Post by johnnybee on May 15, 2013 0:13:51 GMT
Hiya folks; I thought I'd better let you all into this one, as it might well affect other Virgin users besides myself in the future.
Setting the scene then, I've been with the same provider right from the early days of Birmingham Cable Communications back in the late eighties; I was one of the first to sign up - the 310th to be precise, and I've seen it go from BCC to Blueyonder, then Telewest and onto Virgin Media via NTL.
When Hilary died and everything went sideways, I downsized everything and only kept the necessary services; this resulted in a drop of £48 per month on my DD payments, which was the endgame as far as I was concerned.
Now since I've been on pension as opposed to pension credit, the payments from the DWP have changed somewhat in that, instead of paying-in on the day before a bank holiday, they've suddenly (and without any warning) taken to paying in on the Tuesday AFTER the bank holiday.
The first I knew of any problems was when I got a notification from the bank stating that they were imposing a charge for refusing the DD for Virgin Payments, citing insufficient cleared funds in the account.
Next thing I heard was from VM, telling me that they had cancelled my DD with the bank as my payment had been refused, and demanding immediate payment of the account, plus a £10 late payment fee AND a charge of £5 for writing to me to tell me about it.
I then rang their helpline - some oxymoron THAT is! - and spoke to a very broad Glaswegian lady who had some problems in understanding WHAT the problem was, never mind what had caused it, and insisted that charges for late payments were perfectly legal and part of their beloved "terms and conditions" that we all sign up for.
When I pointed out that according to my bank, their demand for payment had been made on the Friday BEFORE the bank holiday - three working days before it was due - she became very evasive and again tried to hide behind 'terms and conditions' to get out of her obvious confusion.
I also had to appraise her of the fact that VM cannot cancel any DD arrangement; that is a bipartite agreement between me personnally and the bank to pay any outstanding accounts on their due date - the payee has no rights to alter or cancel any such arrangement.
Nett result of that convo was that I verbally instructed her to re-present the account to the bank which would then be paid, less the extra charges that they had added to the bill, that they themselves were responsible for.
At the weekend I received a further letter from VM, demanding immediate payment of my account UP TO THE END OF MAY, which still included the penalty payments I've already referred to.
So, I logged onto my account and confirmed the facts, then phoned VM again in the hopes that I might be able to speak to someone who spoke English; one of the first things she asked me was 'what is your password?', and when I told her, she replied, 'that isn't the one I've got for you'!
'For God's sake, woman, I'm logged in on that username and password' was my response to which she curtly reminded me of my manners; - fair enough, but don't these people get taught how to handle customers with grievances, or to keep quiet when it becomes obvious that their 'corporate structure' has malfunctioned?
Upshot of all this is that they are going to "look into the matter", but I did tell her before leaving - in no uncertain terms - that I WOULDN'T be paying for someone elses' mistakes, so when they presented me with a bill with those objectionable items removed, it would be paid.
Right; warning given, more anon - take care, peeps!
Setting the scene then, I've been with the same provider right from the early days of Birmingham Cable Communications back in the late eighties; I was one of the first to sign up - the 310th to be precise, and I've seen it go from BCC to Blueyonder, then Telewest and onto Virgin Media via NTL.
When Hilary died and everything went sideways, I downsized everything and only kept the necessary services; this resulted in a drop of £48 per month on my DD payments, which was the endgame as far as I was concerned.
Now since I've been on pension as opposed to pension credit, the payments from the DWP have changed somewhat in that, instead of paying-in on the day before a bank holiday, they've suddenly (and without any warning) taken to paying in on the Tuesday AFTER the bank holiday.
The first I knew of any problems was when I got a notification from the bank stating that they were imposing a charge for refusing the DD for Virgin Payments, citing insufficient cleared funds in the account.
Next thing I heard was from VM, telling me that they had cancelled my DD with the bank as my payment had been refused, and demanding immediate payment of the account, plus a £10 late payment fee AND a charge of £5 for writing to me to tell me about it.
I then rang their helpline - some oxymoron THAT is! - and spoke to a very broad Glaswegian lady who had some problems in understanding WHAT the problem was, never mind what had caused it, and insisted that charges for late payments were perfectly legal and part of their beloved "terms and conditions" that we all sign up for.
When I pointed out that according to my bank, their demand for payment had been made on the Friday BEFORE the bank holiday - three working days before it was due - she became very evasive and again tried to hide behind 'terms and conditions' to get out of her obvious confusion.
I also had to appraise her of the fact that VM cannot cancel any DD arrangement; that is a bipartite agreement between me personnally and the bank to pay any outstanding accounts on their due date - the payee has no rights to alter or cancel any such arrangement.
Nett result of that convo was that I verbally instructed her to re-present the account to the bank which would then be paid, less the extra charges that they had added to the bill, that they themselves were responsible for.
At the weekend I received a further letter from VM, demanding immediate payment of my account UP TO THE END OF MAY, which still included the penalty payments I've already referred to.
So, I logged onto my account and confirmed the facts, then phoned VM again in the hopes that I might be able to speak to someone who spoke English; one of the first things she asked me was 'what is your password?', and when I told her, she replied, 'that isn't the one I've got for you'!
'For God's sake, woman, I'm logged in on that username and password' was my response to which she curtly reminded me of my manners; - fair enough, but don't these people get taught how to handle customers with grievances, or to keep quiet when it becomes obvious that their 'corporate structure' has malfunctioned?
Upshot of all this is that they are going to "look into the matter", but I did tell her before leaving - in no uncertain terms - that I WOULDN'T be paying for someone elses' mistakes, so when they presented me with a bill with those objectionable items removed, it would be paid.
Right; warning given, more anon - take care, peeps!