Gary L
22-09-2007, 15:09
Sometime last month Virgin Media changed their support service for
broadband problems and instead of just ringing 150 from a Virgin phone
now you have to dial a premium rate number. 25p/min + 10p connection
charge. No letters or emails to notify customers of this change in the
package they were offered, just happened overnight.
Yesterday I had a fault with my modem which refused to show ready, so
I rang. Same call centre in India that it always was, but now they spend
the first minute telling you that the call is chargeable, asking if
you're the billpayer, over 18, confirming name and address etc. But
hang on, says I, you cant really be charging me to report a fault with your
equipment? No, assures the call centre, if the fault is at our end
then we refund the call. After ten minutes of diagnostics, he agrees there
is a fault with the modem and decides to book an engineer visit, which of
course takes him another ten minutes. Finally, visit booked for
sometime today, and I *must* agree to be home because if he comes and I'm notin, I'll be charged £10. Naturally I asked if the reverse applies, i.e. if
the engineer fails to arrive (not uncommon!) will they pay *me* £10?
Unfortunately the irony doesn't seem to translate well and he is
confused before saying that no, of course that wouldn't be the case.
Later last night I noticed the modem lights were back on so I tried to
connect and was successful, so I phoned to cancel the engineer. No way
of doing that without ringing the same premium number, so as soon as
he answers I interrupt his warning spiel and tell him I only want to
cancel an appointment, as the fault has been corrected. I can hear him
industriously tapping away on his keyboard and five minutes later, hey
presto, appointment cancelled. So I ask the obvious question, I'll not
be charged for this call either, right? Ah, no, says he, you will be -
you're cancelling an appointment. I'm dumbstruck! So what should I do
then, *not* cancel an appointment and when he shows up simply tell him
he's not wanted? No, says he, that would apply the 'failed callout'
charge of £10. Just to rub salt in, the earlier call I'd made will now
*also* be chargeable, because as there is no fault there now the
engineer has no way to prove the fault was at their end. I spend
another two minutes arguing the stupidity of that and then suddenly realise
I'm paying 25p/min for the privilege of arguing with someone who doesn't
care, so I hang up and dial Customer Services.
They refuse to refund either call, and tell me that because I didn't
disconnect when I got the warning about the call charge, I 'accept'
the charges applied. But how do I report that there is a fault, then?
Well, you cant, you have to pay to do that and then hope that Virgin accept
the fault is with them later, something over which you have no control
and which they have a vested interest in not being truthful about. I'm
being icily polite but firm and insist that I wont be paying those
call charges, sorry. Paraphrasing them "tough, its already on your bill".
"well, I'll cancel the direct debit then and just pay the bill minus
the two calls". "then we'll charge you £5 per time for not paying by
direct debit". "okay, I'll continue to pay by direct debit, but 'cap' the
forthcoming bill to reflect the two calls". "then we'll disconnect you
and apply charges for *that*". And then a direct quote "we'll put the
bill in the hands of our debt collection agency and you will find it
difficult to arrange credit in the future. They will call at your
house and take goods to the value of your debt".
At that point I admit I lost my cool and told them that their
statement was a deliberate and intimidating lie, as their debt collector had no
legal rights, and that I now wanted to speak to a manager, who simply
stated that they could not waive those charges and if I wanted to
appeal against it I should call technical support who were the only people
with the power to do that. But that costs me *another* call, which they'll
not refund, to try to get a *previous* call refunded says I. Sorry,
says the manager, thems the breaks.
How on Earth can such a process be allowed? Surely the unfair contract
terms act doesn't permit Virgin to unilaterally change the charge for
technical support and insist that you pay something you never agreed
to at the outset of the contract? And wouldn't the same act prevent them
from applying a 'new' charge and preventing the customer from any way
of disputing it? We're talking about a total cost of about £3 here but
that isn't the point - Virgin are intimidating their customers into
accepting charges to report that *they* have a fault! Where the hell do you go with a company who insist they are always right and that the customer
has no redress?
broadband problems and instead of just ringing 150 from a Virgin phone
now you have to dial a premium rate number. 25p/min + 10p connection
charge. No letters or emails to notify customers of this change in the
package they were offered, just happened overnight.
Yesterday I had a fault with my modem which refused to show ready, so
I rang. Same call centre in India that it always was, but now they spend
the first minute telling you that the call is chargeable, asking if
you're the billpayer, over 18, confirming name and address etc. But
hang on, says I, you cant really be charging me to report a fault with your
equipment? No, assures the call centre, if the fault is at our end
then we refund the call. After ten minutes of diagnostics, he agrees there
is a fault with the modem and decides to book an engineer visit, which of
course takes him another ten minutes. Finally, visit booked for
sometime today, and I *must* agree to be home because if he comes and I'm notin, I'll be charged £10. Naturally I asked if the reverse applies, i.e. if
the engineer fails to arrive (not uncommon!) will they pay *me* £10?
Unfortunately the irony doesn't seem to translate well and he is
confused before saying that no, of course that wouldn't be the case.
Later last night I noticed the modem lights were back on so I tried to
connect and was successful, so I phoned to cancel the engineer. No way
of doing that without ringing the same premium number, so as soon as
he answers I interrupt his warning spiel and tell him I only want to
cancel an appointment, as the fault has been corrected. I can hear him
industriously tapping away on his keyboard and five minutes later, hey
presto, appointment cancelled. So I ask the obvious question, I'll not
be charged for this call either, right? Ah, no, says he, you will be -
you're cancelling an appointment. I'm dumbstruck! So what should I do
then, *not* cancel an appointment and when he shows up simply tell him
he's not wanted? No, says he, that would apply the 'failed callout'
charge of £10. Just to rub salt in, the earlier call I'd made will now
*also* be chargeable, because as there is no fault there now the
engineer has no way to prove the fault was at their end. I spend
another two minutes arguing the stupidity of that and then suddenly realise
I'm paying 25p/min for the privilege of arguing with someone who doesn't
care, so I hang up and dial Customer Services.
They refuse to refund either call, and tell me that because I didn't
disconnect when I got the warning about the call charge, I 'accept'
the charges applied. But how do I report that there is a fault, then?
Well, you cant, you have to pay to do that and then hope that Virgin accept
the fault is with them later, something over which you have no control
and which they have a vested interest in not being truthful about. I'm
being icily polite but firm and insist that I wont be paying those
call charges, sorry. Paraphrasing them "tough, its already on your bill".
"well, I'll cancel the direct debit then and just pay the bill minus
the two calls". "then we'll charge you £5 per time for not paying by
direct debit". "okay, I'll continue to pay by direct debit, but 'cap' the
forthcoming bill to reflect the two calls". "then we'll disconnect you
and apply charges for *that*". And then a direct quote "we'll put the
bill in the hands of our debt collection agency and you will find it
difficult to arrange credit in the future. They will call at your
house and take goods to the value of your debt".
At that point I admit I lost my cool and told them that their
statement was a deliberate and intimidating lie, as their debt collector had no
legal rights, and that I now wanted to speak to a manager, who simply
stated that they could not waive those charges and if I wanted to
appeal against it I should call technical support who were the only people
with the power to do that. But that costs me *another* call, which they'll
not refund, to try to get a *previous* call refunded says I. Sorry,
says the manager, thems the breaks.
How on Earth can such a process be allowed? Surely the unfair contract
terms act doesn't permit Virgin to unilaterally change the charge for
technical support and insist that you pay something you never agreed
to at the outset of the contract? And wouldn't the same act prevent them
from applying a 'new' charge and preventing the customer from any way
of disputing it? We're talking about a total cost of about £3 here but
that isn't the point - Virgin are intimidating their customers into
accepting charges to report that *they* have a fault! Where the hell do you go with a company who insist they are always right and that the customer
has no redress?