Virgin Media refusing to honour contract

[rodwell99]

Hi,

My existing contract with VM recently came to an end and based on the (ridiculous) price it was about to go up to I decided to leave.  However I was persuaded to stay with a revised package that crucially included all the sports channels in HD including BT sports.

During the course of the call where we negotiated the new package I received an email confirmation of the changes.  Since I couldn't see anything that explicitly mentioned BT Sports I queried this with the agent and he categorically confirmed that it did.  His comment was 'when it says Sky Sport *collection*' that means it includes BT Sports.  Great so on that basis I signed up to thge new 18 month contract.

Today being the first full day of the Premier League we sat down to watch the football only to find that we no longer had access to BT Sport.

I've just got off the phone to Virgin after an excruciating conversation with an agent who told me that indeed my package no longer includes BT Sports.  They also acknowledged from a note on the previous call that the previous agent had incorrectly stated that it did.  However they had no interest in honouring the contract that I had agreed to and only offered to increase the price so that BT Sports was also included.  I asked to speak to a supervisor but apparently none were available.

I find this baffling - I was clearly told that my package included BT sports and that was the basis I accepted the contract.  Surely VM are legally bound to honour this?  I'm not really sure what to do next.  From today's call I believe a complaint has been raised against the original agent and their supervisor is supposed to call me back within 48 hours.  Based on my experience with VM I wouldn't be surprised if I don't receive a call and even if I do I suspect I will just be given the same line about having to pay more to get the package I agreed to.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this?  Should I approach the Ombudsman at this stage or is there some other complaint process I should use?

[Anonymous]

this comes up time and time again.

VM sales will lie and promise you the world just to close a deal, each time it is queried, the same story of it was incorrectly promised is quoted - nothing we can do.

it is a sales tactic and they prey on the customer to just accept this (a very small amount will cancel, so its worth the lie)

make a formal complaint (which does nothing) and take it to the ombudsman.

they need to be held to account

[rodwell99]

Thanks for the reply.  In this case I'm inclined to believe it was more incompetence by the first agent than deliberate misinformation but the principle still stands that I agreed a contract based on a set of services for a specific price and VM are failing to honour it.

I can't see any evidence of the complaint against the first agent on the 'My Cases' page on My Virgin Media so I suppose I need to raise one of my own.

Curious as to whether anyone reading this thread has been down this route with any success?  It looks like I'll need to wait up to 8 weeks before I can contact the Ombudsman, which I'm prepared to do but that's a lot of football matches we're going to miss - really wish I'd just cancelled now 😞

[newapollo]

Hi @rodwell99 

VM should honour the deal, even if it was made in error.

If you open a complaint and aren't happy with their suggested resolution then you should then ask for a deadlock letter, rather than having to wait 8 weeks for it.

You do have a 14 day cooling off period when changing packages, so you could cancel the change and revert back to your origiinal package. 

I would be inclined to do this for now, especially if you already had the sports channels you want on that original package. I would then want to speak to retentions (thinking of leaving) and try and negotiate a new deal with them, they offer better discounts than the normal front line agents.

[Ilyas_Y]

Hey there @rodwell99, thanks for reaching out to us and a warm welcome to the Virgin Media forums.

I am so sorry to hear about the issues with the package you've had recently.
I will look in to this for you and see what has gone on.
Watch out for the purple envelope inviting you to a private message.

Kind regards.

[rodwell99]

@newapollo, thanks for the reply. 

The package I negotiated was done through their retention team so I don't things there's much point in going down that route again.  I have now logged a complaint and will ask for the deadlock letter if I don't get anywhere, thanks for the tip.

[rodwell99]

@Ilyas thanks for the reply,   any help would be appreciated.

[Ilyas_Y]

Happy to assist, if you can please reply to the private message I have sent 🙂

Kind regards.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for chatting with us today.

I'm glad we have been able to take the steps to get the issue resolved.
Should you have any more issues - please reach out to us here and we will assist further.
Let us know how it goes.

Kind regards.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for speaking with us @rodwell99 on the forums today.

I'm glad we have been able to resolve the other query brought forward regarding the phone line and have assisted on getting everything else sorted.
As advised - reach out to us if you have any issues and we will assist.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.