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Only joined Virgin Media for Sky? Blag some extra channels for the loss
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MSE_Martin
Posts: 8,272 Money Saving Expert


in Phones & TV
6 March 2007
What's this all about?If you're a Virgin Media customer (the renamed NTL/Telewest) you've lost your Sky channels. So call 'em up, complain and see what you can get!
The Details
Virgin Media announced from 1 March all Sky non-premium channels (Sky One, Sky Travel, Sky News and Sky Sports News) would no longer be provided in its digital TV packages. Premium services, such as Sky Movies and Sky Sports, haven't been affected. Let's ignore the thorny question of whether Sky or Virgin are to blame, it means you've lost some major channels.
What has Virgin said?
Virgin Media has publically stated it won't lower prices to compensate, rumours are flooding round that by complaining directly you could grab yourself six months of either up to 46 extra channels for free or half price tv service.
What to do
Simply, give Virgin Media a call. Either dial 150 via your Virgin Media landline or call 0800 0529403. Then explain that these channels were a signifcant reason you became a customer and you feel you're losing out. While it probably won't cut the price, ask for replacement channels.
Depending on the package you already have, it's possible you'll be offered a six months free upgrade to the L or XL package, or if you already subscribe to XL, it may offer it to you at half price for six months. There are no guarantees, but be polite and use a little chutzpah.
If it doesn't work, for other ways to slash the cost, read the article Digital TV Cost Cutting.
Martin
Please report your successes/failures by clicking reply
Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.
Debt-Free Wannabee Official Nerd Club: (Honorary) Members number 000
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Comments
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You can have both Virgin and Sky!
I was on the Virgin 3 for £35 deal - as a long term customer incredibly peed off with losing Sky One I had Sky installed Saturday and then rang BT to switch from Virgin to them and then spent 59 minutes on hold to speak to VM to cancel all my services.
However, Virgin are quite desperate to keep customers and they offered me a much better deal rather than lose my custom altogether - £19.95 gives me broadband and telephone but with free daily, evening and weekend NATIONAL calls and a discount on International and mobile calls and they let me keep the TV for free and are installing it next week in my bedroom free of charge.
So I am staying with VM and tv (M) phone and 2mb broadband and the free calls cost just £19.95 so even with my £15 a month Sky subscription I am quids in as I am saving approx £10 a month on calls (dont use the phone a lot) and I get more channels Sky One, Two and Three as well as the kiddie channels that are on the VM XL package which I could not afford.
So ring 150 tell them you want to leave and renegotiate your deal - my sister, her best friend and my parents have all done the same!
They dont want to lose you so give it a try!!!!!
You can still have Sky as well - they want you to connect your box to a landline as the box occasionally calls Sky. But VM assure me you can connect it to your VM line and Sky wont know the difference unless Sky can find out from BT which is unlikely as its against the data protection act.
If you dont connect your Sky box to a phone line within 8 weeks then Sky charge you a one off payment of £25 which is basically the installation fee that they waived but VM have said that if I do get charged this they will pay half of it!0 -
Im going to give this a try maybe tomorrow or the weekend. Will report back on how I got on. Annoyed at losing the channels.The forest would be very silent if no birds sang except for the birds that sang the best0
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the_barretts wrote:You can have both Virgin and Sky!
I was on the Virgin 3 for £35 deal - as a long term customer incredibly peed off with losing Sky One I had Sky installed Saturday and then rang BT to switch from Virgin to them and then spent 59 minutes on hold to speak to VM to cancel all my services.
However, Virgin are quite desperate to keep customers and they offered me a much better deal rather than lose my custom altogether - £19.95 gives me broadband and telephone but with free daily, evening and weekend NATIONAL calls and a discount on International and mobile calls and they let me keep the TV for free and are installing it next week in my bedroom free of charge.
So I am staying with VM and tv (M) phone and 2mb broadband and the free calls cost just £19.95 so even with my £15 a month Sky subscription I am quids in as I am saving approx £10 a month on calls (dont use the phone a lot) and I get more channels Sky One, Two and Three as well as the kiddie channels that are on the VM XL package which I could not afford.
So ring 150 tell them you want to leave and renegotiate your deal - my sister, her best friend and my parents have all done the same!
They dont want to lose you so give it a try!!!!!
You can still have Sky as well - they want you to connect your box to a landline as the box occasionally calls Sky. But VM assure me you can connect it to your VM line and Sky wont know the difference unless Sky can find out from BT which is unlikely as its against the data protection act.
If you dont connect your Sky box to a phone line within 8 weeks then Sky charge you a one off payment of £25 which is basically the installation fee that they waived but VM have said that if I do get charged this they will pay half of it!
Why did you have to put this on three different threads!!!0 -
I am with Virgin/NTLI and have broadband,V+ box ,TV and phone with them so phoned up the other day and straight away i was given the XL tv package that I am on at half price for 6 months, that is £10.50 a month instead of £21. I already get other discounts so i didnt push anymore but well pleased.0
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We only took up Virgin Media (Telewest at the time) in January and so are still tied to a 12 month contract.
I am on 2 for £20. Broadband and TV package size L. I phoned up and queried the Sky thing stating that I wasn't happy. I now have TV Package size XL for 6 months at no extra cost.
:beer:Whilst my posts do not constitute financial advice, I am always, without fail, 100% right!0 -
I only have the free TV, do you think I could do this aswell. I did honestly only get the TV as it had Lost on. I was quite happy with freeview before.Made it - 15 years married!! Finally!! xx:beer:0
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Just phoned vigin media today and was told that they are considering taking Sky to the High court regarding the removal of there sky channels from VM. I was told that as a 'good will gesture' VM are willing to upgrade your tv package to the next one up, in my case from basic to L tv package, for 6 months free of charge. Excellent tip.0
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Thats good of Virgin Media to give you half price on your packages. The channels that were taken off were free channels so you werent paying for them anyway so thats brilliant!!!0
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Phoned them up. They instantly upgraded me to the L package at half price for 6 months. Remember to reduce your package back down after 6 months though, or you'll end up paying more than you were before!0
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Davidc75 wrote:Just phoned vigin media today and was told that they are considering taking Sky to the High court regarding the removal of there sky channels from VM. I was told that as a 'good will gesture' VM are willing to upgrade your tv package to the next one up, in my case from basic to L tv package, for 6 months free of charge. Excellent tip.
I'm not quite sure how they can do that considering, Sky did not remove the channels. Think they would be laughed out of court.
Virgin decided not to pay, it's their fault the channels have been removed and all this psthetic childish nonsense from VM scrolling across the bottom of the screen irritates me even more :mad:
I wasn't offered any upgrade and spoke to a very rude person so I asked for the basic package - free and said we'd be going back to Sky for the tv, which we are going to do ASAP.The £2.00 Coin Savers Club = approx £22.00 :rolleyes: :j.. The 20p Savers Club = £17.80.
:j
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