Quote:
Originally Posted by octatonic
Legal or not, they still do it.
I actually know the mechanism that allows them to get away with it.
They use a 'discount' code that requires you to sign up to a new contract.
You could make the changes without the new contract but that pushes you up into a different price bracket.
Pretty much everyone that has a bundle has this discount applied.
Removing the discount adds something like £30-40 to the price of the bundle.
I rang OFCOM about this today and they were supremely disinterested in addressing this issue though.
I expressed the idea that it is an unethical practice and I was told 'no-one else is complaining about it so we can't do anything.
I spoke to 2 different customer service reps at Virgin today and they confirmed that if I downgraded to 20Mb and then upgraded again to 50Mb that I would be put on a new contract.
I requested a letter from them to specifically except me from this, which took me 30 mins of arguing to get them to send it.
It should arrive sometime next week- I will scan it when it arrives so everyone can see it.
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The trouble with ombudsman services is that they are funded by companies within that industry. That isn't so much of a problem with say, the financial sector. But in the telephone business there are only a few main companies. So although OFCOM are supposed to be independent, sometimes ombudsman services in industries without many businesses an be reluctant to make bite the hand that feeds them.