virgin media been taking money out for over a year by dd. service was cancelled

[king12345]

Sorry steampowered, I must have been writing at the same time as you.

Didn't mean to repeat your post

[steampowered]

Sorry steampowered, I must have been writing at the same time as you.

Didn't mean to repeat your post

 

No worries! We posted at the same time. It is always useful for people to have a second opinion.

[sanepersongonemad]

thanks. i have just paid the amount and and sent an email to the ceo team stating;-

 

On reading the outcome of the cisas case, i have today, under duress made a payment in full of # on your online system which i believe is the full amount of the bill.

 

Please be clear i have paid this money for only one reason and that is to avoid a default on my credit file or any arrears as i am am due to apply for a mortgage and do not want to taint my credit history.

 

I do not in any way accept that any monies are owed to virgin media as i cancelled all my services last year and have not used them since.

 

Please be aware i intend to file a claim in the county courts for the return of this money with costs added to this.

 

how long do i wait before a formal letter? thanks

[king12345]

Don't wait.

Send it now requesting the £900 and give them 14 days.

After that it's show time.

[sanepersongonemad]

is there a skeleton i can copy?

[king12345]

It's in the library.

Look for letter before action (I think a link will be formed automatically now).

Adapt the letter to your needs, be very precise, brief and to the point.

Don't drag it too long because as said the have intellectual skills of 6 year old kids.

Post it here and the more experienced caggers will surely correct any mistake.

[sanepersongonemad]

the link comes up with information how to start the small claims procedure but nothing on a template for letter before action...

[sanepersongonemad]

this is what im thinking...

 

 

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

Dear Tom Mockeridge

I write with regards to the unresolved matter of virgin media billing me for services i had cancelled in april 2013 after which i started my new services with sky in may 2013.

Virgin media have continued to bill me by taking direct debits. i was unaware of this due to this being taken from an account which is not my regualar account.

 

As soon as i was aware of this, i contacted your customer services. A record of this i have on my phone bills which not surprisingly you do not have.

 

i once again attempted to sort this with your customer services, which again was pointless.

 

I further attempted resolution by contacting yourselves - again this didnt help.

 

i once again tried to sort the matter out and approached cisas but this again deemed fruitless. i did not even get an explanation of why the bill amounts were varying since i had not been in contact in over a year.

 

i have under duress today, paid the sum in full of £930.15 on your online service. I have simply done this to avoid getting a default or arrears on my account or credit history. please be clear i do not owe you any money and accept no liability whatsoever for the amount i paid you.

Any attempt to place arrears on my credit history or a default which would affect my mortgage application plans will be added to court letters.

 

Therefore i am giving you 14 days to refund my money of £930.15 in full.

 

Failure to do this will result in court action plus costs of 8% interest per annum and further costs.

 

I await your response.

 

 

 

 

apologies im not very good at letter writing. what do you guys think?

[steampowered]

A letter before claim should be self-standing. It is fine to refer to other documents, but someone who knows nothing about your case should still be able to read the letter and understand what your claim is about.

 

I think you should begin your letter with a short, clear summary of what has happened and why you want VM to refund this money. This can repeat to some extent what you already told CISAS.

[sanepersongonemad]

i am struggling with this and have tried to edit the original with the cisas email bits and would really like to send it tonight. i have paid on my credit card so hopefully it will be sorted before that is due. could someone please help me with this? im not good at letter writing and am struggling to make it sound formal. thanks guys

 

I write with regards to the unresolved matter of virgin media billing me for services i had cancelled in april 2013 after which i started my new services with sky in may 2013.

 

Virgin media have continued to bill me by taking direct debits. i was unaware of this due to this being taken from an account which is not my regualar account.

my sky services of tv, phone line and broadband started on may 23 2013 as evidenced by actual bills

 

A letter and phonecall of cancellation giving 30 days notice was given to vm in April 2013. This is denied by vm. However, I have evidence from mobile phone bill where I have called vm recently when I realised this issue and when asked about the notes on the account from my call, I have been told there is no record. This I believe is also the case with my cancellation -no record of my recent call and no record of my cancellation.

 

I cannot understand why vm would think I would have their services active when I have purchased high speed broadband, the top television package with sky and a landline whereas the package I had before cancellation with vm was a basic package. This makes no sense.

My email address is active and is checked several times a day. Never in all this time have I received any emails from virgin media let alone any bills. Had I received bills, I would have actioned this sooner.

 

 

As soon as i was aware of this, i contacted your customer services. A record of this i have on my phone bills which not surprisingly you do not have.

 

i once again attempted to sort this with your customer services, which again was pointless.

 

I further attempted resolution by contacting yourselves - again this didnt help.

 

i once again tried to sort the matter out and approached cisas but this again deemed fruitless. i did not even get an explanation of why the bill amounts were varying since i had not been in contact in over a year.

 

i have under duress today, paid the sum in full of £930.15 on your online service. I have simply done this to avoid getting a default or arrears on my account or credit history. please be clear i do not owe you any money and accept no liability whatsoever for the amount i paid you.

Any attempt to place arrears on my credit history or a default which would affect my mortgageicon application plans will be added to court letters.

 

Therefore i am giving you 14 days to refund my money of £930.15 in full.

 

Failure to do this will result in court action plus costs of 8% interesticon per annum and further costs.

 

I await your response.

[sanepersongonemad]

the other thing is i made the payment online yesterday and have not recieved a confirmation email despite putting my email in. i have checked my blocked list and junk and nothing on there.....

 

been on vm online chat and they have recived the pymt. there are no arrears on teh account and no default. phew. just strange how i dont have their emails??? not even their payment confirmation. have checked through junk and blocked - nothing there at all.....

[sanepersongonemad]

sorry can someone help so i can send the letter before action off please. thankyou

[steampowered]

A few revisions:

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Letter before claim

This is a formal letter before claim written under the Practice Direction for Pre-Action Conduct.

 

I cancelled all my services with Virgin Media in April 2013, as I decided to move my business to Sky. A letter and phonecall of cancellation giving 30 days notice was given to Virgin Media in April 2013.

 

However, Virgin Media has continued to bill me by taking direct debits. I was unaware of this due to the money being taken from an account which is not my regualar account. My email address is active and is checked several times a day. Never in all this time have I received any emails from virgin media let alone any bills.

 

My sky services of tv, phone line and broadband started on 23 May 2013 as evidenced by actual bills which you have already seen.

 

I have tried to resolve this through customer services and CISAS, which has proved fruitless. I have not even received an explanation of why the bill amounts vary given that I had not been in contact in over a year.

 

I had originally instructed my bank to reverse the direct debit. I have today paid the sum of £930.15 through your online service. I have simply done this to avoid getting a default or arrears on my account or credit history, given that I am currently applying for a mortgage. Please be clear that I do not accept that this money is owed and that my payment does not constitute any admission of liability.

 

Given the above, unless you are now prepared to resolve this by refunding the £930.15, I feel that I have no choice but to proceed with court action against you. I intend to claim the full amount of £930.15 which I had been charged after cancelling my services, plus interest at the standard rate of 8% per annum and costs.

 

Please provide a full written response within 14 days. Unless I receive a satisfactory response within 14 days, I intend to issue a claim without further reference to you.

 

Yours faithfully

[king12345]

It would be worth mentioning that VM admitted that the cancellation call was made but just telephone line was disconnected as this will be the main point of the claim.

[sanepersongonemad]

thanks so much for the letter. i sent it yesterday evening and already got a reply today. it dont look like im getting my money back. this is the reply i got.

 

Thank you for your email. As is our process when a customer contacts CISAS the final decision is then made by them. CISAS made their decision which you will have been advised of that no further action is needed by Virgin Media

 

I have attached a copy of the letter that I have sent you. I am very sorry that we could not reach an amicable resolution.

 

This is the attachment:-

 

I have now received confirmation from CISAS about your complaint and they’ve given us their final decision.

 

The final decision states that no further action is needed, so I am therefore writing to make sure you know we’ve closed your case on our systems, which means no changes have been made to your account.

 

At Virgin Media, we want all our customers to be happy, so we’re sorry that we let you down. We’re also disappointed that we could not reach an amicable resolution.

 

We now consider this complaint closed.

 

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Gutted. Has upset my whole day. what do you think guys?

[steampowered]

That is unfortunate but as expected. If you want to go further, the next step is to issue a county court claim against VM through the moneyclaimonline system.

[king12345]

County court claim.

They're using their usual big boys bully tactics to scare you.

Cisas decision has no legal weight because as said they're paid by VM.

Remember to send an email/letter to cisas rejecting their decision.

Again, the main point of your claim is that you called to cancel the services and VM admitted to that, but they claim that you cancelled only the landline.

The judge will be asking who in their right frame of mind would call to cancel just one service when the others are not needed.

Take them on, they're just in business to rip people off and everyone knows that.

[sanepersongonemad]

i emailed cisas to let them know there decsion was rejected and i did get acknowledgement from them. this is what it said:-

 

We acknowledge receipt of notification from the Claimant that they are formally rejecting the Decision made by the Adjudicator in the above matter.

Under the rules of CISAS the Claimant is entitled to reject the Decision if they are unhappy with the outcome, and start action afresh elsewhere. Accordingly, I write to confirm that as the Decision in this case has been rejected it will not become binding upon the company.

 

The Claimant is now free to pursue their claim in the courts or elsewhere, and as stated in the guidance notes, it is advised that the advice of the Citizens Advice or a solicitor is

sought before taking the matter further.

 

vm are saying that they had a call from another company to port the number the number to another provider and not from me....

 

do you think i can win this case? would i need to attend court? whats the chances they may settle before court?

 

what baffles me is i still not had a payment reciept on email despite providing my email for the full amount i paid last week. as i said i went on the online chat and yes its been paid and payment recieved but still no reciept. i do no have it on my blocked list or junk. its liek theyve blocked emails to me or something.....

[steampowered]

do you think i can win this case?

Personally I think you'd have a good chance but I don't think it is guaranteed.

 

would i need to attend court?

Unless VM settled, you would need to attend a short hearing at your local county court. You may refer to http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?356814-The-Process-of-Litigation..-Court-Claims-Defences for more information.

 

whats the chances they may settle before court?

I think the chances are very high. Companies like VM hate being taken to court, and there is a cost associated with sending someone to defend the case which they should not be able to recover even if they win.

[king12345]

vm are saying that they had a call from another company to port the number the number to another provider and not from me....

 

But reading your earlier posts I recollect you having written confirmation from VM that you called them to cancel the landline and port the number.

Is this correct?

If so, the chances of winning are very high, but as said, never guaranteed 100%.

If you have VM confirmation that you called to cancel the landline and then they lied to cisas by claiming that you didn't, you can point this out in your court claim and it would be very good evidence of their wrongdoing.

Steampowered is right, most likely they will settle out of court.

Imo they will offer you half of the money first, but I would refuse and take a slight risk.

Don't be surprised that you still don't get VM email, it's one of their old tricks.

Have you saved and printed the online chat conversation?

Not that it's really needed because the transaction would be on your bank statement.

[sanepersongonemad]

i did call them to cancel and write a letter but they have no proof of this. they said initially on the online chat that i had called to have the number ported, then someone else said another company had called to have the number ported.

 

i really hope so. Feel so stressed about it. yes iv got the payment transaction- i also paid it on credit card.

 

not recieveing a payment email shows i dont get their emails. i check my emails on my phone regulary.

 

just on the money claim website seeing what i need to do...

[sanepersongonemad]

im a bit stuck on the moneyclaim form. when shoudl i say the money was owed to me - last year or upon this recent payment?

[king12345]

Have you got proof that you called them to cancel?

I.e. Admission by VM via email, printout of online chat, telephone bill, recorded delivery slip?

If not, then the case is more complicated because they can claim that you never cancelled and the were contacted by sky to port the number.

Money is owed to you on the day you transferred the £900 odd back to them.

[sanepersongonemad]

no i have no proof. i dont have that mobile phone anymore that i called and no other written proof

i think that is what they are claiming that another company i.e sky called to port the number.

feeling worried

[king12345]

no i have no proof. i dont have that mobile phone anymore that i called and no other written proof

 

i think that is what they are claiming that another company i.e sky called to port the number.

 

feeling worried

 

Can you contact the network provider of that mobile phone and ask for the relevant bill?

Sorry to say, but without proof that you cancelled VM has got a better chance to do a number on you.

They are a bunch of voltures.