Comments by "Bond25" (@Bond2025) on "Andy The Gabby Cabby"
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That's interesting to know. I had a few scams pulled by VM I reported to OFCOM. The first was I had an 18month contract for £40/month total. In month 14 they said they wanted £9 more, so now £49/month. I refused and said it's a fixed contract. They sent an amended contract i did not sign covering the 18m with a % reduction by each component in the package, so 3% off phone, 6% off TV, 2% off broadband. I refused to pay as this was a new contract and I had not agreed to this. They refunded the £36 they tried to scam.
I told them i was not renewing, based on being told my bill would go to £76/month after this contract ended.
Not renewing (not defined as "cancelling" as the contract was ending) proved impossible. Each staff member obstructed and lied to me and the first barrier was the "input the 2nd, 3rd, 5th letter of your password". That would not work anyway on a home phone.
The next barrier was "can i have the email registered to your account". This is NOT your primary email, it is the one you supplied when you first purchased the VM services, so it could be an old gmail or yahoo one. After that they ask for a password, again, this is NOT for your primary email, it is one you set when you first purchased the services. How many remember it. Refuse to let them send you a link to go and reset it, this does not work. It is to get you off the phone.
They also ask for a mobile number, once again that is whatever you give when you purchased the services or first signed up, it is not the one on your customer records! VirginMedia can not even see the number you are calling from to confirm you are at home.
Once past that, if you can give the date of the last bill payment, amount and sort code, they will speak to you.
Scamming dishonest staff work on a Bonus Scheme and have to meet Targets for sales and retention. They get discretionary discounts to apply at the start of the month. if customers get difficult, they give them an offer. Some without any left will transfer or cut them off to avoid being told off for not meeting targets.
It took me around 8 hours of calls to finally get a disconnection date. I was not impressed, but the biggest scam VirginMedia is now pulling is one they use in other Indian Scam call centres. Two weeks after being sent my cancellation date by email, I got a text from VM asking me to "check your documents". I thought this would be about leaving, the final bill and how to return equipment. Clicking the link took me to to a site designed to auto-agree and auto-sign a NEW 18month contract. I didn't know at the time, it was 3 hours later I got a welcome to virginmedia and new contract. So some dishonest scammer in an Indian call centre that Virgin subcontract thought they would steal a bonus from Virginmedia by lying and saying I had asked for this new contract, then chose the wording for the text to deliberately mislead for the purpose of fraudulent activity.
I then had to send all this to OFCOM again and start another complaint and then got harassed by Virginmedia with 153 calls to my home number and mobile in the month before disconnection.
The staff also lied about which equipment to return, one advisor said, "just dispose of it, take it to your local recycling centre".
The next email asked for the TV box and SuperHub2 and accessories. A further email asked for that equipment plus the SuperHub 3. The idea was to see me get a bill for non-return of equipment. I have since packaged everything up after asking for a return label and packaging. The date they set for receipt if collected by their courier was after the date they required, so they would try to charge. I packaged it and took it to a collection point and it has gone, but I also photographed every item in detail and took a video of the box being sealed so they can not say equipment was "missing".
I am now having to go through the Small Claims court to recover £59.50 plus legal fees, claim issue cost plus interest as they will not give back the overpayment they took for the time AFTER they knew I would be disconnected.
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VirginMoney is just as bad, due to dishonest staff trying to destroy the Brand and company.
I had a ISA with VirginMoney that matured in April 2020. I logged on to check the amount and set it to pay out to my nominated account as the ISAs had dropped to 0.001% and I found a saving account for 0.4% which was high back then. Everyone was dumping their ISAs.
VirginMoney blanked out the option and would not let me change the bank details, I had changed my current account in January 2020. After many calls and complaints I got a call back from a VirginMoney woman working from home one Saturday morning.
She was a scammer! She had gone through accounts and complaints and set me as a target. She had her VirginMoney mobile and computer, plus her own phone and computer at home. She first called on the VM phone and asked me to log in and check my details. I said it was still faulty. 1 hour later I got a call on a random mobile from the same woman at VirginMoney, she asked me to log in and said to prove it was me she was speaking to, i would get a text with a number to give her. Really!
What she did was a password reset on my account to generate the authentication code sent to my mobile. Had I read that number out, she would have changed my password, put a new nominated account in after she fixed it, then sent the money abroad and asked me to wait for the system to update in a few hours and try again. By that time, the VirginMoney lines would be closed and my account would show someone logging in after resetting the password with security code to my mobile and clearing the account of funds. Only the initial call would be recorded, not the one on the personal mobile.
It was a clever attempted scam I could have fallen for had I not watched JimBrowning11 scam videos.
Local police were not interested, VirginMoney said no such thing took place as it was "not recorded" despite the call record on my phone and her home IP logging in etc. VirginMoney has no dedicated fraud line, it is only for credit and debit cards. ActionFraud are muppets and don't investigate unless instructed by paypal or the victims are police, or people considered high profile. It is a few people working in one room.
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From whistleblowers, they work on a bonus scheme and have to meet targets for customer retention and sales. They will suddenly have very low audio so you give up and call back, which means they get away with it, or suddenly make it difficult to understand them so you give up. Strange how the music is LOUD.
They get told off if they can not keep a customer, they get paid a bonus if they keep someone and get so many discounts at the start of the month they can apply. They will not want to downgrade or disconnect at the end of the month or they get paid less.
Every excuse will be used to put you off, including suggesting extra charges because you have called too soon or too late etc.
The whole CALL WAIT is caused by the scamming call centre staff subcontracted by virginmedia - they are hoping a 45min wait BEFORE they answer any calls will put people off and they will give up.
When a call goes through to the "we do not manage our business correctly, so you might have to wait a log time before you can speak to anyone" message, staff are just sitting there ignoring calls watching people hang up. Waiting times are worse at the end of the month.
if you really want to annoy VirginMedia, and have time to spare, keep calling them and disconnecting, it destroys their stats.
The people I spoke to FORGOT to mute the mics and were playing cards and speaking about customers in Hindi.
Just think, the same people working for a company subcontracted by VM could be the same people scamming others from the same call centre.
If you ask for a Manager to call back, they don't, if you ask to speak to one, you can't as they refuse. If a member of staff says they are putting you on hold to speak to a Manager, they are lying to you as they don't work in India.
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