Help! Virgin Media chasing for NTL old accounts

[tallpines]

Hi,

 

If anyone could help me I would really appreciate it, I am absolutely incensed by this one....

 

Up til December 2004 we had services with NTL. When we moved house in Dec 2004 we tried to cancel NTL but however we tried we were not able to. During November 2004 we tried calling; couldnt get through, we tried submitting online forms on their customer service pages; no response (other than automated 'thank you for your enquiry we will contact you soon' ones) so we let our last DD go through 26 November and then all we could do was cancel the DD as we were moving out 1st week December.

As a last ditch attempt following cancelling the DD and when we were in our new house we wrote to the Accounts Dept at NTL's head office saying that we had gone and that we had cancelled the DD and had tried to give more notice but all our attempt had failed and we sent this letter 13 December 2004 recorded post.

 

We are now receiving letters from a debt collection agency trying to collect debt for what they are saying is our last months payments (for Dec) but we were not even in the property at that time and had already given our notice in November and paid the final month end November.

 

I wrote a letter of complaint to customer concerns at Virgin Media and was pleased to get as phone call today. However they haver informed me that because the accounts records are now 'archived' that I would need to send them a postal order for £10 if I want a copy of the account proving I owe them money!!!! The cheek of it! Are they allowed to do this? To force us to pay £10 (which doesnt come off the bill if it does result in my owing the money) or force it to go back to a debt collection agency? Its so unfair, what can I do?

[vselym]

Hi Tallpines

 

the £10 sounds like the maximum fee payable for a SAR. I would suggest its worth paying as it should clarify the situation and bring resolution to the matter.

 

you should also check your credit files with the cra's to ascertain whether a default has been registered in relation to this account, and if so you clearly need this removed as part of your requirements for closing the account completely

 

only correspond in writing, no matter how incensed you become with them, and obviously recorded/special delivery

 

btw, if the account was monthly in arrears then novembers charges wouldnt have been due til the december, which may be where the confusion lies

 

hope that helps

[tallpines]

Hi, thanks for the info. So to confirm; they are totally within their rights, even though I did everything I was supposed to, provided my new address details, for them not to contact me for 3.5 years, I receive no demands from NTL or Virgin media direct, but that I get several letters from debt collection companies and have to spend plenty of my time looking into the matter, phone calls, sending letters recorded delivery (which I dont ask THEM to pay for) to find that I now HAVE to pay them a further £10 just to get a copy of the account, which I dispute? The world has gone mad.

[2Grumpy]

No, you shouldn't be having to pay VM £10 to prove this.

 

You could write telling them that you gave the requisite notice to terminate your NTL account as well as your new address, that this was the first you have heard from them for 3.5 years and that this is patently wrong on their part.

Since they have given this account to debt collectors, they must have all the information to hand to have given it to the debt collectors, otherwise how would they know that they had the correct amount and details. Remind them of this.

You should say if you dispute anything and demand proof that you owe this money.

Ask for a copy of their complaints procedure.

 

Grumpy

[vselym]

Tallpines

 

the world has gone mad indeed, whilst i agree with 2grumpy that you "shouldn't" pay £10, if you do with a full SAR, that changes the manner with which they have to deal with the complaint, as they are then bound by statute to send you the data, and there is more recourse for complaint if they fail to comply

 

For that reason i would proceed as suggested

[2Grumpy]

You could always send the SAR with no money - it's up to them to ask for it if they want to, up to a maximum of £10.

I suspect that VM would ask for that though.

 

It won't be much help if NTL didn't record receipt of the letters / emails - they weren't well known for their efficiency!

 

I suppose it would show what they had and what they were trying to charge you for. If it was one months calls, that would show they had got some communications, if it was more then it would show they hadn't actioned them. It would show whether they had your new address at the time.

 

Grumpy