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?? 

[tajindersohal]

My recommendation is sit tight and wait for them to contact you.  Do make sure you raise a complaint and get a complaint number.  If it doesn’t get resolved in 8 weeks you can go to the ombudsman (ofcom) to mediate.  Don’t waste time speaking to anyone that isn’t directly handling your complaint as they can only read scripts and aren’t able to think laterally and help customers. 

[Cardiffman282 · Accepted solution]

Ali I have the same problem with trying to reply to DMs since the recent redesign of this forum. My workaround on my mobile is to go to my browser settings and switch to Desktop Site view. The Reply button then magically appears. VM is not universally renown for its testing prowess before launching new stuff. 

[Ali2017]

Aha - thank you so much - I thought I was going mad because I've always been able to view DMs in the past! I'll try your workaround 🙂

[Ali2017]

This is now finally resolved thanks to Lisa, the customer service advisor that my husband spoke to last week. She checked this week to make sure everything had been resolved and when she found that it hadnt, she rang me, apologised profusely and ensured that the service was terminated. I have also been given a refund as I was correct in stating that the service should have terminated on 15th April.  She has been amazing & clearly my husband dropped very lucky that she was the advisor who answered when he rang!

[Ashleigh_C]

Thank you for popping back to us @Ali2017 and we are so glad to hear that this has now been resolved.

We are so sorry however that this took so long to resolve and was a poor experience for you, we will pass this feedback on. 

Thank you again and we are sorry to see you go but we wish you the best of luck with your new provider. 

[Windy752]

I have been trying to cancel my contract since April. Having failed to find a way to do this via the web site and totally given my on the call centers I eventually found the address in Sunderland and wrote a letter requesting I be disconnected and my contract cancelled, but I am still getting emails demanding payment for a service I am no longer using.

[Steven_L]

Sorry to hear that you're still getting request for payment, Windy752. Have you been advised, what the payments are for, could it be your final bill from us. Please could you call us on 150 or 0345 454 1111 and the team will be happy to look into this further for you to get a resolution to this for you. 

Kind Regards,

Steven_L
 

[goslow]

You can share your hopeless cancellation experience with OFCOM.

They launched an investigation into VM on 13 July 2023 specifically into VM's cancellation and complaints processes.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/bulletins/enforcement-bulletin/open-cases/cw_01275

Case ref. no. and an email at the bottom of the above page or submit with same info via the contact form

https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

Submitting information won't help your individual complaint but it will contribute to the OFCOM investigation and it sounds like your experience is directly relevant to the terms of reference of the investigation.

[Livinghell]

Just entered this merry go round hell foolishly thought id done everything to cancel VM contract finished 18/8 then received another text with a demand for £51.00 for 19/8 to 15/9 . Cancelled DD as been informed they never refund anywhere near what they take. Even though I have completed my contract. Will call them again and see what complicated made up dates and payments they come up with. Will post results!! Any help before I call again thanks 

[goslow]

The overwhelming majority of reports on here suggest that cancelling a direct debit, before fully ridding yourself of VM, does not work out well for the customer. This is because VM simply initiates debt collection process against the customer which can end up with a trashed credit history and debt collectors sending letters.

You are in a permanent, ongoing contract with VM until such time as you give VM 30 days notice to cancel. The thing which comes to and end after 18 months is your minimum term, after which your subscription jumps up to the standard rate.

VM will continue to bill you, as per normal, right up to the date of disconnection after you have given VM 30 days notice to cancel. You also have to factor in the date when your DD payment comes out and the period covered by each bill. Some people manage to coordinate the end of the 30 days notice to match the end of the minimum 18 month term.

Once you have been disconnected, you will receive a final bill shortly after. Depending on when all these thing align, you may end up with a credit or debit on your account. If you owe VM, you pay the final bill and leave. If VM owes you they refund you (though not necessarily quickly!)