ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP

I am on cable and I am using the telephone services, the basic TV package and broadband. It used to be Telewest when I signed up but has been taken over by Virgin Media recently and since they have taken over the service has gone downhill.

When we lost the Sky TV channels I complained and eventually they responded and offered a slight price reduction on my subscription with a free upgrade to 20mb for my broadband service, which I accepted.

Yesterday, I received the following letter from Virgin Media – the letter is undated, shows no reference number and no correspondence address.

Dear Customer,

We have recently been making some improvements to the way we look after your bills. While we were working on these changes, we noticed that you haven’t been charged enough for your Telephone Service.

Our team has corrected this problem, so from now on you’ll be paying the correct amount for your Telephone Service. When your next bill drops through you door, take a look and you’ll see the correct cost.

And just so you know, as this was our mistake, we won’t ask you to pay the difference. We’ll just make sure that we take the right amount from your next bill onwards.

Yours sincerely

Trevor Elliot

MD, Customer Services

 This must be the most underhanded way I have ever seen to impose a price increase without saying so. It does not give any details of the so-called mistake and it does not tell me how much they intend to charge me in future.

I pay my bill by Direct Debit, which was set up with Telewest, and I consider this letter a breach of the Direct Debit Agreement and I consequently have now written a letter to Virgin Media asking them to provide me with details of the price hike within the next SEVEN days, failing this I will cancel my Direct Debit Agreement and I may consider terminating my service with Virgin Media.

When I saw the letter first I thought it was a joke but I now think that this is an insult and the more I think about it the more furious I get. The increase may be just a few pence or a few pound but it really annoys me the way they have done this. As I said, the letter is undated, shows no reference number or account number and I suspect that this letter is one of many they have sent out to their customers.

We fully agree that this is one of the most underhanded price increases we have seen and we fully agree with the comments of the complainant. Before we publish our final comment on this subject we will wait and see what Virgin Media has to say and if they reply to the letter of the complainant.

Whatch this space for an update and please contact the editor if you have also received an identical or similar letter from Virgin Media.

If that’s the way they operate then we must be thankful that Richard Branson did not get his hands on Northern Rock

If you have been the recipient of an identical or similar letter and you want to complain to Virgin Media then send your letter to the following address

VIRGIN MEDIA

P O BOX 333

MATRIX COURT

SWANSEA

SA7 9ZJ

I now had a phone call from Virgin Media informing me that they had noticed that I was not paying the full amount for my 20MB broadband service.

The 20mb was offered to me at no extra charge just 3 month ago as compensation for loosing all the Sky Channel and now they are suddenly claiming that I was not paying enough for it.

When I explained the situation to the young lady she agreed to credit me with the difference and she also confirmed that she had now amended their records and that they would not charge me the full amount for the 20mb broadband service for a total period of 12 month.

Today is the 29th March 2008 and no credit has been received from Virgin Media. I will wait until I receive my next invoice and I will check if the charge has been credited to me and if they are charging me the correct amount.

If I do not receive the Credit or if they charge me again the full amount for the 20mb broadband service then I will most certainly cancel my Direct Debit

When my invoice arrived I found that they had credited me the amount they had charged me on the previous invoice but they were still charging me the full price for the 20MB broadband service, despite the fact that they had confirmed verbally that they would now be charging me the correct amount of £25.00 as agreed. So once again I wrote them yet another letter requesting yet another Credit Note and asking them to amend their records. Today, the 20th April 2008 I had yet another phone call telling me that they are in agreement that they had  overcharged me again  and that the appropriate credit would be deducted from the next invoice. So let's wait and see what's going to happen  next ! WATCH THIS SPACE FOR THE NEXT UPDATE

IF YOU ARE FORCED TO DEAL WITH VIRGIN MEDIA JUST REMEMBER THEIR PROMISE Whatever you choose with Virgin Media, we're aiming to make the whole experience as effortless as the award-winning service our Virgin Mobile customers have enjoyed for years. So here it is - in black & white a prime example of Virgin Media's Award Winning Service

Update 8th May 2008 I have just received my e-bill dated 7th May 2008 and yes, you guessed it correctly they totally messed it up again. Instead of crediting me with £24.00 as agreed on the phone they have deducted just £12.00 and they have, once again, charged me the full amount for the broadband despite their faithful promise that this would not happen again. So once again I have written yet another letter to Virgin Media and I have again asked them to credit me with £24.00 and to correct the broadband charge.   I really don't know what I have to do to get any sense or reason out of these people. Once again, I will wait for my next invoice but if these discrepancies are not correct next time around I will, most certainly, cancel my Direct Debit agreement and deduct these charges from the invoice. I really had enough now. Are they really so inept and incompetent or is all this a deliberate ploy to overcharge their customers? WATCH THIS SPACE FOR THE NEXT UPDATE

Let us quote you another slogan from the correspondence you receive from Virgin Media We are really sorry that you're not currently happy with the service you're getting from us. I can assure you that when we contact you we'll do everything we can do to ensure that's put right