First VM Bill Error?

Quattro · 13-10-2009, 13:42

Ok, so I started my XXL broadband service on the 21st September (university house) and just received my first bill which comes to Â£126.00!

Code:

Total service charges Â£126.00 

Refunds and adjustments Â£38.00 
  Main services (Provided by Virgin Media Ltd)  Â£38.00 

Description Date/period Amount 
  First Months Service 21 September - 20 October Â£38.00  
  
Advance charges Â£38.00 
  Main services (Provided by Virgin Media Ltd or Virgin Media Payments Ltd)  Â£38.00 

Description Date/period Amount 
  XXL 50Mb Broadband 21 October - 20 November Â£45.00  
  Broadband XL Discount 21 October - 20 November Â£-7.00  
  
Other charges Â£50.00 
  Charges and credits (Provided by Virgin Media Ltd)  Â£50.00 

Description Date/period Amount 
  BB Size XXL Activation Charge 21 September Â£20.00  
  Installation Charge 21 September Â£30.00

Now when I signed up online there was a free installation offer clearly shown on the page for XXL broadband (still there now) so why I have been charged Â£30 for it? (I understand the Â£20 activation charge so that is okay). It also showed up as free installation when I confirmed my purchase online.

And also XXL broadband without phone line was advertised as being Â£33 for the first 3 months and then Â£38 after so how come I am being charged Â£38 straight away?

BenMcr · 13-10-2009, 15:04

Yes it's an error

dustymunchkin · 15-10-2009, 19:17

How about this one then? In May got an offer to upgrade to 50mb for Â£35. I had to have phoneline which I already have. Good I thought. Only Â£15 more than for the bundle. (The bundle I had was for free TV showing as a Â£9.50 discount)
Bill comes in with Â£52 charge for XXL total Â£84.75. Rang. Spoke to one girl who passed me to her boss, a very short-tempered lady in customer care(?) Told me she could reduce charges to Â£74.75. 'take it or leave it'
I left it. Went online. looked at the deals available to existing users. Found one for Â£66 identical to one I have. Rang in. 'Was I eligible?' 'Yes.' 'Are you sure?' 'Yes.' 'Really really sure?' 'Definately.'
He went away to set it up and came back to tell me there was a problem. He was very embarrassed but I'd need to go through customer care. 'So she's blocked it?' 'In short. Yes'
I left it. In September price will be reduced for all? Yes? Well my 50mb XXL has been reduced to Â£45.00.
I deal with customers every day. I know it doesn't help to get uppity, so I don't. This woman had no reason to block my access to the deal let alone not to rectify an obvious overcharge. Where can I ring for help without being referred to her? She obviously has a note on my account.

BenMcr · 15-10-2009, 19:29

www.virginmedia.com/contact. There is a complaints form on there

dustymunchkin · 15-10-2009, 19:43

Thank You Ben. I hope everyone buys you cookies for Xmas (although they'll probably be virtual cookies and they're not as good)
Am I right that xxlbb is (or should be) Â£28 for everyone now?

BenMcr · 15-10-2009, 20:20

It will show on the bill as Â£45. What makes it Equivalent to Â£28 is the bundle discount you recieve

So if you have BB XXL and a phone you would get at least a Â£17 discount.

dustymunchkin · 15-10-2009, 21:17

Kind of what I thought. My discount has gone back up to -Â£10.50 which is what it was when I took the bundle with free TV. It went down to -Â£9.50 sometime in 2008. What I don't know is if I lose that 'free' TV package by upgrading to 50mb.
I can accept that both deals relied on me having a telephone line so it's possible I lose it but bit unfair not to be informed. I didn't get a contract in writing so theoretically I'd guess it's not a 'new' contract and therefore shouldn't impact on the old one.
Will wait and see what the complaints service says. Hopefully this is not handled by Customer Care managers.
Thanks Again!

Foo Fighter · 16-10-2009, 10:54

I have to just signed up to 10mb after moving into my own place, got my first bill and i have been charged installation aswell!

I dont have a virgin phone does anyone have a geographical number for them?
dont want to ring 0845 its not free on mobiles and the ones listed on saynoto0870 have changed.

webcrawler2050 · 16-10-2009, 11:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foo Fighter

I have to just signed up to 10mb after moving into my own place, got my first bill and i have been charged installation aswell!

I dont have a virgin phone does anyone have a geographical number for them?
dont want to ring 0845 its not free on mobiles and the ones listed on saynoto0870 have changed.

They don't have one - give them a call or dial 151 free off your landline.

BenMcr · 16-10-2009, 14:12

He said he doesn't have a Virgin phone - so if they dial 151 they will get through to faults for their phone provider, not Virgin

dustymunchkin · 16-10-2009, 20:44

Since January 16th 2009 0845 0870 and 0871 have been national rate numbers (free if you have free landline calls)

BenMcr · 16-10-2009, 21:37

No they haven't. Some providers include them within Talk Plans but they have not be reclassified by OFCOM

dustymunchkin · 17-10-2009, 01:26

Sorry 0871 didn't mean to get in there anyway. it's still premium.
0870 is no longer classed as NTS. It must be at same rate as standard geographic call unless it's preceded by a free recorded announcement with detailed cost charges. This isn't going to happen on 0870 because of the way it's classed meaning revenue sharing for 0870 numbers is now illegal. What happens now is the call recipient pays the provider approx 3ppm. I know that 'cos I have one. but it's always been charged at standard rate - we took no income from it.
0845 is due to follow shortly. As a result BT and many other providers have pre empted and from Jan 16th BT has charged 0845 and 0870 at nat rate.
I real life terms, unless there is a price pre-announcement, an 0870 call will cost no more than an equivalent national call to a geographic (01 or 02) number.
If you have BT, should be free to ring 0845 during the free hours (evening and weekends)
The ofcom doc is long and I don't claim to understand it all. What confuses me most is on Barclays bank website (updated Oct 09) calls to their 0870 line are declared as 11ppm.
Why? That money would go to the provider. Barclays can't share in it.
Anyone want to clarify?

BenMcr · 17-10-2009, 08:47

That's not right. What happened on the 1st of August 2009 (not January) was that Communication Providers have to make it quite clear how much they charge for 0870 number in all advertising, cannot use recorded messages on the line, and cannot refer to an 0870 number as 'national rate' unless it is charged the same as a geographical landline call

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/cond...0870statement/ - sections 1.6, 1.7 and 1.26 are most relevant

Although hopefully if all providers don't make 0870 inclusive then OFCOM will force them to

dustymunchkin · 18-10-2009, 01:11

I don't disagree with you. As I said BT 'pre empted' the changes by making calls to 0870 'free' from January 16th.
I've not seen the recorded announcement legislation and can't see how the CPs would be involved. Generally they're in house.That would mean no ansafones out of hours (?)

I read that bit about a free pre recorded announcement in the early part of that document without realising they later dumped that proposal - something to do with call systems interference. It's not true. My mistake.
And yes you are quite right, none of the legislation precludes higher charges being made by your own service provider (so long as it is clearly published) BUT I think you might be missing the relevance of making sharing of revenue illegal.
Why would a business allow it's customers to pay more for calls (that have to be clearly advertised by the business) when they can no longer benefit from the revenue?
If the provider of the line to the business charges more than Nat rate to the caller, the business will just port their phone number somewhere else. The 'effect' rather than the 'legislation' has been to bring charges down to national rates and Communications providers including BT now charge the business (exactly like 0800) That has happened.

The second part of this (which is where the BT bit comes in) is to get the Communication providers like BT and VM to charge in accordance with what they are being charged.

BT are. Vodafone & VM are still charging premium rates. There's nothing to stop them charging more for a call if they make it clear they're ripping you off. Your provider is the one who says how much you pay. They should be charging like 01 or 02.

But then there's Barclays.....They can't share in the revenue so why allow the provider to charge above National rate?
My best guess is that the Terminal provider is providing them with call management services 'free of charge' The provider is taking the cost from the caller.

Ofcom left the TPs with provision of services so they still had a way of making money. I don't think they envisaged the caller paying for them.

If I'm right, it's a loophole that Ofcom need to block. I'm guessing the first to challenge will be BT as it's them that will be paying for the call on package deals. This could be the reason VM and others are holding back.....

I've read the document. As I said quite hard to read but the first 140 pages are 'we thought...and then we thought....and then again we thought..' The actual legislation is about p145 on. (and even then there's a page or two of waffle before they show the actual 5 lines or so of new legislation)

Ofcom spend 3 years trying to make 0870 nat rate without putting a load of tps out of business and Barclays find a way to carry on ripping off it's customers.
Way to go Barclays.
Remind me never to bank with them.:-)