Virgin media just won't cancel my contract!!

[Ali2017]

I have spent hours & hours on the phone, on whatsapp chat and filing formal complaints trying to cancel my contract without success and this is seriously now making me ill with stress and frustration!

I cancelled my contract on 16th March after a lot of effort - refusing multiple attempts to persuade me to take other packages, being placed on hold for 10 minutes at a time etc, being passed from pillar to post - I made it absolutely crystal clear that I just don't need the damn service anymore!! I then subsequently received a further advance notice of billing so I cancelled the direct debit as I had paid up to 8th April and they wanted payment up to 8th May (the service was due to end on 15th April).

I then spent literally hours on WhatsApp chat trying to get them to confirm that the contract was cancelled and demanding to know why they were trying to take payment up to 8th May. I informed them that I had cancelled the DD and asked them to bill me for the period 8th - 15th April and I would pay by card or bank transfer.

The replies I was receiving increasingly made no sense whatsoever, the English was extremely grammatically poor and I didn't understand it and eventually had no option but to terminate the conversation. Obviously, I have kept this as evidence should it be needed!

Following that, I then received a number of unpaid bill notifications by email and text, wanting to take money up to 8th June! The service should've terminated on 15th April. 

I then filed a formal complaint containing all the details - it was closed within 24 hours with a response of "resolution - change of package"! I filed a second formal complaint which was responded to in exactly the same way - it was clear that the body of the complaint hadnt even been read!!

As I am not even in the UK at the moment, my husband then rang them and spoke to a very nice lady called Lisa who apologised profusely and said she would sort it all out and could see the details of all my communications with them and that the service should indeed have terminated on 15th April. She said to ignore the overdue payment notifications, that I would receive no further demands and that I would receive a revised bill for the period 8th - 15th April.

This morning, despite all her assurances, I have received a further text telling me to contact them urgently regarding my unpaid bill and demanding £200.25 to cover the period up to June 8th.

I am actually at my wits end with this - my anxiety is at an all time high and I have wasted hours of my time trying to deal with this - I can see from this forum that it appears to be a very common theme. How the hell are Virgin Media being allowed to continue operating in this despicable manner?

My husband is of the opinion that we should now just ignore every communication and let them send the bailiff, take us to court or whatever but I don't want to risk a CCJ / dessimated credit score. 

I've spent enough time trying to sort this out and I'm not prepared to make any more complaints to them because they're ignored anyway. 

Has anyone who has had this problem managed to resolve it and how?? 

[unisoft]

Do consider making Ofcom aware of the issue faced by filling in their monitoring form here: Tell Ofcom

[newapollo]

Hi @Ali2017 

You gave your 30 days notice on the 16th of March, so the account should have been closed on the 15th April. 

There shouldn't be charges up until 8th June, unless the account wasn't closed as requested. 

During your 30 days cancellation period Virgin continue to bill you as usual until your disconnection is complete.  This helps to make sure your final month of service isn’t interrupted.

Your account billing date would have continued as normal on the 8th April with charges up until 8th May. This is because during that period you may have purchased movies, PPV events, occured additional phone charges for calls over 60 minutes in length etc. Therefore the charges go beyond your disconnection date, because your cancellation date takes effect mid billing cycle.

Once your services are fully disconnected, which should have been 15th April, then  VM recalculate what you’ve used and send an adjusted final bill  detailing any credits you may have for the services you haven't  used. If there are any monies due to be paid then VM will expect that payment to be made, however if your account is in credit then VM then refund those monies by cheque, or if your direct debit is still active by bank transfer. 

There's a final bill explainer on the following help page.

https://www.virginmedia.com/support/help/billing-and-payment/bill-explainer/my-final-bill-explainer 

[Ali2017]

Hi - thanks for your comprehensive reply. I understand that I was probably premature in cancelling the direct debit and have repeatedly stated to virgin media that I am more than happy to pay the amount outstanding for 8th - 15th April - the problem is that they are now also trying to bill me for the period 8th May - 8th June and sending me repeated email and text message demands.

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @Ali2017 👋.

Thanks for reaching out to us. We do apologise at the experience you have had with us in order to try and sort this out 😢. Thanks to @unisoft & @newapollo in assisting. Just so that we can look into this further for you so that you can have some clarity and peace of mind in the matter, I will send you a private message just requesting you to confirm some details. Just look out for the envelope at the top right next to your profile icon.

Thanks

Sabrina

[Ali2017]

 

Hi Sabrina - for some reason I'm not able to read your private message on my phone & I don't have my laptop with me - when I open it, I can only see Hi Ali2017 and the rest is covered by a 'menu' of services. Apologies - I'm sure it's probably me doing something wrong!

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @Ali2017 👋.

Thanks for getting back in touch. If you press your name icon or the person the messages option should appear. 

Sabrina

[Ali2017]

Hi - I can open the message but the black menu (as per screenshot above, completely obscures the message and I don't seem able to get rid of it. All I can see is as per rhe screenshot above 😕

[tajindersohal]

I’m just posted a very similar situation.  It’s very deliberate to keep your business and then very cynical to make it painful when you decide to cancel.   This isn’t just an incompetent staff member not doing their job, this is a strategy from the very top to improve their bottom line.   Ultimately this won’t work in the long term as customers matter to any business so I’ve decided to take my business elsewhere.  

[tajindersohal]

I’ve got in touch with ofcom for an issue I have and you have to wait 8 weeks from a complaint being raised to them getting involved.