A Legitimate Scam?
When is a scam not a scam? I lost the plot today with our tv/broadband supplier. We have been with Virgin Media for 7 years apparently. I know this because a nice lady phoned me during the week to offer me all sorts of 'free' stuff if I changed our package. I listened politely and said really all I want is to reduce our outgoings so if she could bring our price down I'd be happy. She couldn't but she could increase our broadband speed and give us 24/7 telephone etc etc and instead of our price increasing with the current price increase, ours would stay the same. I was sitting in the garden in the sun at the time and I was fairly chilled so I said ok. We then had a discussion about a free sim card which she wanted bank details for so I told her not to bother with the useless sim card anyway and off she went. The very next day I got an email from Virgin informing me that from the end of this month we would no longer be able to get Fox. The only reason we took on as big a bundle of tv was to get Fox. Fox has all the new NCIS series on it and there's been a few other new American series we've enjoyed before Channel 5 get them and they run reruns of NCIS every night from 7pm-9pm which is the time of night I love to settle down and watch mindless tv and I could watch NCIS on a loop happily. So, I decided if we could no longer get Fox, we'd go onto Virgin and request their basic package which is advertised on their website at £29.99. Couldn't do that they said, thats for new customers only. But we've been with you for 7 years don't we get anything for loyalty, you already do they said, your package is very discounted. Are you kidding I said, it can't be its astronomical! Anyway, to cut a very long story short I told them I'd have to leave and would get back to them. Hubby and I decided to look into this more carefully and decided we actually don't need their tv package at all. Most of the channels we watch are on Freeview plus during lockdown we signed up to Netflix and Disney+. I had already considered cancelling one of them now so as the Virgin one was the most expensive of all it made sense to investigate a broadband only deal. Unfortunately our area is not serviced by fibre so our broadband speed would considerably drop but again as we're old fogies and don't do gaming or much streaming etc we reckoned we could cope and decided Plusnet was the one for us. I phoned them and they were delightful. I had a lovely conversation with a young man and signed up happily to their service. Our bill would drop considerably and the only thing were going to consider buying was a tv recorder for some programs we like to record. All good so far. They advised that I phone Virgin to cancel our contract and they would book me an installation date to coincide with the cancellation of Virgin. I phoned Virgin. I want to cancel. That will be £250 please. WHAT??? Your contract isn't up till 7th July 2022 so you'll have to pay. No, I said, I was contacted on Tuesday by a Virgin rep and she said I had a new contract, my contract ends in July and then the new contract would start and I have at least a 7 day cooling off period, you phoned me! No, your contract doesn't end till July 2022, if you cancel the contract you updated you revert back to your old contract which doesn't end till July 2022. You started a new contract on 6th January. So, if I only agreed a new contract for 18 months in January, why is someone phoning me just 6 months later to offer me a new contract. We often call customers with offers he said! That is a scam I said. No its not he said! He had no intention of letting us go. He did eventually offer us a deal and dropped our price by £14 but as hubby said, I should probably have left it at the old contract cos that would have been up in July 2022 now I have a new contract till December 2022. I was fuming! I have written a note to myself on my calendar that I intend to cancel my contract with this bunch of scammers when this contract is up. I also told the virgin person to put on my account that if anyone from Virgin phones me to 'offer' me anything they will get a mouthful they won't like!! You wouldn't like me when I'm angry!!
Companies are a disgrace when it comes to handling loyal customers aren’t they? To be fair to BT though, after a 3 month long saga concerning my mother’s account they are not only refunding her but also making an additional payment by way of goodwill gesture. I can’t even begin to count the number of wasted hours I’ve had to hold on the phone to achieve that little win, mind.
ReplyDeleteTell me about it. I was all morning yesterday dealing with this and then the rest of the day I did very little while I fumed!! Glad you got some joy from BT though.
DeleteUuggghhhh, tell me about it. My phone contract (so internet, mobile and house phone) is with SFR and I know it's up now. My bloody phone is ringing off the hook at the moment because I just know they're going to want to push something more expensive on me. I did manage to get a good deal out of them last year by threatening to switch to Free but at the moment I just don't have the fight in me! I think they do play on the fact that most people don't know when their contracts are up, so I've got mine written down now. By the way, I just saw in the newspaper today that despite protestations to the contrary, EE are shortly going to be charging customers £2/day if they want to use their phones while in the EU now. No more free data roaming. I wonder how long it will be before others follow suit!
ReplyDeleteYou really do need to be in the mood to deal with these companies don't you. Yes, like you I have now taken a note of the date our contract is up and will make sure to do the same for other contracts we have too! They are getting away with murder at the moment and don't start me on all the new EU regulations!
DeleteWe had all sorts of shenanigans with Sky when my father in law died. He had signed up to a package that his partner no longer wanted but as she was in her 90s she didn't know how to deal with it. We had to call round to her house and 'phone Sky on our mobile - via a premium rate number - to try to cancel the subscription and make her dish work for Freeview only reception. They kept us hanging on and went through all sorts of hoops before it eventually got sorted. The 'phone call cost me £25 !!
ReplyDeleteIt's disgraceful what these companies get away with isn't it. I've had similar experiences trying to sort out my mums bills when my dad died and it was all in his name! It really should be easier shouldn't it.
DeleteWe have Internet with one company, cable with another. They are all scammers!! The Internet folks increased by bill, I got a hold of them on social media - and they decreased it (but not before reminding me that it may take up to TWO billing cycles to be reflected on my bill - why, I don't know) The TV company is a scam, we have the basic cable plus news, and they include Canadian news channels as a premium so I cannot cancel any of the news add ons. A mess!!
ReplyDeleteYes, that's another thing that often happens, you pay companies immediately and they then say it will take up to two months for it to be refunded back to you! How is that even possible??
DeleteIt's all a scam. The companies are competing with each other for your money and the story is always the same. They can't lower the prices, but they can give you more bang for the buck. I don't want more, so I'm never tempted.
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