Virginmedia making it difficult to leave.

[Matt-Edwards99]

Hi as I'm approaching the end of my contract I tried to reach out to customer services to see if I could get any discounts to renew my contract. After several phone calls that got escalated to just be cut off, I decided to try the WhatsApp support. And same again ask to leave get transferred to customer relations. After never getting an answer and next day starting all over again. On 4 occasions I'm now resolved to leave but low and behold 3 phone calls and 2 online chat and still no one wants to accept my notice to cancel. I've been told I "have" to give a reason and when I said terrible customer service as the reason I got the silent treatment. 

Are they intentionally trying to stop me leaving or are they actually just that incompetent?

[newapollo]

Hi @Matt-Edwards99 

The best route is to call 50 from your Virgin landline, or 0345 454 1111, options 1,1,4 and 4 (thinking of leaving) but it's best to call at 8am to avoid call queues

This should put you through to Retentions (thinking of leaving) however your call may be picked up first by a front line agent. If this happens be firm and say you want transferring to Retentions.

Retentions (thinking of leaving us) are generally based in the UK and do far more than cancellations.

Hopefully they can assuage the experience you have endured so far.

They also have a greater degree of knowledge and flexibility, along with a larger range of discounts than the front line agents should you wish to negotiate a new deal rather than just cancel. 

[unhappyconsumer]

That experience sounds terrible, what a waste of your valuable time! I would recommend complaining to get some appropriate compensation. I have detailed a simple process below:

Register your complaint about their poor service (preferably via e-mail so you have a record of it, Virgin like to "lose" complaints), then go here : https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar

Request every single bit of data possible, from the start of the contract until now - they are obliged to adhere to your request. 

This will likely trigger a call from the DSAR team looking to resolve the complaint with you to avoid doing the work of collating your data. Hopefully they can resolve this for you. If that doesn't occur, you can refer the complaint to CISAS after Virgin fail to adhere to the 8 week timescale, and they will likely compensate you for your inconvenience and distress. 

Send me a message if you get stuck at all - Virgin paid me over £300 compensation over my time with them for pointing out their failures 🙂

[Carley_S]

Hi @Matt-Edwards99. 

Really sorry to hear you're thinking of leave us over the poor experience with our customer services. I have located your account and can see you've been in touch to discuss your account. This is very disappointing to hear, and I can assure you that this isn't the level of service that we want to provide.

Let us know if there is anything further we can help with.

All the best,

[StrangelySane]

Thanks, unhappyconsumer.

I think this is possibly one of the most useful posts I've seen here. I've already submitted my request.
I'm currently dealing with VM's tricks and ploys following notification of my leaving (at end of contract) for another ISP.
I sent it via recorded delivery.  I didn't receive a reply, of course.  However, I did get an email notifying me of a ramped up bill for a non-existent contract and they're currently pretending that my informing them of my leaving and having boxed up their disconnected equipment for disposal was somehow "ambiguous".

They haven't told me what to do about their old equipment (it belongs to them) so I'm currently an unwilling bailee of their property cluttering up my hall.  I'm just about to send them unambiguous notification of my intention to charge them a weekly fee for storage until they come and fetch it.

[Akua_A]

Hi @StrangelySane,

Welcome back to our community forums and sorry to hear about your experience with us.

I can see a member of our team has taken your case on and is working to resolve this matter. Please remain in contact with them so we can resolve this for you.

Thanks,

[Rusmar]

I’m having a similar experience trying to leave. I spent hours on telephone but on hold the whole time, until my phone battery died! So I resorted to text messaging facility on Fri 15 April. Was on there from 11 am till 6.30 pm. My request was straightforward - cancel my account, transfer my landline number and send details of how to return kit. I repeated this request many times throughout the day. Finally was told there was a note on my file confirming this. I then also asked to raise a complaint and was given a complaint number. Imagine my surprise to get a call the following Tuesday from Customer Service asking what they could do to keep me. I said nothing. Eventually after more being put on hold, I was told my request would be confirmed from that date! Seemingly, the Friday 15th all day texting did NOT do this. I was also told it would be 30 days from then and I would be billed for that. I asked her to confirm my complaint had been registered and was advised she couldn’t see it. She also advised my online account would show confirmation that my service would be terminated. I checked, it doesn’t. Also it appears that a new contract was initiated on 15 April and would come in to play on 5 May! I didn’t request this. So I don’t know if my account will terminate etc. Where will it be confirmed?

[Hayley_S]

Hello @Rusmar,

Welcome, thanks for joining the post.

I am so sorry for the issues with cancelling your account.

I can investigate this for you, I will send you a private message so I can help you.

Please look out for a purple envelope at the top right of the screen.

Many thanks,

[StrangelySane]

Rusmar,

I avoided all that hanging on an expensive phone calls for hours and hours by writing directly to:

Virgin Media

Darlington

Sunderland

SR43 4AA

Make sure you send it recorded delivery.  Keep the receipt and get a screenshot of the Royal Mail's online tracking notification of delivery.  I always work on the assumption that when things go pear-shaped it'll stand you in good stead if you need to resort to legal remedies.
And don't be frighted to complain to CISAS if they drag things out.

Communication and Internet Adjudication Scheme (CISAS)
Call 020 7520 3827 or email cisas@cedr.com
We shouldn't have to go through this EVERY time at the end of our contracts.

[newapollo]

Hi @StrangelySane 

The VM cancellation address you posted is incorrect

It should be 

Virgin Media
Sunderland
SR43 4AA