Cap on buying yourself out of a Virgin contract to be scrapped.

[RichardCoulter]

At present there is a cap of about £288 on fees to buy yourselves out of a Virgin contract. As of now for new customers and current customers who recontract, this cap is to be removed.

No mention of this in the price increase letters was there?

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

At present there is a cap of about £288 on fees to buy yourselves out of a Virgin contract. As of now for new customers and current customers who recontract, this cap is to be removed.

No mention of this in the price increase letters was there?

Well spotted, that's yet another massive negative change. Does seem to only apply to those recontracting after the 2nd April. This could means hundreds possibly thousands in extra cancellation charges. Sneaky toerags.

If your current contract with us started prior to 2 April 2023, we currently cap the amount of the Early Disconnection Fee so that you will pay no more than £288 (includes VAT). If you are a new or recontracting customer on or after 2 April 2023, this cap does not apply.

https://www.virginmedia.com/legal/fi...MzM1OS4wLjAuMA..

[Rillington]

Therefore, does this mean that if you pay say £100/month and you left say one month into the contact, VM would come after you for £1.080 even if you were forced to mvoe to an address where VM does not provide a service?

Originally Posted by Rillington

Therefore, does this mean that if you pay say £100/month and you left say one month into the contact, VM would come after you for £1.080 even if you were forced to mvoe to an address where VM does not provide a service?

From the link in Mr K’s post

The Early Disconnection Fee will not be more than the charges you would have paid for the services for the remainder of the minimum period and will be less any costs we save, including the cost of no longer providing you with the services

[newapollo]

Originally Posted by Rillington

Therefore, does this mean that if you pay say £100/month and you left say one month into the contact, VM would come after you for £1.080 even if you were forced to mvoe to an address where VM does not provide a service?

If you only had one month left on your contract then you would need to give the standard 30 day cancellation notice, so you would just pay the £100, no EDF is involved.

Using the Bigger Bundle + Movies (M250 Fibre Broadband, Maxit TV + Sky Cinema and Weekend chatter - Monthly Cost: £100.00) with three months left as an example, you would be charged the £100 for the 30 days notice, plus the EDF per month remaining (includes VAT): £88.16 times two, so £100 plus EDF of £176.32.

EDIT

If you moved to a UK address outside of the Virgin Media network, then after providing evidence of your new addres, the EDF would be removed, and you would only be charged for the usual 30 days notice.

[RichardCoulter]

When it was NTL I remember they only charged the equivalent of what you would have paid if you had downgraded all services to the minimum available.

I suspect that a lot of people will be 'moving' to a friend/relatives address outside of a Virgin area. If they're only renting a room there they won't have any evidence of bills being in their name, so a letter should suffice.

Even better if they know people who live abroad!

I think the only legal way they'd be able to check a person hadn't moved out would be when the electoral register is updated, so people would need to ensure that they opted to go onto the edited register that companies etc have no access to. I doubt they'd take it that far, but you never know with this money grabbing company these days.

In any case, if nobody returns the annual canvass form to update the electoral register at a property, they tend to leave the existing occupants on the register for 2 or 3 years. This means that some people are on the register twice, but can only legally vote once*

* Some students are allowed to vote twice at certain elections for their home & term time address.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

When it was NTL I remember they only charged the equivalent of what you would have paid if you had downgraded all services to the minimum available.

I suspect that a lot of people will be 'moving' to a friend/relatives address outside of a Virgin area. If they're only renting a room there they won't have any evidence of bills being in their name, so a letter should suffice.

Even better if they know people who live abroad!

I think the only legal way they'd be able to check a person hadn't moved out would be when the electoral register is updated, so people would need to ensure that they opted to go onto the edited register that companies etc have no access to. I doubt they'd take it that far, but you never know with this money grabbing company these days.

In any case, if nobody returns the annual canvass form to update the electoral register at a property, they tend to leave the existing occupants on the register for 2 or 3 years. This means that some people are on the register twice, but can only legally vote once*

* Some students are allowed to vote twice at certain elections for their home & term time address.

Probably not…

If you’re moving outside our network area but still within the UK and give us some valid evidence of your new address, we’ll credit you back the early disconnection fee. When submitting your disconnection request, our team will explain the next steps and you’ll get a request for valid proof of your new UK address. If we get this back within 30 days and it’s validated, we’ll apply a credit to the value of your early disconnection fee to your account.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Probably not…

Be interested to know how many people have successfully claimed cancellation charges back. Seems they charge you whatever and it's up to you to claim back if you' ve moved to a non cabled area . The t&cs/ timescales for claiming are very tight, its almost as if they don't want you to claim. You might well not have valid proof within the 30 day timescale, house moves/changes of addresses/paperwork take time.

You’d have a rental/mortgage/house purchase agreement, or utility connection confirmation, or bank account with the new address.

[RichardCoulter]

Housing Benefit accept a letter from the new landlord to serve as proof of occupancy & rent payable where it's only a licence agreement and not a tenancy, so it would seem disproportionate for a utility company not to accept this.

I suppose people could always change ther bank account address back after it's served it's purpose.

A lot of banks have gone paperless, sp maybe a temporary address of someone you don't even know would suffice (I have no idea if banks send out a confirmation of change of address letter for security reasons .though).

Are you encouraging fraud ?

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Paul

Are you encouraging fraud ?

I'm just exploring the ways that people might deploy to circumvent liability for exorbitant charges.

It'll be interrsting to see what Virgin do if they suspect fraud, I suspect that they would simply put the charges back onto the account & sell the debt to a debt collection agency if it wasn't paid.

They wouldn't want to spend staff time delving into this too deeply or risk tarnishing their brand even further by taking legal action.

We might see some interesting court cases in the future though where the former customer disputes application of these charges though.

Originally Posted by Paul

Are you encouraging fraud ?

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

I'm just exploring the ways that people might deploy to circumvent liability for exorbitant charges.

It'll be interrsting to see what Virgin do if they suspect fraud, I suspect that they would simply put the charges back onto the account & sell the debt to a debt collection agency if it wasn't paid.

They wouldn't want to spend staff time delving into this too deeply or risk tarnishing their brand even further by taking legal action.

We might see some interesting court cases in the future though where the former customer disputes application of these charges though.

That’s a yes, then…

[RobboEdin]

PS Living abroad does not get you off any early disconnection fees.

[Rillington]

So does this mean that, if for example, you are paying £100/month for your services and for reasons out of your control you have to move somewhere where there is no Vm services with a year left on your contact then VM would come after you for £1,200?