Virgin Media.

Anyone had this problem ?.

Been with them for 20 yrs since they were NTL.

Was a good package for several years,

then each year the cost has risen and risen.

We all know they're giving the 'good' deals to their new customers and people like myself are paying more than double for the same services/packages.

last June 2017, I rang them to 'haggle ' and try to get a reduction on my monthly bills.

I was offered a deal of £6 per month off, for 12 months.

Better than nothing I thought.

They even sent me a new contract (shock, horror) stating how much it would be each month.

Don't think I've had a contract from them for about 15 yrs.

sure enough, in July and August the agreed £6 off was honoured.

Then end of Aug I received the generic type letter they send to everyone stating that my monthly bill would increase by £3.99 per month from November 2017. Hang on I thought, I'm supposed to have a fixed price agreement until July 2018 ?.

At that point I'd only had the agreed 'deal ' for 2 months (4 months by November).

I rang them.

Got a foreign gent and I explained the above to him.

He did a lot of woffling, some of which I couldn't understand and was saying he couldn't do anything about the price rise.

BUT I said, I have a contract in front of me from Virgin stating the fixed price I'd been offered.

Well then he had to put me on hold to 'consult' with 'someone '.

He then came back and said that I WOULD still get my fixed, agreed rate and it would show that on the November bill.

November comes and, you've guessed it, they'd increased my bill by £3.99 !.

To cut this short,

I rang them 3 more times about this over several weeks and had 3 different 'customer services ' (that's a laugh)

staff tell me initially in barely deciperable English, that they couldn't 'do anything about it' (no proper explanation why)

but then when I stated that they had sent me a contract and that if it was the other way around and I broke MY contract with THEM, they would be penalizing me, so were they going to honour this contract or not ?.

They each then had to put me on hold so that they could 'speak to someone ', then came back on the phone and told me that yes, they would honour the contract and that they would start giving me the £6 per month reduction starting again on the December bill (2017) up until July of 2018 (I'd already had July, Aug, Sept, Oct) so was due another 8 mths. Great I think, all sorted.

Nooo...not sorted, December bill had the £3.99 rise added and now so has the January bill.

How many times do I have to ring this company in order for their incompetent staff to get this right and sort it out !.

And I'm not the only one this sort of thing is happening to, judging by the Virgin Media Facebook page which I had a look at some days ago to discover that they are doing similar things to other customers all over the country.

There were SO many people posting on there, some were brand new customers who had been offered a package, price agreed on, had the equipment installed, (phone line, Tv box,Broadband) and then they were getting overcharged each month, ringing Virgin, getting incompetent staff saying they'd sort it out, it would be correct on the next bill plus a refund on charges and of course, the customers weren't getting these and were doing same as me, ringing Virgin over and over, but the billing never getting sorted out l.

BUT if you attempt to terminate your services with them, they start quoting the terms of the verbal 'contract' you have with them and saying they will charge you for breaking your contract !!! (that's the verbal contract you didn't know existed !)

They are unbelievable.

I love the Tivo box I have, the phone and broadband are satisfactory, but their 'customer service ' is the worst I've ever come across and I worked in this field and was a trainer some years ago.

You simply cannot get any sense out of the and they tell you the same thing over and over and never actually DO the thing you've contacted them for.

SO, does anyone know HOW I can get them to adhere to the contract I have with them, short of me contacting the Financial Ombudsman or reporting them to Trading Standards ??.

Any help much appreciated.

When I first joined Virgin Media (it was NTL then) many years ago, I'd agreed on a package and what it would cost each month.

I got the first bill-they'd overcharged me, it was NOT the price I had agreed on, so I rang them.

I spent ages on the phone whilst the Customer Service person 'sorted it out'.

She agreed the bill was incorrect and would be put right by the next bill and I'd get a refund for the money THEY owed ME.

That didn't happen.

To cut a long story short, this went on for 4 months, each month I was overcharged and each month I was ringing them to sort it out, felt like it was taking over my life !.

Finally on the 5th month it had been sorted, I'd obviously got someone by that time who knew why what they were doing.

But one of their staff told me at the time that they (Customer Service staff) don't have access at all to the billing side of things, so they have to email that dept.

Each time I had rang, the person who was 'sorting it out' had simply emailed the billing dept and the staff at the billing dept were the ones not sorting it, or not reading the emails !.

I don't know if this is still the case now as my problem with billing was several years ago.

If you read my current post about VM, you will see that I am having problems with them yet again regarding billing.

Their 'customer service ' is terrible, especially if you're trying to sort out a billing problem !.

Their 'customer service ' is terrible, especially if you're trying to sort out a billing problem !. See my own post.

The only thing that works with VM is to phone to cancel and get through to their retentions staff to run through all of the issues you have had. The retentions staff have much more authority to deal with account issues. They can even write off amounts.

Write to their ceo telling them that you are cancelling the contract following their breach of their own terms.

That will catch their attention immediately.

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