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Why is it so hard to cancel when the account holder starts to suffering with Alzheimer's?

Johnny_B_Goode
Tuning in

My parents, mother 79, father 82, have been trying to cancel Virginmedia TV, Broadband and telephone for over 2 years. Every time they call to cancel some little trumped up crook says they will cancel the contract, yet they continually take the DD every month. I have just found out this has been going on because my mother has mild Alzheimer's and it has all gotten too much for my father.

Virgin will not talk to me as I am not the account holder, my mother, the account holder, remembers not a lot and talks in riddles now, so no help with speaking to Virgin herself.

It's a travesty this kind of company can get away with this behaviour so I am posting here to make all aware. I am about to cancel the DD and no doubt my parents will receive a letter threatening some sort of court to bailiff action, Another hurdle I will have to get over no doubt until they confirm they have cancelled their out of date contract !!

8 REPLIES 8

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

By means of an instinctive response rather than checking the detail... do you have power of attorney over your parents' financial affairs?

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

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goslow
Alessandro Volta

No denying VM's CS by most channels is pretty poor and vulnerable customers are often badly served. Cancelling the DD though is only likely to cause more difficulties for your parents as VM's system will automatically process this as a bad debt ultimately leading to unwelcome attention from debt collectors.

I dealt with the cancellation process by writing in, described below (now with a disconnection date at the end of the week)

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Customer-service/m-p/4971786#M18160...

Use the link to 'Best method for cancelling your Virgin Media contract' / 'Cancel in writing' here to the Sunderland address with the necessary info

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/cancel-virgin-media

Would your mother be able to send in a letter to cancel with your help? Making sure marketing preferences are turned off in 'My Virgin Media' should also stop unwanted calls from VM 'retentions' once they receive the cancellation letter.

Sadly, none of the above guarantees success with leaving VM but it does give some kind of a paper trail to follow if you have to chase up the process.

(And beaten to it by japitts ref POA as an alternative possibility)

@Johnny_B_Goode to confirm what the others have said above, absolutely do not just cancel the DD! I promise you it’ll end up causing you and your parents more trouble than it is worth.

So let’s get a few details, do you or can you reasonably get, power of attorney for your parents affairs? If so, then VM legally have to deal with you on their behalf. Failing that, then realistically, do you have access to all of the VM bills and account details? If so then you can call VM and just claim to be your father, they have no way of telling. They will want a ‘memorable’ word which you may or may not know or can find out, if not, then just say you have forgotten it, they may well offer to send out a reminder via post, but they should ask other questions concerning the account, bill date, exact amount etc. which if you can answer should, convince them that they are taking to the account holder.

Once through that hurdle, you should then be able to process a disconnection.

The alternative as mentioned above is to write to VM with the account details and say you are giving the legally required 30 days notice (please send this by recorded delivery), they have no means of knowing who actually wrote the letter, and request a cancellation that way.

Incidentally, what steps have you or your parents taken over the last two years to cancel? The reason I ask is that there may, and I stress, ‘may’ be scope to initiate a formal complaint with the industry regulator and request/demand compensation from VM - but it does highly depend on the exact circumstances in play here.

John

@Johnny_B_Goode Sorry just re-read the thread and seen that it is actually your mother who is the account holder, the principle is the same though, call up (or get someone else to do so) and claim to be her. As long as you can answer the ‘security’ questions then VM will have to deal with whoever is on the phone. 

Not yet, but its a route I am going to have to take to deal with this kinda stuff.

Thanks for this.

Thanks you for your help.

Hi @Johnny_B_Goode,

Welcome to our Community Forums! Thank you for your post and I'm very sorry to hear that your parents are having some issues cancelling their Virgin Media account.

I'm very sorry to hear that you're having some issues. We'll be more than happy to help. 

In this situation, we would advise you contact our Bereavement and Critical Illness team on 0800 952 2302. They are open Monday-Friday 8am-8pm and open on Saturday 9am-5pm. The team will be able to assist you to cancel you mother's account. You can read more about our team on our Change Account Holder page for more information.

Please let us know how you get on and if you need any further support.

Thank you.

Paulina_Z
Forum Team

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