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Re: Do Virgin rip you off if you're already a customer?
I think the answer is yes. 3 months ago I went for the 50mb upgrade. £35 if taken in conjunction with the phone line which I already have as part of a bundle.
On my bills I spotted they're charging me £52 for the xxl. The bundle saving is at £9.50 as it always was. So I rang them and they agree it's a mistake and offer to take the price down to £73.50. Will they also refund me the 3 months overcharge? No.
That is outrageous when it's the wrong charge. It's not a huge amount but...
I refused the offer while I did some research. Online I discover that as an existing customer I can get XXl +XL +Xl for £57 when I take a new 'service'. I wonder if a bigger package is a new service. I ring and the man assures me that I am eligible. I'm dubious but he's adamant. He goes off to set it up and comes back to say there's a problem. He needs to put me through to customer relations or care or something.
The man I'm put through to is not nice or helpful. He says he knows all about me from my notes. I can't take the bundle because I'm not taking a new service.
Purely theoretically, I ask what if I drop one of the services and then take it again. He says I can't for six months. It's in the terms and conditions.
I've read the T&C online and didn't see that. He says they're not available to view online.
I'd love to know if anyone has ever come across another company with Terms and Conditions that are not available to the purchaser. Can they possibly be legal?
As for the 'customer relations' lady who blocked my access to a better offer...? Why? It wasn't personal that I went off to do some research and I actually do want the TV upgrade. I never got a chance to mention that in the first conversation. How am I supposed to get it?
and what's the deal with refunding overcharges? It's happened before when they were charging my mum for a second set top box she didn't have. It was 6 months before I noticed and they said Ofcom wouldn't allow refunds of more than 3 months.
Can that possibly be true?
and my daughter ....she moved from a flat on first floor to a flat on fourth floor. No surcharges for early termination if you take virgin in new flat but after 3 months with no connection the engineer said it wasn't possible. Virgin said she would have to pay £86 termination fee. The man in customer relations would not budge an inch on this.
I rang. The very helpful lady (not in customer relations) said 'how can they? She's signed a new contract and terminated the old one. They can't add charges to a contract that's closed and they can't charge for termination of a contract where no service has been supplied' She explained this to another customer relations guy and there were no charges. My daughter signed to Sky that afternoon.
Unbelievably, the next morning an engineer arrived and installed the cable for Virgin.
Luckily within the time limit for cancelling Sky.
My view is that yes they do overcharge existing customers but more importantly Customer Relations seem to have little training, and it's a matter of potluck.
From what I've learned about that particular dept, it's out of control. Dealing with a difficult customer is a spectator sport. It's for the benefit of the other operators.
If Virgin media wants to address customer satisfaction, they should start by listening to the taped conversations from this dept. I think they'd be horrified.
Customers rarely complain about the price if the service is good.
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