Problems with Virgin

[JMC160]

Hi all!

I'm posting this on behalf of my sister. She works two jobs so doesn't have time to do this herself (there's more to it, but that's for another thread!).

My sister has recently moved into a new house. She moved out of her old place early and redirected her post to mine - including Virgin bills. When she moved into her new house, she downsized her Virgin package from phone,BB,TV to just phone & BB. Since then, they haven't been able to get her bill right. They keep trying to charge her for TV, and usually they try to charge her twice in the same bill.
They also keep sending the bills & correspondance to my house, even after she has changed her address with them AND had phone & BB installed at her new house.
As a result of all this, she has stopped direct debits from going to them and now gets the bill and phones them if there's a problem - this happens every month.

When the last bill came through, once again, they'd charged her for stuff she doesn't have, so she phoned them, but this time the person she spoke to was not helpful at all and couldn't sort the problem out. She was told to phone back, so she informed them that she was disputing the bill and would not pay until it was resolved. She asked the CS rep to put the account in dispute on the system.

This month (she has been phoning constantly but still hasn't had any luck with this), a new bill came asking for last month's (wrong) bill, plus this month's bill including two lots of TV charges again. These are still being delivered to her old address (and then redirected to mine). She has also received two letters - a bill reminder and a final reminder.

I have suggested she writes a letter explaining that she fully intends to pay once the amounts are corrected, and she shouldn't be receiving correspondance from them as the account is in dispute.

Is that right?

If so, any help on the letter would be apprecated.

J

[buzby]

If she's receiving any Virgin services, she should pay the undisputed amounts, this makes it very difficult for Virgin to say she's a bad debtor. It's a task and a half to find someone who can sort out the problem, but if she perseveres, she'll make it - it's just soul destroying finding them!

[JMC160]

Hi buzby, thanks for that - we'll put together a letter & cheque this afternoon.

As for the other letter, I'm sure there's a section in an act somewhere that says about sending reminder letters etc. while the ac****'s in dispute. Can anyone confirm/direct me to it?

J

[buzby]

You'll find it can be like King Canute trying to stop letters and phone calls, as it can take many weeks of negotiation before the computer takes notice. No staffer is going to flag a customer 'do not contact' on their own initiative, as it can lead to problems later (they leave a footprint), and if everyone that was contacted said the bill was in dispute (whether it was or it wasn't) they're not going to cut any slack. In any event, you could only complain to the Information Commissioner, and he'd accept a claim that it was simply a lag between compliance and the call/letters stopping.

[JMC160]

tbh i'm not too worried if they do continue to send the letters, but it's taking so long to sort out she's now incurred a late payment charge. I just want to make it clear that this will not be accepted and we want to incur no more charges while this is getting sorted out. so it's more about charges, defaults and service stoppages than the letters themselves.

we'll also be writing directly to the guy who signed the letters we received as there's been no progress with CS.

[buzby]

There's always a lag with the letters anyway. I've always had the late fees credited in issues like this, especially as they're automatically applied even when the records show there's an ongoing issue.

[JMC160]

So should I just ask them to refund the charge then?

[JMC160]

Here's the letter so far:

Dear Mr Elliot,

Thank you for your letter dated 10th June 2007, which was addressed to ***************. Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying, but despite contacting customer services and having my phone and broadband reinstalled at my new address, your staff have failed to update my contact details. In future, please use the address at the top of this letter.

I have made numerous calls to your customer services department to try and resolve this issue, but so far I have been unsuccessful. For example, my latest phone call involved a two hour conversation with four different departments, and finally being told I could not speak to the manager as she was going home. I am now aiming my complaint directly to you.

I have stopped paying by direct debit as your failure to update my account details has resulted in my being regularly billed more than double what I owe. I also cannot understand how your customer services department can take details of my new address, send an engineer to my new house to install my services, and still be sending my bills and correspondence to my old address.

My delay in paying my bill is a result of the above problems. I have made numerous phone calls to yourselves in an effort to have my bill adjusted to reflect what I actually owe, but so far nobody has been able to help me with this. I have now sent a cheque to the amount of £49.85 to the appropriate department. I am disputing the remaining £111.62 as I am not subscribed to the TV services that these charges reflect.

In light of these facts, please remove any late payment charges that have been incurred.


Please contact me within 14 days to confirm that my details have been changed and my outstanding balance is settled, and please do not hesitate t contact me if you require further information.

Any advice/corrections welcome, but please hurry, as I want to try & get this in for the last post tomorrow (Wed)!

[JMC160]

Result!

My sister had a phone call from Virgin. They credited all fees and charges and finally corrected her account details.

[buzby]

Bet your delighted! It's a shame it takes so long to get satisfaction.