Having a nightmare with Virgin Media over discounts!

[powerful_rogue]

Ive been a customer with Virgin Media (NTL) since 2005.

 

During December 2010 I phoned up to cancel my services as I was paying too much and worked out I could get Broadband/TV/Phone cheaper elsewhere. A couple of weeks prior to disconnection I received a call back from their retentions department offering me all the above for £43 a month.

 

I accepted the offer and a week later I received a letter in the post confirming the price, however next to one of the discounts it stated "1/2 price for 12 months". I phoned back up and asked to cancel as once the 12 months was up it would push the price up for the remainder of the contract. I was told that they could only apply it for a maximum of 12 months, but to phone back in December 2011 when it drops off and they would re-add the discount. I asked if they could confirm this in writing, either post or email and they said no, but they would make a note on the account so there would be no issues when I phoned back up.

 

My latest bill has arrived and the service charge has shot up from £43 to £55 a month. I phoned up and was told there were two diso!!!!s being applied to the account. The only discount they could apply was £4 a month. I asked about the second discount and advised it was 1/2 price line rental and they couldnt re-apply it and there were no notes relating to that, only the £4 discount. The operator advised me to write in and complain and gave me the times, dates and operator ID's of all the people I spoke with in December 2010 so they could review the calls.

 

I wrote my complaint listing all the details and received a reply back saying

 

Thanks for your e-mail about the amount you're paying for your services. I'm sorry you're unhappy.

 

To clarify, there are no notes on your account which support the recurring credit would be re-applied after the 12 months had expired.

This discount has now expired and unfortunately cannot be re-applied.

 

With this in mind the charges applied to your account have been correct.

 

I appreciate this may not have been the response you were looking for, however I hope I've clarified the issue you raised.

 

It makes it appear they havent really looked into the complaint as the operator I spoke with the other night said he could find notes about one of the discounts, just not the second. The email stated there were no notes at all!

 

Ive just written back asking about this and whether they listened to the converstaion I had regarding the discounts. This was the sole reason I made on of the calls, to challenge what they had sent me and to confirm my service charges would remain at £43 for the duration of the contract (minus VAT/ inflation rises etc).

 

Just wondering if anyone had any dealings with Virgin Media complaints in the past and whether there is a next step to escalate the matter?

[Victoria Begum]

Well you can join their Virgin Media Forums, register with them and raise an issue there too.

 

Also I would suggest you to read Virgin Media's '' How We’ll look After, Our Consumer Code Of Practice'' and '' Having Your Voice Heard, Your guide to our Consumer Complaint resolution Code of Practice''

( search in Google). VM can happily hand over their leaflet about Virgin Media Terms & Conditions with every installation but fail to provide the copy of Complaint Resolution, instead they suggest that go and read on their website.You can save these PDF files on your machine too, in case you need them in future.

 

Take notes from above mentioned online leaflets, use sections and how they are breaking those, make a sensible fuss in VM forums as it did help me a lot to get my telephone line back in working order.

 

In my humble opinion telephone calls doesn't get us any where, so send an email, or post a letter (via recorded delivery and save receipt), this way you will have a solid evidence in case you need to take your case for an independent adjudication.

 

Last but not least tell them you are getting help from Consumer Action Group Forums and telling the whole virtual world about VM's way of dealing with legitimate complaints.