Phone Calls

[kitreeve]

I keep getting phone calls on my mobile from various 0800 numbers claiming to be from Virgimedia. The latest ws 0800 183 6403. They seemed to know all about my account and were offering various new deals. However the person had strong foreign accent that was difficult to understand and when I asked them to send me the details in writing or by email they said they couldn't do that, at which point I terminated the call. Are these genuine calls from Virgin and if so why won't they put the new deals in writing.

[goslow]

Impossible to say whether the calls are genuine or not based only on caller ID alone due to number spoofing by scammers using cloned VM numbers.

The pushy, hard-sell sales tactics of VM are hard to distinguish from the pushy, hard-sell 'sales' tactics of the scammers.

Default advice is to place an outbound call to VM should you need to speak to them.

If you do not wish to receive marketing calls from VM, have you used the opt-out from within 'My Virgin Media'?

The reason VM won't put anything in writing from sales calls is they want the sale there and then, without allowing you to go through all the details and give it further consideration (when you might well subsequently decide not to proceed when you have had time to mull it over and compare with other offers elsewhere!)

[nigelss]

If Virgin Media put you on a new contract (which is what they are doing when they talk you into changing your package and almost  certainly locking you in for an extended period unless you pay steep early termination charges) is there not a mandatory cooling off period in which you can cancel without penalty?

[goslow]

Yes, 14 days cooling off but reports on here suggest that VM often make it as hard as possible to invoke that get-out.

The customer also has to return any equipment, under threat of financial penalty for failing to do so. VM's equipment returns processes also leave a lot to be desired.

Any finally the customer has to exit and reclaim any monies paid without VM messing that part up too!

[nigelss]

The last post I just added to my own thread here on the same topic might help to clear this up. Looks to me like some of them might actually be genuine!

[Zach_R]

Hi @kitreeve,

Thank you for your post and welcome back to our community forums. We're here to help.

I'm sorry to hear you've received some confusing calls from callers claiming to be Virgin Media recently. Though the number in your post is one of our contact numbers, as has been mentioned already in this thread, it could've potentially been spoofed by someone else wishing to pose as us with that number.

If you ever receive a call from us that you haven't discussed and arranged with us in advance, if you feel unsure that it's genuine then please feel free to terminate the call and then contact us on 0345 454 1111 (or 150 from a Virgin Media landline) for your peace of mind.

Thanks,