Hi Everyone
Any observations/ advice with the case below would be appreciated...
In 2007, just as Virgin Media was taking control of NTL,
I signed up with Virgin’s phone service, opting to pay them for my line rental and calls.
Not long after I had done this my phone line was hacked by one of myneighbours who, unbeknown to me, had ran up a large bill
by the time I had discovered what had happened and reported the problem.
Virgin sent an engineer to fix the problem but even though their own engineer acknowledged that thephone line had been hacked,
Virgin still sent me a bill for the calls made.
The itemised bill listed both the calls I had made and many made by my neighbour.
The outstanding bill was for over £400 and I settled the part which applied to me as I recognised the numbers I had dialled.
However, Virgin continued to pursue me for the remaining £247 outstanding which I refused topay.
I tried many times, over several months to resolve the situation.
Unfortunately, despite my protests that I had been supplied with an unsecured line (shown by the fact that it had been vulnerable to hacking),
Virgin refused to listen to my arguments and passed my “debt” on to a debt collection agency.
As a response to this, I involved my solicitor and the unpaid debt, being in dispute, was returned to Virgin.
My solicitor demanded copies of the contract I had signed with Virgin and relevant documentation pertaining to this case.
Virgin never replied.
Virgin then seemed to give up
its pursuit of this “debt” which I still maintain was not of my making.
However, upon checking my credit file, I find that Virgin have recorded me as defaulting on the account.
I find this ethically unfair as I have tried very hard to resolve the situation.
I have only recently checked my credit file with Equifax and have raised the dispute with them but I led to believe that Virgin must inform them
and only then can the notice of default be removed.
My latest move is to use a template letter from here
[wouldn't let me insert line as i don't have 10 posts?!!]
In order to get Virgin to remove the default. I'm thinking it's unlikely that they will stil have the paperwork on their files in which case I should be able to get them to remove the default.
Has anyone been through anything like this with a communications company?
Thanks
Leigh