Virgin Media punters stung in mobile data bill cock-up A number of Virgin Media customers were wrongly billed for mobile data usage last month due to a system error, The Register has learned. However, the telco was unable to tell us exactly what had gone wrong. A Virgin Media spokesman assured El Reg that customers who had been incorrectly billed needn't worry as the ISP is …
Now now in all fairness you often hear about a problem before the company resolves it. This is something were hearing about from the company, so fair play to them.
I dont work in PR (probably wise) nor have any direct or indirect involvment with VM in any way shape or form.
That said friend recently got sold a couple of contracts (they have TV and cable with landline currently) via a sales call and the deal they were sold is downright disgusting, but thats another story.
in which case you photocopy your bill, photocopy the bank statement showing how the VM error was the ONLY charge to put you into the red that month with the charges highlighted and ask for compensation (and possible a goodwill gesture too). DD mandate will cover you too as it was an erroneous charge therefore covers you for actual losses incurred. DD also offers an immediate refund option too, I wonder how fast they gave th money back?
Two letters will sort it out (one to ask and one to confirm any details), stop being a drama queen.
Good advise and I would also add a service charge per letter like they charge you for not paying via DD and also for hard copy bills, only fair.
But if your realy upset then small claims courts can be fun. Though I suspect they will bend to your will if you ask.
Also before you send any bank statement copies in the post to another company ask yoruself if your happy for that to happen and maybe ask your bank to write a letter just explaining the impact and associated charges. If your bank charges then pass that cost along by all means. But do not compromise yourself further than you have too.
There may also be a Virgin Media shop near you, that is always worth a pop into if you have a complaint and if they palm you off with we don't deal with that side of things then explain that you don't either but your having too and seems only fair they do as well.
Remember compaining is a British pastime, make sure our culture lives on for generations to come.
I'm on a 1gb data allowance, but with the 'limpics currently streaming (TVCatchup), I've been keeping a close eye on how much data I'm sucking up.
Differences:
ISC (4.0.2) on the my Galaxy S3 reports I've used 1.62gb
3G Watchdog says I've used 1.98gb
Network Error:
"My T-Mobile" says I've used 0kb of data since my last bill (Mid July)
Mine's the coat with the tethering cable
This post has been deleted by its author
Data usage normally shows in "My T-Mobile"
After 1gb, I normally get a text and then get restricted to Browsing only between 4pm and midnight, until the new billing period.
No Tweetdeck or Gmail app etc
This month - nothing!
Long may it last
The point I was going to make (before the T-Mobile zero data surprise) was how apps and networks monitor, track and bill for data is seemingly patchy at best and downright guesswork at worst.
I previously used SPB Wireless Monitor (paid App for HTC HD2 & paid again for Galaxy S2) that was so different from T-Mobile, it was useless.
O2 have a webpage which tells me my monthly usage "...to 23:59:59 on 16th" of each month even though my new monthly allowance STARTS at 00:00:00 on the 16th, but several MONTHS on from first reporting this problem they are unable to fix it. It took them AGES to even understand the problem, so at least Virgin are capable of recognising the problem and fixing it!
I'm sure many would agree Ofcom's view is often dim, as are many of its policies, "solutions" it suggests for consumer problems and the quality of its logic when it comes to (infrequently levelling) fines. It also appears to view the public as dim, or so one must assume from the number of times it tries to pull the wool over our eyes or persuade us that collating complaints for a (very) rainy day is the same thing as being useful and errrrrm, regulating.
I suspect the dimmest their view of Virgin will get is the same type of benign, indulgent, fatherly dimness they appeared to be expressing toward the Murdoch Sky bid before the long overdue excrement hit the fan and they were forced into a 180 turn marginally quicker than a Sopwith Camel.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a thousand Ofcom's doing absolutely nothing useful, forever.
I called Virgin last week about this as I'd spotted charges on my account via the web interface and was told by the staff in India that it was because I was downloading things and not just looking at web pages. I was also told you couldn't watch YouTube, BBC iPlayer or download songs or you would be charged! They couldn't explain to me which pages would incur these magical charges and which wouldn't. They also told me this was all the in the terms and services. I was basically abused by them when I told them they were wrong until I got fed up and put the phone down on them
I called the cancellations department but they said the matter couldn't be sorted until the bill was available as they can't access the bill until the end of month which it is tomorrow. They better come up with a very good deal or they will be losing a customer.
I had an extra £1 charge on my bill, registered a complaint, polite Indian woman called, agreed it was wrong and took it off. Mildly annoying, but then last month the Azure cloud went down in Europe for a couple of hours, last year Blackberry had an outing, recently O2 had a massive glitch which for some reason hit other people in the office but not me, and before that a Java update made Google Web Toolkit misbehave for a day till I fixed it.
The point being, 100% reliability is unattainable except by NASA, and I wouldn't like to think what the monthly phone bill would be if everyone had their development methodology.
I'm not surprised at all with this story. I'm with VM on my mobile and home phone and found I was being charged for calls to VM mobiles when these calls were included as part of my landline package. I only noticed these charges as a call was over the 50p itemisation threshold otherwise I could have been paying for these 'free' calls for years.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
