This Internet Provider Didn’t Want This Couple To Cancel Their Plan, So They Made Them Regret It
Breakups are tough, and it’s hard to imagine a more painful one than Mr. and Mrs. Bull had. “For about two years our relationship with Virgin Media had been somewhat one-sided,” John Bull, a history writer from the UK, told Bored Panda. “We’d pay them about £50 a month and in return they would send us lots of glossy leaflets telling us how amazing a deal we were getting whilst singularly failing to provide any kind of usable internet connection.” Fed up with the company’s lack of effort, John’s wife took the bull by the horns and called Virgin Media to terminate their contract. But it wasn’t so simple. The clingy internet provider took offense and got really emotional.
“The trouble is, the UK [has] no effective rules <…> about making sure that the line speed a company promises actually equates to the line speed they provide and thus all of the major providers essentially over-promise and under-deliver,” John said. “If you’re unlucky enough to live in an area with poor coverage then this means often your only real choice in the marketplace is thus deciding which of the big three (Sky, Virgin, and BT) you mind being screwed over by least. For us, that was Virgin.”
Scroll down to check out all the tricks they pulled on the couple to avoid getting dumped in a hilarious Twitter-thread!
More info: Twitter
Twitter user John Bull found himself in the middle of a toxic relationship with his internet provider, and it just had to end
“TWO YEARS LATER they’re still sending us letters asking us if we’ve considered signing up again”
I had a similar experience, trying to get out of a television contract. I had moved into a new apartment that used to belong to an old man who died and his daughter sold the apartment. The television contract was in his name and I decided to forgo television altogether. So I went in person to their local office and signed the papers, they sent some guys over to physically disconnect me and they told me they would send me a final bill for the month and that would be it. But then the bills continued to come...I called them and even went over one time and they told me "oh, your contract is gone, we just made a mistake". But the bills kept coming. About one year into it, I started getting passive-aggressive phone calls from their call centre about my supposed "debt". I simply ignored them, so they upgraded to threatening house visits by debt collectors asking to see the old man, so I told them "maybe get a shovel?"... They finally gave up after about 4 years of this.
well that was dramatic, can't wait for season 2 to come out when they battle with gas and electricity suppliers...
Easiest thing to do is just cancel the direct debit, they will soon start calling you when you do that :)
if you cancel your direct debit before confirming you dont owe them or are refusing to pay it can affect your credit rating. I found I was declined for a credid card because a payment i had cancelled 2 years before had not taken into account a 1 month notice of £15.- i owed £15
Load More Replies...
This is why you should use the online chat feature to cancel these services. I did when I canceled my cable service and saved the chat; then when they billed me the next month I jumped on chat again. They said they had no record of the cancellation, but changed their tune when I told them I had the chat saved as a PDF. Mind you, I kept my internet service with them, just canceled TV. Just telling them I had the saved chat record got the charges removed and a $20 credit on my internet bill. Now I only use chat with any servicer that offers it, and always save it as a PDF.
a while back - a cold-caller from an energy supplier had ticked some box saying i agreed to switch to them - absolutely had not - and they called it a-- "verbal contract" - they couldnt produce any proof. I guess the caller really needed his bonus for customer sign-ups that day.
Bonus - i managed to get switched back to my original supplier and refused to pay the bill for the few weeks usage from the other one
Load More Replies...
I spent many years working in call centres and basically it's all a matter of luck. You just have to find the right person who is really willing to do their underpaid stressing job, taking s**t for their EXISTING managers who couldn't care less. Thanks, Claire!
I actually worked for a call centre for several years. there is never a manager on the floor, he's always in his office "busy", I worked there for 7 months before I even knew who he was to see him and that was only because someone else knew him to see him and hollered his name when I was arriving at work one day. Front line agents are not allowed to cancel contracts and if customer requests to downgrade or disconnect services, we must transfer to downgrades and disconnects, even when we knew they had left the office for the day. Supervisors were whoever wanted to pretend to be a supervisor that day and take the pissy calls.
In all fairness if you got through to Swansea they have all been told they are being made redundant so probably all the managers are in crisis meetings .
for consideration under Company Law. [2] Pay the bank dishonour fees incurred by the man. [3] Pay the bank dishonour fees incurred by all the Westpac clients whose cheques had been bounced on the day our friend's had been processed. [4] Pay the claimant's court costs; and [5] Pay the claimant a total of $1500 per month for the 5 month period March to July inclusive as compensation for the aggravation they had caused their client to suffer. And all this over $0.00.
they had received from ANY of their customers that day because the cheque for $0.00 had caused the computer to crash. The following month the man received a letter from the gas company claiming that his cheque had bounced and that he now owed them $0.00 and unless he sent a cheque by return mail they would take immediate steps to recover the debt. At this point, the man decided to file a debt harassment claim against the gas company. It took him nearly two hours to convince the clerks at the local courthouse that he was not joking. They subsequently helped him in the drafting of statements which were considered substantive evidence of the aggravation and difficulties he had been forced to endure during this debacle. The matter was heard in the Magistrate's Court in Mudgee and the outcome was this: The gas company was ordered to: [1] Immediately rectify their computerised accounts system or Show cause,within 10 days, why the matter should not be referred to a higher court
a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now overdue. Assuming that having spoken to them the previous day the latest bill was yet another mistake, he ignored it, trusting that the company would be as good as their word and sort the problem out. The next month he got a bill for $0.00. This bill also stated that he Had 10 days to pay his account or the company would have to take steps to recover the debt. Finally, giving in, he thought he would beat the gas company at their own game and mailed them a cheque for $0.00. The computer duly processed his account and returned a statement to the effect that he now owed the gas company nothing at all. A week later, the manager of the Mudgee branch of the Westpac Banking Corporation called our hapless friend and asked him what he was doing writing cheque for $0.00. After a lengthy explanation the bank manager replied that the $0..00 cheque had caused their cheque processing software to fail. The bank could therefore not process ANY cheques they
A true story: A man living in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW, Australia ) received a bill for his as yet unused gas line stating that he owed $0.00. He ignored it and threw it away. In April he received another bill and threw that one away too. The following month the gas company sent him a very nasty note stating that they were going to cancel his gas line if he didn't send them $0.00 by return mail. He called them, talked to them, and they said it was a computer error and they would take care of it. The following month he decided that it was about time that he tried out the troublesome gas line figuring that if there was usage on the account it would put an end to this ridiculous predicament. However, when he went to use the gas, it had been cut off. He called the gas company who apologised for the computer error once again and said that they would take care of it. The next day he got
We had the same issue when we we're changing providers. For us, Virgin Media kept adding entertainment packages onto our plan, and also rolled our agreement over to another 12 month contract without contacting us prior and then tried to take us to court for refusing to pay £180 to cancel the contract altogether. It took us 7 months to finally get it cancelled.
We cancelled Comcast cable, and I took the box into their local office where they gave me a receipt for returned equipment. 3 months later they want to charge us for not returning it. Luckily I still had the receipt, which I went over and showed them. A few months later, I found myself taking my mother's cable box back as well. You guessed it, a few months later they try to claim we never returned that one too! I called Comcast's main HQ and told thdm I thought they were deliberately waiting a few months for people to misplace or toss receipts, then billing them for equipment already returned.
Jesus talk about a lengthy battle. I like the upgrades on the drinks for the battling haha. Sounds like you found a good honest employee with Claire. They're in there, so many immature adults working for these companies.
I had a similar experience, trying to get out of a television contract. I had moved into a new apartment that used to belong to an old man who died and his daughter sold the apartment. The television contract was in his name and I decided to forgo television altogether. So I went in person to their local office and signed the papers, they sent some guys over to physically disconnect me and they told me they would send me a final bill for the month and that would be it. But then the bills continued to come...I called them and even went over one time and they told me "oh, your contract is gone, we just made a mistake". But the bills kept coming. About one year into it, I started getting passive-aggressive phone calls from their call centre about my supposed "debt". I simply ignored them, so they upgraded to threatening house visits by debt collectors asking to see the old man, so I told them "maybe get a shovel?"... They finally gave up after about 4 years of this.
well that was dramatic, can't wait for season 2 to come out when they battle with gas and electricity suppliers...
Easiest thing to do is just cancel the direct debit, they will soon start calling you when you do that :)
if you cancel your direct debit before confirming you dont owe them or are refusing to pay it can affect your credit rating. I found I was declined for a credid card because a payment i had cancelled 2 years before had not taken into account a 1 month notice of £15.- i owed £15
Load More Replies... This is why you should use the online chat feature to cancel these services. I did when I canceled my cable service and saved the chat; then when they billed me the next month I jumped on chat again. They said they had no record of the cancellation, but changed their tune when I told them I had the chat saved as a PDF. Mind you, I kept my internet service with them, just canceled TV. Just telling them I had the saved chat record got the charges removed and a $20 credit on my internet bill. Now I only use chat with any servicer that offers it, and always save it as a PDF.
a while back - a cold-caller from an energy supplier had ticked some box saying i agreed to switch to them - absolutely had not - and they called it a-- "verbal contract" - they couldnt produce any proof. I guess the caller really needed his bonus for customer sign-ups that day.
Bonus - i managed to get switched back to my original supplier and refused to pay the bill for the few weeks usage from the other one
Load More Replies... I spent many years working in call centres and basically it's all a matter of luck. You just have to find the right person who is really willing to do their underpaid stressing job, taking s**t for their EXISTING managers who couldn't care less. Thanks, Claire!
I actually worked for a call centre for several years. there is never a manager on the floor, he's always in his office "busy", I worked there for 7 months before I even knew who he was to see him and that was only because someone else knew him to see him and hollered his name when I was arriving at work one day. Front line agents are not allowed to cancel contracts and if customer requests to downgrade or disconnect services, we must transfer to downgrades and disconnects, even when we knew they had left the office for the day. Supervisors were whoever wanted to pretend to be a supervisor that day and take the pissy calls.
In all fairness if you got through to Swansea they have all been told they are being made redundant so probably all the managers are in crisis meetings .
for consideration under Company Law. [2] Pay the bank dishonour fees incurred by the man. [3] Pay the bank dishonour fees incurred by all the Westpac clients whose cheques had been bounced on the day our friend's had been processed. [4] Pay the claimant's court costs; and [5] Pay the claimant a total of $1500 per month for the 5 month period March to July inclusive as compensation for the aggravation they had caused their client to suffer. And all this over $0.00.
they had received from ANY of their customers that day because the cheque for $0.00 had caused the computer to crash. The following month the man received a letter from the gas company claiming that his cheque had bounced and that he now owed them $0.00 and unless he sent a cheque by return mail they would take immediate steps to recover the debt. At this point, the man decided to file a debt harassment claim against the gas company. It took him nearly two hours to convince the clerks at the local courthouse that he was not joking. They subsequently helped him in the drafting of statements which were considered substantive evidence of the aggravation and difficulties he had been forced to endure during this debacle. The matter was heard in the Magistrate's Court in Mudgee and the outcome was this: The gas company was ordered to: [1] Immediately rectify their computerised accounts system or Show cause,within 10 days, why the matter should not be referred to a higher court
a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now overdue. Assuming that having spoken to them the previous day the latest bill was yet another mistake, he ignored it, trusting that the company would be as good as their word and sort the problem out. The next month he got a bill for $0.00. This bill also stated that he Had 10 days to pay his account or the company would have to take steps to recover the debt. Finally, giving in, he thought he would beat the gas company at their own game and mailed them a cheque for $0.00. The computer duly processed his account and returned a statement to the effect that he now owed the gas company nothing at all. A week later, the manager of the Mudgee branch of the Westpac Banking Corporation called our hapless friend and asked him what he was doing writing cheque for $0.00. After a lengthy explanation the bank manager replied that the $0..00 cheque had caused their cheque processing software to fail. The bank could therefore not process ANY cheques they
A true story: A man living in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW, Australia ) received a bill for his as yet unused gas line stating that he owed $0.00. He ignored it and threw it away. In April he received another bill and threw that one away too. The following month the gas company sent him a very nasty note stating that they were going to cancel his gas line if he didn't send them $0.00 by return mail. He called them, talked to them, and they said it was a computer error and they would take care of it. The following month he decided that it was about time that he tried out the troublesome gas line figuring that if there was usage on the account it would put an end to this ridiculous predicament. However, when he went to use the gas, it had been cut off. He called the gas company who apologised for the computer error once again and said that they would take care of it. The next day he got
We had the same issue when we we're changing providers. For us, Virgin Media kept adding entertainment packages onto our plan, and also rolled our agreement over to another 12 month contract without contacting us prior and then tried to take us to court for refusing to pay £180 to cancel the contract altogether. It took us 7 months to finally get it cancelled.
We cancelled Comcast cable, and I took the box into their local office where they gave me a receipt for returned equipment. 3 months later they want to charge us for not returning it. Luckily I still had the receipt, which I went over and showed them. A few months later, I found myself taking my mother's cable box back as well. You guessed it, a few months later they try to claim we never returned that one too! I called Comcast's main HQ and told thdm I thought they were deliberately waiting a few months for people to misplace or toss receipts, then billing them for equipment already returned.
Jesus talk about a lengthy battle. I like the upgrades on the drinks for the battling haha. Sounds like you found a good honest employee with Claire. They're in there, so many immature adults working for these companies.
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