Terminating broadband contract with Virginmedia

[notpayingapenny]

I have twice renewed my broadband contract with virginmedia. Each time it was at the end I called them up to cancel as they were moving the price to almost double. But in order to retain me they kept the price just about where it was before.

 

This January, a month after I had renewed my contract and assured of a fixed price for the rest of the duration of my contract, they sent a letter to say they would be increasing the cost from £29 to £32.50. I ignored it since I knew we had a separate agreement. Today I have seen a direct debit presented to deduct from my account on Monday.

 

Today I rung them up and challenged them. They say I have lost my right to dispute it because they gave me 3 months to exit without any charge and now I would be legally obliged to stay according to my terms and conditions of contract with them.T

 

I told them I would not pay any termination fees or any costs whatsoever and that I want the contract ended forthwith. They said that if I do not pay then they would be handing my account to collection agencies and it would affect my credit rating.

 

I told them that I would not pay them a penny and would fight them till I die and would stand up to them in any court!

 

Any ideas where I could be headed with this?

[notpayingapenny]

This was the email they sent me....

Thanks for making those changes to your Virgin Media package. We've attached your new contract reflecting these changes to this email and a handy snapshot below. Please take a moment to review both and make sure you're happy with everything.

Quick recap of what you now enjoy:

Your new package now includes: No new services have been added We've removed: No services have been removed

Here's how your changes affect your next bill:

Your next bill will be generated on 30th January 2021 Your next payment is due on 17th February 2021

Your new monthly bundle cost is: £29.00*. Your next bill will be £28.34* which includes CR £0.66 to cover your changes up until your next bill period.

Your attached contract contains full details of your new package, plus all details and costs.

Any questions along the way? Find the answers fast in My Virgin Media. You can also view your contract any time you like. Kind regards, The Virgin Media team

* Just to let you know, this cost doesn't include any call or Pay per view costs. It doesn't include any outstanding balance, payment handling or paper bill fees either. Just your basic cost.

[notpayingapenny]

I have now attached the attachment that the email refers to and hopefully redacted it properly.
They did send a letter yes to say they were going to increase the monthy costs but as I knew that we had an agreement to override any costs I just ignored it until today when I see they are actually increasing my costs in spite of what I had signed up for!

Broadband contract - reducted.pdf

[notpayingapenny]

It was all agreed on the phone and the email as seen above and contract were thensent electronically..

[notpayingapenny]

I will do as you suggest. Thank you.

 

Mind you that was what I did the previous year when they were going to raise my payments I was ready to leave and they fixed the price for another year. And this January they did the same and also mentioned that they would be a slight increase in March but that would not affect me. That was why I ignored their letter to say they were increasing the tarrif because I did not imagine that they would be trying telling me to ignore and only afterwards actually increase the  price on me... then when I point that out they say I did not call to cancel and complain and hence I am bound by their terms and conditions. I told them I will fight them to my death and take them to court about it if I must.

[notpayingapenny]

I rang and spoke with the CS rep who said they were able to reduce the fee to £31 for me. I said no it must be £29 and I would not accept that since I had a contract to pay only £29. They offered to open a formal complaint for an investigation that would take up to 28 days to be completed.

 

I accepted that the formal complaint be made and to be able to do that they needed to revoke my notice to terminate the contract that I had given on Friday, which would result in me being charged a £200 termination fee.

 

I must now await their next action.

I managed to stay calm and friendly today!

[notpayingapenny]

I just received a phone call from someone at VM. They said that they are calling to let me know that they are going to honour the contract they gave me of £29 for 18 months with effect from today. I should expect an email to confirm this tomorrow.

 

They will also put a note on the account for me to be refunded the £3.50 charged today against my account but they are not sure that that specific amount for today will be given back but they will put a note about it.