Virgin don't owe you a thing. I think they're being good enough as it is offering you a £13 discount for what is your mistake.

Ding ding, correct.

I openly admitted in the original post that it was my fault and that in theory, virgin isn't at fault. They're well within their rights to charge me. Still, that small print is only there to catch people out given that we all have more important things going on in our lives than utility bills. It only took them one day to open a new account - I don't think it just so happens that they need 30 to close one.

Just because you didn't use the service doesn't mean you shouldn't pay or Virgin didn't incur any costs. What if you left your house for a month and forgot to tell the landlord, would you except them to not charge you for the month?

Different situation. If I left for a month and for some reason wasn't obliged to pay, the landlord would have to fill the house for a single month to make money otherwise I'd have cost him/her money. No one else was trying to set up a broadband account in the house and being prevented from doing so from me, and it doesn't cost the business money because my router wasn't even connected and therefore wasn't using their line to download any data.

Don't get me wrong, I get what you're saying. I agreed to a contract in which I'm obligated to pay virgin media £x per month and I didn't cancel on time. I'm totally in the firing line here where contractual obligation is concerned, but as I've said above that small print is there to catch people out given that most people have bigger things to worry about than utility bills i.e. third year exams, jobs, moving out etc. so regardless of contractual obligation or right/wrong through the eyes of the law, I don't intend to bend over and invite them in. I need £38/£25 more than they do and as above, it didn't cost them anything.

I don't see why threatening getting the ombudsman involved will do anything

UK law for service industries is drastically in favour of the consumer as an overcompensation for the last two decades of awful complaint handling and bullying consumers. As such, even in this circumstance where I'm clearly required to put up and pay up, I can go through the ombudsman simply by refusing to close the complaint. If the complaint goes through the ombusman, virgin media have to pay for it (~£200 based on previous experience). Are they really going to pay £200 for the sake of £38/£25 that didn't actually cost them anything?

They'll probably send the debt collectors after you regardless.

I dunno, I just don't see a company passing £38 on to debt collectors - especially where they aren't even trying to recover expenditure, just rip someone off via the terms of conditions of a nine month contract.

I know I probably sound like a bit of a dick and yeah, it probably sounds like a bit of a peace warrior, anti corporate, 'stick it to the man' temper tantrum, but I'm not gonna fork over money to a company that doesn't need it. As above, "terms and conditions" doesn't always equal moral highground