Volt Promo Order - Not being Honoured and price increased

[badhodor123]

I am existing user with only 5 months into my contract at M500 package. Got the volt promo and decided to go for it.

Placed a new order for a O2 sim card for 12 per month, the benefits being the broadband speed to go to 1gig and data bundle from the o2 sim card to be 10-12gig. Placed order from virgin's website. Got order confirmation confirming that my package price remains the same and the hub 4 will be delivered on the 22nd Nov.

22nd came and went, nothing happened. 23rd I get an email saying that my current package is now changed to 1gig and price is now 62GBP/month. (i was on M500 paying 32GBP/month).

Still not received the sim card, neither the router and price increased despite having order confirmation, promo saying no price increase.

Spoke with customer support agent via. whatsapp chat support, was told this has been fixed and confirmation email shortly. (nothing received).

Raised a complaint with VM explaining this as this is false advertising and would like to also report to ASA and ofcom for literally click baiting existing customers into a promo and then reneging on it without any explanation or notice.

I am still within my 14 day cool off period and not sure if Virgin is purposefully running the clock down or not.

Can someone please contact me here, or whatever method to get this resolved as I dont want to pay more for Virgin's false advertising and making a fool out of loyal customers.

[Andrew-G]

Volt benefits can't be combined with existing broadband discounts.  Whilst not permitting multiple promotions to be used is normal commercial practice, due to carelessness by VMO2 this isn't properly explained, and we've seen a number of people complaining about this.  You could complain to the ASA, but all they'll do is get VM to make that clearer, they can't force VM to offer you the deal you thought was there.

Option 1) You can take this through formal complaints to demand that VM provide both Volt benefits and reinstate your discount.  That will be slow, and I don't rate your chances of success.  It might work, but if it doesn't go in your favour you'll be locked in on the undiscounted terms for the 18 months fixed term that's just started.

Option 2) I'd say use your cooling off rights and revert to the previous deal.

Volt is a good offer, and great marketing (if lacking clarity on the discount issue) but it works for a specific class of customer:

1) Existing broadband customer but not on 1 Gbps (because the speed can't be doubled)

2) Customer who isn't getting and doesn't want a discount on VM standard pricing

3) Happy with O2 coverage for their mobile service

4) Doesn't mind a new 18 month minimum term starting

5) Will actually benefit from increased mobile data allowance and higher broadband speeds

[Alex_RM]

Morning badhodor123,

Thanks for posting, and I'm sorry to hear there's been some confusion over your package and pricing. 

So I can take a closer look at your complaint I've popped you over a private message to get a few more details from you (purple envelope, top right hand corner)

Alex_Rm

[unisoft]

The advice is incorrect.

You only have to be a customer of o2 and VM to be volted as per detailed T&C's.

If you have a discount, you still keep it and get volted. In this situation, you are best to get an o2 SIM yourself via O2 or better deals from uSwitch or money saving expert sites.

During checkout which goes via O2, it will state clearly the SIM is volt eligible.

1gbs customers on VM can't currently get a speed increase as that is the fastest speed right now.

Doing it this way means no package change on the VM side by an agent and your pricing remains as before. It can take 14 days, though mine took 22 days on the O2 side for volt benefits to happen.

Remember once setup on o2, in the myo2 portal you have to initially opt in to volt benefits too!

[badhodor123]

Update, I have been working with Alex to make some progress. 

Got another email from VM today saying that my package is now 39GBP and still says M500, even though the price shows 62 and some clever discount makes it 39.

Still no router delivered, still no sim card delivered and still not getting 1 gig or back to the old price i was on. 

Here's hoping alex can work his magic and VM can honor the deal they promised and the order i placed.