What are Virgin Media on?

[daines13]

I spoke with Virgin Media this afternoon on What’sApp after receiving my price increase letter and agreed a new price at £34.50 for 6 months and £41 for 12 months after that.

I’ve just received the confirmation email telling me that I’ve signed up to an 18 month deal at £60.50 a month!

What’sApp people have bounced me straight away to Customer Relations who are, apparently, very busy!

[Andrew-G]

Forum staff can sort that out for you (it's so common they know exactly what to do), you are aware that under the new T&Cs if you stay with VM it won't be a fixed price for the remaining twelve months as you'll be hit by a price increase next April, but under the new T&Cs you won't be able to cancel or renegotiate?

And whilst next year's price rise will be RPI + 3.9%, that's on the undiscounted price, so what you'll see is that it is magnified by the proportionate discount you have, so the better the deal you agree now, the higher the monthly increase you'll see then.  Maths of this is explained in this post.

If changing ISP, check what you're signing up for - other big ISPs are generally doing the same tactics, but Zen Internet are worth a look and offer 18 month deals with a guarantee of no price rises in the fixed term.  Talktalk or Vodafone and the other big ISPs will offer really attractive up front prices, better than Zen, but they have adopted similar terms to VM, so you'll get stung when they spring the non-negotiable price increase next year.

[Vikki_M]

Hi daines13 

Thank you for your post and welcome to our community.

I am very sorry to hear the contract summary doesn't match what was agreed via the WhatsApp chat. 

We are unable to do package changes via the forums. 

We would recommend calling the team please on 150 from a Virgin line or 0345 454 1111 from any other line and they can check this for you and advise further. 

Please do let us know how you get on. 

[Andrew-G]

Errmrm, forum staff, did you read the original post?  It's a regular as clockwork mis-selling instance, where an agent has put a different contract onto the system to that that has been agreed.  The customer is not asking for you to make a package change request, they're asking that VM comply with the customer's rights in law, specifically Section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Now, if you're going to fob this off, then I'll wheel out the far too frequently used spiel on how the customer can take this through complaints and to adjudication with Ombudsman Services, costing VM several hundred quid in case fees, and likely a £50-70 goodwill credit to the customer.  Is that the intended outcome?

[-tony-]

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@Andrew-G wrote:

Errmrm, forum staff, did you read the original post?  It's a regular as clockwork mis-selling instance, where an agent has put a different contract onto the system to that that has been agreed.  The customer is not asking for you to make a package change request, they're asking that VM comply with the customer's rights in law, specifically Section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Now, if you're going to fob this off, then I'll wheel out the far too frequently used spiel on how the customer can take this through complaints and to adjudication with Ombudsman Services, costing VM several hundred quid in case fees, and likely a £50-70 goodwill credit to the customer.  Is that the intended outcome?

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it seems to me that staff are fobbing off more and more that they cannot do - the list grows by the day/week - maybe management have decided that the use of this place is minimal given the world class CS that is offshore and the fact all agents are trained to the same level of incompetence

[Molly_T]

Hi Daines13! 👋 Thanks for getting in touch. 

Sincerest apologies for any confusion here - we don't generally offer support with package changes via the community forum as they are best done in real time. However I can appreciate you have had a poor experience here and we need to help get a complaint raised for you, and then offer support with this complaint. This I can certainly help with! I will send you a PM to confirm a few account details. You can find this in the top right corner of the page in your Inbox 📩. We can return to this public thread with another update when possible. 

Thank you for your patience whilst we look into things and offer support! All the best. 🌞

[-tony-]

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@Molly_T wrote:

Hi Daines13! 👋 Thanks for getting in touch. 

Sincerest apologies for any confusion here - we don't generally offer support with package changes via the community forum as they are best done in real time. However I can appreciate you have had a poor experience here and we need to help get a complaint raised for you, and then offer support with this complaint. This I can certainly help with! I will send you a PM to confirm a few account details. You can find this in the top right corner of the page in your Inbox 📩. We can return to this public thread with another update when possible. 

Thank you for your patience whilst we look into things and offer support! All the best. 🌞

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another complaint raised by staff to be fobbed off in pidgin english - the OP has done the package change - that bits sorted but they have been scammed by offshore - nothing new in that - offer one thing to get the mug customer to say yes and enter a higher price on the contract

its that that wants sorting otherwise its going to the arbitrator and thats will not end well for VM

[Andrew-G]

Well, at least forum staff have offered to raise a complaint, that's a necessary first step on the road to Ombudsman Services.  I agree that some poorly worded "resolution" is likely, and equally likely to fail to address the substance of the complaint, so for daines13's benefit, I'll spell it out as I have some hundreds of times before (this is used so frequently it's on a macro):

Information provided by a company verbally or written is binding if the consumer relies upon it when entering a contract (Section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015), so VM have to honour whatever was agreed, whether they like it or not.  Anything VM say about "not the right deal", "can't offer that to you", "deal not on the system", is irrelevant because you agreed a contract with their agent, that is now binding.

If VM still won't honour the contract despite the complaint, or issue a fob-off resolution that doesn't settle things acceptably, then you reply by rejecting the "resolution" and asking for a deadlock letter, with that you take the matter to Ombudsman Services. If VM stall and you can't get a deadlock letter then (ignoring that it is a breach of regulations) then eight weeks after your initial complaint was received by VM you can take the matter to the Ombudsman without a deadlock letter. Explain the background and request that VM be required to give you the promised deal, fully backdated, and request compensation for the hassle.

A message to the forum staff: Why are you offering to help the customer raise a complaint?  They didn't say they wanted to complain, they almost certainly don't want to experience VM's dreadful complaints process, they just want the agreed contract terms to be honoured.  You know full well the garbage that comes back from complaints, and how it is so routinely poor that it encourages people to escalate to the Ombudsman, you know as well that any contested complaint the Ombudsman handles costs VM about £400 a pop (or £600 if VM have forecast their complaints volume incorrectly), and that VM lose 85% of complaints taken to the Ombudsman.  Would you like a third go at resolving this matter?