Adding unwatched things to my bill

[andyp07]

It's nice when you can prove a point to a big corporation. After having Virgin delete my PIN and set one of their own, four more films were supposedly booked by me, which they now acknowledge is impossible. The charges have been credited, and if it happens next month they say they will have to inverstigate further.

[coastered]

Originally Posted by andyp07

thanks for your assistance. Had a call from the Chief Execs office this morning. They are still insisting their records are correct but have agreed on this occasion to refund the fees. Also since I never use pay on demand services they have disabled my PIN so if any more films are booked against the account they know it must be a box fault and will then get an engineer in to check it. I am happy with that.

Not sure I would be happy. Sounds like they never believed you and refunded you against their will because they had no proof.

Words like
"on this occasion" and "insisting their records are correct" sounds like a customer friendly company dont they. If they thought you were guilty they would have charged you, and not refunded you. They cant, yet still want to cloud the situation with some blame on your part.

They can disable your pin, personally I would disable your future buisness with them. If you do stick with them get something for your trouble. Someone else got free BB for life in this thread..

Make em pay, or leave and make em pay. It's the only thing these companies understand.

[arcamalpha2004]

Originally Posted by coastered

Not sure I would be happy. Sounds like they never believed you and refunded you against their will because they had no proof.

Words like
"on this occasion" and "insisting their records are correct" sounds like a customer friendly company dont they. If they thought you were guilty they would have charged you, and not refunded you. They cant, yet still want to cloud the situation with some blame on your part.

They can disable your pin, personally I would disable your future buisness with them. If you do stick with them get something for your trouble. Someone else got free BB for life in this thread..

Make em pay, or leave and make em pay. It's the only thing these companies understand.

Could not have said better myself.
Why did vm not take the box away and have it analysed? run tests on it?
No far easier to make the customer out to be a liar, even helps if they can cast a bit of doubt in the customers mind, like, " Hey, maybe I did order those films "
I had a similar issue with the telephone with vm, telephone calls were being charged to my account when nobody was clearly making them, premium rate calls at two and three in the morning, looking at the bill it was as if these numbers were being dialled within seconds of one another over a one hour period, but were all incurring the minimum call charge, which resulted in about £30 worth of calls over one hour!
What was their response to my first call to them? basically to say sorry you must have made the calls or someone in the house.
When I threatened to leave they did a similar " on this occasion " BS and removed the charges.
I did not keep my telephone account with them, they cannot be trusted to bill correctly imo so moved to BT.
And have a guess what? no early premium rate phone calls being charged to my bill, I guess it must be that dodgy copper wire stopping those naughty numbers being dialled !

[Russ B]

Originally Posted by coastered

Make em pay, or leave and make em pay. It's the only thing these companies understand.

Am I missing something here? VM did not have to do anything at all - I'm not saying the OP is lying or mistaken but VM sound like they had a fairly good case had this gone to court or whatever.

But they chose to lose money (albeit a small amount) and made a discretionary decision. Obviously if there's a fault which makes VM look like they're charging people incorrectly it need to be looked at but they had every right to tell the OP there's nothing they could do.

[coastered]

Yes, you are missing something here.

They had to refund the films because it was proven that the OP did not puchase them, nor did anyone else in the house. Good customer service is not 'accusing the customer even though they have no proof but reluctently refunding the films'.

If Virgin really thought they were in the right do you really think they would refund? Not a chance!

Good customer service is owning up to the fact that you have problems with your security of your V+ boxes and doing something about it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and...20071010.shtml

[Russ B]

Originally Posted by coastered

Good customer service is owning up to the fact that you have problems with your security of your V+ boxes and doing something about it.

Isn't that exactly what VM did when they refunded the money?

And if there is a problem with their STB it's very likely it's not something that can be solved in an instant. For all we know perhaps VM are in the process of sorting it out.

I'm not wanting to sound like I'm sticking up for VM or anything but I think a sense of perspective is needed.

[arcamalpha2004]

Originally Posted by coastered

Yes, you are missing something here.

They had to refund the films because it was proven that the OP did not puchase them, nor did anyone else in the house. Good customer service is not 'accusing the customer even though they have no proof but reluctently refunding the films'.

If Virgin really thought they were in the right do you really think they would refund? Not a chance!

Good customer service is owning up to the fact that you have problems with your security of your V+ boxes and doing something about it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and...20071010.shtml

How have those customers ended up with boxes that have been "illegally altered"
If I was paying the amount vm charge for their tv service I would want a box that has not been used before.
Just shows things are not so watertight.

[andyp07]

The mystery has finally been solved, and as I have been saying to Virgin all along these charges are clearly someones genuine usage of the service, charged to me in error, not some computer software glitch generating film bookings.

However the resolution shows the haphazrd state in which Virgin operates. It turns out there is a second STB registered in my name. When I originally ordered the service I agreed a day with Virgin when I would be at home to receive the box. They chose to deliver it two days early, and instead of taking it away because I was not there to sign for it they left it around the back of the house. It rained for most of those two days, so when I eventually found the cardboard box it had disintegrated and the equipment inside was wet. So I called them and told them to take it away and give me another box. Which they did. Error number 2 was that they obviously did not delete that box from my records. Error number 3 was that they gave that box to someone else and did not log it against their account (which would presumaby flag up that the box was already registered to another account), error number 4 was when the Chief Executives office spoke to me they asked for the serial number on the box and the number on the Smart Card and insisted the films were booked by that (new) box. Error number 5 it took them 4 weeks before thay spotted that two boxes were registered to the same address.

I had not given the original box a second thought until they mentioned there were two boxes and the penny dropped.

[cablestrider]

Originally Posted by andyp07

I have just had a Virgin Media bill chargiong me for 5 films I have not watched. On two of the occasions I was actually watching terrestrial TV, on the last occasion( a Saturday night at 9pm) I was away for the weekend!!! No none else lives in the property. Virgin asked for the serial number on my set top box and smart card number and insisted the films were booked via that particular set top box, which I know is impossible. THey suggested an engineer called to check the box, but if he found the films were ordered by the box I would be charged £75 for a false call out, even though I know the bill is wrong. I have 6 months left on the contract, so am stuck with continuing until expiry and if more films are 'booked' I have no option but to pay up.

Wow this is so similar to us. We've just checked our online bill and it's shot up to 75pounds this month! Now i admit to being lazy and i should check the bills each month, sadly i simply forgot (new baby 'n all that!). Anyhow, had a look at last months bill and there are 4 movies and a sex & the city episode on it! Odd.. Phoned up VM and they're even saying that we've ordered a movie only 2 nights ago as well!!! Very odd again lol

We feel guilty on the phone, like we're lying about it all or something. But we've ordered ZERO movies and we're on the XL package so TV shows are free...

Anyhow, they're sending an engineer on wed afternoon. They told us the same, if no fault is found then we'll be paying 75 pound fee. Well, if that happens then i'll cancel the TV (and probably the phone line too seeing as we've both got great t-mobile accounds). Then I'd just connect up the arial to the LCD TV (inbuilt freeview). However, V+ is superb and i'd hate to go back to anything else :-(

I'd also want to keep my fast 10mb broadband too, gawd i'd hate to return to BT!

So worse case scenario - we cancel all and remain with VM for just the internet (can you do that??). But best case, engineer finds us to be honest and there is a problem with the v+ box. I'd honestly hate to leave VM - but this has happened at the begining of the year and now again in summer. Not very good - how the hell does something like this happen anyhow??? Not very secure is it?

We'll see what wednesday brings...... sigh ......

[arcamalpha2004]

These tales are becoming too familiar, until these issues are sorted I would not have one of their boxes near this house, it was an experience with the telephone from vm, mystery calls being made early hours of the morning when all were in bed.
Cancel the tv and get yourself a money box, atleast you will know where your money is
Let us know how things go Weds.

[cablestrider]

phew ! Good news I'm happy to say.
The VM guy came over today. He pressed a key combo, while it was rebooting, and this displays some stats screens. One of these shows the movies and so on that you've order - it was blank!

We still had the old telewest card in the back, he reckons that this could be the problem. New card in it now and he's contacted the VM people with all the details. All should be fine now with our bill!

We was getting worried incase the worst happened. Was thinking that we'd have to chuck V+ in the bin and return to freeview or go the expense of Sky. So glad it was all sorted. Cable's superb here for us - happy happy bunnies