I've been with Virgin Media for about 5 years now - it's been with me across 3 different homes. Always found the service superior to other providers. However, my recent experience has caused a great deal of stress for my partner (who has complex mental health needs) and myself.
We recently moved into a new home, the Virgin Media transfer went perfectly - it was all running on the day we move in, so kudos to those involved in that side of things. Everything was fine for a couple of months, then out of nowhere I had a message we were being disconnected and that "Virgin was sorry to see us go". What the hell?! That's weird - must be a mistake. No mistake. Sure enough, our internet was eventually disconnected. Phoned customer service to get reconnected (I'm self-employed and work totally online, so needed this fixed asap). Customer services said I'd requested my account be closed. Absolutely not I said. I was reconnected 3 days later, losing a couple of days of work in the process. I then got messages about returning my equipment from an address that wasn't ours, but I did know who was moving to that area: the old owner of the house. Virgin had been charging the old owner for a service she wasn't using (even though she informed them she was moving, but had no new address yet), so she called to close the account. Fair enough, but this caused the disconnection request on our account without checking the other bill payer at that address! It also triggered an early contract cancellation fee of £514.76 on our account. What on earth?! Back to customer services: take our address off the old owner's account and refund that early cancellation fee, please. Customer services told me they were sorry and this was all done. Great! Week later, no change on my bill. Call again, "Oh don't worry about that, it won't come out." "OK thank you for reassuring me!" Next week, it comes out of my bank account! Jesus christ. Customer services again: tentatively all sorted, been told refund is within 2 weeks, which really messes with our monthly finances.
What the hell is going on Virgin Media CS? Really dropped the ball on this! Key questions to ask yourselves:
- Why is the old owner's account still active on our address? And why are they linked?
- Virgin Media sent me the new owner's address! That's a breach of GDPR. She could have been leaving an abusive partner and you've just given them her address!
- Why was the money taken from my bank account after two separate reassurances that it was sorted?
This whole thing has been horrendously stressful and still isn't potentially over. For anyone moving house: make sure the old owner is removed from the address!
