Refund of overpayment

[Hales3]

Hi, I have had a payment of £474 taken from my bank account by Virgin Media. I have contacted customer services yesterday who confirmed it was a mistake and I will receive a refund but that this could take up to 14 days. I am now overdrawn due to this error, is there any way of speeding up the refund please?? 🙏 Thank you.

[newapollo · Accepted solution]

Hi @Hales3 

Spreak to your bank  they would be able to complete an indemnity claim for you, for the payment made. 

The Direct Debit Indemnity scheme allows Payers to reclaim Direct Debits taken without authorisation

[Hales3]

Thanks Dave, I didn’t think of that! I have just contacted my bank who will arrange the refund within 1 working day which is much better, thank you for your help

[jem101]

I’m glad to see that you have managed to get this sorted, although, no thanks to VM, who were the cause of issue!

If, this has left you out of pocket through overdraft charges, what you might consider is making a formal complaint to VM requesting compensation of; whatever the charges were plus a nominal fee for the inconvenience, say £10. This complaint will probably be ignored, fobbed off, lost, etc. but you could then escalate it to the industry ombudsman service in which you request, say £50 for the inconvenience, acerbated by VM’s poor complaint processes!

Just a thought anyway.

[Robert_P]

Hello Hales3

We're sorry to hear of the payment issues and the amount taken via Direct Debit, we appreciate you raising this via the forums.

We're glad to hear you have spoken to your bank and arranged the refund via Direct Debit Guarantee, this is the quickest way to have funds returned. We're sorry this happened and for any inconvenience caused, as jem101 has advised you could raise this as a complaint using any of the methods here. However the other information given isn't accurate as we don't ignore complaints and to be able to take it to the ombudsman you would need either a deadlock letter or the complaint to be open for 56 days without response.

Rob

[Hales3]

Thank you Rob, still waiting for refund to come through from bank but hopefully will be sorted soon 🙏

[Matthew_ML]

No problem at all.

Please do keep us updated on this. 

I hope you have a lovely day. Thanks 

[Hales3]

So, managed to get a refund via my bank but have just had latest bill for over £500 for the normal amount plus the amount that was refunded plus a late payment fee!! Had three lots of reassurances via customer services on WhatsApp and by phone, and via the complaints service that it is all sorted and my bill will be back to normal. Trying to get hold of customer services but not having much luck. Any help please?? Thank you.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey Hales3, thank you for reaching out and I am so sorry to hear this.

I can see you've manage to speak to someone about this issues, did they resolve this for you? Thanks 

[Hales3]

Thank you Matt sadly no luck getting a resolution yet, stuck on the WhatsApp chat