Shocked by Virgin Media Bill - advice needed

[sideshowbob]

Recently i joined up to receive Virgin media services. I took up their offer of a broadband/TV/Phone bundle for £28 per month. Consequently they messed up my TV service and didnt send out the promised wireless router, but this is not what i need help with.

I remember signing a Direct debit form with the guy that installed the services.

On 11th April they sent me a letter titled- 'confirmation of the set up of your direct debit instruction'

I then recieved a letter with no date on it confirming my request for a voicemail service (i never requested a voicemail service).

and then on the 3rd June a letter telling me there has been a problem debiting my account and that i owe them £54, and that my service would be restricted in 5 days.

I never received a bill at any point telling me what and when they would be taking out of my account.

So i rang them today to pay the £54, only to be told that it is now £108!!!!

The girl on the phone didnt seem to know why it was £108, but she did explain a proportion of it;-

£56 for the first two months bundle

£5 for not paying by direct debit

£10 Non payment charge

£10 direct debit rejection charge

and then £27 seemingly unaccounted for! (probably another month bundle but calculated incorrectly)

 

At this point i said thanks, and hung up the phone (i was so angry i was trying to avoid becoming confrontational)

 

What should i do next? If i dont pay the bill i will be cut off and we all sort of rely on the internet in my house.

[MrShed]

Was the direct debit rejected by your bank?

 

Lets address these in order:

 

- £56 - I assume you have no real argument about this one?

- £5 - This one could be argued til kingdom come, but IF we accept the charge as valid, I guess this comes down to whether it was your mistake or not that the DD didnt go on time

- £10 - non payment - same as above IMO

- £10 DD rejection. Well here they take the ****. No way on gods green earth would I be paying this - its duplicating the £10 non payment charge with a different name!

- £27 - well quite clearly they cant bill you what they cant account for.

 

I think this depends on the reason for the DD failing. Most I would be paying right now is £71 - thefirst three charges.

[sideshowbob]

I have no problem with the £56, thats what i signed up for.

 

£5 sounds a bit like they are taking the mickey, but there you go. I didnt know the DD was coming out because they didnt send me a bill. I mean i knew that at some point i would get a bill that would be debited out of my account, but i thought they had to notify you of this beforehand?

 

£10 non-payment. This makes me really cross. Apart from the fact i see it as a penalty, the same argument as above applies.

 

£10 DD rejection. I totally agree. This is just another way of getting an extra £10 out of me.

 

Im still fuming, but feel like ringing them up again for further clarification.

[MrShed]

I mean, I'm not touching at all on the whole "unfair penalty" thing, as like it or not this is still going to be a not-straightforward legal argument.

 

The £10 DD rejection and £27 unknown are straightforward rejections, as there is just no basis whatsoever for them.

 

My suggestion is to pay and reclaim. If it makes you feel any better, tell them that you are paying under duress - but it doesnt really make any difference.

 

Another possible is to send them a letter and cheque(for £56), stating that it is full and final settlement of the current balance on the account as of date xxxx. This is because you consider the late charges/nonpayment/DD rejection as unlawful, and the £27 has not been adequately shown to your satisfaction to be owed. Chances are that the greedy bu**ers will cash the cheque anyway.

 

If they cut you off, demand a refund for the time you have been cut off, as well as compensation for their breach of contact. At the end of the day(someone I'm sure will clarify the legality for me), I fail to see how you can be expected to be charged when you havent received a bill with a breakdown of costs.

 

They are taking the mickey on this one like. I would also advise not to bother dealing with them over the telephone.

[Guest forgottenone]

Good God, VM seem as bad as Orange Broadband. And anyone who knows OB ... knows how bad they are. So, saying that ... well, if we use OB as a measure for how apalling customer service levels are etc.

 

Incidentally, VM has just been purchased by an India based company ... So, whatever problems it has now ... are set to get hellishly worse. If not already.

[MrShed]

FO, I have had lengthy experiences with both VM and OB.....and VM are worse. I realise you might find that difficult to accept!!!

 

What is the company who have bought them?

[sideshowbob]

Thanks for the advice MrShed - im going to give them a call now. I will let you know what the outcome is.

[sideshowbob]

Im sure i heard somewhere that Virgin media have to notify me as to when they are going to take a payment? Dont they have to give me ten days notice or something? isnt this part of the direct debit guarantee?

If this isnt the case, if they dont send me a bill (and remember this is the first bill from them), how would i know when the direct debit was going to come out of my account?

[Guest forgottenone]

No, actually, don't find it hard to accept ... one bit. Funnily enough. Had hellishly similar difficulties with Tiscali ... couldn't wait to get rid of them. Unfortunately, I then went with Orange. Ooops! Seems we get severely short changed in the UK with companies. I imagine their workers don't have to phone half way round the world to sort out their accounts, however.

 

Don't know who has purchased them, briefly saw that a company from that country had purchased them. Oddly enough, precisely where quite a few other broaband providers already hang out. And I am now convinced they are not in different call centres but field calls from several different providers at once. Or so it seems.

 

Essentially, happy to continue taking your payments ... hell will freeze over when it comes offering you at least the most basic - and I MEAN basic here - customer service. They don't wanna know. Sorry for hijacking the thread.

[jannercobbler]

Incidentally, VM has just been purchased by an India based company ... So, whatever problems it has now ... are set to get hellishly worse. If not already.

 

 

Virgin Media hasn't been sold BUT Virgin Radio Has

 

 

LONDON - Scottish media group SMG has struck a long-awaited deal to sell Virgin Radio, agreeing to sell the station as a going concern, minus the Virgin brand, to Absolute Radio owner Times of India for £53.2m.

 

However, the sale price is less than a quarter of the £225m that SMG paid for the station in 2000.

 

The Indian media group has agreed to buy the station, but will not license the Virgin brand from Virgin Group. It plans to relaunch Virgin Radio under a new brand in the Autumn. Times of India has secured an option to license the Virgin brand name for £8m within two years of the deal's closing.

 

TIML will develop what it termed "a new music and entertainment brand", investing £15m in the new brand.

 

Times of India subsidiary TIML Golden Square will run the company via its Absolute Radio unit.

 

The sale means SMG has now sold most of its non-core assets and is free to concentrate on its Scottish TV business STV.

 

SMG plans to use the proceeds from the sale to cut debts and some cash will be returned directly to shareholders.

 

TIML chief executive A.P. Parigi said: "TIML is part of the largest media and entertainment organisation in India, with a proven track record of building powerhouse brands. Now is a great period to be entering the UK market and the opportunity to acquire a valuable radio asset couldn't have come at a better time."

 

Source:

 

Indian group buys Virgin Radio - Brand Republic Login - Brand Republic