Anyone NOT pay Virgin by DD and have to pay the £5 'fine'?

[PeteMorris]

For a long time I've had 'issues' with Virgin Media. Shortly after installation around 5 years ago, and paying by direct debit, I decided 'I' wanted control of who I paid and when, due to me being paid weekly.

 

Anyway, since then I've effectively been 'fined' £5 each month for choosing not to pay by direct debit. They say it's an administration fee. But it costs them nothing, as I pay on line, via their website, and the money goes straight out of my account and 'direct' to them. So in my view, the 'administration fee' is effectively a 'fine'.

 

Anyway, amongst a plethora of other complaints, I've decided to switch providers, and rang them to cancel my contract. After the usual half hour or so of being on hold, and then transferred to another department etc, I spoke to a very nice 'English' woman, who (bless her) tried her best to dissuade me from leaving.

 

One of her ploys, when I mentioned the 'fine', said only this week we've 'reviewed' our policy, and we can reduce the £5 down to 45p. Of course me being me, I was deeply sceptical about this sudden change of policy, and decided (after the phone call) to check via 'twitter', and it was confirmed that the company has 'reviewed' the policy in the last couple of weeks.

 

It's a shame they've neglected to tell anyone!

 

So if you're with Virgin and 'choose' not to pay by direct debit, make a phone call and complain about the 'fine'.

 

As it happens I've still decided to cancel my 18 month enforced 'contract' despite being a loyal customer for 5 years. Actually, that's another niggle of mine. If you make the slightest 'change' in your service, whatever it might be, they raise a 'new' 18 month contract from that point. So beware!

[Stoned]

I left Virgin mid contract for this and other reasons. With the DDs they never took the right amount, always taking more money than was owed. I stopped the DD as i was sick of it. Oh and they also told me bare faced lies to get me to sign in the first place.

Ill be seeing them in court.

[whiteowl]

They put the prices up before Xmas didn't they - doesn't that negate any contracts as it's not the one you agreed to ?

The letter said you had up to 31st December to cancel or amend your contract but I heard you can pretty much cancel whenever you feel like it now as the terms/cost are different to the ones you agreed to ? Not sure how true that is though.

[truman]

For a long time I've had 'issues' with Virgin Media. Shortly after installation around 5 years ago, and paying by direct debit, I decided 'I' wanted control of who I paid and when, due to me being paid weekly.

 

Anyway, since then I've effectively been 'fined' £5 each month for choosing not to pay by direct debit. They say it's an administration fee. But it costs them nothing, as I pay on line, via their website, and the money goes straight out of my account and 'direct' to them. So in my view, the 'administration fee' is effectively a 'fine'.

 

Anyway, amongst a plethora of other complaints, I've decided to switch providers, and rang them to cancel my contract. After the usual half hour or so of being on hold, and then transferred to another department etc, I spoke to a very nice 'English' woman, who (bless her) tried her best to dissuade me from leaving.

 

One of her ploys, when I mentioned the 'fine', said only this week we've 'reviewed' our policy, and we can reduce the £5 down to 45p. Of course me being me, I was deeply sceptical about this sudden change of policy, and decided (after the phone call) to check via 'twitter', and it was confirmed that the company has 'reviewed' the policy in the last couple of weeks.

 

It's a shame they've neglected to tell anyone!

 

So if you're with Virgin and 'choose' not to pay by direct debit, make a phone call and complain about the 'fine'.

 

As it happens I've still decided to cancel my 18 month enforced 'contract' despite being a loyal customer for 5 years. Actually, that's another niggle of mine. If you make the slightest 'change' in your service, whatever it might be, they raise a 'new' 18 month contract from that point. So beware!

 

With regard to the bit in bold..websites aren't free..they do cost money to develop and maintain.. just saying..

[PeteMorris]

With regard to the bit in bold..websites aren't free..they do cost money to develop and maintain.. just saying..

 

Ummm..But they'd have a website anyway...Regardless!

 

---------- Post added 12-01-2016 at 10:31 ----------

 

They put the prices up before Xmas didn't they - doesn't that negate any contracts as it's not the one you agreed to ?

The letter said you had up to 31st December to cancel or amend your contract but I heard you can pretty much cancel whenever you feel like it now as the terms/cost are different to the ones you agreed to ? Not sure how true that is though.

 

I'm not a legal eagle, but I expect there's something somewhere which allows them to do pretty much whatever they want.

[truman]

Ummm..But they'd have a website anyway...Regardless!

 

 

But not one with a payments section on it..

[PeteMorris]

But not one with a payments section on it..

 

True...I'm no computer expert, but I'm assuming it must be all of a half hours work to set up a website to accept payments. But yes you're right, it costs. I wonder how many £5 'fines' are collected across the country to pay for that half hours work?

[Justin Smith]

For a long time I've had 'issues' with Virgin Media. Shortly after installation around 5 years ago, and paying by direct debit, I decided 'I' wanted control of who I paid and when, due to me being paid weekly.

 

Anyway, since then I've effectively been 'fined' £5 each month for choosing not to pay by direct debit. They say it's an administration fee. But it costs them nothing, as I pay on line, via their website, and the money goes straight out of my account and 'direct' to them. So in my view, the 'administration fee' is effectively a 'fine'.

 

Anyway, amongst a plethora of other complaints, I've decided to switch providers, and rang them to cancel my contract. After the usual half hour or so of being on hold, and then transferred to another department etc, I spoke to a very nice 'English' woman, who (bless her) tried her best to dissuade me from leaving.

 

One of her ploys, when I mentioned the 'fine', said only this week we've 'reviewed' our policy, and we can reduce the £5 down to 45p. Of course me being me, I was deeply sceptical about this sudden change of policy, and decided (after the phone call) to check via 'twitter', and it was confirmed that the company has 'reviewed' the policy in the last couple of weeks.

 

It's a shame they've neglected to tell anyone!

 

So if you're with Virgin and 'choose' not to pay by direct debit, make a phone call and complain about the 'fine'.

 

As it happens I've still decided to cancel my 18 month enforced 'contract' despite being a loyal customer for 5 years. Actually, that's another niggle of mine. If you make the slightest 'change' in your service, whatever it might be, they raise a 'new' 18 month contract from that point. So beware!

 

I agree with you totally, it really annoys me when companies discriminate against you for not paying by direct debit, IT`S A CON ! I hate paying for stuff by DD, particularly things where the amount varies.

[runningman1]

They put the prices up before Xmas didn't they - doesn't that negate any contracts as it's not the one you agreed to ?

The letter said you had up to 31st December to cancel or amend your contract but I heard you can pretty much cancel whenever you feel like it now as the terms/cost are different to the ones you agreed to ? Not sure how true that is though.

 

Not true at all I'm afraid. A detrimental change to terms and conditions have to be sent to the customer whom then has a period of time (normally 30 days) to remove themselves from the contract. If they customer stays beyond that it is assumed that the customer agreed to the change.

 

True...I'm no computer expert, but I'm assuming it must be all of a half hours work to set up a website to accept payments. But yes you're right, it costs. I wonder how many £5 'fines' are collected across the country to pay for that half hours work?

 

I used to work for a subscription based company. People who paid in the manner you describe were 8 x more likely to slip into failed billing than people who paid by direct debit. You have to aoy people to chase up these fees. So the administration cost covers the maintainence of the whole pay by card system, not just individual transactions.

[PeteMorris]

I used to work for a subscription based company. People who paid in the manner you describe were 8 x more likely to slip into failed billing than people who paid by direct debit. You have to aoy people to chase up these fees. So the administration cost covers the maintainence of the whole pay by card system, not just individual transactions.

 

Well, I'll bow to your knowledge in this matter. But I assure you it didn't apply to 'me'. I've always paid what was due when it's due. But on 'my' terms. Not theirs.

 

A poster above says he was sick of being overcharged via direct debit, and it's actually happened to me too. So we have to pay for incompetent 'administration'?