Retention Team, Cancelling Disconnection, Early Disconnection Fees when Moving Home

[Photolunatic]

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

I am a new forum user but a virgin customer for 10 years.

I decided to sign up as I heard that you are a helpful bunch and have a good track record of solving issues.

I need to move from my London address as my family grows. We were planning to move out this month (April) so I canceled broadband (gave a 30 days notice) on 13/03/2022 and got an email “We're sorry you're leaving” from Disconnections@account.virginmedia.co.uk

I can’t see it written anywhere but the lad on the phone said that the disconnection date will be early on 12/4/2022.

Unfortunately, our move has to be rescheduled for unforeseen future so I need broadband working.

The email from the VM reads:

Remember - if anything changes along the way, keep us posted

If you need to change your disconnection date, let us know and we'll change it for you.

If you need to cancel your disconnection, don't panic - we'll get you back up and running.

For a while, I cannot get customer service (retention team) on the online chat as the bot always force me to go to WhatsApp. I have degoogled phone and deleted WhatsApp years ago. The only option left is to call VM but now it seems that 99% of the ‘stuff’ speaks with an accent that I cannot understand so I would like to avoid setting any new contracts on the phone.

So here I am. After this longish introduction I would like your advice and preferably help to sort this up.

1. It looks like I could continue as I was (but expensive I must add £55.75 for M100 broadband) moving the disconnection date forward or canceling the disconnection. The only issue is that I had a mobile SIM in the bundle that I transferred to the other operator in the meantime so not sure how that would work.

2. I could get a new deal and I’ve seen a nice one at £24 for M100 but what would happen if I move out after a month or so to the area that has no Virgin coverage? I am not fancy paying hefty Early Disconnection Fees (EDF).

3. Is this actual, that Virgin Media O2 UK Scraps Exit Charges for Off Net Home Movers?

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Digital-life/Virgin-Media-O2-ends-charges-for-off-net-home-move...

https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2-ends-charges-for-off-net-home-movers/

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/02/virgin-media-o2-uk-scraps-exit-charges-for-off-net-hom...

I’ve seen media announcements but there is no official info in the VM FAQ or T&C

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/04/clarifying-virgin-media-policy-on-exit-charges-for-off...

The ‘Moving Home‘ page is also devoid of any FAQs to cover the aforementioned situation when moving outside of Virgin’s network area.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/moving-home

4. Will I be safe from Early Disconnection Fees when I decide to get the new contract now and move out outside the area in the next few months? I intend to take the service with me but what will happen if I found a house that is outside the VM area? Will they punish me for early disconnection?

Of course, I will legitimately move and will provide the evidence of the move (e.g. tenancy agreement).

Thanks for reading this.

I appreciate your comments.

I need to decide what to do in the next few days.

[Kath_F]

Hi Photolunatic, 

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forums. It's great having you on board with us in the Community. 

I'm sorry to hear that you are moving meaning you may be unable to continue with our services. We are able to get the disconnection date changed for you but this would require the account continuing on the terms is on now.

If you wanted to change the package, we're not able to do this via the Community so if you did wish to sign up for a new deal you would need to call the team on 150 / 0345 454 1111. A new deal would indeed come with a new contract meaning if you do cancel the services then an early termination fee may apply. 

If you cancel due to moving to an area that we're unable to provide services too then the early termination fees will be applied to your bill however you have a 30 day opportunity to provide proof of the new address. Once we receive this, we would then remove these charges from the account so you wouldn't be charged them. 

Please pop back and let me know if you want us to amend the disconnection date so we can pop you a message to pass data protection to get this done. 

Thanks, 

[Photolunatic]

Hi,
Thank you for your reply and a warm welcome.
It’s a bit disappointing that I can’t get a new deal through the community.

1. Is the Early Disconnection Fee capped at £240, as I read somewhere, or it is still based on how many months are left to the end of the contract?

2. Is there a minimum period that one has to be with VM to benefit from removing the early termination fee after moving home, or can it be as short as 1 month? Will this work if I get a new contract and then find a home and move out within 1-3 months?

3. It seems that changing the disconnection date will be easier (but twice as expensive). The thing is that I do not know the exact date of moving (I am still searching for properties). It could be a month, it could be 3 months. I think that aligning it with rent payments will be the best possible solution.

a) Can I change the date multiple times?

b) Can I change it by weeks, days, or whole months only?

4. You say that ‘this would require the account continuing on the terms is on now.’ but as I mentioned I transferred the mobile number that was bundled with broadband to another operator. How will this play out? Will I pay the same regardless that the SIM is not there? I believe that the SIM was adding some 6-8 quid to the bill.

Thanks.

[Kath_F]

Hi Photolunatic, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this. 

The reason we're not able to help with changing packages via the Community is because there is always a delay between replies. Sometimes there may only be minutes but other times it could be a few days. Any offers we give are valid for that moment only. As we have flash offers and promotions, by the time you reply, the offer may no longer be available to take. Due to this, we can't offer package reviews. 

The Early Disconnection Fee is depending on how many months you have left on your minimum term but it is capped at £240 plus VAT on top. That is the maximum you will pay. 

As far as we are aware there is no limit on how soon you benefit from this. There will be an initial 14 days cooling off period that you can take advantage of and return back to your previous package however if the time is after this then the fees would apply. 

When we are changing the dates, we can do this if there is a delay however changing the dates on the notice multiple times is not possible. As you don't have an address or a date for moving currently your 3 options would be to cancel the disconnection and keep your package as it is, negotiate a new package with the team or finally allow the disconnection to go through but you will lose your VM services on that date. We usually don't accept a disconnection notice more than 60 days in advance. 

As you've removed your SIM plan from your bundle, you will likely lose the discount associated with having the SIM so the pricing will change should you cancel the disconnection and continue with how things are. I can't be certain on what this will be until the account has updated though I'm afraid. 

I hope that helps to answer some more of your questions. 

Thanks.

[Photolunatic]

Thanks for the info provided.

I called VM myself. Surprisingly, I did not wait longer than a minute on the phone. I spoke to an English-speaking representative and got a deal of 25 quid for 200Mb/s. I was on 100Mb/s that I paid 57 for. I did not haggle as I was aiming at £24 for a new customer anyway. The speed went up within seconds and I see billing went half price. No email confirmation of the new contract yet.

One thing I would like to ask is that I ended the mobile sim contract that I was paying £13 for and see that account is in credit at around £6 now. How this will be refunded or do I need to chase them for such a silly amount?

[Travis_M]

Hi @Photolunatic

Thanks for the reply

The amount would be refunded to you automatically upon closure of the account, I'm glad to hear you've managed to negotiate a new deal with our team.

Are the changes showing in your online account?

Regards

[Photolunatic]

Thanks. Yes, the changes are in. The new contract, updated email address, and a new package at half price. Completely different customer service 3 days before the contract ended compared to the one I had when tried to cancel. It was hours on the phone and I had to repeat myself many times as I was passed from one representative to another.

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us @Photolunatic, I'm glad to hear that the changes have now been made to your account and I would like to apologise for the experience that you've had, when speaking to the team.

Regards,

Steven_L 

[Photolunatic]

@Kath_F

Thank you for your reply. It's all very helpful.

I am not sure how to quote on this forum yet but you said:

"If you cancel due to moving to an area that we're unable to provide services too then the early termination fees will be applied to your bill however you have a 30 day opportunity to provide proof of the new address."

Where does one need to send 'proof of new address'? I've gone through the 'Moving Home' webpage and read T&C. There is no information on how one needs to provide proof of a new address. Is there any email address specific to this scenario or should it be posted to the Virgin postal address?

It looks like Virgin purposedly wants to hide this information to confuse home movers.

@Travis_M said

"The amount would be refunded to you automatically upon closure of the account (...)"

Does the closure happen automatically? How long does it take?

[newapollo]

Hi @Photolunatic 

If the Home Move team can confirm via their systems that the new property cannot be serviced by VM then they will will send the customer an email asking for proof of their new address (utility bill, bank statements, mortgage information, formal ID etc). Once received a back office team will process it and issue the waiver codes or credits as required.

I don't think if VM are purposely hiding this information, it may be that they don't want their back office team flooded with emails not related to the waivering of EDF's for Home Moves that don't fit the criteria such as  customers using that email address as another means of contact totally unrelated to the above.

There was a topic posted by ispreview  on 2nd April asking for clarification on VM exit charges 

A VM spokeperson replied, 'they weren’t trying to “hide” this from customers and added that those who speak (phone) their movers team will be advised about the process, as well as being sent a written communication to cover it in more detail.

However, the operator did say they’d look at the FAQs to see if “something” could be included in order to make everything clearer. It’s unclear how long that will take, but adding a few extra words of context should be extremely easy – a 5-minute job.'