PAYG credit refund

[HenryQ]

I just came across this thread. I'm pretty sure the communication VM sent me last year said that unused credit would not be returnable. Now I am reading that we could have reclaimed it after all - but it is now too late. Our VM SIMs went in the bin when we purchased new SIMs from Tesco Mobile and the VM ones no longer work anyway. The day after the cut-off, my wife (who VM didn't actually inform at all) went to make a phone call and got, "SIM registration failed". That was the first she knew about it.

We are both very happy with Tesco Mobile, but it is extremely sharp practice of VM (not to put too fine a point on it) to have stolen customers' money like that. Why not refund it automatically? I lost £10 and my wife lost £53.

[HenryQ]

Suffice to say that my wife, now nearly eighty years old, binned all the VM Mobile stuff in disgust, believing (as I had also understood) that any credit we had on our PAYG accounts would be forfeited. This has cost me around £10 and my wife over £50 pounds. A VM person (above) offered to help but my wife no longer has the answer to VM Mobile's security question. So, we are stuffed.

This evening, VM Mobile had the cheek to email me with an offer for a Galaxy S22 Ultra. Are VM Mobile really so tone deaf? What a [REMOVED] company. We wouldn't go near them if they were the last place on earth.

I wonder how shaky VM Mobile's theft of customers' money will turn out.

[MOD EDIT: Inappropriate language removed, please review the Forum Guidelines]

[Akua_A]

We truly apologise that we were unable to help further @HenryQ.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are able to locate the relevant details and we will do our best to help.

Thanks,

[HenryQ]

Why doesn't VM Mobile simply return its customers' money? VM knows who we are. Let's say your bank decided to close down your current account and SORREEE! your money will not be refunded. The bank would be in the dock, and rightly so.

I have written off the lost money but PLEASE VM Mobile, stop emailing me with offers for new phone deals. In your wildest dreams, do you really think my wife or I would ever become a VM Mobile customer again?  

[Zak_M]

Thank you for coming back to us HenryQ 

We will defiantly provide your feedback on, however we would need to pass DPA to be able to return it at this moment in time.

Once again we are sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused. 

Kind regards,

Zak_M

[HenryQ]

I would like to ask Zak_M how many hundreds of thousands of pounds VM has stolen from its now-defunct PAYG customers. If my wife and I fell for it, VM's profit must be in the thousands, probably millions. There was never any excuse for VM not to return customers' money.

[pjt50]

Hi HenryQ,

Sorry to read you couldn't get this resolved. Didn't the prompt help with the security question? Not sure what good it will do, but have you considered raising a formal complaint? The way VM did this was wrong on so many levels.