Virgin promised a refund - never got it...

thegrail · 07-06-2011, 13:30

I recently cancelled my V+ Cable TV service and received a final bill stating I was due a £4.25 refund and I should be receiving a cheque for this in the next 45 days.

The letter said that if I did not receive my cheque within 60 days to call Virgin, which I did.

The lady I spoke to looked into it and asked whether I had previously had a Virgin Media service, and I confirmed I’d had cable broadband until April 2008 when I retired and had switched to a lower cost broadband service.

Apparently there was still £7.50 outstanding on the previous bill (3 years ago) on an older (NTL World) billing system and they had used the £4.25 to pay part of this off.

I was annoyed by the outstanding amount as I had checked when I cancelled the cable broadband there was nothing outstanding.

The lady then kindly agreed

to write off the remaining £3.25 on the old billing system, so apparently I no longer owe them anything.

My complaints were:

1. Virgin took the money without asking me.
2. Virgin took the money without telling me you had done so.
3. Virgin never told me before that the £7.50 was outstanding.

I expressed my concern via the Virgin Complaints process and I got a very charming

email back saying they were sorry I was upset and that was all.

Nothing to say they were sorry for how they dealt with the matter; or how they took the money without telling me before or after.

And Virgin wonder why they are losing customers

BenMcr · 07-06-2011, 13:35

http://shop.virginmedia.com/the-lega...es.html#ending

If these agreements are ended for any reason, or if any of the services are cancelled, Virgin Media Ltd and/or Virgin Media Entertainment and/or Virgin Media Payments will be entitled to keep any money held (including deposits and advance payments) and to use that money to pay any obligation or debt you may owe under these agreements. We'll get in touch with you to refund to you any money remaining after these deductions, unless our costs to administer that refund outweigh the actual account balance. If that's the case, we'll donate the account balance to charity. We may also donate your account balance to charity, whatever the amount, if we have not been able to contact you within six months of the date of termination of these agreements.

thegrail · 07-06-2011, 19:23

It would just be nice of Virgin told you that you had outstanding debt in the first place.

Mick Fisher · 07-06-2011, 19:34

Why am I not surprised you didn't get a refund. If it's any consolation Sky are just as bad.

All these refunds that don't get paid out will add up to a tidy sum each year.

Even when they do pay something, one ploy is to only reimburse half of the agreed (after a multitude of phonecalls and arguments) amount so you have to go through the obstacle course again to get the remainder and then they only reimburse half again. Eventually you will give up and that odd cash goes straight into the Company coffers.

Of course it could be and is blamed on computer errors. What do you think?

BenMcr · 07-06-2011, 23:29

Would point out normally Virgin do refund automatically the full amout due (less any owed monies) automatically as long as they have a forwarding address

thegrail · 08-06-2011, 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Would point out normally Virgin do refund automatically the full amout due (less any owed monies) automatically as long as they have a forwarding address

I'm very pleased that Virgin normally send refunds - it would just be nice if Virgin told customers when they were not going to give a refund and provide the reason. They had my mail address (I haven't moved for 27 years); email address (on my account); and telephone number (ditto) but did not even have the common decency to tell me what they were going to do

They might also have told me that they had £7.50 outstanding on my account rather than just keeping quiet about it for 3 years

Virgin just do not seem to understand what customer service is

thegrail · 28-07-2011, 10:31

Ongoing saga - well I sent Virgin Media complaints a letter describing my problem on 10th June.

On 17th June I got a phone call from someone at Virgin saying that they were sorry and that a cheque for the original £4.25 was on its way. He did ask whether this would satisfy the matter and I said yes - but it just shows the lack of customer focus (I had a similar problem with my Amex card and they gave me a small good will gesture of a £5 credit on my account).

The next day I got standard letter from the complaints gorup saying they would get back to me within 2 weeks and would try to contact me by phone first.

Well it is now almost 45 days since the phone call and still no cheque.

And they wonder why they lost 36,000 "lower-value single and dual-play punters" - sorry "customers" in Q2?

I'll give them another 2 weeks and then I'll "let slip the dogs of war".

thegrail · 11-08-2011, 15:52

Well - surprise surprise - no refund cheque received. Rang billing - they thought they had sent the cheque and they are now going to find out what happened. At least I now have a named contact in their Glasgow customer centre chasing this for me

I'm just amazed Virgin Media no way of sending a refund electronically so it could be (yet) another 45 days before I finally get anything.

Sirius · 11-08-2011, 16:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegrail

Well - surprise surprise - no refund cheque received. Rang billing - they thought they had sent the cheque and they are now going to find out what happened. At least I now have a named contact in their Glasgow customer centre chasing this for me

I'm just amazed Virgin Media no way of sending a refund electronically so it could be (yet) another 45 days before I finally get anything.

Can you not charge them interest on the amount owed but with interest rates at 0.5% i don't think you will get that much

Mick Fisher · 11-08-2011, 17:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegrail

Well - surprise surprise - no refund cheque received. Rang billing - they thought they had sent the cheque and they are now going to find out what happened. At least I now have a named contact in their Glasgow customer centre chasing this for me

I'm just amazed Virgin Media no way of sending a refund electronically so it could be (yet) another 45 days before I finally get anything.

It would appear their systems are only set up to allow monies coming in.

In keeping with los of other businesses, monies going out come under the "Be Obstructive until the claimant gives up and goes away" system.

thegrail · 27-08-2011, 16:00

Well I finally got my cheque! After further calls to Virgin on 15th and 19th August a cheque for £5 finally arrived yesterday. They admitted that they could send a cheque in 20 working days rather than the 45 days they normally quote. Thanks for the advice for asking for my costs and interest - I imagine it cost me a lot more than 75p. Persistence does pay off...

Mick Fisher · 27-08-2011, 17:21

I would not be surprised to learn that a tidy sum might be earned from those who are not so persistent.

Anyhow, glad to hear you got your cash returned albeit eventually.