Overcharged on Final Bill and Late Payment Charge Incurred

[Beastlee]

Like many others I chose to leave Virgin Media after 10 years (over 20 if you count our time with NTL and Diamond cable). I gave 60 days notice and was assured it would all be resolved.

To my surprise, having already paid the penultimate bill in full via DD on the usual date, same as any other month, I was presented with a final bill. On this bill it told me I had made a late payment and also that my discount had been removed from the last bill until the end of the notice periodd., despite my discount being valid until February.

I spent nearly 2 hours on the phone, being passed to 5 different representives, and was finally assured their issue was fixed and I would get the £7.50 late payment fee refunded, due to it being VM's error, and I would also get a credit of £15 to cover the error in the final bill with the discount.

My final bill was again taken in full at the end of the contract, nearly 2 weeks ago and I was sent a note saying I had £15 in credit now. This should have been £22.50 and hasn't been paid out, I can tell this will be painful to recover.

Yesterday I got my updated credit report and I am disgusted to see Virgin Media have marked my account with a late payment! I've now been on hold for 35 minutes to speak to someone but I'm sure this will disconnect in 15 minutes, when the call centre closes. I managed to register and write this entire post whilst waiting at least.

I tried raising a complaint at the time but the online form failed to send so I am hoping someone here can help.

[Beastlee]

After 55 minutes I finally got an answer from someone who doesn't even know what a credit score is. I just got off the call now and was told the credit that I was given has been sent out in a cheque and I can expect it in 7 weeks, even though this was applied weeks before the final DD of £42 was taken! I now have a 30 mile trip to get the cheque paid into my account and parking charges will mean I'll be lucky if I get £10 in the end and I've still been overcharged by a total of over £20 on top of this with no hope of a refund!

I was then advised that credit scoring is a government thing and only the credit bureau can remove the incorrect late payment flag. I'm supposed to contact said government credit bureau and ask them to remove it. Having explained that it is Virgin Media's responsibility to correct their mistake I was told that it's not possible. I am assured that an email will be sent to me to stating that it was an error and I can then use this when I speak to the government department for which they had no contact details. It can take a few weeks or said email to be sent apparently as only senior managers can send it out, I know this won't be coming at all.

I will raise this to the Financial Ombudsman as it's in direct violation of their policy. I'd complain to OFCOM but all I'd be doing is wasting yet more of my time as they already know how poor Virgin Media is but are toothless. 

[Ilyas_Y]

Hi there @Beastlee, thanks for updating us on the Virgin Media forums. 👋🏼

I'm glad to hear that the agent has manged to assist in regards to the credit that is owed, to their best of their ability though it seems this process could've been made much smoother for you.
Regarding the credit file, this would not be done with a 3rd party body but rather our own credit file team.

Please drop an email to the team here: creditfileamendments@virginmedia.co.uk
And they will be able to assist regarding your credit file and resolve any disputes on there.

Let us know how it goes with the team, please bear in mind that they can take up to 21 days for a response and resolution.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Beastlee]

Hi Ilyas_Y,

Thanks for your reply. I have sent an email to the credit team.

They haven't actually sorted out the overcharge at all as I was billed £20 more than it should have been in addition to the cancelled late payment charge. I believe it's deliberate tactics to make you sit on hold for an hour to stop you pursuing these amounts. Certainly it's cost me more than the £20 in lost time on this alone.

I'll update this thread once I get an outcome so that others can see how the process works.

Regards,

Lee

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for the reply @Beastlee on the forums. 😇

Appreciate the email sent to the team. 🙂
I will assist further with the late payment charge and the £20 overcharge.

I will send a private message.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for speaking with us today @Beastlee on the VM forums. 😇

I'm glad I have been able to assist and credit back the missing amount.
As advised - let us know if there's any issues, and we will assist as best as we can.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Beastlee]

Thanks IlyasY,

I've had a reply from the Credit Team to confirm that they are correcting my late payment charge with the credit reference agencies.

Thanks for making this a quick and easy process, I'll reply again 9nce I have my refund so you know it is all resolved.

Regards,

Lee