MARTIN3030 Virgin Media charges ROUND 3

[MollieUK]

Hi

 

I have been reading through these posts as I am a Telewest customer soon to be Virgin customer. However, copied below is something I am querying:

 

This fee is due to the fact that Direct Debit is the only method of

payment which does not involve human interaction, and hence create

additional administrative costs. Many companies operate similar systems

whereby they offer a 'Direct Debit discount' to customers paying by

Direct Debit. However, the net result is the same in that customers not

paying by Direct Debit will pay more.═ "

 

I pay by Debit Card on the phone using the recorded method which does not involve 'human interaction', how can they argue that one me thinks!!

 

Would love to know if anyone has challenged this as I am always behind with payments but as I pay a month in 'front' how can I be 'behind' in payments but I still get the charges. Plus I pay for the service which does not allow unidentified numbers to connect to my phone, but only today I had calls made which stated 'we do not have the caller's number', what am I paying for exactly?

[buzby]

1) The issue here would be the debit card transaction would generate a fee of 1-2% off the amount you remit, whene the DDM fee would be less - it's not simply 'human interraction'. A fairer example is when the customer pays by BACS - an automatic payment system often accesed via home banking. This IS the same as DD, only it leaves the customer in control. Thgey want to discourage this too - and it is this we'll have more success in challenging.

 

2) I too pay for anoymous call rejection (ACR) from BT, It is free on NTL cable. What you get is the ability for your phone line to reject an incoming call that has its number 'Withheld' by the caller. This means if someone had their number blocked always, or dials 141 before the call, they will NOT connect withyou and receive a recorded announcement saying you do not accept these calls.

 

The Gotcha, is anyone calling from abroad can choose a carrier that does NOT send forward the international number they are calling from, simply that the call is International. These call, because there is no withheld number WILL connect. Even if this loophole was closed, they could arrange for a fake 'Presentation' number be shown and this would similarly not be blocked, and it is still a sales call.

[Bookworm]

I too pay for anoymous call rejection (ACR) from BT, It is free on NTL cable.

 

Hijacking Martin's thread again, sorry, Martin!!!

 

But I am confused... I thought NTL & T/west were one and same now? Yet, T/west charges me £1.75/month for that service (just gone up form £1.50)... :-?

[buzby]

They're the same company, but the charges for services reflect the legacy charges each network had in place prior to the merger. All this is set to change next month with the arrival of Virgin Media , then all charges for all customers will be the same!

[MARTIN3030]

Martin3030 v Telewest.

 

This long running saga came to an end on 25th Jan as the Court date finally arrived..and their time ran out...my day had finally come !!(NTL had twice issued bounced cheques and with 3 days to the hearing was looking to be in S**T)

They said the would do a bacs transfere and with just a couple of hours to spare the money duly appeared.

I had a prepared letter for Court and took it to reception...but then thought .....no I want to attend.

So I went home and then went back at 2.00pm.As the last hour before the hearing ticked away ...I had no less than 3 calls on my mobile asking me to inform the court that they had settled !!!!

Judge Peake is a no nonsense Judge and he straight away got down to business.As he started to read out the claim I stopped him and said...excuse me but they have just paid.

He found all my letters to the Court and said...You do not have to accept the payment as settled I can order that they pay all your extra charges....I told him these had been added already by me.

I then told him I thought Telewest had abused court process.

This can be a difficult one he said.If they submit a defence and say they will defend and then choose to settle then that in itself is not an abuse.However if they go on to do this 1001 times then that is a different matter.

I told him about the Lincoln orders and he said he was not aware of them but that his collegues all had different ways od dealing with it.I am perfectly aware he said that there is none that will go to court.He said my own view is this; If they were prepared to come into my court and show a figure that would support the charges then I would hapily look at it.

As it is I do not consider a charge of 30 pounds ot whatever to be reasonable unless they can prove otherwise.

I told him that I had three ongoing claims at his court and that he might be seeing me again.

I doubt that very much he said.....if you look on the court notices you will see there are 4 cases with lines through them.....these have already been settled despite being listed for my court today....so yours makes 5.

But one of my claims is Citi financial I said and these are trying all sorts of things.

He smiled as he closed the Telewest file and said we shall indeed see.

As I was leaving he called me back.......just for the record how much extra were the Telewest charges they paid?

He opened the file again and wrote......defendants paid the claimants extra bank charges for their two failed settlement cheques.......This looks like I am rubbing their noses in it a little he said.

Thank you for attending good day !!!

 

 

 

So the message is.....push them all the way,they will cave in the end.

If I had known the Judge would have awarded me extra for the inconvenience,I would have submitted it as an ammendment earlier..since I spent more time on this than 3 other bank claims !!!

They did however end up paying another 68 odd quid in the end to cover bank fees and recorded delivery charges which I DID add on.

[buzby]

Glad you got it sorted, but what a story!

[itsamomentintime]

i feel drained!!!!

[pj41]

Just great

 

 

Well done

 

 

Pj41

[Vital Spark]

Oh Martin, Martin, Martin, why don't you live in Scotland instead of merely visiting for cancelled parties?

 

I'm going to peruse this thread more fully once I've cleared out my clutter. THEN, Telewest, BEWARE!The cakes are all completed and eaten: were delish too, if I say so myself.

 

I'll send you some pix next time we're on msn simultaneously. ;-)

 

How did your New Year celebrations go anyway? I hope you still enjoyed yourself.

[Vital Spark]

Was it the same Data protection letter for Telewest a for teh banks? I rpesume it's so but don't want to muck up by my dyslexic presumption ;-).

[kathieathome]

Hey Martin, Well thats a hugh success. Hopefully Telewest will surly now see that they will have to consider these charges or else more people will be taking them to court. Maybe Richard Branston may even get involved now that the group is part of his great kingdom.

 

Kathieathome

[buzby]

You got that the wrong way round. NTL TW bought INTO Virgin Mobile - a 'virtual' network with no infrastructure, running on T-Mobile (only) and are rebranding it as Virgin Media. Branson has a minimal 14% stake in the company, and he's no intention of buying more.

[david.m]

that 14% ( i think its more now) though makes him the first (or is it second now !,Bill Huff) largest single investor in the company so his vote/veto makes for a very large bat.

 

dont forget his wish to become bigger and badder than sky in the UK TV markets (remember he wanting ITV ownership, but sky killed that)etc so its not supriseing he took shares in ntl/tw instead of mear cash and rights.

 

Its very personal thing. especially as Richard Branson had something to do with British Satellite Broadcasting before it merged with Sky.

 

also apparently his contract for the Virgin Mobile franchise states they are not to bring his virgin brand into conflict or words to that effect, so NTL/tw had better be on the ball or branson will to all intents and purposes own the cable network it would seem?.

 

Virgin Media executive admits to 'crap service' - Cable Forum

 

 

£10 Billion Takeover of ntl:Telewest? - Page 3 - Cable Forum

"LONDON (AFX) - The buy-out team that has made a 10 bln stg-plus approach to NTL's management has not yet won the backing of Sir Richard Branson and Bill Huff, the cable group's two most important shareholders,"

 

Ntl shareholders 'seeking $34 per share' - Cable Forum

 

some end of day prices upto today

Historical Prices

[buzby]

It was 14% as of 1st February 2007. As for being the largest 'single' investor - not so, it is a US Company so checking the records is a bit more difficult, however Branson is simply one of many investors, but 34% rings a bell for the primary shareholder (NTL) although a similar amount - 32% ? came in from Telewest. So as much as I like Branson, he's very much at the end of the line. Also you'll note theres is no talk of expansion - worrying for any firm that still has a policy for trying to regenerate from its existing infrastructure.

[david.m]

actually its a UK company listed on the US exchange (you have to wonder why they dont also list on the UK market though?),and by 'single Investor' im refering to a single person rather than a collection of corporate people listed as one single invester entity.

 

as far as i know that makes branson and Huff the two main contenders, and it was 'US huff' that stopped NTL being sold off to the original buyers a while back ( the one before that one linked above).

 

huff was the guy that made the deal to bring NTl and TW into one company and branson's % is as a whole of that combined single company, so once you look at the no's, his shares are a current gross % and that makes him and Huff rather more influential on the board of directors than the collective single investors, he just rings up huff and chats about were they want to take the deals today, the collectives need to call their seperate board meetings, vote, and then put that idea to the likes of branson and huff for their yay/nay backing or not.

 

none the less , branson doesnt have controlling interest any more than Huff (yet, if ever).

 

but if enough of them get together the majority shareholder (NTL collective share entity) will need to capitulate as branson and Huff etc hold masses of bank notes and financial assurances that could be branded about to get the effect they want in the market and org.

[meagain]

You got that the wrong way round. NTL TW bought INTO Virgin Mobile [...] and are rebranding it as Virgin Media.

 

It's 1996 all over again ...

 

A company called International CableTel bought up the privatized engineering operations of what was previously the IBA - a business which went by the name of "National Transcommunications Ltd." (and was sold off by the group in 2004).

[buzby]

And before then, it was the engineeting arm of the ITA (Independent Television Authority) with it's HQ in Brompton Roaf (opposite Harrods), and the engineering centre at Crawley Court in Hampshire.

[kathieathome]

Thanks Dave for enlightening me bout Branston connection.

Kathieathome

[karen654321]

Hiya Martin, Congratulations. Read through your thread with interest.Do you still have a copy of your poc for the n1 or is it on this site somewhere. Exhausted all avenues with virgin trying to reclaim £10 late payment and £5.00 non ddr fee.

 

 

thanks

 

karen

[DCG]

at least they sent your sars request iv informed the infomation commisoner to try and sort it

 

wat they sent me 50 days l8tr was usless

 

heres hoping

[Vital Spark]

With reference to #205 post, Martin, did you claim for late payment charges and the £5 they charge for non DD payments? Did yoou send the SAR as we do for the banks amending account numbers etc, of course?

 

I am beefed with Virgin Med right now. They took too much from my account month before last which left me £6 short for my Hydro DD so that was returned and I was charged £35 by bank. V ir Med acknowledged that they made an error and DID takle too mu ch but I have to send them a copy of my bank statement or the letter advising me of the £35 charge b efore they'll refund me that money.

 

I'll be blanking out my details and all other information on my statement or letter. However, it's bound to take Vir Med at least 4 wks to get a cheque issued then I'll have to wait for it to clear (5 working days for English cheques to clear, here in Scotland, whereas Scottish cheques take 3 days). Therefore, the money will be out of my account for at least 2 months.

 

Can I ask them for compound interest on top?

 

I also had to organise a one off payment to Hydro because they don't represent DDs. This I did for the 13th of that month and Hydro took it but they tried to take it again on the 16th: another returned DD due to no fault of mine and another £35 charge taken.

 

Same darned advice: send a copy of statement or letter and we'll issue a cheque.

 

Meanwhile, I've had to stop a course of treatment I had started to help ease teh symptoms of a disa bling complaint I have, so I'll have to go back to beginning of that course and start again thus around £200 has been wasted because the taking of those charges from my account was around what I was due to pay and a break in teh course as with any combatting therapy/remedy/treatment such as with antibiotics, only encourages the offending illness to fight for it's life if sufficient combatant is not taken to kill the invader. So, not only the above but now my symptoms are returnign with a vengence.

 

The errors of these stupid inefficient tinkers has caused havoc in my life, financially and healthwise. Would a judge take this into consideration, if I take them to court?

 

Judge Peake possibly would but isn't it so unfair that the attitude of and judgements of judges differs so greatly.

 

Excuse me moaning so much but I'm just furious and a bit down as these darned symptoms return to disable me again: constant pain and muscle weakness are so exhausting apart from all other symptoms.

[kp278]

hi, ive asked for some late payment charges (seven in total at £10 each) to be refunded by letter but no response. has anyone taken VM to court to get charges back? as the fees are only £10 would I still get them back via court?

[webbscatering]

I know no one has posted on this site for a while but, Virgin Media has made me an offer as full and final payment on my claim....pretty good news. But there is a matter of my court costs should I accept it plus court costs or bite the bullet take the offer???

 

Is There Anyone Out There

[buzby]

IF they have already been served with the court papers, then you must make it clear that their settlement figure must include your court fees of £??.?? - if their 'full and final' offer is acceptable to you, then accept and discontinue the action. However, if the court costs are excluded, and you feel they could have settled before you raised the action, advise them that you are willing to discontinue but only if they pay your costs.

[webbscatering]

IF they have already been served with the court papers, then you must make it clear that their settlement figure must include your court fees of £??.?? - if their 'full and final' offer is acceptable to you, then accept and discontinue the action. However, if the court costs are excluded, and you feel they could have settled before you raised the action, advise them that you are willing to discontinue but only if they pay your costs.

 

Thanks Buzby, I will go after the court costs