Was misinformed by VM customer service about nature of my contract

[jakerhodeskay]

Renewed my contract in July 2023 over the phone, and was assured by the agent that it was a fixed contract paying. a fixed sum of £47 per month. I was surprised to see that my contract has gone up with the April 2024 price rise. I was misinformed by VM customer service about this not applying to my contract, and never would have agreed to this. Whilst I see that the price rise was mentioned in the very small print on my Virgin media bills, this is a very sneaky way of making me aware of this issue - and is easily missed. I would like to cancel and have my early disconnection fee offset, as this is totally unethical. I was essentially lied to in order to sell me another contract, which I am then supposedly locked in to unless I pay a ridiculously high early disconnection fee. I cannot afford the new rate of £52, and if you check back my correspondence at the time, I was very clear that I cannot afford further price rises. Needless to say, I cannot afford the early disconnection fee either. Short of battling it out in court, what can I do please?

[unisoft · Accepted solution]

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@jakerhodeskay wrote:

Renewed my contract in July 2023 over the phone, and was assured by the agent that it was a fixed contract paying. a fixed sum of £47 per month. I was surprised to see that my contract has gone up with the April 2024 price rise. I was misinformed by VM customer service about this not applying to my contract, and never would have agreed to this. Whilst I see that the price rise was mentioned in the very small print on my Virgin media bills, this is a very sneaky way of making me aware of this issue - and is easily missed. I would like to cancel and have my early disconnection fee offset, as this is totally unethical. I was essentially lied to in order to sell me another contract, which I am then supposedly locked in to unless I pay a ridiculously high early disconnection fee. I cannot afford the new rate of £52, and if you check back my correspondence at the time, I was very clear that I cannot afford further price rises. Needless to say, I cannot afford the early disconnection fee either. Short of battling it out in court, what can I do please?

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If your contract (viewable in My Virgin media online) has "Discount" on it - usually in small print towards the bottom, then VM will say you have a fixed discount for period agreed and not a fixed price. As you have a cool off period they will say you should have checked the contract. I agree though, I had a deal where they said fixed and no price increases and then the contract said "discount" in small print and the expiry dates of the two discounts applied....

Price increases and insistence on 18 month contract for negotiating a package change (without supply of any new kit or upgraded kit) at the moment are why I left after being long term customer. VM removed the penalty free exit clause and expect customers to sign up to 18 month contract which will likely have two price increases in that period that are legally binding, yet the customer does not know upfront what amount those price increases are; so you are blindly signing up to an unfair contract, with the original penalty free escape clause removed now.

[jakerhodeskay]

Thanks for your reply, yes it's exactly that. I've just seen that it's actually due to go up again to 66£ in May, which I can't afford at all!

[unisoft]

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@jakerhodeskay wrote:

Thanks for your reply, yes it's exactly that. I've just seen that it's actually due to go up again to 66£ in May, which I can't afford at all!

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Unfortunately, unless you ask for a DSAR/SAR of calls, chats etc which are kept for 6 months I believe, to prove what the agent said, it's going to be impossible to escape it because the contract says......You may ahve to sit it out until contract expires then review your options having researched pricing from other suppliers in your area.

You could try ringing up and explaining and get your package downgraded to get a cheaper price (leaving Virgin option on the phone not customer service as they will be hopeless). Depending on the agent, you may just get a service change receipt or insistence on restarting the 18 month contract at new price point. I can't advise which one, as historically I have just had a service change receipt, but nowadays its unpredictable what the agent will suggest and there is no transparency in VM as there isn't a published rule set on package changes.

[jakerhodeskay]

Thanks, this just seems like a massive scam. I've been missold a service I now can't afford and I'm being threatened with a huge fine if I leave? Seems insane

[jakerhodeskay]

So was just on the phone to customer service about this and they hung up on me - love to see them justify that in the DSAR of calls. Disgusting treatment of customers

[Gareth_L]

Hello jakerhodeskay.

Thanks for your post and welcome to our community.

Sorry for any confusion this has been caused you.

When you took your new contract out last July, you would have received full terms and conditions regarding the price increase this year.

When you renewed the contract was this for 18 months or 12 months.

If the latter, then you would be able to give 30 days cancellation notice before the end of your contract and not be charged any termination fees.

Should you wish to raise a DSAR you can do so here

Or you can let us get one raised for you from here. We will need to pass security first though.

Gareth_L