pay for the services as long as the amount is correct. At this point I don’t even know what the £117.22 I paid was even for exactly. Nothing seems to add up to that amount.

I wish luck on whoever chooses to take on this task.

[jem101]

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@Oneonefour wrote:

Hopefully someone here can help resolve this issue once and for all. This is going to be a long story I'm afraid but it is the culmination of 6 hours on the phone to customer services over about 10 phone calls. Everyone I speak to is very friendly and seemingly helpful but no-one actually fixes the issues despite promising to. I am very friendly, patient and polite with everyone I speak to. I have never raised my voice or lost my temper. One of the recent customer service reps even thanked me for being so patient and polite despite all the issues and phone calls relating to my account.

I’m a guy who waited 18 months to sign up to Virgin after they laid cables on my road, (with no broadband at the address in the meantime) I am a very patient person.

I finally signed up in mid-September 2022 with a Volt Gig1 package for £35.99 as part of the Network Expansion program. I was told I would receive an O2 sim/contract at no extra cost with this package, but this never materialized and I’m past the point of caring about that now as no-one seems to be able to resolve that. It seems the sales rep who signed me up probably lied to me to get the sale and his commission. Anyway, I’m over it.

Installation was scheduled for the end of September. This ended up getting delayed by 25 days with 1 missed appointment which should have been added as a credit to my account. The eventual installation in October went fine and the broadband is excellent. I was told to expect to see 2 months worth in my first bill, so this should have been £71.98 (2 x £35.99), with the compensation added as a credit. Simple.

My November bill (my first bill) came in at £112.25 which included an unspecified “package change” of £11.51 and a £1.75 paper bill charge, despite refusing paper bills when I signed up and making no changes to my package. There should have been compensation for a missed appointment and for 25 days of delayed installation as well. None of this was present on my account. Several people at Virgin have tried to resolve this issue with no success as of yet despite all of them agreeing that the compensation should be there and most of them claiming to have resolved it. At the start of December, a customer services rep at Virgin told me he had sorted everything out, and the best thing to do is let him cancel my direct debit and when my next bill lands (with the correct amount), I can call them, set up a direct debit, pay, and all will be well. I took his advice and let him cancel the direct debit.

My December bill (second bill) arrives at £150.23 including late fees of £7.50. The compensation is still not shown on my account at all, despite everyone I speak to at Virgin agreeing that this should be a credit on my account. I call again and try to solve the issue, I get told by one person that they will call me back when they get their manager’s authorization for the credits, I ask them as politely as possible, what should I do if they don’t call me back. The lady assures me that when she says she will call back, she will. No-one ever called me back.

December 28th, I woke up to find Virgin had disconnected my services due to non-payment. To be completely clear, I am perfectly able to pay and I want to pay, but I want to pay the correct amount. My contract very clearly states £35.99 per month. I don’t know what is so difficult about this. Anyway, I ring up yet again and end up paying £117.22 which I am told will put me up to date until mid-February, at which point the credits will be applied. Virgin switched my internet back on (very quickly I may add, I appreciate that, it only took about 10 minutes.)

I received my January bill today (the third bill) and Virgin want £109.51. Another late payment fee of £7.50 has been added. Again, the compensation is nowhere to be seen and as has been the same with all 3 of my bills, my package price shows as £69 when my contract is £35.99.

As if all this isn’t confusing enough, there has, for reasons I can’t explain, been 3 different account numbers associated with my account. I am a first time customer with Virgin and this is the first time Virgin has supplied this property. Every time I ring customer services I have to give them a different account number to the one they have associated with my mobile, otherwise they can’t access my account. It’s complete madness.

Every time I ring and ask for help the mess seems to get bigger and bigger as each customer service rep adds notes to my account which the next person has to trawl through. All said and done though, it’s actually very very simple. I have currently only made one payment of £117.22 to Virgin. My contract is £35.99 a month and my installation date was the 22nd of October. I am owed 1 missed appointment and 25 days of delayed installation in credit and at this point I will insist that the late fees, the unspecified package change and the paper bill charge will be credited. As I said earlier, it has never been a problem to pay for the services as long as the amount is correct. At this point I don’t even know what the £117.22 I paid was even for exactly. Nothing seems to add up to that amount.

I wish luck on whoever chooses to take on this task.

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Not at all, we like long complex stories, it actually makes it slightly easier for you to get the required compensation when this inevitably gets escalated to the adjudication service on the grounds that the more complex it is, the more VM will manage to tie themselves up in knots.

Now, what does strike me, is that just about everything you have been told was actually a lie - especially the ‘promised’ call back, these never, ever happen (will hardly), they are a standard technique (presumably part of the training regime) to get you off the phone, they chalk up another closed call and move on the next poor mug, sorry, valued customer!

Now where do we start? Do you happen to have any written evidence of the promised £36 package charge by any chance? It does strike me that you have been deliberately mislead by the poorly (ok not at all) trained VM customer services staff, the cancelling of the DD is a massive red flag! The failure to give you the proper compensation is telling as well.

So, a simple message for the forum team here, do anyone of you want to take this on, because it strikes me that this isn’t just a case of incompetence, a deliberate action by a VM agent (cancelling the DD) has caused the customer unnecessary issues, the failure to pay the mandated compensation for delayed install, need info on? I think that it aught to be possible for you to get this amicably sorted out, plus oh, let’s say £50 credit (and I’m being generous) on his account.

Otherwise, we all know where this is heading no, and the palpable failures by VM agents won’t go unnoticed, and we know what the outcome will be - don’t we?

[Andrew-G]

Forum staff can usually resolve problems like this.  However, their hands seem to be tied by VM's miserly and disrespectful approach to compensation.  Lying about the cause of delays to evade paying compensation is commonplace at VM.  Goodwill payments are typically insulting unless the ombudsman is involved.

You are owed compensation under each of the headings of

1. delayed installation at £5.25/day*
2. missed appointment, £26.24*
3. Incorrect billing in the first place, say £50**
4. Slow, time consuming, stressful customer service that promised much but still failed to sort out the incorrect billing, say £70**
5. Poor advice and staff actions that made things worse (cancelling the DD), say £100** 
6. Loss of service due to disconnection as a result of VM's staggering mess, £8.40/day*  
7. Complete ineptitude in resolving the payments mess and disconnection caused by VM, leaving you with a disputed debt and no connection, and no obvious way to get VM to resolve this, say £200**

Those amounts are either based upon Ofcom compensation rules (*) or published guidance of one of the telecoms adjudicators (**).  As you can see, that adds up to quite a tidy sum, and I can assure you that whilst it would be a reasonable thing to do, VM will not be paying that to you voluntarily.  The company's idea of a goodwill payment will be £45.  Maybe you'll settle for that, if so that's your choice.  In your shoes, I'd raise a formal complaint with VM asking for the mess to be sorted out and payment of compensation as above (as a cheque, not a credit against your account).  The complaint will be handled to the standards of excellence that you've already encountered, but no matter, you're complaining not because you expect VM's laughable complaints process to achieve anything, but simply because it is a mandatory step before engaging the industry's professional adjudication service.   You reply to the "resolution" you'll eventually get rejecting it and asking for a deadlock letter, and with that you take the matter to Ombudsman Services. Obviously this is slow, but probably better than the misery of trying to contact VM by phone, and getting fobbed off again and again with promises that will certainly not be kept.

You might also need to check your credit history to see if VM have reported you as a late payer or defaulter.  If that's the case, add another £150 to the compensation demand, plus make cleaning up your credit history part of the necessary resolution conditions.

If the forum staff can grab this and get it sorted that will be quicker and easier for both parties, but don't settle for any compromise or inadequate goodwill gesture just because it's easy.

And finally, will it have been worth that 18 month wait? 

[Ilyas_Y]

Hi there @Oneonefour, thanks for reaching out to us on the forums 👋

I'm so sorry to hear about the poor experience and troubles you've had with the entire journey, from the cables, to the SIM card, to the price and bill, this is just one big mess and can't go on any further. I will assist you on this and one by one we resolve every issue to the best of our ability and ensure everything is done correctly.

I will send over a private message inviting you in to a private chat - watch out for the purple envelope inviting you in.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Oneonefour]

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@jem101 wrote:
Now where do we start? Do you happen to have any written evidence of the promised £36 package charge by any chance?

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I do indeed have my original Virgin Media contract which shows £35.99, clear as day so all good there.

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@andrew-G wrote:
You might also need to check your credit history to see if VM have reported you as a late payer or defaulter. If that's the case, add another £150 to the compensation demand, plus make cleaning up your credit history part of the necessary resolution conditions.

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Funny you mention that. I got an email from Experian a couple of weeks ago informing me my credit score had dropped. It must be due to this. Thanks for your detailed reply, very useful information there.

[Vikki_M]

Hi @Oneonefour

I can see my colleague has sent you a private message to get these concerns resolved for you.

Please reply to him directly and he can assist further for you.

[Ilyas_Y]

Hey there @Oneonefour, thanks for chatting with us today.

I'm glad we have been able to assist you in your queries.
As advised - the final part of the on-going issues, I have raised to my auto compensation team.
Once they get back to me and my manager, we will inform you of what they say.
Feel free to reach out for any other queries.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for speaking with us today @Oneonefour on the forums.

I'm glad we have been able to update and advise on this issue.
As advised - we have made the corrections and await a new bill to be produced to see if everything has been actioned out correctly.
We can check back later this week and go form there 🙂
In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us for any other queries you may have.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for speaking with us today @Oneonefour on the forums.

I am glad to say that we have covered everything brought forward and have assisted!
As always - if you need anything, reach out to us on here and we'll assist as always.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thank you for speaking with us today @Oneonefour on the forums.

I'm glad we have been able to resolve all these queries one by one.
As advised - let's wait for the new bill and hopefully everything will be final.
As always - reach out for any other queries you may have and we will assist. 🙂

Kind regards,
Ilyas.