Virgin Media Horror - Please READ -

[BenMcr]

It says it on the FAQs if you read them

Is there a minimum contract period?
Yes, a minimum contract period of 12 months applies to National Broadband services.
However, if you cancel the service during the 'cooling off period' (seven working days of entering into a contract) no charges apply

and

You also can cancel the agreement without penalty up to the date of your Talk activation, however we would request you inform us as soon as possible, preferably prior to your broadband activation date

and

Cancellations
If you want to cancel your National Broadband service before your line is activated, you must notify us by phone. You will need to call the Cancellation Line. You can find details on our contact us form.
There are no charges for cancelling prior to your Broadband activation date


Basically you can't cancel once you line is activated without paying out the contract

Hi, Just to update you guys. I put a complaint through last Wednesday but I still haven't heard anything from them. Which I can understand that this can take up months for virgin media to reply! But if I applied for a new connection then the letter would have come to my house straight away!!!

But seriously guys, If you are thinking of upgrading your 2MB or another package higher or even lower one, then diffidently you will be tied in for another 12 months or 18 months connection. On top of that Virgin Media will scam you one way or other. Furthermore you will be put through hell by Virgin Media customer "support" team. So please, please think, is it worth saving £1 a month for the hassle.

The best option is just wait until your contract finishes and then find yourself a good broadband company. Companies like O2, bethere, sky, talktalk etc offer competitive service. Just shop around and you surely will find a better deal. The best way for you guys is to take couple of hours of your time and compare Virgin Media terms and conditions with the competing companies. Be aware, Virgin Media does have one condition where they say, they reserve the right to make amendments to their terms and conditions. At this moment there's only one company which offers less than 12 months contract. Bether offers 3 months contract and after that you could just leave them. However please update in this forum if you have any others in mind.

I'm a normal working class individual and I don't think I or any other customer deserves to be treated this way. It's just not acceptable. Although it's clear the mistake was from Virgin Media but yet they have not accepted it.

[Gary L]

Tell them to give you what you want or you'll stick it on Youtube

[telfordcable]

VM is called Hammer House Of Horror !

Hi, To be honest I am not even asking Virgin Media for anything special. All I want is a the truth. Changing someone's contract term (increasing it for another 12 months) WITHOUT notifying the customer is rediculous and against the law. And then the worst part is that this change was stated at the back of the letter. So if I was in rush in the morning and only looked front page of letter then I would have never realised this untill they sent me a huge bill through the post. This sort of change MUST be on thee front page....

Just imagine guys if it's happened to me then it must have happened to a lot Virgin Media customers. And Virgin Media's 3 different customer service agents varified this on the phone. When I told them about the mistake, they just sounded not surprise or apologetic at all. They were like, yes it's normal and we don't care, you just have to stay with for another 12 months... Actually one of the agents said to me "I don't care" if you were not told about the change on contract term...

Thanks for comments guys.....

---------- Post added at 21:58 ---------- Previous post was at 21:40 ----------

Originally Posted by chuzzlemonkey

Hi Have you been given a complaint reference number at all?

Hi,

Thanks for your massege. No I have not been given a complaint ref at all. To be honest I just feel it;s not fair and I am looking for anyone else on internet who went through the same nasty experience. I want to start a huge online campaigne to name and shame vergin media for treating it's loyal customer worst than slaves. How dare Virgin Media changes consumer contractual term without notifying them.

The worst part of this was that contractual amendment was stated at the back of the letter I recieved with extermly poor layout of billing. At the bottom there was no indication of how much final price I would be paying. I had to ring and find this out. I have discussed this with a barister friend and we came to conclusion that it was not acceptable with respect to public interest and information on the letter regarding amendment were no where visually clear in addition to poor explaining of payment spreads with no final cost given. If Ryan Air is asked to clarify their simple advertising then Virgin Media should be asked too.

Anyway I have devoted a lot of time on this over the past week and I don't think I'd let this go easily. So watch the space on World Wide Web if this does not get resolved soon!!

Guys, I need a good site suggestions for blog about Virgin Media Horror. does any one have any?

Thanks
Mr_SearchEngineOptimizer

[graf_von_anonym]

Originally Posted by Mr_SEO

I want to start a huge online campaigne to name and shame vergin media for treating it's loyal customer worst than slaves.

I'm sorry that Virgin have treated you badly; it does appear that an agent made a mistake, and that your situation hasn't perhaps been clearly understood by the those you've talked to subsequently. That said, grow a sense of proportion. Give Virgin Media a chance to resolve your complaint.

Take a deep breath. Rather than ranting and raving here, I would recommend writing a letter to the written complaints address. Send it recorded. In it, state that: you enquired about changing your package, and were told it would be £4 more, but not that you'd be entering a new 12 month contract; when you called again to query it you were told incorrectly that you were locked in; since then VM appear to have been unable to help you.

Don't get locked into accusing Virgin Media of purposeful deception. With hundreds, nay, thousands of employees it's not outwith the bounds of possibility that two of them could make a mistake or not be motivated enough to do their job properly. Of course they shouldn't do these things, but for the most part they get roundly abused on forums, frequently verbally abused at work, and do a task that is often thankless for wages that put the lie to those adverts that talk about "the average salary in the IT industry". Mistakes do happen, and I think you are making one in the way in which you are railing against this injustice.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be unhappy, but do not throw a tantrum. Be calm and purposeful, and give Virgin the chance to remedy this issue. Frothing will not help your cause, it will dissuade people from trying to help. Be clear in what it is that you want, and why it is that you want it, and then you should be successful. If you don't want to write them a letter, then give customer services a call, select the option for 'thinking of leaving us', and explain the situation as simply as you can: You enquired about an upgrade but were not told you would enter a new contract of 12 months; you accepted it; when you discovered the 12 month period you phoned in and were told that you were stuck, which, again, I emphasise, was not correct. That remedial action could have been taken at that time and was not was shameful, but what you're looking for is to be returned to your original contract or an equivalent, with no extension to your contract period.

Thank you for advise and time. Please forgive me for this But I don't think you read my posts properly.

Although I do care about my issue but my issue is no longer as important as couple of other issues which have impact other every single customer of virgin media.

But I'd still go into my issue to clarify this. First of I do not blame customer service agents for this. No way this was a mistake from Customer Service agents. This actually represents company's interests. I strongly believe and this is based on facts that customer services are strictly advised by Virgin Media to manipulate customers' contracts in order to gain strength in the market. The main issue has absolutely nothing to do with an individual employee of Virgin Media.

So I under no circumstances blame or intend to cause misconception about anyone's ability to carry out their duties. I hope I have made myself clear that I don't consider this an issue that rose from a bad service from an agent.

Yes later, when my contract was already issued and when I contacted Virgin Media customer service department, I had a nasty experience. This was also a point when I felt that Virgin Media as a company under no circumstance will resolve this issue.

I have worked in call centers myself and I understand the experience agents go through. But Virgin Media as a company can not blame individuals for these mistakes. Virgin Media is one of biggest telecommunications company, therefore I do not believe their training or recruitment selection's standard are so poor.

So please, please don't try to put this on individuals and don't make predictions and suggest your thoughts when I am actually telling the facts. Since I am the one who was in situation and who is in the situation, so I know where the fault lies and who is responsible for it.

So now I come to the real issue..
Most importantly, I think and I'm sure everyone would agree with me that Virgin Media should put contract amendments on the front page rather on the other side of the page in very small and badly explained writing where the chances are that someone might not even look at other side of the page. Alternatively Virgin Media should consider attaching another page if the information is too long too fit on one page.

I'm sure many of you have seen virgin media advertisement material coming to your house. These adverts are visually very clear, anyone opens that letter will see the main offer that is being listed. Visual impression rate is 100%. But when you compare this to the letter that gets sent out regarding contractual amendment with out notifying the customer, you will see how badly it's laid.

I understand this is sort of marketing strategy but I think it's extreme and crosses the limits and it's done by those who don't actually have a long term strategy for a business. There are so many other ways to attract customers and be cost effective and if you;re good at what you do then people will stay with you.

Sorry I did not intend to write this long essay but since you sounded much like someone who works for Virgin Media, I decided to give it a ago. also sorry if there were any spelling mistake as I only had 15 minutes to write my response.

[jamiefrost]

After reading all of this I think you generalising, I ahve change my prducts with Virgin a few time V+ and BB upgrades and have been informed that it would be a new 12 month contract.

As for have T&C's as the first thing on a letter, not sure depends what else is in the letter.

JJ

[leexgx]

apart from AOL BB (1-2 months months them) its norm an 12 month reset when you change something (same for mobiles and so on they do norm tell you its an new contract)

Originally Posted by leexgx

apart from AOL BB (1-2 months months them) its norm an 12 month reset when you change something (same for mobiles and so on they do norm tell you its an new contract)

Hi, but is it normal to change your contract without telling you. Just read first post on the first page and then you will understand why i'm complaining.

[BenMcr]

And you have already been told

1) No it isn't
2) It is not Virgin's policy to do that

[chuzzlemonkey]

Originally Posted by Mr_SEO

Hi, but is it normal to change your contract without telling you. Just read first post on the first page and then you will understand why i'm complaining.

Hi.

I've read your first post time and time again, and it really is just bad customer service that you've received. VM wouldn't advise their staff to apply a new recontracting offer without informing you of it.

---------- Post added at 15:07 ---------- Previous post was at 15:06 ----------

Originally Posted by BenMcr

And you have already been told

1) No it isn't
2) It is not Virgin's policy to do that

Cimpletely right BenMcr

Just to let you know everyone... users chuzzlemonkey and MebMcr work for Virgin Media. This is quite obvious from their posts.... On every single customer issue they have defended virgin media... just look at their posts history.

these guys are quite brilliant in copying and pasting Virgin media terms and conditions.... I guess this is the reason Virgin Media employs them and pays them just to defend them... I wonder when they going to employ someone to do some good work!!

[BenMcr]

Yes we do, and everyone knows we do.

Which is why when we say it is not VM policy to tie people into new 12 months without telling them - as is required by law under the DSR - then we are telling the truth

then why virgin media has tied me into a 12 contract without telling me? I know you going to say it was a mistake from an agent.

But to be honest general public has had enough of these nasty illegal tricks by Virgin Media....

I thought this cableforum website was mainly for general public. I don't think virgin media staff should be allowed to post in here as cableforum posts' aim to present public opinion not corporate companies opinion. And if someone is employed by Virgin Media, then of course they are going represent a company's opinion especially when they are being to reply to our posts instead of helping virgin media customers and will defend them all the way through even if it crystal clear that the virgin media company was at fault.

Well that leaves me to search for another INDEPENDENT forum. or perhaps spend a little bit of money and time create one! anyone want to join me in this good cause?

Thanks
Mr_SearchEngineOptimiser