Virgin Media trying to charge £1.4k - what can I do?

[Welshies]

Hello,

My brother has paranoid schizophrenia. He signed up for a Virgin Media contract. He claims he cancelled this within 14 days but it’s very difficult to get the information out of him. They’ve sent him a bill for £1,400 for “other charges”. It’s stressing him out beyond belief and is really damaging his mental health, he’s gone completely delusional.

I need to speak to Virgin Media to try and get this resolved. Does anyone know what how to approach this and what the odds are they would be sympathetic? The bank are no help, they refuse to block the payment. His mental health support team and his social worker do not seem to know what to do either. He lives in high support housing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Call Ofcom. As your brother is vulnerable they can refer the case back in to Virgin Media at a higher level to be dealt with (usually by a specialist complaints team). They can also offer you advice on dealing soth issues like this.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/make-a-complaint/get-in-touch/

Amazing. Thank you @Ginmonkeyagain. I’ll give them a call tomorrow when they’re open.

Do you have power of attorney? If not it might be good to get this set up so you can represent him officially when necessary.

@welshies no problem. Really emphasise the fact your brother is struggling with his mental health because of this. Use the word vulnerable, that will open up more help.

I hope you get it sorted out.

Do you have authority to act for your brother? Is there a Court of Protection order in place?

It will be March before VM get the complaint from Ofcom. In the meantime VM should have an Accessible Customer Service team (or similar) you can contact. They are best placed to support with this.

The exact same thing happened to my brother and in the exact same circumstances.

I didn’t have POA, or deputyship.

I rang them explained, but hey asked me to email them. They were perfectly reasonable and closed the case.

this was some years ago though.

Good luck.

Virgin's Accessibility and Vulnerability policy can be read here.

As a PP said appealing on this basis is the best way.

You need to start with a phone call really.

If POA is not possible/feasible I suggest that you get your brother to call Virgin and request that they add you to the records (for data protection purposes NOT the actual account) so you can talk to them about the debt now and at any time in the future.
This might help general communication and reduce stress for your brother.

Additionally OP my DB didn’t even have a TV at the time.

The cancellation proof within the cooling off period is vital here. You also need to request a detailed breakdown of the charges. If it’s too much for your brother to deal with you can call them while you are with him and he can authorise you to ask questions etc.
I used to be a debt collector (horrible job) and hated virgin media for always failing, I’d have to tell people they owed money that I knew they were not fully at fault for owing. Request an SAR in writing (email is fine) which is all of the information they hold on your brother. They have 30 days to provide you with it.