Virgin Media messing us about with contracts

[Wonderman2]

So we struggled to get a contract set up last week, with constant disconnections, people not phoning back, obvious lies and what not but we finally set up a contract... 2 of them because the first contract was tampered with after agreement.

We was after the volt ultimate bundle

Our wants:

• Volt ultimate bundle package which includes
• 1 box + 1 additional 
• 1 gig download
• sky sports hd, sky cinema, bt sport
• netflix
• anytime chatter
• o2 sim, as this is required for volt

We also wanted to buy an extra tv box, we need 3 total and the volt ultimate bundle only comes with 2 boxes.

We spent ages setting this up and finally got somewhere with someone on the phone, they didn't manage to take our billing details but went on hold for a minute and within 5 seconds the phoneline went dead and they did not call us back, this had happened 2 or 3 times before, so at this point i was furious.

We phoned up again, got through to someone and i explained we wanted this exact package, he said he would setup a package and see the cost, we got to finalize the details, took our billing details and he said he still had stuff to do on his end so he would end the call but if there was any issues we would receive a phonecall, otherwise we would receive an email if all goes well. He randomly ensured us that the price will 100% NOT CHANGE, which we never even considered since we already went over the contract and agreed before this to be paying £124.xx (I think it was £124.75)

We received the o2 email for the sim straight away but the email for the virgin contract came the day after and the price was miles off the agreed, it was suppose to be around £124, but the contract had it stated for £188.05, it was also missing a few of the agreed options for the package.

We will call this contract, Contract scam. 

Contract scam is still on our account and listed to start on March 6th 2023 for 18 months.

I phoned the next day on Sunday 5th February and got put through to someone after a while who then apologized and built us the volt package we wanted, AGAIN, this time he actually sent us the contract whilst on the phone and also said we would pay less for the inconvenience, The bill for this contract would be: £86.75 + £25 for o2 sim = £111.75

This contract shows on our account and is the contract we want to be on as this is the agreed price and the package is exactly as we agreed on over the phone, this contract starts in March 7th 2023 for 18 months.

We will refer to this contract as: Contract correct

The issue is we have two contracts on our account with one starting on the 6th and one starting on the 7th, the 6th is the SCAM contract and would start 1 day before the correct contract which starts on the 7th.

We want the wrong contract removed from the account but Virgin Media keep telling us they can't see it and to just ignore it. That does not sound like a good idea considering it's clearly under contracts to start on my account and would start before the one we want, binding us to 18 months of a wrongly priced package, with not all the things we want in the package.

We want the contract that is starting March 7th for £86.75 (Listed on the contract) - O2 is separate?

We DO NOT want the contract starting on March 6th for £188.05

We DO only want to be on ONE contract, as expected.

[Zach_R]

Hi @Wonderman2,

Thank you for your post and welcome back to our community forums. We're here to help.

I am so sorry to hear of the confusion and inconvenience caused by getting the deal you were looking for. You can only have one contract active at one time on any given account, so I can assure you that two different contracts won't run at the same time. If you agreed to a second one it'll cancel the first order.

If the one you're after was the latest one to be agreed to, and you've received documentation confirming that, then I'm confident that is the one that will go ahead. However, if you have any concerns regarding this appear after it begins, let us know and we'll investigate from there.

Thanks,
 

[Wonderman2]

Hi Zach,

If you could cancel the contract starting on 6th March 2023 then that would be great.

As for the contract we do want: 7th march 2023;

We have the contract sent over to our email for the 7th March but i'm unsure if we need to sign anything or what not, Does it just start from the 7th?

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @Wonderman2,

Thanks for coming back to us. I'll be happy to confirm the details with you over Private Message. 

Please keep an eye out for a purple envelope at the top right corner of your Forum page. I'll be in touch soon.

Thank you.

[Wonderman2]

Just to update;

I have confirmed and passed security checks with paulina in private messages but Paulina decided that everything was fine and correct because I have a contract on my account for the 7th March.

Once again, Virgin are ignoring the Wrong Contract on my account which starts on the 6th March.

I keep reading things recently which truly makes it seem like Virgin Media are trying to scam customers out of money by forcing them into wrong contracts.

Please keep the 7th March 2023 contract on my account.

PLEASE REMOVE THE CONTRACT FOR 6TH MARCH 2023.

[Wonderman2]

More Clear Evidence of The Issue.

IF this is not clear enough, then please get the cancellation team in touch with us. This past week has been the worst customer service in the last 10 years.

[Wonderman2]

Updating this because i have zero trust in Virgins word right now:

Have been told by Paulina that they can indeed see two contracts on my account but not to worry because only one contract can be active at a time (Similar to what Zach has said above) and that the 6th of March contract will not be the one activating.

However, both contracts say "Status pending" still so i have no trust and believe this to be a scam to lock us into the wrong contract.

I don't see why it's so hard to change the status to "Cancelled" from pending or to just straight up remove the wrong contract as Zach mentioned earlier.

This reeks of scam.

[Wonderman2]

Seems you can't edit messages on here so:

Received another response:

"I can guarantee that the incorrect contract has been cancelled, as advised. 

Online accounts do not reflect the live system we have access to, and I do apologise about this."

So once again, Paulina reassuring me that the wrong contract (6th March) has been cancelled but on my account that i can visibly see, i am seeing something different because their system does not update the live system? Seems very shady and honestly a terrible misleading system if true but I assume that's done to confuse the customers on purpose.

Hopefully Paulina and the rest of Virgin are being truthful here but time will tell. Still worrying that this has been an on going issue for a week and assuming the wrong contract was cancelled a week ago, surely it would be updated by now?

I will update this post for anyone in a similar situation in the future on what happens come the date.

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @Wonderman2,

Thanks for coming back to us on the public thread. Please keep us updated on how you get on and if you need any further help, we're here if you need us.

Thank you.

[Wonderman2]

Surprise Paulina,

Checked my account the moment it hit March 6th,

The March 6th contract is now in an "accepted" status and the active contract on the account is for "Volt Gig1 Fibre Broadband" which is indicating it has also changed as well. I do want Volt 1gig, WITH THE MARCH 7TH CONTRACT ONLY.

March 6th contract being the wrong contract that you assured me was cancelled and only appearing on my end and not yours at Virgins.

"Two contracts can't be active at one time" 
So i assume this means this will scam me out of the March 7th Contract, the one i want, activating.

So Paulina, it seems both you and Virgin lied to me? March 6th was clearly ON YOUR SYSTEM.

Come March 7th, if this is not fixed i will be cancelling ALL services with Virgin Media and reporting this behaviour to Ofcom.