Sad to say it

[photodude]

But after 11 years, I'd had enough of Virgin's c***-ups recently
My average bills have been around the £60 mark for the last 8 years. After a "FREE" upgrade and package reshuffle a couple of months back, which was meant to leave my bills at the same level (according to disconnections guys calculations), they are now hitting £80-£90 pcm. Add to that the superhub activation charges I was told I would not be charged, due to BB issues running for several weeks, and I was not a happy bunny. CS finally found the note on my account saying the activation fees would be waved etc (so they gave me them back), and also a note stating I didn't want my bills to increase, when they did the reshuffle. But because they set it up as a new contract etc, they said nothing could be done, until that period had ended.
Well the new bill came on the 12th (3rd one since changes), and it was £84, so I phoned up to have it out with disconnections, who had originally told me my bills would not really change (give or take a couple of pounds). Their reply was "Sorry, but the new contract is in place" and refused to budge, and also refused to end the contract.
So I simply told them to take me to county court for it, switch everything off, and took out all the VM gear. 12 Days later I'm on BT, getting 18.59Meg BB, that for some reason streams HD youtube (and loads other sites) fester than 30Meg from VM ever did And with Sky being being activated soon, I will still be saving money on my VM bills. In total I will be paying £57.90 pcm for Sky+, BT for unlimited calls (inc 0845 numbers etc), "Total" BB, and also BT vision box for upstairs too Compare that to VM's free weekend calls, V+ box, and 30Meg for £80+ pcm bills, I think it was a no brainer decision LOL

Really gutted in some respects, as VM have always been good to me in the past. But there seems to be a downward spiral going on, where existing loyal customers are getting the crappy end of the stick.

Anyway, this isn't a rant, just my recent experience. I'm sure there are many out there who have had good experiences, as I have had in previous years.

[Rob]

Moved to Billing Issues as it's not really VM News and you complaint is basically that you are being overcharged.

I assume that you have complied with the terms of the VM contract and actually given the proper form of notice to terminate the contract, citing their overcharging as the breach of contract reason?

[photodude]

Thank's for the move. Was going to post in billing, but wasn't sure it was the right place ;-)

When I asked them to switch everything off permanently, they had already switched everything off, claiming I'd hit the account credit limit (never done that in 11 years). I stated my reasons for ending the contract were.
1/ The package sold to me (as part of the reshuffle), was misleading in it's price structure and predicted costings (by VM staff).
2/ I was initially charged activation fees, which was a breach of the original agreement.
3/ I was charged a £10 late payment fee, despite being instructed to wait for the reminder (or phone in a few weeks), in order for the bill to be corrected.
4/ I was not informed that I would loose all loyalty discount I was getting, by starting a new contract.
5/ As I was being treated as a new customer, yet I was not offered any new customer discounts etc.
6/ A network routing issue reported to them over several weeks, was claimed to be a fault my end, when in fact it was a Motorola issue (discovered eventually), with firmware and security protocols on their network hardware.
7/ The extremely slow or none existent "On Demand" service through the V+ box (ongoing issue over 5 months).

By paying the last bill I received, I would be accepting it as being correct (which I don't). So as I told them on the phone, I will not pay it, until it is looked at in detail and/or corrected (which they refused to do, stating it was correct). If they feel the need to go the county court route, I'm happy to do so.