Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

Good evening all,

Currently on a 12-month broadband only deal paying £30/month for 150mb. Was £27/month for first 6 months.

Contract is ending next month and I put in 30-day cancellation notice last week.

Got a call from outbound retentions today saying they don't do 150mb anymore, just 100 or 200. Was offered 100mb for £31/month, with £93 credit effectively giving first 3 months free. Averages out to £23/month.

Should I push for lower or extras (such as phone line)?

FG

Virgin are trying to pull a fast one on me, and it is a similar con they tried last year.

My twelve month contract for TV, phone and broadband is due to expire shortly and after telephoning them I was offered a package which was acceptable to me. The details were later confirmed in an email to me with two alterations. One, the price has increased from that agreed on the telephone and two, there is an activation fee for a new box. There was no mention of this during the telephone call.

I intend to hold Virgin to the agreed price as a verbal contract is enforceable; furthermore, I will insist that the installation charge is waived. Virgin cannot unilaterally vary the contractual terms.

Last year when renewing my contract I agreed a price over the phone and when the confirmation email came the price had increased. The line I was given was that the CS agent had made a mistake in offering me the price/package he did and that the actual package is available at price Y, not price X; Y being higher than X, of course. Thus I would be charged price Y for the services.

I complained directly to the CEO with the outcome that the contract was honoured at the agreed price.

They have clearly tried the same dodge again. It makes me laugh. Do they think their customer is stupid and will not have noted the price agreed on the telephone? Or perhaps they believe the customer will not notice the discrepancy with the price in the email which purports to be a contract? Or maybe they expect the customer to simply shrug and accept this increase? Or it could be that they think this particular customer has a very short memory. He hasn't!

Whatever the reason for trying it on their conduct is unacceptable and I have complained about this to the highest level.

Alpha_5 wrote: »

Thanks both. So I phoned retentions last Thursday and it turned out the cancellation hadn't been put through properly. The agent reprocessed for the original disconnection date - this comimg Thursday (after making a worse offer than that made when i first called to cancel). So far, I've still not had a call from outbound, despite both enquiring about taking additional services and ending the call saying to call me with any offers - I'm not sure what else I could do to encourage outbound to call me - perhaps I tried too hard!

So I've given up on being offered a deal to stay and am set to switch away. It's quite confusing as to why they will offer some deals to some customers, yet let others leave.

Don't give up try again I really think it is whoever you chat to maybe they have a quota of discounts they can give for the day/week make a excuse and try again say you have forgotten your cut off date your family are sorting things out for you you need to reduce your bills.
Good luck...

jaks111 wrote: »

Don't give up try again I really think it is whoever you chat to maybe they have a quota of discounts they can give for the day/week make a excuse and try again say you have forgotten your cut off date your family are sorting things out for you you need to reduce your bills.
Good luck...

I phoned again yesterday and the offer I was made by inbound was the same as what my bill is going up to anyway. I asked if outbound could call me, and was told it wasn't possible.

So there we have it, service goes off tomorrow.
Interestingly, half an hour after yesterday's call, I got an email saying how sorry they were to be losing me, and giving details about returning my equipment etc. I assume I should have received that when I first gave notice 29 days ago!

adpeace wrote: »

I was on Player TV, anytime calls, and 70MB Broadband paying £52 a month going up by a further £4.49 from Nov. Called customer services and the best offer they could do was:

New V6 and SH3
100 MB BB
Player TV
E+W calls
£50.62 with one month free (avg £46.45 over 12 months)

I said no as it seemed like I could do a lot better (BT etc are around £37, admittedly slower fibre than VM in my area at least), and agreed a disconnection date and now hoping for a call back.

To follow up on my post above, I just got a call from the 'loyalty team' who offered the following, which I accepted:

New V6 and SH3
100 MB BB
Player TV
Anytime calls (LL + mob)
£34/month with first month half price (avg £32.58 over 12 months)

For reference, I didn't initiate a transfer of the landline number with another provider yet so that obviously isn't required. The initial offer was £34 and I used the 'If you can offer something closer to £30 because that's closer to the competitive prices I'd accept today' which led to the half price first month being offered.

The call was from 0800 408 9340, which Android said was suspected spam but I took the call anyway as I thought it was probably Virgin (which it was).