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This week I was charged £10 for an 'admin fee' from Virgin Media as I was late in paying my bill. I did forget because they didn't send me a bill this month but either way I have paid the money and didn't realise I could claim it back.

 

Any ideas on what I should write on the letter to them?

 

Any help apprecaited, thanks!

 

Jenni

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  • 1 year later...

Hi Guys,

 

Penfold £10 - Virgin Media £0

 

I was 'disturbed' to see a £10 late payment fee from Virgin despite it being my fault (Standing Order not updated to new bank, ooops).

 

I was fully prepared to never pay the bill, go to court, get made bankrupt rather than give these pr1cks £10!

 

I Googled 'Virgin +"late payment"' which brought me here, I fully understand unjust fee's and charges but seeing it in black and white I called Virgin Accounts - in India!

 

Having explained that I agreed I was late paying I flatly told them I would not pay a single penny if it included the Late Charge Fee, as it was unjust, unfair and most of all unlawful. I only had to reiterate this a second time before it was removed from my bill, it would appear even the Sub Continent understand the legality of these charges!

 

Keep up the good work, I do hope I will not be visiting again too soon but you never know, the second peice of mail today is from HSBC announcing how they gratiously allowed me an overdraft facility (chargable of course) to cover the amount HSBC caused me to be overdrawn by c0cking up a c/card payment!

 

P.

Edited by PenfoldJones
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  • 3 months later...

I was late paying my 18 pounds last month, so the bank charged me 35.00 straight away as i didn't have the money in my account at the time, then virgin charged me 3 times for the direct debit not going through plus a payment handling charge

 

"23/09/08 D.D. DENIED-REFER TO PAYE £17.00

23/09/08 FAILED PAYMENT CHARGE £10.00

2/10/08 LATE PAYMENT CHARGE £10.00

23/10/08 22/11/08 Broadband Size: M £18.00

23/10/08 22/11/08 E Bill Discount

£1.00- (discount)

23/10/08 22/11/08 Payment Handling Charge £5.00

2/10/08 Total Statement Balance

£59.00

 

then as i'm now way behind this month courtesy of the bank taking 35 pounds (i'm unemployed atm) virgin charged me again plus another payment handling charge

 

LATE PAYMENT CHARGE £10.00

23/11/08 22/12/08 Broadband Size: M £18.00

23/11/08 22/12/08 E Bill Discount

£1.00-

23/11/08 22/12/08 Payment Handling Charge £5.00

Current outstanding ------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------

 

3/11/08 balance

£32.00"

 

 

they now say "We have reviewed your account and would like to inform you that you need

to pay the previous months balance of £59.00 before 17 November 2008 or

else the services will be restricted. The current months bill is

£32.00.The total balance is £74.00. You can pay £32.00 before 02

December "

 

so basically i have 2 days to cough up money i don't have or i get cut off i guess

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I'm afraid Virgin agreeing to the refund of the Late Fee depends on who you speak to. I spoke with an asian woman who declined to make any refund because; "if we refunded you, we'd have to refund everyone else". This was the FIRST time they had charged me this after being a customer for 14 years. The reason why it was late was due to the bill taking 3 week to arrive. None of this resulted in a credit.

 

Only by saying I was quitting and gave notice of termination was the call transferred to the Retentions Department, where a supervisor agreed to the credit. I was also told the fee is added automatically 15 days after the bill is PRINTED (it was previously 30 days).

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  • 2 months later...

And they're still at it...

 

I've had this issue for a long time now, I've been out of work off and on for the last 3 years and it's now over 7 months since I last had any income. My wife works and I have to try and stretch what we have to pay what we can.

 

Anyway, we've been behind with VirginMedia for a few months. I have had a refund of these unjust charges in the past, in a case of sheer bribary to bring my account up to date!

 

They called me, as it was past the due date. I told them I had not been paid myself yet, would be day after. 'Will you be making a payment' they asked, I say Yes, they asked how much, I indicated it would only be half the current bill, to cover 'last month'. My bills are around the £60 a month mark as we have phone/tv/internet with them.

 

The woman said she could remove 4 late payment fees if I would bring the account up to date there and then, so I did, coughing up all of £87 in the process, but knowing I was then up to date.

 

It didn't last long, I was ill, needed medication, had to pay for prescriptions (or perhaps I would DIE!), travel to doctor then hospital, and something had to give - so I skipped paying Virgin that month. It's been behind a while now.

 

Anyway, a few months down the line in mid January I got another call, same routine, offered to remove 2 late payment fees if I paid up to date. I wasn't able to at the time, just after Christmas and all that. I paid slightly over my monthly amount, but still had a balance going forward.

 

Time moves on to today - I got a small tax rebate (yay!) and called Virgin to see about bringing account up to date. Guy I spoke to wasn't having it, said there was no note about offering incentive to pay and flatly refused to budge. Wanted full amount or else.

 

Obviosuly I'm not happy, and was willing to pay anything up to £40 today, against the £60-ish they say is owing.

 

Next step is to go back on my bills and tot up all the late payment fees, remove the odd amount refunded, and whop them a request for full repayment of the remainder.

 

They can wait for me to consider paying at my regular time of month now, and gawd help them if they call chasing me...

Be good to those who give you advice that helps - click the star to give them your thanks by way of a reputation credit.

 

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Do also remember that even when they took off the LAte Fee, the marker sent to their CRA still remains in place, affecting your credit score.

 

I've long since stopped worrying about my credit score... ;) It must have curled up and died long ago.

Be good to those who give you advice that helps - click the star to give them your thanks by way of a reputation credit.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I work for VM and the policy we have is to refund a £10 late payment fee if customer has not received one, nor been credited back, in the last 6 months.

 

After this 6 month period then it would be looked at on an individual case basis.

 

I would never advise a customer not to make a payment at all if disputing the £10 charge as the other amount to pay will be for the services you have used and therefore will cause the account to go further into arrears.

 

So Jenni, if you've never paid your bill late before and never received a charge then it should be quite easy to have it refunded.

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What has annoyed me is that the person who called me to chase payment in January clearly offered to remove 2 of the late payment fee charges, if I paid right up to date. I couldn't, I just didn't have the money.

 

This month I got a call from another person in collections, but no offer of taking anything off. They are expecting me paying this week, if I get paid myself by weekend. I can't bring it up to date still, even if they offered the refunds again. Having had the guy who didn't want to play, I put the money towards my mobile bill instead!

 

I'm tempted to SAR Virgin and see just how many of these fees have been added over time. With the £10 a month 'late payment' fee plus £5 a month for not using direct debit, they're making a bomb out of me! If they stopped adding stupid charges I wouldn't be behind...

Be good to those who give you advice that helps - click the star to give them your thanks by way of a reputation credit.

 

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Time this thread was moved to the telecoms forum.

Hillards you are right-they sometimes do offer to refund on the spot if you make full payment to bring an account up to date.

In other instances they will agree to credit late payment charges if you sign up to their DD payment option.

Have a happy and prosperous 2013 by avoiiding Payday loans. If you are sent a private message directing you for advice or support with your issues to another website,this is your choice.Before you decide,consider the users here who have already offered help and support.

Advice offered by Martin3030 is not supported by any legal training or qualification.Members are advised to use the services of fully insured legal professionals when needed.

 

 

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This week was make or break for me. I've been so annoyed at them slapping £15 of charges on every month that I was either going to get it sorted out, or would seriously consider dumping Virgin altogether.

 

I've been a customer since the days of Bradford Cable, when they first dug up the street and put the trunking in. They've had thousands of pounds off me, and I consider myself to be a long-standing customer who simply does not deserve to be treated as a little kiddie asking for sweeties when I call to try and sort something with them.

 

Anyway, Friday 13th, I've got round to considering paying them something. I look at the new bill that just arrived, far too much for me to pay off in one go, I just don't have that much after paying everything else this month. SO, I called Virgin and got through to someone in accounts/payments. Wouldn't budge an inch, wanted full payment or they would restrict my service from that night, wasn't even prepared to accept the previous month's amount in full, leaving this month (not even due yet AND it's payment in advance!) for the time being.

 

I argued with tehm about the unfair charges, she wasn't having it, said everyone else had to pay them. I can't see why I am being made to pay £5 a month because I cannot use Direct Debit, it's not an option as my money goes into the bank on different dates each month, I cannot have Virgin trying to take a payment when there's no funds available etc. On the other hand, when money does go in, I want to pay my bills so I can see what's left for luxury items, like food.

 

They argue that they have to pay an external company to process those payments. I can't see why. Any business can process credit/debit card payments, millions of businesses do,without charging the customer £5 per transaction!

 

So, she put me through to credit services. Same argument there, totally unwilling to consider removing any of the charges, even when I was saying I would be willing to pay more than the one month, to try and clear the account. Quite simply, I do not want them adding any more £10's to my account as 'late payment fee' - but it's yet another department trained to stick to the script and refuse point blank.

 

I claled again, this time hit the buttons to say I was looking to leave them. BT sent me two letters that day, offering a reduced reconnection fee, BT hub and all that stuff. Worked out a similar price to what I was paying Virgin, but less TV channels and slower broadband. I had also checked the Sky prices, and even with the extra cost of having to have a BT line, it worked out cheaper if I went to them.

 

So, armed with more info, I told the girl my findings. She was adamant that I would have to do direct debit to get Sky or BT services, that my argument about additional fees for payment by other methods would still apply. I told her of my distress at trying to sort this out, over many months, and that their excessive charges were the reason I was behind. Obviously the corporate viewpoint clikced in as she went on about it being my faukt that I would not set up direct debit, and my fault the account was behind month after month. However, she had to agree that there were a lot of late payment fees - but she wasn't going to refund any...

 

It got to the point where I said I wanted everything switched off, I wasn't bothered about a phone line as I have my mobile, and a darned good package for calls and texts that Virgin cannot compete with. TV - we have a Freeview box, so were not going to lose TV altogether. The only bit bothering me was Internet, but I told her I would happily go to ADSL with TalkTalk, which would include the phone line...

 

She then started making offers - she would take one late payment fee off, would I therefore pay the full amount, less that? Erm, nope - I told her how much I had available, she wasn't happy that I was asking for her to agree to settle the account for that much... I said it was make or break, either I sorted things out on this call, or I'd dump the whole lot and go elsewhere. I went back over my history with the company, said that they should be looking after long-standing customers. She still wasn't happy.

 

Anyway, she went off to talk to someone about it all, and came back with a suggestion to reduce the services I have. In effect, chop the TV package down to the very basic 'free' option they have. Leave the phone, as that was on bare minimum only, and put a 'deal' on the my broadband, to keep that cost down. Finally, to reduce the monthly non-DD fee to just £1.50 as long as I agreed to move to eBilling as well.

 

By re-jigging things she could agree to drop one late payment fee and reduce my next bill by almost £30, which meant the amount due was a little bit above what I physically had available. I told her I needed to talk to my family, they were at work at the time, as 1) I didn't have the total she wanted and 2) I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to upset them by dropping channels they watch a lot.

 

Anyway, because of our situation, my family agreed that we had little choice but to cut back on the TV package and, if it meant we were up to date, and only liable for a lot less each month, it was worth putting some money towards paying this off. 10 minutes later, someone had been into my bank to deposit some extra cash, meaning I had funds available on my card.

 

The girl at Virgin had agreed to call back, and she did. I told her I still was not happy at the charges and saw them as unfair, and we agreed that I could write in to their complaints department in Swansea about that. It wouldn't affect todays discussion. I agreed to change the package round for the deal we had reached and she was delighted that I was able to make the payment there and then, not the amount I had told her I had available and the balance later.

 

All told I had the amount owing reduced by about 25% of the total to pay it off there and then. My ongoing bills will now be for less than half what I was paying before. Only the TV package was affected in the end, we had looked at reducing the broadband too, but I do use it for a lot of things and was not happy at the possibility being restricted - long story, but I do a lot of legit transfers of files over the 'net for a charity I'm involved with.

 

Overall - a result, although I did end up paying more than I wanted to to. I am sending the letter of complaint to Swansea still and if I'm unhappy with the reply, I may just SAR them and see if it's worth claiming back the many charges I knbow I've had to date...

 

Once again, it pays to complain and keep complaining about poor service and "Hitler" attitudes from some of their departments! I was serious about leaving Virgin and can actually commend the girl I dealt with for being diplomatic and reasonable throughout - and I didn't think I'd hear myself saying that either!

Be good to those who give you advice that helps - click the star to give them your thanks by way of a reputation credit.

 

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Good to see that you got something.

I guess you could always get a freeview box-they are only 12 quid now.or theres the others which you can buy for a one off charge giving more chans for £39.

My average bill is around £120 a month-thats for all 3 services the medium package-no sky sports etc.I dont use movies.Advanced charges alone are about £45

I have an Asda mobile Voda and Tmobile.

The Adsa sim is great for those who use prepay 8p call and 4p text to all networks and uk landlines.

Have a happy and prosperous 2013 by avoiiding Payday loans. If you are sent a private message directing you for advice or support with your issues to another website,this is your choice.Before you decide,consider the users here who have already offered help and support.

Advice offered by Martin3030 is not supported by any legal training or qualification.Members are advised to use the services of fully insured legal professionals when needed.

 

 

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Funnily enough - we've had Freeview for ages. I bought a couple of Daewoo boxes for the bedrooms a few years back, when I was working full time. They were about £50 each then. However, last year one stopped working. I'd said 'yes' to update the channels, not knowing that that was the absolute end for that bos - it had used SetPal, and they'd gone under. So, Daewoo decided not to support that platform any more, and all of that model 'died'

 

I am a member of Digital Spy too, there was a thread running about these boxes. Seems that Daewoo should haver at least tried to warn people that these boxes were about to become expensive paperweights. I ended up emailing Daewoo and discussing the issue, in the end I sent them photos of my boxes, with the serial numbers showing. They arranged a courier to collect both, and replace them with their base model, retailing at about £24 if I remember rightly.

 

Actually, I made another purchase when I was working, this time for downstairs. I got a 80Gb HD/DVD Wharfedale recorder with Freeview built in, about £60 from an Internet site I've used a few times for heavily discounted (usually ex Argos) stuff.

 

So, we have Freeview ;-) The Wharfedale box gets used a lot when I'm watching something as I can pause live TV with it too. I have the cable box running in via Scart, if we ever wanted to record a non-Freeview channel - that option's gone now.

 

I would object to paying to watch channels on a FREEview box - and took part in the consultation with OfCom on that topic. If people want to pay then let them get Sky, Virgin or whatever. Don't confuse the issue of FREEview by having pay channels on that platform.

 

I don't know how you manage to clock up £120 a month - seems a heck of a lot. Virgin's 10Mb broadband does not seem a great option at £20 a month. In fact, looking at my last bill, the cheeky so-and-so's had been charging me £25 a month for it! A friend has TalkTalk for phone and broadband, pays about £27 a month, and gets all day, every day, UK 01/02/03 calls for free with that... That's the problem with having cable everything, going back to a BT line is expensive - apart from having two mailshots from BT this week alone about it being under £30 to reconnect!

 

As for mobile. I have been with Orange from the start and have just negotiated a deal with them that you just wouldn't get anywhere else ;-)

Be good to those who give you advice that helps - click the star to give them your thanks by way of a reputation credit.

 

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  • 2 years later...
Guest BingoMorris

TO EVERYONE WHO PAYS LATE PAYMENT CHARGES TO VIRGIN MEDIA!

 

I have recently had enough after five years of late payment charges and decided to do something about it. I only use broadband from Virgin Media and have no minimum contract with a one month advance payment scheme. I spent a while researching legislation to find out if they were indeed allowed by law to charge a late payment fee for their services. It turns out in my case they are not.

 

legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/20/contents

 

This isn't an easy read but I can however explain it slightly easier. If you are on a minimum contract with Virgin Media they have the right to charge you a late payment charge (as you are obliged to pay part of the full amount of the contract each month). If you are not on a minimum contract (ie: you 'pay as you go' so to speak) or pay in advance like me, it is AGAINST THE LAW and immediately void if a late payment charge is incurred.

 

I am currently in contact with Trading Standards and the Citizens Advice Bureau after taking the complaint with Virgin Media all the way to their chief executives. I will post back with the results, who knows may even have to go to court, however I urge anyone in the same position as me to at least lodge a complaint with Trading Standards so this issue is not seen as an individual case.

 

I'm sure Virgin Media make millions (if not more) a year from this alone. It is illegal and unjustifiable, doesn't Richard Branson have enough money? We get call centres in India, a terrible complaionts department (who in their own words do not care about these legislations) and tricked each month we pay late. I think it's time something was done.

 

I know this post is long dead, but google finds it first with the search term so I hope others see this and take action!

Edited by BingoMorris
can't use the word which means to obtain something from someone by lying or cheating.
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