Why is Virgin charging more?

Recently you printed a statement from Virgin Media saying that it did not upgrade without a request or permission. This is not true.

I have been “upgraded” twice in the past five years, without any request or permission.

The first time I simply received a letter telling me that I had been upgraded, with no comment about the extra charges and no contact from me whatsoever.

The second time was recently when our TV picture started to break up. My wife phoned the Virgin helpline and was told that a new box was needed.

The person at the other end did not specify any more and certainly did not say there would be any charge. A week later we received a TiVo box and installed it.

After that our statement came showing a £6 increase in monthly charges due to an “upgrade”. We were furious at this blatant deceit.

Looking at the Virgin website, new customers are offered the V6 box, not the old TiVo type that we were sent, for a significantly lower monthly charge than we were paying.

After a phone call to Virgin our monthly bill has

This is a TV, broadband and telephone package.

Virgin Media said the new price was due to you accepting a cheaper bundle for your services.

Sometimes it is possible to renegotiate and get a new deal that will start a new 12-month contract.

As for the upgrading, Virgin said it was currently offering eligible TV and broadband customers a free V6 upgrade if they have a TiVo box.

It said this did not involve a new contract.

Virgin Media said your price originally increased because of a £3.99 price rise, which took effect on November 1 2017.

Customers who receive a price rise notice have 30 days from the date of the letter or email to cancel their services without penalty.

It said you did not contact Virgin Media regarding the price change until January 11 2018, when you re- contracted to the new deal. There are clearly loose ends in all this that I cannot tie up. You are 80 and latterly your husband had been in declining health. He had been with Barclays Stockbrokers, which became Barclays Smart Investor last year.

Initially, those who wanted to open a new Smart Investor account but who were not already with Barclays Stockbrokers had to have a Barclays current account. This condition no longer applies.

Somehow, a mix-up must have occurred in which an application was made for a new Smart Investor account for your late husband, without tying it to his Barclays Stockbrokers account.

Hence the mention of a current account that he did not need, as he was being automatically moved to the new platform.

A separate letter with the heading “We’re almost ready to move your account to Smart Investor” contained information about logging in and membership.

Given the previous correspondence, you understandably mistook this investor account for a current account.

After your husband’s death you wrote to Barclays requesting the balance. Your letter was returned unopened advising that the addressee had gone away.

A Barclays branch could not help and two other letters you wrote to the bereavement team failed to clear up the confusion.

A Barclays spokesman has now said: “Mrs B made a simple request to us that should have been passed on to the relevant team and dealt with immediately.

“We have spoken to Mrs B and apologised for the distress and inconvenience we have caused at this difficult time.” Barclays has sent flowers.