Problem with Virgin Media

[jdb321]

This is a slightly complex situation but please bear with me and hopefully it will make sense.

I was up until April this year paying for my Phone and Broadband as two seperate accounts. I had a great offer the previous year for free digital TV for one year and this was nearing the end of this free peroid.

I decided to change to one of Virgin Medias' 3 for £30 packages taking the one for Phone Broadband and Digital TV. On swapping over the i asked the Customer Services representive what i should do with the Broadband direct debit as this would still remain active at £18. I was told to cancel this accordingly.

Everything was fine until today when i couldn't log on. I telephoned them only to find out that my broadband account had been suspended due to a debt of £55 was on the account. After much discussion I stated I wanted to to speak to a Customer Services Manager which i did.

This was quite a revelation. On signing up for broadband i should have received e-bills by email. Nearly five years ago i moved house. At my old house i had broadband through my set top box. On moving i couldn't afford digital television so i took up the option of having broadband by cable modem. I had an absolute nightmare trying to link to my old account, so much so the tech people at NTL had to create a completely new account. When i asked why i had not been told that my account was in debt i was told that emails had been sent. The email address they sent it to was for the old account, and in fact i hadn't received any e-bills for the last 5 years.

Also i was slightly concerend to find out that the though it is a package deal the broadband was still a seperate account and therefore paid seperately. The manager agreed that i had been misinformed and should not have cancelled my direct debit as this was still required to collect payment. However she then stated that on the bill sent for the Phone and TV, broadband is not included. I replied that a) It is not clearly stated that broadband is omitted on this bill due to so many credited and debited amount under the service charge section. Under no circumstances does it say deduction for broadband or words to this effect. b) my bills have been on average between £35 - £45. This is a normal range for my Virgin bill be with the broadband included so why would i think there was any difference or problem.

Basically the partyline was i have had the service so i need to pay for it.

My complaint is that there was some fundamental flaws in their system these are a) Being told by incompetent staff to cancel my direct debit when i should have left it running. b) My email address not being changed when i old account became dysfunctional. I wasn't aware that i should have been e-billed in the first place. c) Why a letter wasn't sent to my home address that payment wasn't met in the first instance. This could have been addressed immediately. Now i am £55 out of pocket.

The manager agreed that i was misinformed and that the email account should have been changed however i would be required to pay the sum of £55 to reactivate the account.

Should Virgin waivered this charge as i feel that they are at fault for this.

Kind regards

Jason Brynes

[karen654321]

Of course they should but i think you will have a fight on your hands. Im having nightmares with virgin at the moment. Its been ongoing for about 6 weeks or more.

I have sent a letter to steve stewart who i have been told is high up in customer relations/services but he didnt reply. It was sent recorded and marked private and confidential. But they have no record of it being delivered even though it was signed for.

They are just a complete shambles. I really wish you good luck with this and if you do manage to find someone helpful take there name and let us know.

thanks

karen

[Conniff]

Jd - If you knock off you phone call charges is the bill then £30 or is it less than this??

[gizmo111]

I have sent you a PM with the e-mail of a lady in broadband complaints who has helped me sort out the shambles they call a service, and has credited me with every single penny they messed up on as well as a £25 GOGW

[buzby]

The other warning is the VM eBills T&Cs are quite onerous. I would advise against taking this, as even the minimal discount isn't worth the hassle when it goes wrong.