20M : Dispute with virgin media advice please?

[qasdfdsaq]

BT's FTTP will be 300/30 next year. FoD is expected to cost £500 to £1500 for installation.

[Chrysalis]

that install cost will go down eventually as well, as once a pols has a fiber feed then it should be cheaper to connect later customers to it.

[The PIT]

Dodgy filters and if present it maybe a good idea to disconnect the bell wire.
Also what are the modem stats they would be worth looking at.

[slopps]

Originally Posted by MalNichol

I have been a customer with virgin for many years. Primarily with their cable Internet service.
Last June I retired from my job and moved back to the North East of England. Unfortunately where I moved to did not have the excellent Virgin cable Internet services.
As I always had a good service from them I decided to stay with virgin and use the national service. I was informed by them that I could transfer across but would have to enter into a new12 month contract. Although I did not see why as I had paid virgin a substantial amount of money over about 10 years and only had to change the type of service as they could not provide me with the cable service?
Eventually they wore me down and I agreed to a 12 month contract. Unfortunately from the off their has been nothing but problems with the national service with slow speeds and being cut off every time my phone rings. I have tried several times to have this fixed without success.
I eventually after several months rang up to find the soonest date I could leave virgin to be told that they now had me down for a 18 month contract and not12?
I questioned this and asked if they could provide proof of this agreement including any recorded phone conversation which they always tell us they are doing when you ring them? After being passed to several people I was informed that I had made a verbal agreement over the phone and the phone recording was no longer held by them. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that someone would ring me back that day. No one rang back?
Can anyone advise me what is the legal position on this?

Many thanks
Malcolm

DUDE - Im going through the EXACT SAME PROBLEM TODAY - I'm absolutely FURIOUS.

EXACTLY the same issue. I left virgin media cable services in July 2011, because I was moving to an area which only had national service - which was fine. I was told on the phone that the old contract would be torn up, and that it would be a new 12 month contract, starting from August 2011 onwards. Fine.

I call up today to confirm how much it would cost to terminate early, because BT are offering infinity 2 in my area. The agent on the phone said 'nope says on the system your contract ends Feb 2013, its an 18 month contract'.

After several minutes of spluttering and extremely high blood pressure, he just gave me a M22 0WJ address to write to (write, in this day and age), because I (yes me, not the customer service) have to run about and chase up the Proof, which would be in the form of the recorded telephone conversation I had with the agent, back in August 2011.

Its UNBELIEVABLE. It even says in their T's & C's clearly on the website

‘"minimum period"
the minimum period that you must keep a service, starting from the service start date. For example, unless you are told otherwise by us, you must keep a service for 12 months from its service start date. We may change the minimum period for anyservice but this will not affect you if you have already subscribed to that service.’

I asked the agent 'so imagine I was a new customer now, and wanted to order the national service product, would it be a 12 month or 18 month contract?'

He said '18 months'. I said.....'well that goes against the legal stipulations under the T's & C's on the website. He went 'ooooh yea.....um...well I'll forward that onto the legal department'.

My contract ends on August 3rd 2012. I've already paid in advance the month of June. I bet you ANYTHING this will drag on over 2 months, and this is yet another thing I have to waste time and effort on, fighting a company.

Unbelievable. In the mean time, I've emailed that 'neil.berkett@virginmedia.co.uk'

Does anyone have a phone number or anything I can call as well?

Whats even more ridiculous is - I called up about 3 months ago, and asked them how much it'd cost to leave. The guy did the calculations and said 'Okay you'v got 5 months left on the contract, that'll be £120'. I said....'No....that cannot be right. OFCOM came out with new prices for terminating contracts, it should be £9 a month = £45'. After a long pause he said 'Yes sorry sir, you are right'.

I didn't terminate it then, because I was happy to wait. Now I have to go through this rigmarole.

[jempalmer]

If you've emailed the CEO's office then you can expect a prompt response. You should get a return email followed by a phone call soon.

[MalNichol]

Slopps
Rang virgin back and spoke to a manager who said he would show my contract as a 12 month contract and not 18. He also said he would e-mail a confirmation which never came. Have decided to wait till 12 months is up and ring back to no doubt get the original 18 month garbage.
Can you let me know how you get on with the CEO?

Cheers

[slopps]

Originally Posted by MalNichol

Slopps
Rang virgin back and spoke to a manager who said he would show my contract as a 12 month contract and not 18. He also said he would e-mail a confirmation which never came. Have decided to wait till 12 months is up and ring back to no doubt get the original 18 month garbage.
Can you let me know how you get on with the CEO?

Cheers

Well for the first time ever, in my lifetime of dealing with corporations.....this actually went smoothly, quickly, hassle free, and with zero fuss. Unbelievable. Well done virginmedia (though it should never have got to this stage).

I emailed Neil. He immediately responded (didn't even question where i'd got his email from.....because no one at virgin media phone customer service game me it lol). I then got a call today from an apologetic woman who told me the following:

'we only record and keep calls for training purposes. we wouldnt have a copy of your particular call last year. i will put a memo on the system under your account, and clearly state its 12 months, and for the hassle caused I'll credit you 1 month of use'.

she went on to agree that the website itself does say 12 months, but they have moved to a policy of 18 months, and that they clearly need to update the website or the legal wording of it.

i recommended to her that the customer service agents need to....be aware of company policy. and not lead me on a wild goose chase.
If i hadn't had the common sense to type in google the keywords 'virgin media national 12 months 18 months' - I'd never have found this forum, and never have stumbled across the email address of that Neil bloke.

quite unbelievable really.
but anyway, i'll call that a success story, in some weird way.

If i were you MalNichol, i wouldnt wait 12 months only to find out that they might not have made the adjustment in the system.....you ought to call again and just ask 'how long youve got to go' and make sure they give the answer you expect, as a test.

[paul.hadley]

I didn't read all the posts here but I think I got the jist of it all.

The first point.

A contract does not have to be in writing to be legally binding, a verbal contract is just as good in law and a written one. The only reason you insist on a written contract is, in the event of a dispute it is much easier to prove your point when it is in writing rather just verbal. If you agreed to a 12 month contract then you have a twelve month contract.

Terms of Contract

Within the contract there will be specific terms and conditions that both parties are bound by, in this case virgin media's terms and conditions.

In addition to these terms and conditions there are also conditions the law applies, implied terms and conditions. One of these will be that the product is fit for its purpose. As technology is concerned no one can expect a perfect service all of the time, however for most of the time it should be usable. It sounds like yours is not. To that effect virgin are in breach of contract and you would be perfectly entitled to take action against that breach. The most obvious would be to terminate the contract, seeking compensation for loss might be another.

In regard to you having to sort out the problem with BT yourself this is utter rubbish. BT are a subcontractor to Virgin, if their service has failed then they are in breach of contract to Virgin. It is for Virgin to deal with their contractors, it is no concern of yours.

Remedy

It seems to me the best remedy would be to give Virgin written notice that their service is failing and give them a set period to remedy the fault. Make it clear to them that if it is still not working past your dead line then you consider them in breach of contract and the remedy you will be taking is to terminate the contract.

Fixed

If all is fixed in good time then great, problem solved

Not fixed

If not then you should inform them that you are terminating the contract. Make sure you give a specific time that the contract is to end. Stop all your payments to them. Just as importantly make sure you unplug your modem before the date so there is no way you can be using the service. You might be considered to be stealing their service or starting a new contract if you continue to use it. In addition if the equipment is their property ask them to arrange to collect it from you, and keep it safe.

Next Provider

Do bear in mind that if it comes to this you will still have a problem on your line and your next ADSL service will probable be just as bad. So make sure you get a very reputable provider otherwise you might end up were you started.