I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

> We offer both the slower ADSL services and the faster VDSL (fibre to the cabinet) services, FTTP and G.FAST services where available. The package is available with a copper pair or you can use with a phone line you buy from another Openreach-based provider such as BT.

https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/home1/

> after several attempts to cancel the contract, I cancelled the direct debit.

They did do that.

But, the issue is if it accumulates without a resolution, it'll reflect badly on your credit score.

> They are monopolies that aren't regulated

They are actually heavily regulated. But they use that regulation as a way to prevent new competitors.

I had an equally terrible experience with this nasty company.

Been a mostly happy customer for over a year, contract has ran out so I was just paying month to month and didn't "upgrade" to another contract as I knew I was going to switch providers (already signed the contract with the new provider but it would've taken 6 month to actually install it).

Finally new provider gives me an install date so I call Virgin to cancel. First off, despite telling me that the cancellation will take 30 days (as mentioned in every document), I come home to find the broadband disconnected already. Fine, it's only a couple days until the new provider is up and running.

The new provider has an issue and it's going to take another few months to install, so I call back Virgin and ask if they can reinstate the previous connection. They say no so I ask them if they can give me the same plan on a 30-day rolling contract, explaining my situation and that I only intend to use it for a few months until the new provider is up and running (so even if they somehow missed the "30-day rolling contract" part, they would still realize it doesn't make sense to sign me up for a yearly contract given I intend to cancel in a few months). We confirm everything over the phone, the engineer comes in and gives me the new modem (why they couldn't just mail me the modem or let me reuse the old one is beyond me) and all is fine.

New provider is set up 2 months later so I give Virgin a call to cancel. Turns out, not only is my new contract a yearly contract but apparently they've sent me an e-mail stating the new contract and terms and that I opened it, despite the fact that my e-mail client doesn't load remote content so even if I did receive it there would be no way for them to know that I opened it, so they're either lying or they sent it to someone else. I argue with the customer support monkey for an hour and we get nowhere, so I ask them to review the call recordings from the call where I initially set up the contract and tell them to call me back the next day. They say they can't promise that and sure enough, no call back.

I end up writing a complaint letter by post explaining the situation and asking for a call back to sort out the situation, and cancel the direct debit on my bank's side. The letter also states that I will hold the equipment (modem) for a month and if I don't receive a shipping label by then I will discard it. No response despite the letter having been delivered and signed for.

Account goes to collections so I explain the situation to them and they are being very reasonable (you know it's a problem when your collections agency has better customer service than your own one) and drop the matter.

6 months later I get a prepaid shipping label in the mail to return the equipment... well it's a bit too late now though as the equipment is well on its way to the landfill. No news since then and I'm quite happy to never have to deal with that disgusting company again.

There's probably a black mark on my credit report because of this, but thankfully I don't need credit anytime soon so their only leverage didn't work out either. If the mark ends up being a problem I'll get a lawyer to send them a nastygram to get it removed.

This lot are my new ISP and I love it. Two phone calls to support on set up day, answered immediately. No support calls since. No peak time drains (that I've noticed). Bit more pricy, but you get technical wizardry and freedom.

One of the biggest resentments I have against Virgin is that you need the business package to support some types of VPN. Like the VPN in use by my lab. Static IPs? Business account. Anything useful? Business account.

That and the woeful password security practices they force on users. Letters, numbers and between 8-10 length? For the account login?!

AA on the other hand will generate a secure and memorable passphrase for you, which you can override but has to be tiptop secure to do that. There's even a button for "whoops, someone else could see my screen, please generate a new passphrase again".

I mean, who does that?! Genius.

Then there's the logs which relate to my account. I can see exactly what openreach have said about work on my account. When an openreach engineer was assigned and exactly what they're doing etc.

Honestly, if I buy a house, a deciding factor will probably be whether I can have AA as my ISP.