superhub ties you into new 12 month contract

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by vanman

hdnl didn't deliver an installer brought it round to my house
haven't paid for my upgrade yet as its not due.

I have not paid for mine until my next bill either, and I did see you mention the installers pad above even though I forgot in the above post.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by vanman

but i did not sign any thing to say that i received it that my point no proof.

It is however a balance of probabilities. If Virgin sent you something you did not want, then why allow it to be installed.

If you agreed to a new contract, but then didn't receive and written confirmation, why did you not contact Virgin and ask them to resend it.

Any dispute works both ways

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

It is however a balance of probabilities. If Virgin sent you something you did not want, then why allow it to be installed.

Well there is this, which protects the consumer and gives a great reason to allow installation/receipt of something you did not want or ask for:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/consu...olicited-items

If a company gives you something you didn't ask for it becomes legally an unconditional gift you can do whatever you want with and have no obligation to pay for. Free stuff, who could complain?

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Well there is this, which protects the consumer and gives a great reason to allow installation/receipt of something you did not want or ask for:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/consu...olicited-items

If a company gives you something you didn't ask for it becomes legally an unconditional gift you can do whatever you want with and have no obligation to pay for. Free stuff, who could complain?

But we aren't talking about things that have not been asked for. We are talking about services that HAVE been asked for.

In any case, that can't apply to services, because there is no way to keep something that requires continual payment. You at most may be able to argue that you can keep the equipment, however that would then become useless

Finally Virgin don't just randomly set up accounts and send kit out. It is always on the basis of someone phoning up and requesting services, so that legislation wouldn't apply

[qasdfdsaq]

Your wording implied it was something he did not ask for by virtue of the words "If Virgin sent you something you did not want, then why allow it to be installed." That's assuming one would have the sense to not ask for stuff they did not want...

In response to that, if they gave me something I didn't ask for, I'd keep it simply because it is legally a freebie.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Your wording implied it was something he did not ask for by virtue of the words "If Virgin sent you something you did not want, then why allow it to be installed." That's assuming one would have the sense to not ask for stuff they did not want...

In response to that, if they gave me something I didn't ask for, I'd keep it simply because it is legally a freebie.

Right, so if an installer randomly turned up at your house and said 'I'm here to drill holes in your walls for something you didn't order' you would let them in?!

The unsolicited goods act is designed to stop thing such as the way Britannia Music Club would sent you a CD you hadn't ordered and didn't want and then said you have to pay for it.

[qasdfdsaq]

Please read my wording carefully. "did not ask for" is not the same as "did not want". In either case we're not talking about an installer turning up to drill walls, we're talking about a Superhub, a physical unit that was either delivered in a box by a courier or an installer turned up to plug it in. That's how I interpreted the OP's statement anyway.

[BenMcr]

Right, and as I've already said multiple times now, if he wasn't informed as Virgin is legally required to do, that a new contract would start, then he has grounds to dispute the contract.

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Remember that the Virgin employee should also be making the customer away before they enter the contract, that that is what they are doing and give them the opportunity to decline before doing so.

Again, if someone says that hasn't happened, then an investigation would be made.

---------- Post added at 17:55 ---------- Previous post was at 17:54 ----------

Never said, it was. But saying on the phone 'I never got it' isn't proof that you didn't. If there is dispute then it would have to be investigated.

However it wouldn't just be cancelled without investigation. What would likely happen is that the account would be closed and EDFs charged until the investigation was completed. If it was found that the agent hadn't done all they were legally required to do the EDFs would likely be waived

[Peter_]

If you ring up and request the upgrade then once you receive the kit and have it activated either by an engineer or as a self install then you have accepted the kit and the upgrade which in turn puts you into a new contract.

[Dave9946]

Hmm, an interesting read this 1. We upgraded to 50mb a couple of weeks ago now and very happy with the service ans for that sake alone I cant see us even thinking about wanting to cancel anything in the next 12 months. But in saying that I do recall the chat I had with with the retentions department.

We moved from a deal (double unlimited?) that we had been on for what, 2 1/2 years. Anyways the deal we got was for just the 50mb net and a phoneline with free weekend calls (the tv is retained free because it only has freeview channels anyways). We werequoted and being charged the standard price of £38.24pm (I think lol). But I asked at it was confirmed NO IT IS NOT A NEW CONTRACT. This would be on record by retentions and assumingly they are better qualafied to know these matters better than most departments?.

I'd say in our (and similar cases) cases it is correct and there is no new standing contract as it was said otherwise by retentions and never had a letter saying otherwise. Also as if it was reguarded as a new contract I'd have thought we would have been entitled to the first 6 months half price deal like all new contracts are at the moment.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Dave9946

Hmm, an interesting read this 1. We upgraded to 50mb a couple of weeks ago now and very happy with the service ans for that sake alone I cant see us even thinking about wanting to cancel anything in the next 12 months. But in saying that I do recall the chat I had with with the retentions department.

We moved from a deal (double unlimited?) that we had been on for what, 2 1/2 years. Anyways the deal we got was for just the 50mb net and a phoneline with free weekend calls (the tv is retained free because it only has freeview channels anyways). We werequoted and being charged the standard price of £38.24pm (I think lol). But I asked at it was confirmed NO IT IS NOT A NEW CONTRACT. This would be on record by retentions and assumingly they are better qualafied to know these matters better than most departments?.

I'd say in our (and similar cases) cases it is correct and there is no new standing contract as it was said otherwise by retentions and never had a letter saying otherwise. Also as if it was reguarded as a new contract I'd have thought we would have been entitled to the first 6 months half price deal like all new contracts are at the moment.

Regardless of what they told you it all boils down to what is actually in the notes on your account.

The 6 months discount involves an 18 month contract term.

[Dave9946]

Yes but either it is or it is'nt a new contract in such cases. Your saying 1 thing others are saying something else. We in our case were told it's not a new contract at only at that point did we agree to the price quoted by retentions. And at no point since have we been informed that it is a new contract. As if it was mentioned prior to the price quoted by retentions that it was a new contract we would never have taken the deal as new customers get a far better deal at half price for 6 months reguradless of it being an 18 month contract over a 12 month one.

If we were lied to (and assuming the calls are stored we can prove this) upon changing our package then reguardless of what a company says I'm pretty sure there are laws to protect the consumer against misselling like this. There are countless examples of such misselling on other sites on a similar basis like may be the case here with mobile phone contracts were legally the quoted deal has to be honoured or cancelled reguardless of any mentioned cooling off period.

So as far as I'm concerned we have no new contract or we have a contract that legally has no valadity if such contracts were challenged. You may work for VM but if you check with the legal department I'm pretty sure in such cases the right of law is on the comsumers side with these matters.

[BenMcr]

Not all deals from Customer Relations are a new 12 month term.

However all deals that are recontracting throughout Virgin are advised on the phone and will be backed up with written confirmation

[Dave9946]

Ok thanks for clearing that up. It sure does get confusing then when there seems to be so many different deals going about depending on how a customer wants to change there account that goes against or the complete opposite of what another customer is told. Prehaps therefor our deal was a no minimum contract period.

[BenMcr]

Agents on the phone don't have a choice in which bundles recontract or not, so everyone who go for the same deal will be recontracted or not in the same way