Useless billing dept
 

A couple of weeks ago a received my first phone bill from virgin of £11.81 and they told me that it would come out of my account today (11/03/08), however i signed up with ebilling and paid the bill with my debit card, payment went through and have reference number, 3 days later i phoned billing to ask why it was not showing as paid and was assured that payment had been received.

This morning i logged onto my internet banking only to find out that they have taken the money again which my account has now gone overdrawn by £6 and the bank have told me i will be charged £25 for this, i then phoned billing who said they would look into this and call me back, nobody called back so i phoned them back and the guy i spoke to said there was no payment made other than the direct debit and he basically called me a liar, i asked to speak to a supervisor or manager but he refused to put me through, i called back got through to someone else who told me she would look into it. not holding my breath on that one.

I am a week out of my first 28 days and already i feel like telling them to cancel the lot, sorry to rant on but it really ****ed me off

< rant over, now breath >

Re: Useless billing dept
 

This is one reason why I will not pay them by DD :(

Re: Useless billing dept
 

So you paid it by debit card, even though the bill said it would be taken by DD??

Re: Useless billing dept
 

I can understand your frustation with the information you have been given, but not over what has happened.

Why did you pay via card if you had a d/d set up? It wouldn't have stopped the d/d coming out automatically because Virgin don't expect people to do that! I'm not sure any company would

If you would rather pay via e-billing you can cancel your d/d but it will add the non-dd charge onto the account. If the d/d date is wrong, you can request it to be changed.

Re: Useless billing dept
 

Why do people make mistakes then call a call centre and ask to speak to the manager, im sure the agent was doing the best they can, only to be be bullied by you demanding to speak to the manager.

Simple if you set up DD and then paid by other means also, whos fault is it?

Re: Useless billing dept
 

I don't see what you're getting at, you set up a DD then paid by card and now you're moaning you've paid twice?

Re: Useless billing dept
 

Before you all jump on the OP, why do VM allow card payments via both ebilling and their automated phone system if your on DD?

Nice to see all the offers of help, is this place becoming a playground for linch mob's?

You get linched if you don't pay your bill and now the op is getting linched because he did??

I had my services installed on the 6/2/08 and by the 1/03/08 i owed 27.13 or so the automated voice at the end of my phone line had been telling me since 7/02/08 yet no bills had been generated on my account!

I paid the 27.13 by card as i was worried i had not received a bill, knowing how VM's billing can be i did not want to risk non payment and disconnection etc...

Most companies, well in fact all companies i have used bill you within the first 14 days or so with a months charges in advance.

For me my first VM bill was generated over a month after i was first connected, ebilling works fine and the 27.13 was shown as being received and deducted so they will collect £17 and something pence by DD instead of the usuall 40 odd quid!

I will pay all future bills by DD.

My point being maybe the same thing happened with the OP!

To the OP has your card payment def been taken? Does it show on any statments?

---------- Post added at 11:28 ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 ----------

Umm yes it would! (Depending if payment was received before the bill had been generated.)

Ummm no you don't, you can still have ebilling and can still make free credit/debit card payments through it even if your a DD customer!

---------- Post added at 11:31 ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 ----------

The OP has not made a mistake!

I'm with 3 for my mobile and i have a DD setup, i cannot make any card payments over the phone or via ebilling as all options are disabled!

They are not with VM, if VM don't want DD customers to make a payment via this method then they should not allow you too full stop!

---------- Post added at 11:33 ---------- Previous post was at 11:31 ----------

Although he may be moaning he's paid twice the fact of the matter is they say they have not received his card payment!

Re: Useless billing dept
 

Yes if you make a payment and there is no bill then, you can stop a future bill being taken out by d/d

But he said himself:

So he had already been billed, therefore the d/d will not have been stopped by a card payment

yes you can, but if you CANCEL the d/d, and pay via card, even via e-billing then you will get a non-dd fee

Ok, but if you got a bill saying that it was to be taken via D/D, are you saying would then try and pay it by card anyway?

I do agree however, that maybe Virgin need to look at switching the facility off if a d/d is active

I agree if the e-billing payment is still not showing then something has gone wrong. But the d/d being taken is a seperate issue to the missing e-billing payment

Re: Useless billing dept
 

Ahh fair point, by the time I got through all the posts I got a little confused, and I agree with the charge for non DD but I did not realise he wanted to quit DD payments completely.

If he does that then like you pointed out there will be a monthly non DD charge.

The fact of the matter is he has paid twice, I would contact your card supplier and see what they can do. If it's a credit card then just dispute it with them and they should get things sorted.

On the other hand you will prob find the card payment listed on your next bill.

As for the bank charges then that's your look out as you received a bill instructing you how payment was to be collected, had you like i pointed out not actually had a bill generated then fair enough it would have been VM's fault.

Re: Useless billing dept
 

What if a customer is expecting quite a large bill. Lets say they've just upgraded to the top tv with sports and movies and with the advance charges and the current month they think it will be a little too much for them to pay in one month, So they make a debit card payment now. So that when the next months bill comes in its there waiting.

Re: Useless billing dept
 

I'm not sure of your logic here?

I think my bill is going to be £100 next month which will be too much for me to pay in that month.
I choose to pay some of it just now by debit card so it'll be less for me to pay next month?!!!
Surely all you are doing is paying before you have to. If you can't afford it next month, how can you afford it now?
Isn't it better having your money in your account earning you interest rather than giving it to Virgin Media so it can earn interest for them in their account?

Re: Useless billing dept
 

which is why I said just upgraded to sports and movies. The bills going to be higher this one time because of the pro rates then will settle back down to what it should be.

And it was a response to you saying that if people pay by DD they should stop them paying any extra by card

Re: Useless billing dept
 

Yes i printed out a statement and the money had gone to them.

I also emailed a complaint in and got this responce:


Thank you for your e-mail dated 11 March 2008 regarding your payment via
e-billing. I ams sorry that you have had to contact us about this.

I can confirm that we have received 2 payments, both for £11.81. The
e-billing payment did not arrive until 12 March, 5 days after we took
the direct debit.

On this occasion as a goodwill gesture, I have applied a £25.00 credit
for the bank charges you incurred.

I trust I have answered your questions to your satisfaction.

If you have further queries regarding this matter or any other issue,
please use the link provided below:

Re: Useless billing dept
 

Well that is good that it is all sorted.

Though the original people you speak to didn't lie to you. If the e-billing payment didn't clear onto the account to the 12th, they wouldn't have been able to see it when you asked about it

They obviously shouldn't have accused you of lying

Re: Useless billing dept
 

And NO i did not demand to speak to a manager, i asked him in a calm and polite way, i am never rude or "bully" CS operators.

I know what a crap job it can be as i have done the same job myself in the past

---------- Post added at 23:26 ---------- Previous post was at 23:21 ----------

This is what they now have told me but i spoke to someone else a few days after making the payment that it was there.

Anyway its all sorted now, at least next month bill is partly paid all i have to do is pay for the calls