Virgin media (Won't cancel contract until Bill is paid)

[VMsck]

Hi there,

 

Have a question regarding cancelling services with Virgin media.

 

Basically my bill is about £32 a month for broadband and telephone. I dont take more service's as I cant afford any more.

 

One month I made a mistake at the paypoint and I paid less than the full bill for the month. As I can only afford about £40 a month towards the bill, I figured that over a little time the £8 extra will cover what was missed.

 

Unfortunately I was wrong and every month virgin added a £10 charge. Some of these were removed but not all of them. I can't afford to keep my services with virgin due to the extra £10 charge every month which takes me over budget.

 

The problem I have is that virgin refuse to let me cancel my services until I have caught up. So I am in a catch 22 position.

 

Are virgin media allowed to stop you giving 30 days notice if a small amount of bill like £10 or £15 is outstanding?

 

Thanks in advance!

[BankFodder]

They are not allowed to prevent you from cancelling your contract on any basis.

Serve them with notice of cancellation immediately.

Make sure that you don't use their service at all and that they can't prodcue evidence that you have used it.

 

If you then just terminate your payments at the end of the contract, they will default you and start chsing you.

Branson has forgotten his roots.

 

Are you paying on direct debit? If you are then wait until they take a payment beyond the termination date and then sue them for it back.

If you are paying manually, then you will have to overpay them, then claim it back citing the cancelled contract and then sue them for the money.

It won't be diffcult and they will eventually back down - but if they do force you into court, you will win. Their position is untenable.

 

At the end, report them to trading standards and also make a CPUT complaint - also to trading standards.

 

their actions are unlawful and oppressive.

 

I'm afraid that you will have to keep on paying until it is sorted out. however, make it clear with each payment that your payments are under protest and only made in order to protect yourself from abusive retaliatiatory use of the credit reference agencies.

[VMsck]

Thanks for the info.

 

I pay at a paypoint manually because I know so many people who have paid by direct debit and had virgin media take huge amounts out not related at all to their bill. So I take their surcharge for manual payment on the chin so they don't screw up my bank account. Shows how much we trust VM

 

As they refuse to let me cancel when I call them up, I will have to find an address to write to them at to get it cancelled.

 

As for not using their services, its a bit difficult. I am job hunting so I have to use their internet service and phone. Once I can cancel I will obviously sign up for another provider.

 

Thanks again for the advice!

[BankFodder]

Aren't they meant to let you have a mac code in order to transfer and they are not allowed to withold this on a disputed account.

 

If this is the case, then this is another hook you can try.

Serve notice of cancellation. Ask them immediately for a mac code.

If they won't let you have it then sue them for breach of contract. you can bring in the problem of contract cancellation at the same time.

 

If you speak to them on the phone then you should record all calls.

 

i keep on saying this o this forum bt still harldy anyone ever bothers and then they come here bleating that XX peson said such and such and because they relied on it they have now got themselves into trouble.

Record your calls.

 

Do I understand that you haven't written to them about the cancellation?

You should have done this. Try to do this on the phone and you will only talk to idiots who generally make it up as they go along. Of course, the conversation would have been useful to you but you didn't record it.

[BankFodder]

In fact sue them for breach of contract anyway.

It is definitley at least an implied term of the contract that you can terminate after xx days notice and it is probably written into the contract.

 

becauseful, though, if they haven't already, they will blot your copybook by logging something with the CRAs.

 

I am sure that if Branson understood what was going on he would be appalled and wold overhaul the system. But he won't know - and even that is poor leadership.

[VMsck]

Unfortunately I don't have the hardware to record phone calls, otherwise I would.

 

Only ADSL has MAC codes. Virgin broadband gives you ADSL if you are not in their cable area from what I understand. Anyway, as I am a cable customer there is no MAC code.

 

By trial and error I have learn the hard way that I need to write to them rather than to speak to the monkeys who are on the phone. As they told me over the phone that I could not cancel, I didn't think of writing to them to do so as I thought it would make no difference.

 

Thanks for pointing out my ignorance in this respect

 

I have taken all what you have said onboard and will take the first step of writing to them and see where we go from there.

 

If it costs me no money up front (being jobless means lack of funds currently) I am happy to take as much action against them to give them as much a hard time as they have given me all the time I have been a customer of theirs.

 

It's crazy that less than £20 can cause bad credit ratings these days. Not many people realise that mobile phones, internet and anything you pay after you have received the service is a credit agreement and can affect your credit rating.

[MARTIN3030]

I would consider taking them to Court to recover those £10.00 charges.

I will move your thread into the forums where you can read about others who have got these charges back

(I have taken them to Court twice and won)

As Bankfodder says they should not be allowed to get away with this.

In your communications keep everything in writing and send recorded delivery keeping a copy.

You should only threaten them with legal action if you are prepared to follow it through tho-these will hang out until the very last minute before they cave in.

[buzby]

I would implore you to not make an issue of this - there is no guarantee you would win any action on the £10 late fees. I find the fees abhorrent, but my view is better expressed in this thread:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/telecoms-mobile-fixed/182096-virgin-media-late-payment.html

 

That said - if you have a BT line you can activate, then you can start afresh with web access. Another alternative is BB using a USB modem stick, 3UK have some pretty good offers for £49, and inclusive data on a PAYG basis, but there are 2 caveats; (1) This would be 'emergency' access not a landline/cable substitute, just to keep you on-line until things are sorted out. (2) Check you have decent coverage and connection speeds BEFORE any formal commitment.

 

Back at VM, you'll probably find that the CS or Billing said they cannot take instructions to cancel, this is true but only PART of the truth. Only Retentions can process a disconnection. Whilst they may have alluded to the fact you cannot terminate whilst you owe them, as previously pointed out, that is nonsense. It is always best to cancel in writing, and if you are outwith your minimum term, you could certainly terminate phone and TV to keep BB on its own, and hopefully get the account in order, perhaps dropping to their lowest BB tier too?

[xuntitledx]

As per the above post, it is only Customer Relations that can take a notice to cancel (30 days). If your account has an outstanding balance and a restriction on the services, the Customer Relations agent would not be able to put a disconnection notice through on your account until a payment has been made.

 

The process at this point would be to ask the customer to make a payment to clear the outstanding amount and transfer you to the Collections department. If you couldn't make a payment then Collections would see if they can put you on a payment plan to bring your account up to date.

The only people that can overule this are members of the complaints team and a written letter of disconnection would need to be submitted.

Edited February 11, 2009 by xuntitledx
**More Information**

[VMsck]

Im sticking with them a little longer while I go through the process of attempting to get a refund on the £10 charges.

 

I asked to be put through to someone who could cancel my connection before, that is when they told me that it was not possible and I had to pay them first. Which is what the poster above said.

 

That just seems kinda wrong that they can refuse to do it over the phone. If someone cannot afford the bill yet cannot easily disconnect their services with a phone call, they will be charged another month for services they have not received.