Frustrating Customer Service multiple years ago, and now I'm in arrears???
Hi. I hope there's someone here that can help me. A few years ago when I was a student, two of my friends and I had rooms in a student house. Most of the bills were included but internet wasn't, so we decided to go for Virgin Media for a year, despite only needing it for 9 months as that was the only contract option. I was the account holder, signing up with my email address. We all moved out, and I went to cancel the contract and disconnect it, happily sending the kit back to them and paying any early disconnection fees. I ended up being asked to speak to their customer service team over WhatsApp and happily explained the situation. I was moving to Manchester into a house where the landlord controlled and paid for the internet, included in the rent. This internet was also Virgin Media broadband and one of their more premium packages, so there was no need for me to have any sort of contract still. The chat was extremely frustrating, with the Customer Service Assistant repeatedly using different angles to ask me if I could keep my account. Each message took about 20 minutes to get a reply so it took hours. The conversation went something like this: "You still have 3 months! Are you sure you don't want us to transfer it to your new address?" "No that's honestly okay, my new place has a better version included from Virgin and the landlord pays for and manages it themselves. I would just like to cancel and can pay an early cancellation fee and send the equipment back" "I've just checked your new address and that version is much more expensive, are you sure you don't want to transfer this cheaper one?" "No, I'm not paying for the new one and its a shared house with it included, so please just cancel mine. I have no reason to need it anymore and would like to be out of the contract please". "You will have to pay an early cancellation fee" "That's fine, how much is it?" "Actually Luke our back office team will process regarding the service to the new address, so that you can use your own account" "I don't need it, please listen to me and cancel the contract, I have no need to pay for more Internet through my own account as I already have it through my landlord. Can I speak to a supervisor please?" "I understand Luke, are you moving to the new address permanently?" "Yes" "Have you got any friends or family that can take over the contract for you?" "No" "I understand that you may have already made up your mind , but would like to make sure that you are also not passing out an opportunity to re-negotiate your package with us." "I have no reason to have the package. As constantly explained. Please just disconnect me, I will be making a complaint if this continues" This then honestly continued for about another half an hour. Within the conversation I gave them my new address. Then, so many years later, I have checked my credit and although my credit score is absolutely fine, it mentioned me being in arrears. Now, looking back at the messaging with this customer service assistant, he did mention a cancellation fee but I never received a bill. I'd already moved house and didn't get an email or anything. He did mention it would cost £63 and I must have forgotten about it. My current problem is I've called Virgin, and now they can't access my account due to the security questions about about recent billing and there is none. They cant tell me what I owe, or anything. Despite telling them my new address in the above chat, because im not at the address I lived at in 2022, they can't send me a letter. It almost looks like my account has been closed but there's still an outstanding bill I'm unaware of. The lady on the phone said "well I can take a payment if you have an idea of how much you owe, but I can't tell you how much that is". I cant log into my account and trying to reset the password doesn't work. What? I apparently owe money, but virgin can't tell me what it is or get into my account. How do I know where the money is going, how much exactly to pay, if its going to actually pay off this mystery bill or not? It's just confusing. I would like to make a complaint as well because I have received nothing about this bill for years! Surely they still have some of my details if I owe them this money?? I haven't paid anything yet, but happy to do so if I've genuinely made an error. I just feel like the whole customer service aspect of all of my experience has been terrible. The confusion from which has potentially put me in arrears and affected my financials.