Parents getting charged twice for netflix

[Macdee10]

My parents, both in their 70s are having problems with virgin. They have a netflix account with(surprise) netflix, who they pay 5.99 a month too. In December while checking why their virgin bill was more than it should be , we noticed that virgin were charging them 13.99 for netflix premium. My parents never asked for this as they already had netflix and  never authorised virgin media to take the payment or set up this new account. There has now been 3 separate monthly charges for this non existent netflix account taken from my parents bank account. They have phoned 6 times now, speaking to a different person  each time. Once getting told it would be cancelled and money refunded, didn't happen. Another saying it was netflix fault and virgin couldn't do anything about it. Netflix say say its nothing to do with them as virgin set up the account without authorisation so they can't reimburse the money. The last virgin media representative basically accused my mum of lying and said they wouldn't do anything to help, my mum had to make netflix refund and cancel the account , even though it was the fault of virgin.

Please can someone help as my parents are getting all upset at this, and virgins customer services are just making it all worse.

[Martin_N]

Hi Macdee10,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the community. 

I'm truly sorry to hear about what has happened with your parents account. 

Firstly, to confirm is the Netflix account now cancelled? And they have refunded the money?

^Martin

[Macdee10]

The virgin media representative said the account has been cancelled. I spoke to netflix who checked my parents account and assured me that there isn't a virgin media account linked to the netflix account. They told me that as virgin charged for this virgin account then virgin were the ones who need to do the refund. The fact that virgin set up a netflix account with no authorisation from my parents is the biggest concern, they may have subsequently cancelled it but are refusing to accept it was their mistake.

[Kath_F]

Hi Macdee10, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one. 

Unless Netflix is added to the package, we wouldn't automatically set up a Netflix account. We're not able to do this ourselves. You would need to sign in on the app on the TV box or create an account. 

In terms of cancelling this, I'm glad to hear this has been cancelled already for your parents. 

In terms of getting the charges refunded, you can raise a complaint to get this looked in to here. The team can check what's happened and if there is a fault at our end, they can work to put things right. 

Keep us posted on how things go. 

Apologies once again. 

[Macdee10]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I will get my parents to use the link to get it investigated. I am slightly confused about your answer though. According to what you've said virgin can't set up a netflix account, looking through this forum this seems to have happened a few times an it seems there may be a flaw in your system. Netflix assured me that there was no account linked to the virgin email address, so if an account was set up it was to a different address which we don't know.  

Once again, thanks for your reply.

[Kath_F]

Hi Macdee10, 

Thanks for coming back to me on this one. 

That's correct, we're not able to set up log in details for Netflix. The only way to activate the billing side of Netflix is to either log in via the Netflix app and choose VM as an option for paying or you can create an account on the app. 

Can you confirm the billing on the VM account has stopped for your parents now? 

Let us know if you need further help 🙂 

Thanks, 

[Macdee10]

Hi, ive just been in to the account and even though virgin assured me they had cancelled the netflix account, surprise, another monthly charge has been put on. This will be the 4th one now, twice we have been told it has been cancelled and twice we have been charged again. Remember, this is for a netflix account that can't be accessed by us, we can't cancel it or use it. Netflix have told us our separate account is not linked to our virgin account. We don't know what email you used to set this separate netflix account up with so we can't access it.  This is causing  stress to my elderly parents and they have had enough. We are going to use the link given to put in a complaint as this has become a farce. We just want this unknown netflix account cancelled and virgin to stop taking money which isn't theirs.

[David_Bn]

Good Morning @Macdee10, thanks for coming back to me and I'm sorry to hear of this issue with the Netflix account and charge.

I'd be happy to look into this further for you to see if this can be resolved

Check out the purple envelope in the top right hand corner for a private message from me

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[Maggie101]

Hi, it's Margaret here, this is my son trying to sort this out for me.

Thank you.

[TresFrustre]

Explanations for the Netflix billing through Virgin Media.

a) someone who has access to the TV remote control has set up a Netflix account.

Could a visitor or guest have done so?

Is Virgin Media able to interrogate the TV box (or by other means) establish what email address was used to set up the account?

b) someone who has access to the My Virgin Media account has set up a Netflix account.

Has the account password  been compromised?

c) Virgin Media's billing is in error.

One of these 3 has occurred unless someone can come up with another alternative. I don't see how Netflix is at fault.