Sky cinema 12 month offer

[Mattseyboy]

Hi, omg i wish i had come on here months ago now!

I've been sold down the river too, I received the same offer by direct email from email@em.virginmedia.com on 22/02/23 stating "Open Me For 12 Months of Fee Sky Cinema, *********(my name)".

I accepted the offer on the same date by following the link and filling in my details and despite numerous complaints over many months, nothing, zilch!

Had someone call me from the so-called 'exec office' 2 weeks ago promising to resolve my complaint and it fix it all for me and the long story is I was eventually told it was only for stream customers which is a little plug in box and wasn't actually meant for me...wth! 

They gave me £10 good will gesture as it had taken me so long to get my complaint dealt with and then had the bare faced cheek to say i could add on sky cinema for £21 a month which is ironically what the price saving i was offered in the email, go figure!

I've subsequently re-read my email and it clearly states nothing about a stream box and in fact says "HD: HD TV sets, V HD Box, Tivo Box or Virgin TV V6 Box required" so that begs a huge question as no mention of a stream box.

I'm annoyed now and feel like i have no option but to send my case to the ombudsman, i was effectively told this offer was not for select virgin media customers,.

If anyone on here can confirm they've received the free 12 month sky cinema offer from this email shot at that time and are on a normal VM contract (not stream) that would effectively prove my case against what i have been told?

thanks in advance for any help and asistance.

[Kath_F · Accepted solution]

Hi Mattseyboy, 

Thanks for taking the time to post in the Community. We're sorry to hear you were unhappy with the resolution provided to you with your complaint. 

If we've gone through the process and you remain unhappy then as per your right, you can refer this to the Ombudsman. You can find more information on that, and our complaints code of practice here. 

If you have any further issues, not related to the complaint you already raised, let us know. 

Many thanks, 

[Mattseyboy]

Thanks for your response and links Kath_F,

As suggested I have now raised my complaint resolution up to the Ombudsman

Many Thanks

[Vinegar]

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@Mattseyboy wrote:

Thanks for your response and links Kath_F,

As suggested I have now raised my complaint resolution up to the Ombudsman

Many Thanks

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And you will certainly win, do ask for an extra payment for the inconvenience, poor complaint handling and general incompetence which VM have shown, won’t you?

Now the Law here is quite clear, VM made you an offer (now it is irrelevant if the offer wasn’t meant for you and they made a mistake, the point is that an offer was made), plus it was made via an official source and as such can be construed to be valid, especially as it included your name. Now here’s the point, if an offer is made and you accept it there and then, and the offer is ‘reasonable’ (ie if you got a message offering every single channel plus gigabit broadband and unlimited phone calls for 4p a month, that’s not reasonable, something has gone wrong), then VM are legally obliged to honour it. It’s basic contract law!

Now if VM have messed up (heaven forfend) and sent out email offers to people they shouldn’t have, that’s their problem, not yours - maybe they should rein in their marketing department a bit!

[Mattseyboy]

I totally agree with all of your sentiments, I genuinely thought that as I had been with Virgin Media and all of it's predecessors, Nynex, Cable and Wireless, NTL etc for 25 years solid that I had been made this offer out of long term loyalty, the complaint was dealt with terribly, every call ended up scripted with am I using the VM Connect App it's very useful, certainly didn't feel like dealing with an Executive Team member more like it had been farmed out elsewhere to be dealt with.

I'll keep the thread updated as to how i get on in case it helps others in the same boat out, I already know of one other person on a different forum that received the offer within 2-3 days of accepting and they have same equipment that I have ie: not stream which contradicts even more what I was told verbally.

Thanks for your kind support though!

[Mattseyboy]

Well @Vinegar after requesting a Deadlock Letter from VM Executive Team, which the Ombudsman requested in order to further my complaint, a far more helpful member of the Exec Team called me today and upon providing them with a copy of my original 'offer' email agreed in no uncertain terms with me that VM should indeed honour the offer made directly to me, apologised the previous agent hadn't dealt with the complaint as it should have been dealt with and has now applied the Free Sky Cinema Offer to my account, it's taken over 7 months to resolve but at least I finally got there, despite at times feeling like it was becoming to much of an effort to chase up over and over, the Sun is still shining and I'm feeling happy!