Perfect 10 year + customer - Credit ruined after leaving

[Supernovae]

After being with virgin for broadband internet for over 10 years I wanted to change provider.

I called yourselves one month before the expiry of my contract so that I could leave the day it ended.

My initial call to end the contract was terminated when I made clear to the cancellation department that I was not interested in renewing.

I called back again and went through the cancellation process again and was told it would be processed.

Several days passed and as I had not had a call from your retention team( as I normally do when i considered leaving in the past) I logged in to my account and discovered that no termination date had been applied.

I phoned again, and canceled the contract again.

My 2 requests for the original termination date were not fulfilled and as such you attempted to charge me an extra month for a service that I had terminated.

I checked my paperwork and my account was paid in full.

I instructed my bank to return the direct debit as it had been wrongfully taken.

I contacted your help desk by email over a dozen times and my concerns I outlined here were never dealt with, I simply got what looked like a scripted email that did not even answer simple request of breakdown of this supposed outstanding balance.

I see that you have placed defaults on my credit file, and my ability to receive credit from other companies is now being turned down as a result.

I have also been contacted by a Debt collection agency.

What sort of way is this to treat a long standing customer ? 

[Reece_MH]

Hi Supernovae,

Thanks for your post, and a warm welcome to our Community Forums.

I'm sorry to hear about the poor experience you have had when trying to cancel.  When disconnecting your services, you may be charged a month in advance, depending on your billing cycle. Approximately 10 days after your disconnection, your bill will be adjusted to the correct pricing for the last bit of usage on your services. 

Our Retentions/Relations Team can only process disconnections with a 30-day notice and all legal scripts must be read beforehand, this would not be backdated. Did you receive a final bill with an amended amount for the pro-rata period of your service usage?

Thanks,

[Supernovae]

Thanks for your reply

Quote ___

Our Retentions/Relations Team can only process disconnections with a 30-day notice and all legal scripts must be read beforehand, this would not be backdated. Did you receive a final bill with an amended amount for the pro-rata period of your service usage?

_________

I thought that my inital post explained this ?

I`m not disputing that 30 days notice is needed, I know this 

I called to cancel on the 19th August - so I could leave when my contract ended on the 19th September.

due to the delays in my contract being canceled in time due to my request being ignored twice my service was not disconnected until 1st October

I did not use VM from 19th Sept as I had my other provider set up by then.

I had moved to another provider by the time my contract had ended also.

I requested numerous times for a correctly adjusted bill - if there is indeed any outstanding ( to the 19th September) - this is one of the responses i received.

Quote

_______________

As we have gone through your account, we see that you had contacted us on 20/08/22 showing interest in cancellation and after speaking with customer care team, your call was transferred to the retentions team. However after the call was transferred we did not get any confirmation from your end this is the reason the disconnection request was not raised. Later on 01/09/22 the disconnection request was raised based on your response through our online form to leave our services and on 1/10/22 the account was disconnected.

________________

End quote

A totally unsatisfactory response, I`m told that I have called the cancellation team - but did not confirm, once may be forgiven as a mistake but two calls made to cancel on the same day are blatantly ignored - disgusting service and unneeded stress for customers

The final bill requested by VM was only given for a disconnection date of 1/10/22 - it also did not make sense to me as that any amount was owing as I was fully paid up to end of my contract.

I requested a breakdown of payments and charges for my account so I could try and make sense of the amount claimed to be owing.

No information was forthcoming, my credit has been wrecked and a Debt Collection Agency is hassling me - again disgusting business practice

I`m of the understanding that I have always paid in advance for my services, from day one.

If i receive an itemised bill for my contract period, as I have requested -  I am happy to pay any monies owed

[Reece_MH]

Hi Supernovae,

Thanks for your response to this. I'm going to drop you a private message so we can discuss this further and look into this for you.

You'll find my private message in the top-right, purple envelope.

Thanks,

[Supernovae]

Still unresolved via PM.

Received a call at work today from VM`s Debt collection agency

I need the default(s) removed from.my credit file as this has destroyed my credi rating.

What do I need to do to have you remove the defaults - are they taken off when I pay what you ask ? How long will that take ?

I'm literally being blackmailed.

[goslow · Accepted solution]

---

@Supernovae wrote:

Still unresolved via PM.

Received a call at work today from VM`s Debt collection agency

I need the default(s) removed from.my credit file as this has destroyed my credi rating.

What do I need to do to have you remove the defaults - are they taken off when I pay what you ask ? How long will that take ?

I'm literally being blackmailed.

---

There are regular complaints on here, over and over again, that the telephone line mysteriously goes dead as soon as a customer makes a request to VM to cancel. Similarly, other incorrect information is also given out by VM people on the phone regarding the 30 day notice period. See this topic for some further clarification on the notice period

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/When-to-terminate-the-contract/m-p/...

so those are two obstacles which VM has thrown in your way when trying to cancel.

In regard to the cancellation process, you have to give VM the 30 day notice period to cancel but VM keep billing you right up to your disconnection date. Depending on when the customer's disconnection date falls, in conjunction with the direct debit date and the period covered by each bill, the customer may pay a bill as per normal during the 30 day notice period.

Once the customer has been disconnected a final bill is produced. This may end up being a final credit or final debit and will also factor in the return (or not) of any equipment. Final billing explained here

https://www.virginmedia.com/support/help/billing-and-payment/bill-explainer/my-final-bill-explainer

If you cancelled your direct debit before the final billing process had completed (and VM was still expecting a regular payment), that may explain the issues with credit reference agencies and debt collectors.

VM's account termination and automated debt collection processes seem to be one of the few things about VM which work reliably (and exclusively to VM's advantage) based on the topics which appear on here.

Others on here should be able to give you advice on how to deal with the credit reference agency processes as well as advice on complaining about the way in which your original request to cancel was handled by VM.

[Supernovae]

Thanks for the information.

The amount of energy I`m expending on this exceeds the value of money they want from me so I`m going to just pay and forget about it.

Every reperesentive I have communicated with over this contradicts themselves and fails to answer simple questions

Congrats VM - you got a few extra quid out of me and lost £000s from future business

[Andrew-G]

goslow has given some helpful advice, but it seems much will hinge on what was actually said on the calls.  Make a DSAR and make it today as call recordings and chat transcripts are held for a limited time.

If the problem is that VM processed the cancellation but you stopped the direct debit before VM's slow and primitive systems had finalised the account, then unfortunately that's possibly on you, although I believe they should have served a final demand before proceeding down the default and debt collection process, and if they didn't then I'm not sure they can label you as in default or chase the debt.  Some related discussion and options here.

If the problem is that VM did not in fact process a clear cancellation instruction then that's a breach of Ofcom requirements (eg Commitment 5 of the fairness commitments VM signed up to but promptly ignored) as well as of established UK contract law.  In this case, this post contains advice on the way forward, just ignore the last lines about delayed install that relate to the OP's situation.

[nickski]

Just read this looking for help from the community about leaving - your experience sounds very similar to our problems trying to leave.  I won't bore you with the details. Basically they don't cancel and then a month later they ask for payment (direct debit already cancelled and already with another provider). So I have to cancel again but am only 'allowed' to once I have paid up and then a further 30 days notice commences. And then - guess what? - another email requesting payment. I have spent hours on the phone. Am dreading making a call tomorrow because the cycle will begin again. Been with Virgin from the start.

[Supernovae]

You have my sympathy, there is ways to deal with them from what i gather - but after at least a dozen emails I ran out of energy and paid them the extra money for zero reason.

I would advice you to pay and then argue your case after tho, my credit score went from 940 to 730 as they registered a default on my file while I was disputing the amount and trying to get a reasonable explanation.

I'll never use them again