Sometimes, in my gloomier moments, I start believing that I attract incompetent bureaucrats in the same way that some people are a magnet for mosquitoes.
Years ago I signed up for an unlimited dial-up internet service from NTL. It cost £15 per month and, given the amount I used it, it was a good deal. Then, a bit later on, I signed up for a broadband package from another supplier.
I didn’t for a long time get round to cancelling the direct debit with NTL. In time the company was taken over by Virgin Media and, eventually, I rang up to cancel my dial-up service.
I was told that I would have to pay the present month’s £15, and the following month’s £15 before the service was cancelled. “Are you happy with that?” asked the voice on the end of the line. “I suppose I’ll have to be,” I replied.
So I let the two lots of £15 leave my account and then, because I take a fairly cynical view about big companies’ abilities to complete simple tasks that aren’t to their benefit, I cancelled the direct debit using my online banking facility.
I thought no more of it until today, when I got a letter from a debt recovery agency demanding £15 on Virgin Media’s behalf.
Thanks lads.
Naturally, I’m not going to pay it. The woman at the debt agency says she will get in touch with Virgin and then get back to me. Something tells me, though, that I’m in for a hell of a lot of hassle over money I don’t owe. And I bet that Virgin will spend a lot more than £15 before I get them to admit their mistake
In other news, I took a trip up to Bruce Castle Museum, inspired by Diamond Geezer’s recent visit. It was closed. It doesn’t open on Tuesdays. So I pushed the baby around a drizzly park, in which there were few people bar a load of bored 30 and 40-somethings playing on the swings.
Something tells me it’s not my day.
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Comments
I did say “any afternoon except Mondays and Tuesdays”, honest I did. They should open Bruce Castle on drizzly Tuesdays though.
Stupidly, I didn’t re-read your post properly this morning. Anyway, to compound my foolishness, I turned up during the late morning. So I deserved all I got…
I’ll try again on Friday, or possibly tomorrow.
Virgin Media’s corporate lot are useless as well. I’ve been fighting them for six months over getting a particular service, and last week they finally told me it would probably be in my best interests to try Sky instead. Tremendous salespersonship, no?
between you and Dave Hill’s virgin experience, we think we will be better off in the clutches of Rupert Murdoch…
now that’s a pitiable state of affairs.
Bruce Castle hasn’t been the same since Branson started running it. What is the world coming to?
ho, ho. Did you see the problems with virgin media on WatchDog? It is a pity that standards appear to be slipping at Virgin. A friend who used to work for them said Branson’s baby is the airline and the rest of the companies are left to sink or swim on their own.
I had exactly this happen to me.
Complicated because whenever I wanted to speak to them about it, their customer services couldn’t find any record of me on their system… at least not until I’d been passed through about six people every time.
And, it was after I had phoned to sort it all out previously (which they had no record of).
Anyway, I wrote them a stiff letter, told them I would not deal with them from this point on by phone and asked them to confirm in writing that no impact was being put on my credit rating and that I owed them nothing. I sent the letter to ntl (as was a year and a bit ago) and the debt people.
ntl phoned me, and left a message. I wrote to them again asking them to confirm no problems etc in writing. They left me another phone message. Fortunately they phoned my Skype-in number (they wouldn’t have realised it) but I have kept the sound recording of their message. Heard nothing from them in about 18months.
They are complete idiots, and still send me letters asking me to sign up for tv and broadband, etc. etc.
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