http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299927/Sharon-Minkin-refuses-job-better-benefits.html If this story is true .............. then, hopefully, once the benefit cap comes into force, she'll be well and truly ********. My children paid their own way through college and university ..... so did I...... and we still have the outstanding student loans to prove it. She really is taking the biscuit! Impecunious!

A timely warning on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/21191420 One of the first things that many prospective employers now do when sifting job applications is to look up the applicant's Facebook profile, so it is important that if you are in the habit of posting pictures of a boozy night out, or litter your posts with profanity, you should always consider whether this is likely to impress or put off a potential employer - maybe even years down the line! And don't even think about posting your innermost thoughts about the company you already work for online - it is very easy for an employer to make the case that what you have written, or even how you appear to the outside world, can bring the company into disrepute.

Is this a wind up do you think? Not a lot of it makes sense to me, like being able to work 15 hours & lose no money? It is the Daiy fail of course... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265341/Theres-chance-leaving-British-benefits-daughter-good-life-Migrant-enjoys-lavish-lifestyle-raking-1-000-month-benefits.html

Just looking for a bit of advice on where i go from here,this situation has reduced me to tears more than once. So this is where it all start,i'll try to keep it short but with all the details. Made a one off payment of £90 online on the 4th January,i the called because i never really understood what was actually on my bill (was my first bill so discounts etc were applied) the agent i spoke to got everything mixed up and said i didnt owe £90 infact i only owed £2.63 so she refunded the £90 right away and i paid the £2.63 over the phone,great right? Checked my bank account on the 5th Jan and they had debited another £90 from my card,obviously called them and was told its not showing on our system call back in 24hours in the mean time phone your bank and open a chargeback for an unauthorised payment which i did,they subsequently told me they can't do anything. Been on the phone to both companies everyday for over an hour each call and still getting no where. finally had a chargeback opened against the transaction on friday and told id have my money back in 24hours,still isn't in my account today. phoned to be told they already refunded it the same day it was paid,which is correct for the first £90 not the second. agent said there is no such transaction for a 2nd £90. i can see it on my statement and was given authorization codes fo the 1st £90 on the 4th and 2nd on the 5th so they have to exsist right? not according to them. so here we are on the 21st of January,i dont have my money,virgin media dont have my money. all the while i am out of pocket and about to lose my services which i have paid for. where do i go from here? already sent them a copy of my bank statements but i honestly dont see it making a difference. i am ready to murder someone out of frustration. cheers in advance for replies

Hi I am not satisfied with Virgins price increases therefore i am looking at going elsewhere TalkTalk do a deal at the moment but not sure if its worth it can anyone tell me if its worth going over to them ? I did go to BT once but had a doing with them so i won't be going with them I did want to try sky but not sure what they like as i hear mixed reviews about them

Been a Virgin Customer since 2010 and must say the services are not the best i have internet issues which won't be fixed until 2013. But i get an email this morning stating that prices will increase by £4.09 per month which now totals my services to 67.90 a month. and they still think its a good deal. Internet is always slow i barley touch 60mb anymore, there's nothing but crap on TV all the time. Is there any better deals out there as £67.90 a month is a lot of money wouldn't mind but didn't they recently go up by £3.00 a month WHATS YOUR VIEWS ON THE PRICE INCREASES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-20567165

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/20/scrounger-stigma-poor-people-benefits I have to say I agree about the stigma. I have a blue badge form and am entitled due to HRM, but I haven't completed the form because I'd be scared of using the blue badge due to potential abuse. Instead I pay extra for taxis when I know I won't be able to get parked close to where I'm going - or just stay home.

I will try and keep this short: I had a rep come out to me to sign me up to services with VM. This meeting was at my previous address (his choice to come early) but services were for my new address i moved into 4 days later. It was all agreed and a date set for installation. When the engineer came to install he could not as there had never been a cable from the "box" to the property... the rep told me that previous services had been at that property as a "debt had been run up there" Anyway a month later we finally got it all installed after being fobbed off twice. The broadband is slow and we are simply not happy with any of the services. I did receive a contract through the post to sign and return but the start date was incorrect, over 3 weeks earlier than it should have been so i put that down to being null and void and did not sign it or return it. If I was to cancel services now would it be breaking the contract? Is there actually a valid contract? Surely to be a valid contract VM would have to provide proof that I was aware of early cancellation fees and that I had agreed to them by signing the contract? I have a billing issue also. The rep said he could give me free installation just like the online offer. He said he would ring his manager to apply it on the first bill.... guess what, we got charged and when I contacted VM about this they siad I had to provide evidence of this, how can I when it was done verbally? So did the rep lie to me? I contacted him again and he said he would sort it but if it is lies then a formal compalint will also be on the way as part of the condition of us signing up was free installation that the rep promised. Any views on this? Thanks.

Thought this may be of some interest. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/nov/20/benefits-stigma-newspapers-report-welfare

I Signed up with Virgin Media Sales and gave bank details for my standing orderin early in October and they confirmed the installation date as 16th October 12th October 2 workmen arrived and luckily I saw them as I drove into our road. They had painted an arrow on the road opposite my drive. They said they would need to dig up the road to get access to Virgin's conduit . I showed them the place on my drive where the access point was and they took a photograph of it. I have a frontage made up of coloured blocks and one ofthese about the size of a brick can easily be lifted to show the Virgin plastictube. They didn't do anything further, however, and went away. On the 16th October I waited for the Installers to come. At lunch time on that day I received a letter fromVirgin saying that the installation would be postponed as Virgin had to getpermission from the council to dig up the road to unblock the plastic conduit. I made several telephone calls to explain that there was no need to dig up theroad as the access point was clear but to no avail. I rang construction several times to tell them they didn't need to dig up the road. Couldn't get any sense from them and was told it would be 2 to 4weeks before they could install. On 5th November 2 Men came to dig up road I showed them the access point on thedrive and they said that was fine and they didn't need to dig up the road. They fed a long wire through the plastic tube to the connection sink hole at the bottom of the road. They then told me that they couldn't connect up because the sink hole was full of water and silt. They said they would lsend another team to clear it. they had no idea when. 8November Spoke to John in Philippines no help here but he agreed to raise acomplaint Ref 320509953 but said it could take 2 weeks to deal with. Spoketo Virgin re installation to a girl called Rosy who didn't help then a lady called Alison from complaints who was no help. She said she had to put me backto construction On Friday 10th November posted my complaint on Virgins face book page. I said Virgin Media wrote to me on the day our installation was due and said they needed to dig up the road saying the installation was postponed. I heard nothing and then 4 weeks later after many phone calls they said they didn't need to dig up the road after all but the access point down the road was full of silt and had to be pumped out. During my wait a few weeks ago someone from Virgin said that they would reduce my subscription by £10 permonth for a year because I had been treated so badly. The day before a chap called James from India said his supervisor would call me at 1030. No one called. Gracie from Virgin somewhere else said she would look into it and would call me back. She didn't. Today my sky viewing ends which means no Sky sports until Virgin sort things out or, as I am now considering, I go back to Sky and Plusnet and kick Virgin into touch. The guys who found that the access pointdown the road was full of silt said they have customers who sometimes wait months so I was lucky. I don't feel lucky. Got a reply from the social team They said Dear Bryan, Got it! We’re on the case and will be in touch soon. Thanks, Virgin Media Theydidn't get in touch. 14thNovember spoke to Canta in construction who said they had a new date for installation of Monday 26th November. Told her the problems regarding the sink hole being full of water. She said she would e-mail the local construction people giving them the details to fix the problem. 15thNovember spoke to Roxanne in construction who said she would talk to the local people again. 16thNovember a neighbour told me Virgin had been twice to our road. 17th November Roxanne rang me to say our installation would need to be postponed as the sink hole was full of water. You couldn't make it up. I complained to her and she said she would look into it and get back to me in 1week. I complained that a week was too long but she said she was away for a week. She then said she would get someone to ring me on Monday 19th November. 17thNovember spoke to Canta who said the installation was on schedule. Then said she would contact the Area Manager and get back to me. 17thNovember didn't get back. My neighbour recommended me to Virgin for which he hopes to get £50. I think he will be disappointed. I also think that quite a simple problem has been made much worse by your company's inefficiency and incompetence. I have been told by Roxanne that someone will telephone me on Monday. If they do not I will go backt o Sky for telephone, TV and broadband and cancel Virgin I will also forward acopy of this letter to everyone I know. BryanCheetham

Hi All Last month I contacted virgin media about having their tv and internet put in my house. The person I spoke to said yes I can have it but I have to pay £145 that I owe them first ? In 2003 I switched from VM to SKY because they offered me a better deal, now at the time I was fully paid up with VM and didn't owe them anything when I closed my account.. I told the person that I didn't owe them anything and therefore didn't continue with switching back. Today I have just signed into my credit file and VM have put it on my file it is in the green saying account is open yet I don't owe it, it's been 9 years since I was with them and I've been living here for about 14 years now, yet I have never had any debt collector get in touch either which if I owed what they say then why not ? Thanks for looking hope someone can help with this... Regards FL

Hi there folks. my brother and sister in-law have just moved to a new house. They had virgin media fibre optic package at their previous address but virgin cannot provide this at there new address. they have been given 2 options - either carry on paying the monthly fee and only get a phone line and crappy broadband (tv also not provided in the area) or pay the £180 to end the contract. they haven't got £180 and don't want to have to pay full price for only 2 basic services. is there any way they can get out of the contract or even lower the monthly fee? Virgin, of course, are totally useless on the phone and want just one thing. money. Many thanks in advance!

Hi guys, I could do with some advice regrding a broadband account I had with virgin media. In August 2010 I moved house and called the virgin house moving dept just befor I moved and was told it would take 2 weeks to transfere my broadband to the new address, which I accepted. The 2 weeks came and went with no broadband so I called them and was told it wouldnt take 2 weeks it would be 4 weeks. this date came and went and still no broadband and called this time to express my displeasure, I recived apologies and was told it would be on in a week, this also came and went so i called to make a complaint and they said as a good will gesture they would reduce my bill and send me a pre-paid dongle, which they did so i was reasonably happy as i had internet until my broadband was turned on which took 10 weeks. what I didnt know was that without my knoweldge or conesnt thay had set up a contract for the dongle and used my bank details from my broadband account to set up a direct debit. the payments were missed as i didnt know anything about it and they passed it to a debt collection agency who then tried to extract money from me. I called and emailed virgin who cancelled the dongle apologised and stopped the debt collectors, all sorted I thought but i have just been turned for credit and discovered that they entered these missed payments onto my credit file. so what can I do to get this sorted, regards Martin

Hi I dont know if this is the right place to post this I last used virgin media a couple of years ago however i did not pay my last bill, first it went to a company called moorcroft i still didnt pay. For the past year i have been trying to sort out my credit history. June 2012 it was passed to advantis like moorcroft i was asked to pay £119.89, i start making payments of £10 per week i had paid £90 then called to make the last two weeks payment £15 and £14.89. at that time they told me virgin media had added on £10 in july 2012. i called virgin they had no idea of these charges, so i asked advantis to send me proof they sent me a letter of a balance. after numerous calls to virgin and advantis, advantis said in order to file a dispute i had to pay the balance, on tuesday 11th september i paid the £10 as the final £14.89 was being taken out of my account that same day and they said another £5 had been added on, im frustrated i know its not a lot of money but im a single mom of 3 and feel im being ripped off what can i do? Virgin media are still denying these charges but can virgin media actually do this? is there any thing i can do to stop this:-x

Hi is there a Virgin Media rep on these forums Regards Casper

Hi, This is my first visit here, and was hoping you could help with a problem I'm having with Mackenzie Hall. Firstly, I took out a contract with Virgin Media for Broadband, TV and Telephone. I had recently moved into a rented flat on starting the contract. When I originally signed up for the services, It was all done over the phone with a representative from Virgin Media. I at no point ever signed a contract, and the man from Virgin Media even stated to me, he will put a squiggle where I need to sign, so he wont have to send the contract in the post to speed things up. After approximately three months I lost my job and had to give up my flat and move back with my parents. Obviously, this was quite distressing and I just left the flat and did not contact Virgin about the situation. A stupid move, but, I was certainly not thinking clear at the time. Two years on and having moved to three different addresses I have had Mackenzie Hall track me down. I have not spoken to them or acknowledged anything. All I get is constant phone calls and text messages which I have since black listed on my mobile. At my previous address I began getting threatening letters. Could anyone please give me any advice on what to do? Many Thanks

Hi All, I have been in so much trouble from last 4-5 days as soon as found out that Virgin Media reported to Equifax that i am defaulted by not paying the balance. here is the whole situation I was a Virgin Media Customer for 1 year from 04/10/2011 to 18/10/2011. I called them on 18 Oct 2011 to cancel my services as my contract was already ended and i was going to India on the same date. I went to India and after 3 days i got another bill of £28 for the month of October .. i was surprised as i already called them and told them to cancel my services. I cam to london in DEC and found out that someone called them on my name and renewed my services for again one year. I called Virgin Media again in DEC and told them that it was not me and cancel my services with the immediate effect. they did the same and after one moth or so they again send me an email with the £148 bill for early disconnection charges.. I called them again and they did not say anything to me. 1 week before i was checking my credit file and found out that they have reported me default as the payment was not cleared to them. i was in india in that period and why would i call them to renew my services again here in london. they are not worried about my Identity Fraud and only keep on saying that you have to pay £148 balance. Please help what should i do in this case. How can i correct that information in my credit file. I am not hoping that virgin media would help in this case. please advice.

Hi, I was a Cable and Wireless customer and this was taken over by Virgin Media. Several months ago I tried contacting VM as my bill had gone up and I didn't think I was getting value for money. I had great difficulty getting through, then getting the correct information. This time I managed it - seemed a different system and told them that I had been charged for a phone line which I believed I had not signed up for and which I am already paying for. I got them to cancel this. On querying why I had been charged the girl stated that originally you had to have a phone line to have the TV service but this had now changed and the phone was itemised. Has anyone had a similar experience? Has anyone ever claimed back for the service they did not use/receive? Any thoughts welcome.

Hi Guys Im currently on XL TV, XL BB, M Phone im being billed £65.40 per month i thought this was higher than usual so i phoned a friend who is on the same package as me also has a TiVo box and he is being billed £58.90 a month. I dont have a TiVo and im being billed £7 more than he is what can i do about it as when i phone customer service its always Foreign nationals on the line

What I would ultimately like to know is if I can get some recompense for these issues. Issue initially reported on the 27th May regarding poor picture quality on only the following channels. ITV1+1 and ITV1HD Channels ITV2/3 and 4 are fineIt also occurs on Channel4+1 and Channel4 HD but not E4 or E4+1 Since reporting it on their site I was contacted by a rep and not sure what they done but been fine since. In the last two days it has reaered its ugly head its absolutely horrendous, trying to watch the French Open Fnal on ITV 1 and again poor been likes this for a few days now.. This is obviously not an issue with my TV nor my box as this is only occuring on ITV1/ITV1+1 and ITV HD.and also seems to be a common issue with others on the virgin forum for other subscibers around the country, there doesnt seem to be a geographical link. I trade a lot on sports and at present I cannot trade if I cannot watch the sport without such distortion. Further to this Spain v Italy is on later and my home team of Ireland v Crotia, both games that I will trade on and more so want to see my country play and I am obviously not going to be able to do this, nor does it look like I will be able to watch half the games of the Euros now. Not only is it effecting a side income of mine but more importantly is destroying my enjoyment of a sport I love and am incapable of watching. He is some pictures for you hope you enjoy them like I am enjoying the tennis! 27th May pictures: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/img00004201205272005.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/36/img00005201205272005.jpg/ And todays tennis pictures http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/img00014201206101415.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/221/img00022201206101417.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/401/img00021201206101417.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/710/img00012201206101404.jpg/ Any help appreciated

I wonder if someone can give me some advice? I have been off sick for some while now and do not go back to work quite yet, however, I have had an email off my Line Manager advising me that it is against company policy to air my feelings on Social Media Websites. I sent an email back to her and asked her when this occurred? what did I say? and who did I speak about or to? I have heard nothing back from her since. I also got reminded that the company are still paying my wages! I also sent a copy of this email to my HR Department and asked them to stop my Line Manager contacting me in this manner if she cannot substantiate her claims. What more can I do please as I am getting emails like this and other things? I feel harassed as I am supposed to be off sick and have a sick note to that effect. I feel like big brother is watching me? I have done nothing wrong at all but are the company allowed to keep on emailing me and reminding me I work for them in this manner, how could I possibly forget?

Hey all , Before i start my rant i have to say i was brought here by google from typing in buy as you view , the poor man that good arrested :S Anyhow basically me and my partner wanted to join virgin media when we moved into our new house now i always assumed the service with them was second to none as the speeds they offered where amazing and i can download in minutes , not only that but i did consider myself at the time to be a professional gamer so i wanted to go with them due to see other friends getting really decent latency in game. However it simply wasn't the case when i joined the deeper i dug the further i saw how corrupt the company was , nothing but lies and and scripted morons letting you vent frustration all the mean while not being able to solve any issues at all. After 3 engineer visit these guys didn't have a clue how to solve the issues , and on the 3rd visit i was sent the head engineer for my area he phoned up a national main line for virgin media and they told him it would all be fixed within a month as they would be performing a cable split in my area , so basically the ISP is over subscribed and there splitting up the area so there's less utilisation aka lower ping. I waited till that date and nothing had changed , i refused to pay them anything they had lied to me over and over and over again , and when there was 80 pounds of arrears on the services i half expected them to cancel the services which they did , but they refused to cancel down the contract all together , we tried to just get the TV and phoneline gone with the company but they said the arrears needs to be cleared before they can do anything. 560 POUNDS LATER! A man from virgin media came out to remove the equipment from the properties , of course we allowed him to do so because they can charge any longer as i don't have the equipment to run there services any more and he gave us a receipt. Now im wondering what are my rights as a consumer with virgin media , they sold me faulty broadband that never worked and disconnected all the time , ive been lied to on more than 25 occasions. What can i do? Thanks for reading!

Morning all, Having an issue with VM trying to charge me the remainder of my contract when I cancelled it within the 30 day period upon notice of them increasing the cost of my service. My letter to them said (in not so many words): "thank you for your letter advising me of the increase in the cost of my service, as I'm moving anyway, I'd like to invoke my right to cancel as per clause x of your terms and conditions". Basically, they're saying that because I didn't use the magic phrase: "I'm cancelling because you've put your charges up" they can get me because I said I was moving and THAT'S why I wanted to cancel! Nowhere in their T's and C's does it say I have to actually state the reason WHY I'm cancelling, merely that I have a right to cancel. Also, I sent a complaint letter via registered post (and still have the original receipt and screen capture from the Royal Mail website of the signature upon delivery). Virgin Media chose not to reply to my letter and immediately sent my account to Moorcroft Debt Recovery. Vexatious or what? Added to this, just before I moved, my neighbour and I found out that the VM phone line was actually split between our two properties (two flats in the same converted house) and that neither of us were even getting the full service we were paying for - our internet speeds were so slow as to be useless for most of the term I lived at the property, but as I was often away, it didn't bother me anything like it bothered him. Finally, they don't even have an originally signed consumer credit agreement from me as I never sent it back in the first place. Comments? Thoughts?

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help? on 27/09/2012 I signed up for Virgin Broadband after a long and drawn out conversation with the staff in the store. During this time I was told that the service was not traffic shaped or limited / restricted in any way. I was also informed at the time of taking the service out that if at any point I wanted to cancel, the cancellation fee would be £10.00 per service per month.. After a while it became apparent that the service is restricted and at several times of day the speed of their service would reduce.. I called Virgin and spent weeks trying to cancel the contract without having the pay the entire year, because they had essentially lied to me in the store in order to get me to take out the contract. Eventually I was told "Well you shouldn't listen to the people in store, they don't know anything"... I got so annoyed that I disconnected the service from the wall, cancelled the direct debit and tried to speak to their customer relations team to get the account cancelled. They then told me that cancellation was £20.00 per service per month doubling the disconnection fee. I tried to take this further and they just stopped responding to me completely. Every time I called they said they would get someone to call me back. Every time I sent an email it never got answered.. 6 month later I started recieving letters from debt collection agencies.. but I explained the situation to them and they said they would get back to the client and seek further instructions and not to worry about it. Now I find today that over a year later, they have placed a default against me and ruined my credit score.. This is crazy? it's like they are a law unto themselves and we have to do what they want despite being completely mis sold a service or they ruin our financial lives... If anyone can help me at all it would be greatly appreciated! Regards Ricky