Virgin Mobile taken to task over treatment of student

A student has won a David and Goliath legal battle with phone giant Virgin Mobile.

Last year, Owen Fitzpatrick, 20, tried to contract online with the company for a typical monthly deal.

However, due to a glitch, it appeared to Mr Fitzpatrick that a contract had not been made.

Assuming as much, he visited his local Virgin store in Glasgow where a contract was successfully finalised with staff.

But when his first bill came through in November, Mr Fitzpatrick found he had been charged twice, once under the agreement he had made and again under a ‘ghost contract’ that had resulted from the glitch.

The company said it would cancel the ghost contract and credit £30 back to him and thereafter charge him at the normal rate of £15 per month.

Despite this, Virgin again took twice the amount from the engineering student’s account the following month, for which he lacked the funds, causing his bank to levy a £20 charge and leaving him £50 out of pocket.

His mother, Eileen, a retired solicitor, wrote to the company requesting it credit her son’s account and stop double-charging him. In response, it ended Mr Fitzpatrick’s phone and internet services, refusing to reactivate them unless he paid the £30 it claimed he owed for January 2017.

As a result, Mr Fitzpatrick, sued Virgin for breach of contract as a party litigant, enlisting the help of his father, Brian, also a retired solicitor, who was able to assist him as a ‘lay representative’.

Succeeding in his action at Dundee Sheriff Court on 30 October, Mr Fitzpatrick obtained a decree against the company for the £50 he was owed, plus £250 for inconvenience and £100 in court expenses.

Most egregiously, however, even after decree was obtained, Virgin twice wrote to Mr Fitzpatrick threatening court action if he failed to pay £30 and to lower his credit rating.

Brian Fitzpatrick told Scottish Legal News: “My wife and I have tried to sort this out since January, but no one in Virgin seemed willing or able to do anything to put matters right, despite numerous letters and phone calls.

“We took the decision to help Owen sue them after months of getting nowhere because we felt very strongly that Virgin’s behaviour towards a young, vulnerable student away from home for the first time and trying to get by on a student loan was callous, uncaring and wholly unacceptable. All they seem to care about is money, not customer care or service.

“Virgin need to understand that they cannot treat small people this way and expect to get away with it.”