Almost the exact same story, I needed to move house, so last August I called up VM & got put through to Home Movers to see if I could transfer my service over to my new address & told me they didn't supply my new area. They therefore started the process of cancelling my account & said as it was through no fault of my own they would wave the cancellation fee. I needed to forward them a proof of my address which I did & then sent them my first bill showing my new address for good measure. I returned my equipment, they told me all was in order and my account would be closed, and a credit was due to me. The closure of my account also cancelled my Direct Debit with them, through which I had paid thousands always on time, never a missed payment over 7 years of being a loyal customer.
What did I get for that? My life ruined. They failed to waive the remaining 3 months on my VM contract & sent it via email to me. I missed it in a very packed personal email account. In fairness I rarely check my bills that were paid through Direct Debit, as the DD would always pick then up & I wasn't particularly looking for my Virgin Media emails in a very packed email account as I had just had my account closed with them, or so I thought. That was until I applied for a small loan to furnish parts of my new house, for the first time in my life I was turned down! I thought it was a mistake, only 3 months previously I had been given a mortgage to buy my house - less than 30% of the cost of the house but still a substantial amount, & I was told by the loan company, my credit score was the highest that you can get. However VM had reported 3 missed payments for a bill I never knew actually existed on my credit file. I contacted VM straight away, after several phone calls and being passed from pillar to post in a labyrinth of customer service departments where apparently the right hand doesn't communicate with the left, they agreed on the call that the bill was a mistake, said they would cancel it and closed my account. However, I called almost daily begging for them to give me something in writing that I could go back to the credit score companies with to start I was charged ion error and refunded, something that I could use to correct my credit score. They went for department to department, giving me a list form finance to customer care to home movers who said 'we simply don't do that'. I finally got a letter to state that my account was paid off, but nothing on the fault from VM that led them to report me for 3 missed payments on a bill that I didn't even know existed.
The knock on effect has been devastating for me. As well as cancelling my furniture for my new home, I had been set for an operation which I badly need and was going to go private for due to long waiting times on the NHS, but I had to cancel that operation as I was turned down for that loan. Everything I pay has to come out of my savings or earnings, I literally have to pay cash for everything now, due to 1 wrongly reported 'credit event' by VM and after multiple hours on hold multiple days on the phone, I have to admit defeat. They cannot, no will not send me something in writing to say that the bill was raised in error, even though their representatives have no problem admitting that over the phone, so I have nothing to go to, to challenge the historic 3 missed payments report VM put against me. VM could correct those missed reports, but they chose not to. My missed op is leading to problems with my quality of life. The worst thing is that I loved my time with VM, I would have jumped at the chance to continue that relationship if they serviced my new area, I paid them over £10,000 over 7 years together, and they can't correct this one error for me. It's a devastating way to treat a loyal customer. It just goes to show in these days of big business and large operators, loyalty only goes one way.
