Virgin media are just terrible! - This is long!

[indebtstudent]

She did remain non-committal for a very long time, there's nothing you can really do if someone is in that sort of bad mood.

 

Best thing you can do is go the court route.

 

Interesting though that she said that a study had been done, the thing is unless they show it to us or aoucrt it means bugger all.

[indebtstudent]

I've had enough anyway I'm going to give them ym 30 days notice, I am careful with my money but I would rather pay a little more and get (hopefully) a better service.

[1stlifeline]

Ive had loads of trouble with them, they have reverted to sending my monthly bill to an address I left 4 years ago. When they finally admitted they were doing this they told me that it had been happening for all of the 4 years and would not admit that its only since Virgin tok over from NTL. Ive spent hours on the phone to them but it finally paid off last night when I got throught o one of thier 'reasonable' robots who knocked me 86 quid off my bill for all the inconvenience I have had.

[indebtstudent]

It was quite amusing really that, when I mentioned that I was not able to speak to a supervisor. The genius I was speaking to said I could speak to a colleage so Ia sked would your colleage have the same understanding as you? The answer was yes. Classic!

 

I pointed this out to the nice lady and she started bemoaning the situaion. Whoa whoa whoa there I'm the customer here!!! I only suggested callbacks as an example. I even had to say AS A CUSTOMER whatever problems the company has are not my concern. I only mentioned a call back as an example of good customer service.

[lesleyawalsh]

Ive had loads of trouble with them, they have reverted to sending my monthly bill to an address I left 4 years ago. When they finally admitted they were doing this they told me that it had been happening for all of the 4 years and would not admit that its only since Virgin tok over from NTL. Ive spent hours on the phone to them but it finally paid off last night when I got throught o one of thier 'reasonable' robots who knocked me 86 quid off my bill for all the inconvenience I have had.

check your bill when it comes in, as an insentive i was offered free installtion and a V+ box , when my bill came in they had charged me the £75.00 installation fee, i contacted them and was told that i shouldn't have been offered this so they had charged me! i stood my ground how could they do that after the fact i waould not have had the box if i had to pay for it ( it has never worked anyway ), eventually after about 4hrs on the phone they refnded my money. i still don't have the v+ service everytime i call virgin they end up suspending my service and it takes me hrs to sort it out, so i bite the bllet and do without it

[jackieandwayne]

Not intending to highjack yout htread, but you might like to hear this. I've had all the same nonsense since Virgin took over and in the end i went wild at them, the result was a bunch of expensive flowers delivered to me the next day, 6 months broadband free, account wiped clear from Xmas to the end of April. What did they do? Set up a DD without my permission and I threatened them with the police (internet fraud?). Oh and i refuse to pay by DD and I am not being billed for not paying this way. I have a directline to someone quite high up in Customer Concern, and I am sending them a monthly diary of downtime and freezes on all myservices - they asked me to do this and I suggested my fee for this would be £25.00 a month! Lets see whats on my next bill. Oh and if you find they have cut your phone off for no good reason or it is down due to alocal fault and you cannot use free 150, when you do get through ask for the cost of the call to credited to your bill - be firm and if they won't do it tell them you want tospeak to a manager right now. Tell the manager how long you have been waiting, any argument tell them you have no valid contract with them as they have withdrawn certain items from your contract and are therefore in breach.

[indebtstudent]

Hey its all good info, actually I'm going to go over the e-mails and letters again to check if they have anything dodgy. One woman did in fact tell me that it costs them MORE than £5 to process no DD payments.

 

Wonder if I could make more of this, I've got some other director to write to but even the helpful Penny said the letter might still find its way to customer concern.

 

I'm going to be a little less reasonable too as A) It's fun and B) I'm leaving them anyway.

[buzby]

Even if it cost them £10 to process a non-DD or £15 for a sackload of coins, when - if ever - should the customer give a tinker's cuss about how much it costs the company to put the money in their bank account. It is arrant nonsense that customers should somehow be responsible for their efficiencies/inefficiencies in this regard. Imagine telling the Inland Revenue your withholding £20 because you had to factor in the cost to you of having to wait 28 days for their refund! Only when consumers object to this malarkey will the companies realise were not ALL mugs!

[indebtstudent]

Exactly if I own a shop I price the goods with my overheads in mind. It's like saying oh you're pying by cheque well in that cash the price is a if you pay by card it is b or cash is c.

 

Side issue here aren't companies that have stopped accepting cheques doing just that in a roundabout way?

 

Buzby is spot on and I have a point to make I think you will like. A letter recently in a paper (Mail I believe but might've been a local one, I read a lot). If they charge us for processing our payment then we should charge them for the effort of sending it, shoe leather if we walk to the bank or post office, costs of a cheque (knowing what they cost the banks and therefore lead to lower rates for us). I might even put a claim in for time spent researching the legality of thier charge.

 

Only kidding but it just goes to show how absurd thier argument is, is there anything I can do? Is there any point complaining to the regulator?

[ja-de]

Hi all, can anyone tell me when the £11 line charge was introduced, I've looked through all our past bills & simply can't find one.

I agree with you all, we've been with them ever since 1996, we've forgotten what they were called then, as they've had so many names lol. we're still on analogue, & refuse to change over to digital, as we're thinking of going onto freeview in all the house (we already have it upstairs), but they keep taking all the channels away from us. we've lost Sky1, News, Film Channels 1, 2, Cinema, Paramount, in fact it's just absolute rubbish that's left, sorry, don't mind Hallmark channel, but that's all!!

Oh, by the way, we are being charged as if we we're on Digital. It's just Daylight Robbery.

[pblackie]

I have had similar issues with Vm which resulted in me sending this letter to them on the 3rd of May:

 

 

 

Ryan Pursey

Customer Loyalty and Resolution Manager

Virgin Media Ltd

PO Box 333

Matrix Court

Llansamlet

Swansea

SA7 9BB

Dear Mr Pursey

REF: Account number xxxxxx

Further to my letter to your department on the 14th of March 2007, to which I have yet to receive a reply, I find myself having to write to your department again!!!

On the 13th of March 2007 I called and gave notice to terminate my television contract with you, this was confirmed in my letter dated 14th March 2007.

I have subsequently spent in excess of 2.5 hours in telephone queues waiting to speak to members of your company to discuss the termination of all my services and finally received verbal confirmation ( from an employee by the name of Alan) that all services would be disconnected on April 12th 2007. Imagine my surprise when yesterday I received a bill for a further months services, especially when I should have been receiving a rebate as I would only have been a customer of yours for part of a billing month.

On March 31st 2007 I called and gave my card payment details in order to make a payment of £121.92, I have received a letter from Virgin Media informing me that the payment was rejected. I have been in touch with my bank who have informed me that no such payment was presented, from this I can only deduct that despite me expressing on numerous occasions you may not keep details of my cards on your system you are still doing so and tried to use an old card to take the payment. The reason I have forbidden your company from retaining my card details is that on one occasion you took a substantial payment from my account that was not due, without authorisation from myself and have also on occasions taken, money from the wrong account.

As I have given the appropriate notice ( 30 days) terminate my accounts and my contracts with Virgin Media have ended I require from Virgin Media an amended bill reflecting this and any credits due for only having services for part of April.

I am also writing to inform you that as recently and indeed over the years I have been a CUSTOMER OF YOURS I have spent inordinate amounts of my time rectifying your errors and waiting in telephone queues I will be charging you for my time relating to any future contact with Virgin Media or their representatives. The charges that I will apply are as follows:

£35 per hour or part thereof whilst making calls in relation to my account to Virgin Media or their representatives, be that waiting in a call queue or actually talking to an operative.

£15 for each letter sent in reply to a communication from Virgin Media or their representatives or in chasing Virgin Media or their representatives for a reply to a letter sent by me to Virgin Media or their representatives in relation to my account.

These charges will not come into effect until 24 hours after Virgin Media has signed for the receipt of this letter. I expect to receive a reply from Virgin Media to both this letter and the one I sent to Virgin Media on March 14th 2007 within 5 working days of Virgin Media signing for the receipt of this letter. If I do not receive the letters within this time scale I will send you a reminder letter and bill you accordingly, I can be contacted if necessary on telephone number xxxxxxxxx.

I have also still got in my possession a Digibox and modem belonging to Virgin Media which I was informed would have been collected at the beginning of April, If I have not been notified of a mutually convenient collection date for these items by Monday 14th May I will commence charging you storage for these items at the rate of £20 per week or part thereof.

Failure by Virgin Media to pay any charges incurred under the above terms will result in legal action being taken by myself to recover them.

I have enclosed a cheque to the amount of £121.92 to replace the payment I tried to make on March 31st 2007 and will wait for you to send me a corrected bill showing the amount owing at the close of my accounts.

 

 

I look forward to your response.

Yours Sincerely,

 

 

The only response was yet another bill. I have since paid off all that was owing and have been waiting for a closing statement from them for 2 weeks. I'm about to send a follow up letter and an invoice. As they have not replied to object to thae charges I outlined I presume they accept them and therefore will purdue the amount owing. I'll let you know how I get on!

[indebtstudent]

I've jsut sent a letter to the CEO marked private and confidential BUT the only lady at Virgin I spoke to with any intelligence said that it might find its way to us (meaning customer concern or whatever thier title is).

 

I've put some charges in, quite modest but the point stands. This is my last attempt, I relaly can't be bothered to change suppliers but if he doesn't respond or doesn't care then its decision made.

 

I've said in no uncertain terms that I will sue them.

[indebtstudent]

Update trading standards slammed BT's charge, Virgin's is higher!!!

[indebtstudent]

No reply from the CEO but I did get my charges waived again...

 

See below

 

I do understand and appreicate what you are saying. However both BT and Virgin Media have advised that in fact it costs more than what we charge for administrating payments not made by direct debit. BT charge £4.50 per quarter, Sky charge £4 per month and we charge £5 per month. Some companies reduce their charges if you pay by direct debit but it works out the same. Please also note that you are receiving a 'loyalty' discount of £19.50 per month which more than covers this charge. As you are a valued customer, I have cleared the £15 which is outstanding as you have not paid the handling charge for the last three months, in order to avoid a late payment charge. However, our procedure (along with most companies now) is that if you do not pay by direct debit, we will charge you a handling charge. As mentioned, I think the £19.50 discount you receive each month, and which will last indefinitely, covers this charge and you should consider paying the full bill in future. My main point here is that if you do cancel your services with us and go to another provider, you will be in the same situation if you do not pay by direct debit. As you say, I do think we have exhausted this subject; however, please be assure that you are a valued customer and I have been working hard to keep you !

[indebtstudent]

Any suggestions for points I should make?

 

For now I've said we'll have to agree to disagree but there are two issues. the charge is one the customer service is another. They are forcing this charge on people and yet the billing system is astonishingly bad. I chucked in the line about accessing my bank account pointing out that I do not trust them.

 

I also said that the fact they refunded the charge after syaing that they could not suggests a dishonest approach. Also they only refund the charge to people who make a fuss suggesting a lack of respect for other customers.

 

I also said that some of the bad feeling relating to these charges, IMO, comes from the lack of choice customers feel of late and feelings of being pwoerless in the face of large organisations.

 

Consider for a moment many companies now not accepting cheques and these ridiculous non DD charges. Yet I see everyday the people who are most in contorl of thier finances seem to be the older generation who deal only in cash or cheques. One person said that, thought she may benefit from the facilities a current account offered (and I quote), " I wouldn't know where I was. I don't make mistakes this way".

[buzby]

Two observations;

(1) There is no precedent that stated that the consumer must accept he has any responsibility of paying the processing costs of making a payment. As these are a normal part of commercial activity, this cost forms part of the benefit of trading. Attempting to shift this burden to the consumer is simply an additional charge to the consumer in the hope of increasing profitability.

(2) The Republic of Ireland has already outlawed this practice - the law came into force in 2007 and prevents firms charging consumers different amounts dependent on payment methods. NTL Ireland, although now no longer associated with Virgin Media has already abandoned this practice due to the threat of prosecution.

 

It would therefore seem reasonable that if the practice you advocate is already illegal in an EU country, it does your company no credit to try to attempt to cash in whilst you can, before the UK similarly outlaws the practice.

[saloonrod]

hi can some one tell me who i need to send a latter to as ive been told by phone it been moved up to leval 3 problem and now still nothing and and wont to send a letter to get something done will fill you all in in the next day or two just wont to get a letteer off to the first

thanks all steve

[indebtstudent]

Extract from my E-mail, I wrote to this guy and got the charge refunded as a 'goodwill' gesture (although he didn't contact me himself). Stick to the facts, point out that thier terminoligy means nothing to the customer. The situation is madness, I'm leaving for Sky (even thought I don't want to) because of Virgin's terrible customer service, billing system and ridiculous charge. I know sky have a less than stellar reputation but I know of friends and family who are happy with them and at least I'll just have to fight them on the charge.

 

As soon as I get a BT line in I'm, might keep the Virgin broadband though as it is rather good (and less diifuclt, I hope, to cock the billing up.

[indebtstudent]

Whoops I've missed the info out

 

"If you like you could write to Neil Berkett, the COO at Virgin Media, Bartley Wood Business Park, Hook RG27 9UP but it is possible your letter would be passed to us anyway for action. "

 

I also marked mine private and confidential to try to head off the customer concern people. It was partially successful (I got my refund BUT it got done by the person Iw as already dealing with).

[ja-de]

Well, the other day it got to the stage that my other half decided that due to the state of our last VM bill, that we were having cable out & BT & freeview in. So, I spent most of monday morning in telephone queues waiting to inform VM that we were not happy about this £11 phone line rental. I told them that in all the years that we have had cable, we have never paid line rental, so we wanted it all disconnecting. Anyway to cut a long story short, we were offered the large package, which includes TV, Phone, & Broadband for £30 a month, but it would cost us £25 to have it installed, & he said that he would take the £11 off as a gesture of goodwill. So I ended up in another queue, for another 5 mins, this time the person on the other end told me that we had always paid line rental, he told me that he had statements that went quite a way back (last year), & I told him I could go back even further (9 years), & that we got cable because there was NO line rental charges, the most we paid for phone charges were for a fiver. I then ended up getting transferred to another dept, & 5 mins later a really nice young lady told me she wasn't going to charge us the £25 install fee, so all it will cost us for the next 12 months is £30.

[indebtstudent]

Hello again my eager readers...

 

Got a letter today from the CEo saying they could not refund the £5 charge BUT this comes AFTER I got an e-mail from the person I had been dealing with saying that the accumulated £5 charges had been removed to prevent a late fee.

 

So I shall be ringing the CEO to make all the points covered here before telling them to switch it off. He claims he cannot refund the £5 - he's the flipping CEO!!!

 

No wonder VM are haemorraging customer. Damn my spelling but hey I'm tired.

[indebtstudent]

I'm also thinking of going to the press, this rubbish has got to stop now (and I need something else to think about until this OFt thing is resolved...)

[NoMercy]

Your letter claims that you are a "profitable customer".

Unfortunately going off their most recent financial report, Virgin Media don't have any such customers!!!

 

They are still making massive losses (albeit less than usual).

 

PS, just about to call them to cancel my account (I pay them £100 a month for so called services, no more)

[saloonrod]

you will all like this one i had a call form are friends at VM last night saying can you tell use why you told us to canle the t.v only after 14 days of having it and why ur moving your telphone service away from us oh and you droped your speed of your b/b i just had to largh t.v stoped after 14 days coz it never worked after 4 engineers telphone coz iam moving all service and the best 1 droped speed of b/b due to only geting 10meg at best most of the time only get 4meg when paying for 20meg oh sorry about that he said but we know we have a problem with are 20meg for about 3 weeks so ive been on the phone every week and geting told nothing wrong with are service must be your pc there having a monkey (p.c speck 3.6meg htz ht p4 4meg of ram 1t eather card ) then he tells me yeh we know we got a problem with are 20meg but why you leaving ive miss some thing with this call now then he tells me ill give you 1/2 price b/b for 6month just to keep you !! so i said ok but little dose he know telphone is still going to bt and b/b will go when i find a new b/b suppler !!!

[indebtstudent]

"Your letter claims that you are a "profitable customer".

Unfortunately going off their most recent financial report, Virgin Media don't have any such customers!!!"

 

My point was that I should be profitable in as much as It ake all my products from them (thus tkaing that business away from thier suppliers) and I happily paid my bill without any fuss until they started messing it u[ and introduced this ridiculous charge.