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To Whom it may concern
I have a Virgin media complaint letter I’d like to be added to your open letters section. It’s a very long letter because of the nature of the problem.
To sum it up, I have been continuously charged for international phone calls even though I don’t have a phone line and I have been cut off as a result of refusing to pay the £200+ they are asking for to cover the cost of these calls that I couldn’t make even if I wanted to as there is no phone line.
They also won’t send anybody out to verify this fact until this money is paid.
I sent a letter to their customer concern centre about two weeks ago and I have also forwarded a copy to Niel Berkett the Acting Chief Executive Officer.
What else do you think there is I can do to get the issue sorted out?
Thank you
Horace
Customer Concern
Matrix Court
Swansea
Re. Acc No.302776502
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you in regards
to an ongoing problem that I have been experiencing with your service.
I initially contacted Virgin
Media on 5th September 2007 regarding the installation of a fast broadband
connection. We chose Virgin Media XL package as it claims to provide
the fastest internet service. The telephone line rental was not something
we had desired but was included for 50p for free weekend calls to landline
phones.
On the 11th October
2007 Virgin Media Engineers called and installed the external modem
and the set top box in the incorrect room. The engineer claimed he had
an insufficient amount of cable and also failed to install any kind
of telephone connection at the property. He provided his personal telephone
number and said that he would remedy the problem. We called the number
several times to no avail.
During October my housemate
Richard Fisher called Virgin Media on my behalf and tried to arrange
the correct installation of all of our Virgin Media Services. Initially
we were told we would have to pay a fee of £75 but after some time
managed to get an appointment made for free as it should have been installed
correctly the first time.
On the 22nd November 2007 the engineers re-located our set top box and our external modem. However the installation of the telephone point had not been included on the ‘job sheet’. Richard Fisher called the customer services line whilst the engineers were at the property to ask if the phone line could be installed as the engineers were already present. We were informed that it would not be possible as the engineers were booked elsewhere but the engineers could be called out again for a fee of £75.
The phone line was not something
we had initially desired, so as a group we decided that the issue was
not worth pursuing further.
On the 11th December
2007 I received my monthly bill. The bill totalled £70.12, £37 being
the service charge for internet and TV as we expected but £33.12 of
call charges came apparently from our phone line. I’d hope from reading
this letter you appreciate that making any phone call is impossible
without a telephone line. I called and notified Virgin Media of this
problem using the helpline 08454541111. I was told that an investigation
was going to be carried out on my account and that I should hear from
somebody within five working days. A week passed and I had not received
any further information so I decided to call back. By this time I was
in my exam period and had very little time during the day to be chasing
up this problem. The full amount of £70.12 was debited from my account
and on my return to the property from my Christmas break I continued
to telephone customer services and ask them to rectify the problem.
By this time I had received
another bill, this time totalling £98.46. I decided to tell customer
services to cancel my Direct Debit as I simply could not afford to have
this amount of money come out of my account. It would lead to me incurring
further charges of £35.00 for going overdrawn with my bank and I refuse
to pay another person’s phone bill.
The service charge of £37
is paid between the 7 household members on a monthly basis. A few days
before the Direct Debit is due to come out of my account I collect £5.29
from the rest of my housemates and pay it into my account ready for
the direct debit to come out. I use this bank account for my mobile
phone bill and your services only but as a result of the bill problem,
the amount of money coming out of this account has increased as I am
still owed £38.05 for the incorrect amount debited and your customer
service telephone number is extremely expensive to call, especially
from a mobile phone.
When I asked to be removed
from Direct Debit I also asked if I could make payments at my local
PayPoint. The assistant said that this was fine. I asked if I needed
a payment card to make these payments and she said yes. So having collected
the full amount from my housemates ready to make the payment I waited
for this payment card to arrive.
In the mean time I decided
to call my apparent phone number 0208 4080 951. I was surprised when
the phone was answered by somebody who admitted to living locally and
to making the phone calls to Australia and South Africa.
We then noticed that our services
had been disconnected. I telephoned to find out why and was told that
Virgin media don’t use payment cards and the bill could simply be
taken to a PayPoint and paid for. Due to being misinformed by a member
of your staff I incurred an additional £10 late payment fee on the
next bill of £229.66. The following day I paid £37 to Virgin Media
but our services remained suspended.
I called customer services
again for an explanation and was told that I had to pay £192.66 to
have the services restored. I explained the situation to your employee,
that these phone calls were not ours and that we were being charged
wrongly but she said that it didn’t matter. She was rude throughout
the call and even raised her voice to me. I said that I refused to pay
somebody else’s phone bill and I strongly emphasised this point but
to no avail. I was simply told to pay up and have it credited later.
I then asked for an engineer to be sent out to verify that we don’t
have a phone line but I was told that while we owed money, nobody could
be sent out to help. So not only am I being charged for another person’s
phone bill but I have to pay this bill just so that one of your engineers
can come an rectify it? I find that this is totally unacceptable. You
as a company should want to sort out any problems with your service,
especially those that you have created yourselves.
At this point I decided to
seek citizen’s advice because I was being treated so unfairly by your
staff. I had been unfairly disconnected just because I would not pay
a phone bill for international phone calls that couldn’t possibly
have been made at this household. It was beginning to affect my studies
as there was no internet connection to continue project write ups and
general revision for work and exams.
Our citizen’s advice representative
made a call to your customer services and managed to persuade your staff
to reconnect our services. This lasted just over one week when our services
were suspended again.
On Thursday 13th
March I tried to call customer services again. I had to explain the
problem to four different members of your staff because I was cut off
and had to make the call again twice. This proves that there must be
a slight communication issue as this information should ideally be presented
to that staff member when they enter my account number. In having to
do this, the phone call also takes far longer than it should, thus costing
more than it should.
I finally got through to an
employee who appeared to be genuinely concerned who tried to help although
there were not many options available to her. She advised me to write
this letter.
This situation has become far
more than ridiculous. I find it disgraceful that you position yourselves
as the only cable internet company after acquiring both NTL and Telewest
and then act in such an irresponsible manner when an issue arises. I
understand that mistakes do happen, but for the issue to have been running
from late November to late March is totally unacceptable. We are in
a position where we must use a cable operator for our internet connection
and for such an irresponsible group to be the only source of this service
is disgraceful. I used Telewest prior to this and their customer service
was exceptional. Now it seems acceptable to be spoken to in an impolite
manner and told to pay for mistakes made beyond my control.
I am shocked and disgusted
not only by your reluctance to sort the issue out but also by the blatant
prejudice you have shown towards me and my housemates as students. As
soon as somebody calls saying that they are from citizen’s advice
our internet connection is instantly restored but when I try to ask
for nothing more than for you to come and fix the mess you have made,
your staff have the audacity to ask me to pay for your mistake.
You ask for Direct Debit payments
because you say it’s fast and easy but in reality I feel it has just
been used as a vehicle to extract incorrect amounts of money from my
account quickly and easily. I am disappointed that you have attempted
to penalise me for paying in a safe manner that won’t leave me in
serious financial trouble even though a member of your staff said that
I would not be charged this additional amount until the issue is rectified.
I am also very distressed that it costs so much to alert you of a problem.
This is further proof that premium rate numbers are imposed simply to
make more money.
I feel that you now need to
sort out this issue which really has been going on too long. I don’t
need the additional stress on top of my degree work of being charged
for another person’s phone bill and then having to chase you up to
stop it from happening. All I ask is that you take responsibility for
the problems you have caused and stop it from happening again.
I feel that I should be compensated
for the amount of time and effort I have spent trying to rectify this
issue as well as the £38.05 that was wrongfully debited from my account
and the cost of calling your premium rate customer service helpline.
As of this date my services have been suspended for almost a total of
three weeks. I assume that the services are not going to be restored
until this letter has been dealt with so it is not necessary to charge
me for this month’s usage – as there was none.
Initial incorrect billing amount:
£38.05
Additional 50p for telephone
use: £2.50 and never to be charged again
Time spent writing letter:
3 hours (£6.00 x 3 = £18.00)
Cost of printing and sending
letter: £1.50
Phone charges incurred for
calling helpline: £9.50
Internet connection unfairly
disconnected: £74.00 (2 x £37 one month unfairly disconnected, additional
month rate for five months of inconvenience)
Total: £143.55
The fact that this problem
has been ongoing for almost five months without resolution is an excellent
example of how truly inept your customer services team are. It is quite
obviously some sort of crossed line that has led to this issue but surely
from my 1st phone call that could have been looked at without
having to enter property? If not then the phone line could have at least
been suspended until the problem was sorted out – just to prevent
it from getting worse.
I have simply had enough. I
don’t want anything to do with your telephone services and I want
the contract to be closed at the end of July 2008. I entered into this
contract understanding that there is a 12 month minimum contract requirement
but being charged for somebody else’s bill, enduring rude customer
service assistants, been told to pay for your mistakes, damage to my
credit rating and an overall reluctance to take responsibility for your
mistakes were not what I signed up for and were certainly not present
in any of your promotional material.
I look forward to a quick reply.
Thank you,
Horace Bell-Gam
