VM unable to terminate contract and close the account

[MarcinE]

Yesterday I spent 3 hours on the phone and spoke to 15 different (I counted) agents in 2 departments - retentions and moving.

After calling VM I described my request to the first agent in the retentions department - I am selling my second property. It has been unoccupied just occasionally I have stayed in it and let my friends from the island who needed a place to stop on the mainland use it (I live on the Isle of Wight, and the property is in Southampton).

Agent, I have spoken 2 took all the notes of why I want to disconnect the service and told me that since I am selling the property service can only be disconnected by the "moving" department.

After being transferred to the "moving" department I repeated my story and the agent verified it with previous notes. Subsequently, the agent asked me if I live in the house to which I truthfully replied that I do not, it was my second house. After that, I was informed that because I am not moving and I do not live in this house, the "moving" department can not disconnect the service, this can only be done by the "retention" department. From that moment I was stuck in an infinite loop of transfers, in total I have spent over 3 hours on the phone talking to 15 different people being transferred between moving and retention.

In the end to finish it all, I tried to tell one agent that I am in fact moving to the north pole and no I will not need virgin media on the north pole but subsequent agents were not really interested in anything I have to say, they just repeated pattern of security questions, contact details, reading the notes and transferring me over and over again.

I tried web chat after that and the same pattern was repeated, agent in retentions keeps asking me if I am selling the house. Knowing what I know I refuse to answer the question and just repeat my request for disconnection. So far we are getting nowhere.

I am at the stage where I refuse to answer any question from any agent and just repeat my request to disconnect me. According to the contract, I can request disconnection and I am not aware that I am in any way obliged to give a reason why I want to disconnect. 

Anyone has any Idea what to do?

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @MarcinE

Thank you so much for your post and welcome to the community forums, it's great to have you here. 

I am so sorry you have faced this issue when trying to cancel your package, we do not typically handle disconnections via the forums, but due to your experience I would be happy to take a look and see what we can arrange. 

I will pop you a PM across now, please keep an eye out for the purple envelope in the top right corner of your screen alerting you to a new message. 
 

[Skoosha]

I also just been through hell with them for 4 hours+ trying to terminate service. They try all the tricks in the book to try and get you to stay. It actually makes it worse and i want to leave even more any idea about Thier charge for leaving? My contact is finished, expired! Last month my bill went up from £24 to £28. And now jumped to £44

The bill date has just passed so they want me to pay the £44 for half September and October and then 2 days October bill. She said can't stop service for 30 days

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @Skoosha 👋.

Thanks for reaching out to us. Apologies for the issues that you have had in trying to cancel your contract, I am afraid that in order to terminate any service we do require a 30 day notice period. Have you since managed to get a disconnection date in place or do you still require further assistance?

Sabrina

[goslow]

You have to give VM 30 days notice to cancel your services.

You can cancel your services by post as per info below

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/cancel-virgin-media

Use a first-class, signed-for delivery service. This will give you a date/time of delivery when you gave VM your 30 days’ notice to cancel. Also keep a record of the tracking number.

You can also share your unhappy cancellation experience with OFCOM.

They launched an investigation into VM on 13 July 2023 specifically into VM's cancellation and complaints processes.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/bulletins/enforcement-bulletin/open-cases/cw_01275

Case ref. no. and an email at the bottom of the above page or submit with same info via the contact form

https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

Submitting information won't help your individual complaint but it will contribute to the OFCOM investigation and it sounds like your experience is directly relevant to the terms of reference of the investigation.