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I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

virginmedia-is-evil.com

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Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#121

Post by shoulderfake »

kazz wrote: post #52
paultopia wrote: post #19

Nothing is harder than cancelling internet service, with the possible exception of cancelling a gym membership. In order to cancel Mediacom's 'service,' I had to send a letter[1] to them, with copies to their general counsel, threatening 99 kinds of lawsuit. I made the letter intentionally deranged, complete with footnotes about financial BDSM, to give them the impression that I would actually do it. They cancelled t…

That whole ordeal sounds horrifying. What is it about cable/internet companies that seems to make them awful across the board?

0 competition and regulatory capture so nobody new can come in

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#122

Post by stordoff »

bnastic wrote: post #74

It's not that easy to get a contract either... First they said "health and safety", they can't get a man to bring the cable up to 2nd floor. I said fine, how about I buy that cable, I drill my own walls, and bring you the cable down to the ground, can you connect that? "Sure, let's set up a date for engineer visit". All is ready, engineer comes carrying a modem... wtf... you are supposed to connect this to your box o…

> First they said "health and safety", they can't get a man to bring the cable up to 2nd floor.

I suspect this depends a lot on the installer. When my grandparents had it installed, they ran it up the drive, straight over the top of the house, then down the back wall and into the house there without an issue.

Contrast this with when my parents had it installed (after my grandparents, so we assumed it would be fine) - we had about four weeks of back and forth saying "Hey, you've buried the cable on someone else's land and they're about to dig it up" (instead of following the edge of the property, they just cut diagonally across, and the neighbours had planning permission to build there). They eventually sorted it, but it must have taken a double digit number of calls and threats not to pay. IIRC, they were the only option for >38Mbps service, so we didn't have a great deal of choice.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#123

Post by floydnoel »

imheretolearn wrote: post #67
paultopia wrote: post #19

Nothing is harder than cancelling internet service, with the possible exception of cancelling a gym membership. In order to cancel Mediacom's 'service,' I had to send a letter[1] to them, with copies to their general counsel, threatening 99 kinds of lawsuit. I made the letter intentionally deranged, complete with footnotes about financial BDSM, to give them the impression that I would actually do it. They cancelled t…

This is an anti-pattern that some companies follow. I remember trying to cancel an account from a grocery delivery service. There was no option online to cancel the subscription. The only option was to call them during their working hours which were different from mine because we were in different time zones. After waiting for 30mins I finally got connected to a human on the other side. They tried pressure sales tact…

> There should be a service which basically manages all your subscriptions(bits/bytes & atoms/molecules) in one place and allows you to activate/deactivate them.

but then, how would you cancel that service?

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#124

Post by m463 »

techsupporter wrote: post #97
imheretolearn wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an anti-pattern that some companies follow. I remember trying to cancel an account from a grocery delivery service. There was no option online to cancel the subscription. The only option was to call them during their working hours which were different from mine because we were in different time zones. After waiting for 30mins I finally got connected to a human on the other side. They tried pressure sales tact…

> After waiting for 30mins I finally got connected to a human on the other side. They tried pressure sales tactics to get me to continue with the service even though I made it clear that I did not need their service anymore. The call itself took about 30 minutes. This is such an egregious waste of my time just to cancel a frickin subscription. This brings back memories of one of my first jobs. I worked for a call cen…

A friend of mine worked on call center software.

I remember hearing about the scripts for those late-night-infomercial purchases.

"I want to buy the nose-hair clipper"

(efficient process to get card number)

but included in the purchase process were upsell scripts.

"I don't want to hear about this"

"but sir, many people get upset and call back because they missed these special offers!"

(etc for every possible escape route)

And if the call center person didn't follow the script, they would be fired.

Apparently the only way for the customer to escape the script would be to say "I will cancel my order unless you stop"

gah.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#125

Post by imheretolearn »

floydnoel wrote: post #123
imheretolearn wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an anti-pattern that some companies follow. I remember trying to cancel an account from a grocery delivery service. There was no option online to cancel the subscription. The only option was to call them during their working hours which were different from mine because we were in different time zones. After waiting for 30mins I finally got connected to a human on the other side. They tried pressure sales tact…

> There should be a service which basically manages all your subscriptions(bits/bytes & atoms/molecules) in one place and allows you to activate/deactivate them. but then, how would you cancel that service?

Haha nice catch, assuming that service is easy to cancel.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#127

Post by reitzensteinm »

paultopia wrote: post #19

Nothing is harder than cancelling internet service, with the possible exception of cancelling a gym membership. In order to cancel Mediacom's 'service,' I had to send a letter[1] to them, with copies to their general counsel, threatening 99 kinds of lawsuit. I made the letter intentionally deranged, complete with footnotes about financial BDSM, to give them the impression that I would actually do it. They cancelled t…

I once paid twice as much for a gym for the no lock in plan, with pay as you go in advance for a month.

They offered me as low as a three month contract with direct debit and I refused.

The guy signing me up thought I was nuts. I think everyone else is nuts.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#128

Post by dingaling »

shoulderfake wrote: post #121
kazz wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That whole ordeal sounds horrifying. What is it about cable/internet companies that seems to make them awful across the board?

0 competition and regulatory capture so nobody new can come in

The UK ( whence comes this article ) has a very competitive ISP marketplace, there are several dozen ISPs vying for my custom at my property using a variety of connection technology.

But most people in the UK sign-up to the Big Three ( BT Retail, Virgin, TalkTalk ) due to their intense advertising and bundle 'deals'. So those three consider themselves the market and compete with one another for that pool of customers. Naturally they make leaving difficult because they have spent so much on acquisition.

The other 20% of customers shop around based on individual requirements. I've been with my small, efficient ISP for 12 years and have no reason to change.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#129

Post by Lio »

Nextgrid wrote: post #92
Latty wrote: post #63

They told me I couldn't cancel in advance, I had to ring the month before I wanted the service cut, otherwise I'd cancel and it would end at the end of the month. When I rang during that month, they then told me I had to give a month's notice and would be charged for an extra month. Took me a few hours of phone calls to eventually get that dropped. A good consumer protection law would be some requirement that cancell…

When it comes to marketing there's also the issue of ISPs being allowed to advertise copper cable (whether coax or DSL) as "fibre".

My father in law is very proud of his Virgin Fibre (“they’re the only ones doing fibre to the home!”)

Doesn’t matter how many times I point out to him he has fibre to the cabinet not the home.

I think both BT and Virgin should have been reined in years ago on their outlandish claims.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#130

Post by scarlac »

bastawhiz wrote: post #120

File a dispute with your credit card issuer. Chargebacks are a perfectly valid and accepted way to cancel recurring subscriptions (albeit perhaps a forceful option).

They also have the benefit of putting the merchant in a bad standing. Chargebacks usually incur a fee as well as credit card companies monitoring the chargebacks per 1k transactions. If the number gets too high you (the merchant) will be sanctioned or cancelled.

So please use chargebacks. I speak as a former merchant: We hate chargebacks - they are an effective deterrent.

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