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My renewal experience

Malenko10
Joining in

Where do I start… 
30 days before my contract was due to end, I started the process of looking for a renewal as I was coming off a welcome offer. 
I started through WhatsApp. Initially agreed internet only 250mb volt for £33 a month which I was happy with. I asked the guy to leave the conversion open so I could cancel with Vodafone. He said he’d leave a note on my record with the offer, it would be honoured. 

That didn’t happen. The next advisor was dreadful, throwing all sorts of offers to me stating that the agreed above was no longer available. Eventually they worse me down to agree to £34. There were near tears from frustration my end at this point. 

 Not trusting a word what was said, I called up and lo and behold, no record of anything on the system. I had a contract sent to me which I the staff member told me to forward to a line manager, and it would be accepted - which I did. 

Today, I call up and as you can guess, no record of that either. I was given some half hearted retention offers but now I have to pay 17 days of full price when I was completely lied to at the start. Just screwed me out of £70.

Never again - if you’re considering Virgin - just don’t. 

3 REPLIES 3

Anonymous
Not applicable

There are records in the form of call recordings and it's your legal right to obtain them and hold VM to the agreement via an official complaint. 

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar-faq 

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints


@Anonymous wrote:

There are records in the form of call recordings and it's your legal right to obtain them and hold VM to the agreement via an official complaint. 

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar-faq 

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints


I'm afraid that I don't think that a promise to hold an offer open would be legally enforceable.  If a deal were negotiated, offered and the customer accepted it, then that is easily enforceable under UK contract law.  But an offer is not enforceable under contract law before both parties accept it, at which point it ceases to be an offer and becomes a contract.  Neither can retrospectively change a contract, for example the excuse "that offer you accepted was only supposed to be for new customers" would not enable VM to withdraw or change terms the customer and agent agree on during a call.  But before the contract is agreed then there's no obligation by either party.

I remain surprised by retention agents telling customers offers will remain open - the agents know full well that it isn't going to happen, and usually they get a bonus for meeting retention targets so there ought to be an incentive to them to say "if you can't accept this offer then you can call back but I can't guarantee these terms will be available".

In terms of advice for Malenko10, cancel the VM contract if you haven't already, and during your 30 day notice you'll probably get multiple calls from VM's outbound retentions agents trying to lure you back.  You can either say "No, never, don't call again", or you can tell them "yes, when you offer me a deal like the ones advertised to new customers".  Initially they'll say they can't do that, but the end of the 30 days they're very likely to do just that.  On my last day of service VM called me five times (but I still said no, as I'd decided VM was not the company I wanted to give my business to).

If you do take up a new heavily discounted VM contract, be aware that under the new terms VM use, that your price will be likely to increase by around 20% for the last 5-6 months of the 18 month fixed term, but you will not have the right to cancel or renegotiate until the fixed term itself ends.   

Tom_W1
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi @Malenko10 thanks for your post here, although we're sorry to hear of your concerns raised surrounding your attempted package change.

We don't assist with package changes over here, but we've noted you've mentioned that due to this issue, you may be going over your contract end date and in turn, paying more than you would've done ordinarily if you'd have cancelled at your first attempt, due to your 30-day notice period.

We can look to help with this, and fast-track the disconnection to when your contract should have ended due to the circumstances here so if you'd like us to do this, please don't hesitate to let us know and we'll reach out to you directly.

Many thanks

Tom_W