TiVo : Breaking your contract with VM.

[RichardCoulter]

I'm toying with the idea of breaking my contract with VM.

Does anybody know what process VM follow?

I had a friend who had a phantom PPV film added to his bill, he called up and had it cancelled, but when it happened a second time, they refused.

As a result, he cancelled their services and received a final bill, which he fully intended paying.

Within a day or two, he was annoyed to find that they had passed the debt to a debt collection agency. He paid VM directly (including the PPV event that he never ordered!) and vowed to never use them again.

If I return the box, pay any monies owed and cancel the Direct Debit, what will VM do?

I'm assuming that they will raise a charge and, as above, pass it onto a debt collection agency.

I no longer need a clean credit report and baliffs will have all rights of implied access removed, not that they bother me.

[toady]

Can't you cancel your contract due to the November price rises?

Bailiffs will be assigned to receive all monies due to the end of your contract plus they will add their own fees on top if you break your contract by stopping paying

[Horizon]

.... as just said Richard, because of the price rises you can get out of the contract with no penalty. But you must know that already though with the amount of time you spend on this forum....????

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Horizon

.... as just said Richard, because of the price rises you can get out of the contract with no penalty. But you must know that already though with the amount of time you spend on this forum....????

My options are up in the air at the moment, one being to use the price rise to get out of my contract.

At this time i'm just trying to find out what happens in practice when a customer breaks the contract.

The legal firm that we use says that there's a good chance that the contract could be anulled due to the box being not fit for purpose, but that I'd have to give them chance to resolve the problems first.

Apparently, this usually involves bringing a new box that's no better and all recordings are lost, but I'd have to let them try this if I decided to go down this route.

---------- Post added at 18:14 ---------- Previous post was at 18:11 ----------

Originally Posted by toady

Can't you cancel your contract due to the November price rises?

Bailiffs will be assigned to receive all monies due to the end of your contract plus they will add their own fees on top if you break your contract by stopping paying

Is this the official VM policy?

If they were to send baliffs with the power to collect money or goods, wouldn't it have to go to court first?

VM probably wouldn't want the bad publicity if they took it this far.

Ordinary debt collectors would be barred from entering my land.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

VM probably wouldn't want the bad publicity if they took it this far.

What makes you think VM would care in the slightest ?
Besides which, if they have to resort to doing that then they are clearly being wronged by you (as decided by a court) so how would it be bad publicity anyway ?

[muppetman11]

Cancel owing to the subscription increase or break your contract and have all the hassle that goes with it , can't believe anyone would even ask the question it's pretty simple to most.

[Horizon]

.....yes, but like me and many others on here, he doesn't know what to do and when.

Richard, the fees VM would charge you if you broke contract are listed here:

http://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-...tion-fees.html

As they say on the page, the maximum they would charge is £240.

I share your frustration with the poor service and going by VM's quarterly figures, we are far from alone.... as VM keep hemorrhaging tv subscribers.

As said here or on another thread, wait for the new tivo and see if that improves things. Hopefully the timing should work out, assuming the new tivo is imminent and I believe it is. If things don't work out, you can then either break out of contract due to price rises or if you get the new tivo and don't like it, you can get out of the contract under that basis. If you get the new tivo, you'd get a new contract with that and get 28 days to cancel with no penalty.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Paul M

What makes you think VM would care in the slightest ?
Besides which, if they have to resort to doing that then they are clearly being wronged by you (as decided by a court) so how would it be bad publicity anyway ?

If it went to court I would argue that it was them that had breached the contract by providing a device that was not fit for purpose (I would have to let them go through the new box routine first though).

If they have any sense, they would consider the consequences of going after long term customers who only want to leave because the product is now so bad and unusable.

A form of the Streisland Effect if you like.

It's all hypothetical at this stage though; as far as I'm aware they just sell the debt onto a debt collection company, which I would bar from my land.

Phones are easy to put down, letters are easy to shred, but if this contact became excessive; I would sue for unlawful harrassment.

It is an offence to harrass a person for debts owed, regardless of whether it is accepted that the debt is owed or not.

---------- Post added at 21:09 ---------- Previous post was at 21:03 ----------

Originally Posted by Horizon

.....yes, but like me and many others on here, he doesn't know what to do and when.

Richard, the fees VM would charge you if you broke contract are listed here:

http://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-...tion-fees.html

As they say on the page, the maximum they would charge is £240.

I share your frustration with the poor service and going by VM's quarterly figures, we are far from alone.... as VM keep hemorrhaging tv subscribers.

As said here or on another thread, wait for the new tivo and see if that improves things. Hopefully the timing should work out, assuming the new tivo is imminent and I believe it is. If things don't work out, you can then either break out of contract due to price rises or if you get the new tivo and don't like it, you can get out of the contract under that basis. If you get the new tivo, you'd get a new contract with that and get 28 days to cancel with no penalty.

Thanks for the sensible advice; it would be cheaper to use the price rise to leave and lose the advance payment of line rental than pay £240 (if I were prepared to pay it).

If the new TiVo is out shortly, I can probably manage, but I really dislike this practice of using anything and everything to lock people into contracts to prevent them leaving.

I can understand this for new customers who receive discounts and cost resources in installation; but long term customers shouldn't be treated like this.

If their product, prices and service was good enough, they wouldn't have to resort to these measures.

[johnathome]

If they break the contract by raising the price too much i'd have thought you'd get the LRS back if you then cancel, or the portion of it?

After all they've broken the contract.

[Stephen]

Why were you talking about a 'friend' VM wouldn't pass the debt on that quickly. It would take a couple of months to even get debt collection letter.

Also talking about bailiffs is getting a bit ahead of yourself. Many people have told you to use the price rise to get you out of your contract.

[Horizon]

.....yes, but some of us are waiting for the new tivo while being totally dissatisfied with the current tv service and price rises.

It's difficult to know what to do. Get out now because of the price rises, or hope the new tivo comes along shortly and hope it works. A lot of hope there... If we wait for the new tivo and reports are that its bad, we may lose the window to cancel due to the price rises.

[Stephen]

I called and cancelled everything and get Sky Q and Sky fibre in next week.

Only reason I stayed with VM so long was how good the BB is.

[Horizon]

I'm the same, reluctant to leave Vm because of the broadband.

If you get a chance, can you post your experiences of Sky's bb and how it compares to your old vm bb service please?

[fixerman]

Originally Posted by Horizon

I'm the same, reluctant to leave Vm because of the broadband.

If you get a chance, can you post your experiences of Sky's bb and how it compares to your old vm bb service please?

You can cancel vm TV and retain the vm broadband. The Sky Q will work fine on vm broadband.

[Stephen]

I'll try my best. Phone and BB get installed on Wednesday. Up to 38Mbps and should get that according to checker. Can see fibre cab from my home too.