Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

virginmedia-is-evil.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 153 posts

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#31

Post by TechBro8615 »

artistsvoid wrote: post #25

I remember once seeing a commercial for an 'online virtual credit card' website/company? Quick online search tells me there are many providers out there. As far as I know you can create virtual credit cards on the fly and use them to pay. So you could have one with which you pay your Streaming Subscription, one with which you pay for Cable, et cetera and their pitch was exactly this: You can destroy the virtual credi…

AFAIK in the UK, Virgin Media will open a credit account in your name, which appears on your credit report. So it wouldn't matter what kind of payment you used. Although I think you can opt out of this, maybe.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#32

Post by [deleted] »

artistsvoid wrote: post #25

I remember once seeing a commercial for an 'online virtual credit card' website/company? Quick online search tells me there are many providers out there. As far as I know you can create virtual credit cards on the fly and use them to pay. So you could have one with which you pay your Streaming Subscription, one with which you pay for Cable, et cetera and their pitch was exactly this: You can destroy the virtual credi…

[deleted]

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#33

Post by Silhouette »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #18

In the UK, use this: https://www.aa.net.uk/ I'm not affiliated with them in any way. They just have a great reputation for good technical knowledge, privacy, and support.

AA have a good reputation. Zen do too. I'm not sure why anyone who'd done market research would go with one of the bigger name ISPs these days. Well, OK, I am sure: AA and Zen both tend to be a bit more expensive. But this is one of those areas where you get what you pay for, I guess.

Ironically, the one major exception to this is Virgin, because they do offer an alternative product with technical advantages, whereas almost every other landline ISP is ultimately just backed by the same physical BT infrastructure. But given the speeds you can get in most parts of the country from that BT infrastructure now, the difference isn't going to be as important for most people as it used to be a few years ago.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#34

Post by artistsvoid »

jrockway wrote: post #27
artistsvoid wrote: post #25

I remember once seeing a commercial for an 'online virtual credit card' website/company? Quick online search tells me there are many providers out there. As far as I know you can create virtual credit cards on the fly and use them to pay. So you could have one with which you pay your Streaming Subscription, one with which you pay for Cable, et cetera and their pitch was exactly this: You can destroy the virtual credi…

Typically (in the US) the company that set up the recurring subscription that you pulled out from under them just sends your account to a collections agency. My credit card number changed and the New York Times did that to me.

So they can't charge you but will still try to 'collect' and ruin your credit rating I suppose? Well, doesn't solve a lot then.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#37

Post by willcipriano »

pydry wrote: post #13
mehrdadn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This made me laugh (sorry). How do they upsell without you realizing it?

IIRC Comcast also does this. They tell you your account is canceled and then you start getting charged extra. A facet of giving pay based upsell targets to desperate call center staff.

The Wells Fargo model.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan...

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#38

Post by spatulon »

jibbit wrote: post #6

I’ve tried to cancel my virgin media subscription twice (because it’s too expensive), and each time was upsold a more expensive package. I explained this to my wife, who laughed at me, then the same thing happened to her.

I cancelled quite easily, because I explained that I was not only moving house, but moving into a house that already had Virgin Media broadband. I guess that moved them to the part of their script where they actually go through with the cancellation.

I would probably use that again in the future, even if it were a lie.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#39

Post by lightgreen »

artistsvoid wrote: post #25

I remember once seeing a commercial for an 'online virtual credit card' website/company? Quick online search tells me there are many providers out there. As far as I know you can create virtual credit cards on the fly and use them to pay. So you could have one with which you pay your Streaming Subscription, one with which you pay for Cable, et cetera and their pitch was exactly this: You can destroy the virtual credi…

In the UK you can simply cancel the direct debit (most regular payments in the UK happen using direct debit, not by credit card).

But as far as I understand not paying for a contract may result in damaged credit history, so the mortgage can become more expensive for example; or they may sell your "debt" to some collector company, who may start bothering you (I heard these stories from friends).

So because of these reasons, I decided to try to explicitly cancel the contract instead of just stopping paying them.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#40

Post by sipos »

Silhouette wrote: post #12

Abuses such as this infuriate me, and I typically have a very low tolerance for them now. Any business that is causing trouble at my expense still gets one polite attempt to contact them via their preferred means and a reasonable chance to respond, but usually only one. I'm not hanging around on the phone for more than a few minutes or waiting more than a couple of working days for a substantial response to an online…

So, this didn't help me with Virgin Media in the past (though I did get it sorted by finding someone relatively senior and bothering them until they got it sorted), but it usually does, as you say.

In general, I don't allow companies messing me around to profit from it. Even if it takes longer than it is worth, I make a point of principle that I somehow get more back from them than I was cheated out of or they neglected to deliver. Usually this ends up costing them much more than just behaving reasonably in the first place. I find finding a way to do this cathartic. It isn;t always entirely legal though.

If more people did this, it wouldn't be worth companies messing people around.

Post reply on HN