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Virgin Media Refuse to Honour Contract

SamSamN
On our wavelength

I have just had a fourth (possibly fifth) complaint raised to Virgin.  Here is a timeline of events:

1)  Service has been useless all along.  The boosters provided rarely worked and both sets broke.  I later raised as a point of contention that these were part of the contract and when I returned them (in itself made incredibly difficult by Virgin), they refused to reduce the monthly charges despite them clearly being a part of the agreed package.  I actually had to buy another router and use the useless Virgin hub as a modem to get anything like the speeds advertised. 

2)  I received a letter early in the year stating my price would increase by approximately £3.  I phoned up and was offered via automated message a much smaller increase, but I raised a complaint because I wanted it to remain the same or else I had the right to leave Virgin.

3)  I waited patiently for a reply to my complaint, but it turns out Virgin just closed it without informing me or taking any action!

4)  I opened a new complaint and it was agreed my bill would not increase.  In return, I would not leave Virgin and see out my contract.

5)  I noticed on my bill last month that the price had been increased by over £6 - approximately double the amount of the original increase which they had agreed wouldn't happen!

6)  I raised yet ANOTHER complaint, only to receive an e-mail stating that I had been notified my bill would increase and that I had no reason to complain.

7)  I have just spent an hour on the phone explaining all of this and got nowhere.  The person I spoke to has opened ANOTHER case, because their team manager Karol Abramowicz REFUSED to speak with me and deal with the problem.  I explained all of the above and that it was a breach of contract, because it had been agreed there would be no price increase, yet Mr. Abramowicz refused to take charge of the situation and put things right.

I am now considering what my legal options are for dealing with this, as I already missed out on countless good deals with other businesses and Virgin are trying to charge me nearly £7 more than the agreed contract rate.  In addition, they REFUSE to deal with the problem.  I was given a phone number for Tom Mockridge, who apparently is Karol's manager, but it turns out that was just a generic number for sales anyway.  I simply cannot believe a business is being run in this way and the REFUSAL for managers to deal with the issue is absolutely breathtaking.  It is absolutely shameful.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

spell
Knows their stuff

Yes this is a scam that has be enough going on for years - when I left VM they tried to charge me £40 for failing to return equipment - I had recorded the call in which I was instructed to dispose of it because it was obsolete. The threatening letters stopped and the promised debt collectors never turned up - disgusting company

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

35 REPLIES 35

Anonymous
Not applicable

Looks like you were being told porkies. Mockridge left in 2019. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mockridge

SamSamN
On our wavelength

Thanks, that makes it even worse!  Does anyone happen to know where I stand legally, given the breach of contract on the part of Virgin?  It was very clearly agreed there would be no price increase and instead they have doubled it, but refuse to deal with the problem.

Anonymous
Not applicable

You are being openly mocked by VM and it's agents. I reckon you are in position to go here https://www.cedr.com/consumer/cisas/complainnow/

I can see that your post has been marked for staff to pick this up, and I'd recommend you give the forum staff a chance to fix this before going to CISAS.  If they can get you a good outcome it will be easier and quicker than CISAS (but CISAS is still an option if you remain unhappy).

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@SamSamN wrote:

Thanks, that makes it even worse!  Does anyone happen to know where I stand legally, given the breach of contract on the part of Virgin?  It was very clearly agreed there would be no price increase and instead they have doubled it, but refuse to deal with the problem.


Certainly a complicated story, with a few VM twists and turns along the way for good measure.

What is it specifically you want VM to do at the moment and what do you think you should be paying p.m.?

You may end up having to prove your word against VM's. If you need to access any data/info via DSAR to prove your case, then the online form

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar

advises calls are only kept for 180 days so, if you are going to rely on those, you should probably request them now (along with any other data you need).

After that, you issue a complaint to VM (largely pointless exercise, as you have discovered) then request a deadlock letter and take it to CISAS but you'll need to collect all of your evidence to do that and decide what is the outcome you want from VM. It's a bit hard to work out what that is from your original post.

SamSamN
On our wavelength

Thank you, I will wait and see what their response is.  I will also ask my wife to hold off contacting them on Twitter, as she said that often gets the attention of businesses who aren't treating their customers kindly.  I am quite taken aback by the unprofessionalism of the business and their complete inability to have a functioning complaints system which serves the purpose it should be there for.  Quite incredible really.

SamSamN
On our wavelength

Thank you, I will get hold of that call information now - really appreciate that.

In terms of an outcome, short-term I just want to keep paying the agreed amount until the end of the contract (in August).  I'd obviously been considering leaving, but now it's difficult to see any reason for wanting to stay with them, given their behaviour.  It's quite remarkable.

EDIT: I really can't believe they increased the monthly rate by twice what they had originally advised back at the start of the year, especially given the automated offer of a reduced increase right at the very beginning of this fiasco!

Serena_C
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi @SamSamN

Welcome to our Community Help Forum 🙂

Thank you for making this post regarding the issues you have faced with the price of your contract. Firstly, I would like to apologise for the negative experience you have had with our customer service team. That is not the high standard of service we aim to provide and I truly apologise for the frustration this has caused.

I would like to take a look further in to this for you and get your contract price sorted out. I shall send you a private message now to obtain the details required. Please look out for the purple envelope in the top right corner and get back to me when you can.

Best wishes,

Serena

Serena_C
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi Sam,

Thanks for responding to my private message. I have taken a look on our systems and unfortunately there are no notes to state that your contract would remain the same price. I'm sorry that your services have been subject to a price increase. I can offer to arrange a disconnection of your services withour cancellation fees if you like?

Kind regards,

Serena