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Old 31-12-2022, 01:07   #1
ClemFandango
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Join Date: Dec 2022
Posts: 2
ClemFandango is an unknown quantity at this point
Question Virgin Mis-Sold me a Contract

This is a bit of a nightmare and a bit long, so I apologise in advance.

Joined them in August this year after a series of sales calls. I agreed to one particular package but when I received the contract email, it didn't match what I was offered so I called back to retentions to inform them of the situation and that I wanted to cancel.

The individual I spoke to offered me 350mb Fibre Broadband and Anytime landline calls for £9 a month, so of course I'm taking that. I knew it was highly unusual so i made the point of repeating the offer as clearly as i could and asking him to verify it in anticipation of the likelihood of having to have the call listened to and he did indeed confirm it.

My September bill was the first proper bill which included the installation fee and the other usual bits for your first bill, but then I had to ring in to correct the contracted price as the monthly price after the various discounts wasn't showing the £9 I had accepted.

As you'd imagine with Virgin, everyone at the call centre had their own version of the situation and dealt with it differently so it was a huge headache.

Eventually raised a formal complaint to get the call listened to and I was subsequently assured everything had been resolved. A credit was applied to the account which meant I wouldn't be paying a bill in October but the November bill would be the £9 as agreed, which happened.

I logged in to my account a few weeks ago to find my next bill is now £19.65 so once again, I'm ringing them back to correct the price as it's not what I agreed to.

I get told repeatedly that there was no such £9 offer on the system, even though I explained that the call had already been listened to and validated. I then get told that my Anytime landline calls was only discounted for 3 months, which was brand new information.

I also get told that after this £19.65 bill, I won't get charged in February due to a new mystery credit being applied to my account, but that from March, my regular bill will be £17.

I explain again (again) about the offer I accepted and in the course of a 60 minute phonecall, I was transferred to 4 different people, the last one actually being someone in the complaints department.

Things got particularly tense as I told him I'd had enough and I didn't want to keep arguing for this promised price each month, so I said I either wanted the contracted price I'd been promised or I wanted to be able to leave penalty-free and go elsewhere. I said if that wasn't possible I would basically willingly breach my contract and walk away anyway.

He said I could escalate the complaint to Ofcom and ask for a deadlock letter but I declined the offer at that point.

He then said he would initiate the disconnection process there and then, but, thankfully, after I calmed down somewhat we agreed to leave things as they were until after Christmas.

My problem with this is, I think, largely down to me being autistic. With that, I find it extremely difficult to let something like this go and my brain is telling me I have to fight to the death to either get what I've been offered or get away from the contract.

What exacerbates that is that I fully accept that £17 for the package I have is a fantastic price and I know if I was eventually successful in getting away from the contract, I wouldn't get anywhere near what I'm getting for the price so there would definitely be the element of cutting off my nose to spite my face.

I've made a SAR request to see if I can actually get something tangible to argue my case but I'm not hopeful.

I appreciate it if you've made it this far without dozing off .

Now I fully acknowledge and understand that I'm getting a great deal even for £17 a month but I do think the principle of being mis-sold a contract still applies regardless of that because I was offered and accepted a price to join Virgin as a new customer and within 3 months they are telling me they are all but doubling the price and that I cannot do a thing about it.

I'm honestly not entirely sure what I'm asking here really, as daft as that sounds, but if you've made it this far then I'd certainly at least appreciate your thoughts on the situation. I don't have many options to right this 'wrong' but, as I've said, I'm finding it difficult to let it go even though I know I should.
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