Virgin Media cannot confirm what my contract says

[Shillu]

Hi, I started my VM contract in June 2021, when I took it out I was told that the contract is not subject to rpi and would remain at the same price forever basically. The price has remained the same aside from the oomph sim being billed by O2, so coming off the VM bill. 

Today I received an email telling me my contract will be increasing with RPI plus some. I called customer services and I spent the best part of an hour on the phone just trying to get them to understand. In the end I put the phone down owing to sheer frustration.

My contract is not on virgins system apparently because it was sent to me in the post, which after almost 3 years I have no idea where it is.

How do I go about getting this resolved?

Thanks

[golden86]

What sort of contract package was this? For as far as I know Virgin has always done a 18 month contract not perpetual just goes on forever. 

[Shillu]

It was probably an 18 month contract, it was taken out June 21, the price didn’t go up last year and I’m pretty sure the agent told me the price would always remain the same but I’ve got no way of proving it without Virgin Media admitting to it.

[FlockWallpaper]

If you think about it, does the ‘promise’ you were made by the agent sound reasonable? Would any ‘reasonable person’, as the law likes to refer to, really think that they could have a service, potentially for ever, with no increases in price, ever?

I’m afraid this is one of those ‘too good to be true’, offers, which actually aren’t true!

Unless you have something in writing confirming it then I’m afraid it’s your word against their’s and VM would long since have deleted any call recordings - they only keep them for the legally mandated six months.

The good thing is that you aren’t tied into any minimum term contract and are free to leave VM, subject to you giving them at least 30 days notice. So what you could do is to investigate alternative suppliers, find another one who can give you what you want for a price you find acceptable, then contact VM and cancel. There is a good (but certainly not guaranteed) chance that if you do that, then VM will contact you to make a better offer.

[Matthew_ML]

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

As a business, we are not immune to rising costs, primarily due to wider economic changes from rising inflation. With rising customer usage, we’re continuing to invest in our network and services to meet customer demand, as well as innovating and improving network performance and reliability to ensure our broadband service continues to deliver the fastest widely available speeds in the UK.

Your individual price rise will be specific to you. Some price rises are lower, and some customers will be excluded completely.

[Shillu]

Maybe you are right about it being too good to be true, but this is how contracts used to be, these rpi linked rises are a relatively new thing. It used to be during your tie in period the contract price was discounted and when you came out of the tie in the price would rise forcing to make a decision to tie in again.

Anyways I may have to look at alternatives as this seems to be the only way of forcing companies to remain competitive is to not be loyal to anyone otherwise no one is interested in rewarding your loyalty.

[Shillu]

The biggest issue I have is no one is able to provide me with the contract t’s and c’s. Most of the ones I had prior to this were emailed however this one is no where to be found. 

if you were able to prove to me that I am liable for the price rises then fine but I was still miss sold. This is however a seperate issue. If you cannot provide this evidence the. It is virgin media’s word against mine then it should be a case of the customer is always right as it should not be my responsibility to prove to you what you sold to me, virgin media should have at least documented.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey Shilu, This price rise relates to Virgin Media O2 cable customers and Virgin Media O2 mobile customers. You will receive separate communications outlining any changes to the services and/or prices.

Though we've sent communications to all impacted customers, there are some instances where this may not reach you, such as a letter getting lost in transit.

However, the price change is detailed within the agreed Terms & Conditions and would still be applicable.