Virgin on the ridiculous!

[cpashto70]

What to do?

 

I posted earlier this week about my Virgin Media bill. I'm on the X phone and broadband package, and amounts to around £40 - £50 a month, depending on the charged calls I make.

 

I got my e-invoice a week or so ago and it said £306.89 for the period of 8th January to 7th February. I though they'd made a typing error and presumed they meant £36.89. Anyway, I received an e-mail a few days ago saying they were unable to collect the bill payment from my account because not enough funds were available.

 

With this in mind I phoned Virgin CS to query the problem. They basically said the bill of £306.89 was correct! I asked how this could possibly be right, £306.89 in one single month?

 

The reason for the large bill is because I hadn't been charged for chargeable calls from November 17th to February 8th, and had only been paying for the service charge and some chargeable calls. I didn't accept this and so registered and viewed my bill on the e-billing section. On here it said I'd accrued over £280.00 in chargeable calls for the period November 2010 to February 2011 and it was now payable on the latest February bill; hence £306.89.

 

I immediately called Virgin to ask how they could possibly do this when I'm meant to pay monthly, and they said the calls were slow to register with their systems due to a backlog? The lady at Virgin said that they can charge people six months later in instances such as this.

 

If you're with me so far, I thank you.

 

So, what can I do? I cannot possibly afford to pay £306.89 with no advanced warning or notice, and they're sure to disconnect me anytime soon. I find it totally unfair and unreasonable to do this, and it certainly doesn't say anything in the small print about the practice of storing bills up and lumping them on a customer in this fashion.

 

I'm at a complete loss as what to do and if this is legal and fair. Do I have any come back or do I have to get disconnected for three or four months until I can pay it off?

 

I'm not sure this ast one is possible because from what I've read on this site, they start sending out bailiffs don't they?

 

I'm so frustrated and helpless...please can anyone here clarify the legality and fairness of this practice? I've been with Virgin for over 2 years and nothing similar to this has ever happened before.

 

Please...please...can anyone give me any snippets of hope?

 

Thank you all in advance.

 

Craig & Marie

[labrat]

they did it to us not too long ago

 

we demanded a few months to pay it and they told us to take as long as we like but there would be a £10 a month charge each time its not paid in full

 

kept complaining, got £50 credit

 

paid the rest in full and used the £50 to move to sky

[biggeorge]

Virgin are a law to themselves.

I was offered a free tv package to stay with them after the p2p and Usenet throttling hit and told them I

was leaving,2 months down the line I have since left and now been billed £170 for cancellation charges of a new contract

I supposedly took out for the new TV service.

 

I am no longer a Virgin Media customer and I'm glad, the service just got worst and worst.

 

If you plan on staying with Virgin get a complaint in over how they have billed you for calls and offer a small amount extra

to pay it off with your normal service charges.

If they won't play ball threaten to cancel your services.

 

George