telewest charges

[mo]

just had a call form virgin media,complaints dept.i sent a letter asking for myh charges back,the lady says no, they have put there charges through offcom,and offcom say they are correct,and all these charges are in my t&c.i told her i shall be sending a letter before action,but she says im wasting my time,any thoughts?

[davethorp]

LBA and then court. Could also try giving the CEO an e-mail. That got all my charges refunded. His addy is on this site somewhere

[mo]

thanks,is she talking rubbish then?who did you e mail?

[davethorp]

I e-mailed Neil Berkett about it who is the chief executive officer who passed it onto someone in his office who was a very nice lady called Penny who agreed to refund all previous charges and place a £5 credit on my bill each month to eliminate the nonDD charge

His e-mail is Neil.Berkett@virginmedia. co.uk

The e-mail I sent was as follows (feel free to copy though make sure you amend as to suit you.... defo take out the bit about ebilling unless you've had problems with that area lately)

Originally Posted by me

Dear Mr Berkett,
I write regarding the above referenced account with yourselves and the recent charges that have been applied to my account.

Over the last six months I have been subjected to charges of £5 a month (total £30) for not paying by direct debit. As I am sure you are aware, with the recent publicity of these charges, unless you are able to prove that this is a true reflection of your costs in relation to payment by means other than direct debit, these charges are unlawful and unenforceable in a court of law by virtue of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (1999) and the common law.

In addition, the last straw for me is the £10 late payment charge added to my latest bill. Firstly, as the ebilling system was down for a number of weeks over the latest billing period, I did not have full access to my account. As all my bills are online I also had no record of my account number for the automated telephone system to make a payment. As such I called customer services to make a payment. However when I called their systems were also down and so I made a payment that would clear the majority of my bill. As the outstanding balance was only a small portion of my overall bill and as any late payment was the fault of your systems being down, I dispute this late payment charge. I also dispute it again as I believe it to be a penalty that is not reflective of your costs and again put you to strict proof that this is not the case.

In order to resolve this complaint, I require from you either a complete breakdown of your costs demonstrating they are a reasonable charge which is merely you recovering your costs relating to these matters and not penalising your customers. Failing that I require a refund of all charges incurred to date which is 6*£5 non direct debit charge and one £10 late payment therefore the total to be refunded is £40. Please be advised that until such a time this complaint is resolved, I consider the £40 of charges to be disputed and any payments I make to you towards my bills will reflect this. As such my payment towards my latest bill will be £36.33. Any further charges added as a result of this will also be disputed.

Whilst I wish to avoid any unnecessary litigation, I am obliged to warn you that I am prepared to take this case to court to recover the charges if it becomes necessary. A further letter will be sent within 14 days time to warn you of impending action should you not respond favourably to this letter. Please also note that as I am nearing the end of my contract in 3 months time, should you not respond favourably, I may be forced to take my business over to sky. I hope this does not become necessary.

Bear in mind also that things have changed lately with BT winning in court over these charges so virgin may not be as likely to play ball

[mo]

thanks,i didnt know bt had won in court,was that for non d d or late fees?

[mo]

hi.im sorry for asking again,but i dont know if to carry on with this claim or not,ive been going on to them now for months ,so should i send them a lba? thanks

[locutus]

I'm sure that people have had these fee's waived since BT won the DD fee case. Just a littly FYI, BT's charges work out at £18 per year, VM work out at £60. The court case did NOT set a precident and I've not heard of any company even defending, they just "gesture of good will we'll credit £5.00 per month" type of stuff. If you are on benefits of any type I'm sure you can get either a reduced or free cout claim, and it's most likely that VM will settle out of court rather than risk losing. Of course all of this is your descision to make, GL and I hope you recieve satisfaction. IMHO the LBA is not going to cost you much and may rattle their cage.

Also (sorry for ranting on) I'm sure some people have said that as VM is not an established company, that they have the fee's waived for 6 months... £30 is better than a kick in the teeth

[mo]

ive decided to tryh and send lba to virgin see how i go,perhaps what the lady said to me on the phone was rubish?anyone got a copy of lba?thanks

[BankFodder]

Don't send the LBA unless you are sure about it and you are sure that you will follow through with the summons. Otherwise you just humiliate yourself.

Do you know how many letters they receive each month threatening action? Lots.
Do you know how many of those letters aren't followed up? Most.

[mo]

thanks,if i can get the correct leter and poc details i will def go to small claims,i am so fed up of there charges

[mo]

hi,im still very confused,i dont know if people are telling me to continue or not with this?i thought from reading these threads these charges were re claimable?

[locutus]

Lots of good info in this thread, hope it helps

Penalties for not paying by direct debit

[mo]

thanks fot that,ive read thru it,my concern was after virgin media rang me,they said that late charges and no d d had been put to offcom and they were correct?

[MARTIN3030]

Dont deal with this by phone.Keep everything in writing.
The Bt case was won but as has been said,was not set as a precedent.
Aditionally the Bt charges are considerably less than VM.
Of course they will vigourously contest that you have a case to win-its up to you to prove you are serious,but as has also been pointed out dont anticipate it unless you are prepared to go all the way-because they will push it to the end.
If you decide that you want to go for it then theres people here who are doing it-and those who have already done it.
You should spend some time preparing and have a look at how others have done.Keep us posted.

[mo]

thanks,im goin to do a lba after and post it see what people think,i was just a bit put off with them telin me bout ofcom,didnt know if she was fibbing or not

[mo]

got letter from v m today,1st they have the date they spoke to me as 19 dec 2007,not.it was last week,then they go on to say sorry your not happy,(understatement)in the fee there are considerable costs involved in processing,the breakdown of the costs is business sensitve,and not available for public scrutiny,please be assured that this has been approved by ofcom. and then goes on to say,go away really.