Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

[MSE Archna]

The following thread lists successes and failures at trying to haggle discounts with Virgin Media.

Full Tips are in the

Cheapest Home Phones Guide

This discussion has been running a long time, some of the early reports related to NTL/Telewest which later became Virgin. For the latest feedback click later on in the thread.

[MumofThree]

I have been following the chat about the Talk Talk deal but I am stuck with NTL as there has never been a BT line in this house (not strictly true actually as this was the Sales office but BT don't charge the developers, only the first person to buy the house!)

Anyway, I rang 0800 052 9403 the customer Relations number (option 2) and explained that I had seen the Talk Talk offer and wondered whether they (NTL) were intending to do any similiar offers. I also added that I am a broadband user with line rental and that I have been using the override numbers for all other calls, but I used to be on talk unlimited 24 as I am a heavy day time user.

Straight away, without any further effort on my part he offered me 2meg BB (shortly to be upgraded to 4Meg with no extra charge); line rental and talk unlimted 24 for a flat £20 per month indefinately. CHEAPER than Talk Talk AND BB instantly upgraded. This also saves on calls as I was using Call1899 at 1p/min! (and saves the fag of dialling the access number and listening to the nice lady before entering the number you really want!)

Go on, make that call. Good luck.

[Shirazette]

Thanks so much for that MumofThree. I've done done exactly what you said, and although I didn't get quite as good a deal as you, I got the same thing for £23 per month. My broadband was upgraded during the phone call to 2mb though he didn't say anything about going to 4mb later. I'm already thrilled with the extra mb. I suppose I should have haggled for more but I'm hopeless at it and was so pleased with what I was offered I just let it be.

Thanks again.

[MjP]

Yup! It sure works.

I called NTL customer relations about a week after the TT offer appeared and without hesitation they said they would match the offer (almost) I now have line rental, 2meg BB (was 1meg) and Talk Unlimited 24 all for £20.49 / mnth.
Only thing missing is the "free" overseas calls.

Give it a go! What have you got to lose.

Martin

[PrivateWiddle]

Hello,

I got my 2 meg upgraded to 4 (which would have happened at some point anyway) but they gave me it at half price for 6 months.

4 meg bb £12.50
tv/line rental £21.50

minus £9.49 discount for taking all three =£24.51

I did not get anything on call charges as I never use the phone, so it does not bother me. Bottom line is £12.50 off the bill for making a call.

I'll be straight back onto them in October, I will not be letting the bill go back up. I'd say that the market will have developed a long way in 6 months, Talk-Talk have really made a splash.

Thanks to Martin and all here!

[c_smith]

I tried it with Telewest last week. Phoned them up and told them I was considering moving to Talk Talk and enquired about how much notice I would have to give them, etc. I wasn't offered anything to stay, so I'm now seriously thinking about phoning up and giving them 30 days notice of cancelling my services.

I've been with them for 3 years and have phone, broadband and TV packages totalling £47 a month before I make any calls. I use call1899 for my calls as Telewest are too expensive. I've always found their services to be reliable, but they are just becoming too expensive now.

[Edinburghlass]

c.smith, I think you should try again, different time. Be quite positive about leaving and have the figures to hand as to what you will be paying with TalkTalk etc.

[bbb_uk]

Originally Posted by c_smith

I tried it with Telewest last week. Phoned them up and told them I was considering moving to Talk Talk and enquired about how much notice I would have to give them, etc. I wasn't offered anything to stay, so I'm now seriously thinking about phoning up and giving them 30 days notice of cancelling my services.

I was with Telewest and what I found was that rather than say I'm "considering" leaving just be firm like Edinburghlass has mentioned.

I rung up and selected the option to 'cancel' services and when they answered I just said can I give you my 1 months notice thank you. I said nothing at this point and waited for their response. On the two times I've done this - one for cancelling their linerental and the other for cancelling their TV.

I found that when I threatened to cancel the Telephone they said OK (they knew I was serious because the number portability dept of BT had been in touch with them) and my call to TW was to ensure that they had their 1month notice. About 2 weeks after this phonecall, I received a call from their retentions dept asking why we were leaving them and moving linerental to BT. Having told them about Call18866 (cheapest at the time) they said they knew about that but couldn't match that whatsoever and tried offering a few other things but I said no.

Now because I was cancelling the telephone, the price of the TV goes up by about £4 (i think) so I then rung them back and proceeded to cancel the TV saying that it was going to rise by £4 simply because I've decided to move telephone to BT and I could get Sky for cheaper (already had figures to hand). At this point they credited us £4 a month for a year and then reduced the cost of the second digibox from £15 to £9.50 to pricematch Sky's cost of a second digibox (I know Sky actually charge £10 for second digibox so don't know why they reduced it to £9.50 but I didn't argue).

[Gorchard]

I have vastly reduced my bills with NTL.
I started by contacting BT, with the full intention of leaving NTL.
BT Offered me Free connection, and a free Freeview box. I accepted and got them to arrange a date for the number port, etc.

Took approx 2 weeks before NTL started calling me, offering better deals. I kept saying no until 2 days before the number port was going to happen.

At this point I talked them into:
Free phone line rental for 1 year, with free 6p call cap.
Basic TV Package - 12:50
2MB broadband at £15.00/month with free install/setup.

I also confirmed that there is NO MINIMUM Contract, and I can cancel any/all of it at any time.

Summary: You must be *FULLY PREPARED TO LEAVE*, you must have a BT number port sent to them, and you must leave it until the last possible moment until you negotiate. Do this and you CAN get a cracking deal.

[kboy28]

Originally Posted by MSE Archna

This thread relates to the Home Phones Special Note For Telewest and NTL users.

Please report your successes and failures when haggling with NTL and Telewest for better phone deals.

Here is the old thread on haggling with NTL.

Read the Home Phones article here.

I had the telewest 2 MB £17.99 broadband and Line rental at £11 and essential TV at 11.50 = £40.49 per month. I was positive in that I wanted to leave as it was too expensive and mentioned Talk Talk as well as freeview. The Customer Relations dept tried to put me off Talk Talk suggesting their tech support cost money and they could not offer 8MB. They tried to reduce my bill by reducing my broadband down to 512k and tv to their basic package.
I gave them a bit of silence and said that I wouldn't stay for a reduced service still at a high price. The offer then went to £30 for 6 months and £34thereafter, finally they agreed £30 for 12 months no tie ins. I think better than their new customer deals. I use 18866. So now I have the same service I have had for £10.49 per month less.

Thanks for the help

[david1456uk]

Got on the phone when heard about this .The customer service person I spoke to was brilliant without any haggling at all I got my phone and my broadband 2mb at half price fixed for a year ! Thanks Martin for this tip you are a star !

[nicku72]

Ok I will be giving them a bell .......... Lets see what they offer..

[rich_the_moneysaver]

I just contacted NTL and advised them I was about to leave. They slammed the Talk Talk service saying it was tied to a 18 month contract and there were penalty clauses -- plus the fact that Talk Talk were almost definitely going to increase the £21 monthly charge within the next 6 months, as they could not afford to charge such a low amount to all their new customers!

I stuck to my gun and eventually got `Talk Unlimited 24` (extra £14.50 per month if you want it) + 1MB Broadband for £24.99 per month for 9 months!-- a reduction of £148 versus my current package!!

It`s definitely worth the phone call- even better because its FREEPHONE!!:

[themanwhohadeverything]

I'm currently with NTL and currently pay

Line rental - 10.50
Talk Unlimited 24 - 14.50
1MB Broadband - 17.99

Total - 42.99


After reading earlier posts I rang NTL on Saturday morning and explained that I'd seen the Talk Talk offer and I was considering moving but could they offer me any offer to say.

After being put on hold, they came back and said "no we don't currently have any offers on your package" but they could reduce my broadband to £9.99 for 6 months.

I asked to be put through to cancellations only to be told that they only work Monday to Friday 9 am to 5pm


To add insult to injury, whilst waiting 6 minutes for my call to be answered (which as NTL users will know is quite quick) the recorded message informed me that from 1st June their freephone number is being replaced with an 0845 number charged at 5p a minute.

[Lady_K]

I thought the 0845 was coming into effect as of 8th May? Hve they delayed it?

[MumofThree]

Originally Posted by themanwhohadeverything

I'm currently with NTL and currently pay

Line rental - 10.50
Talk Unlimited 24 - 14.50
1MB Broadband - 17.99

Total - 42.99


After reading earlier posts I rang NTL on Saturday morning and explained that I'd seen the Talk Talk offer and I was considering moving but could they offer me any offer to say.

After being put on hold, they came back and said "no we don't currently have any offers on your package" but they could reduce my broadband to £9.99 for 6 months.

I asked to be put through to cancellations only to be told that they only work Monday to Friday 9 am to 5pm


To add insult to injury, whilst waiting 6 minutes for my call to be answered (which as NTL users will know is quite quick) the recorded message informed me that from 1st June their freephone number is being replaced with an 0845 number charged at 5p a minute.

To themanwhohadeverything

If I were you I would try again . You need to ring the diconnections number 0800 052 9403 and press option 2 (you wish to cancel) to get the good deals. Normal customer services don't have the flexibility of authority to offer the deals that the disconnections department do. Try again it's got to be worth it.

Good luck

[alunp]

£10 a month off for the next 6 months

[hole in pocket]

just of the phone to telewest managed to be upgraded to broadband from dial up with line rental for £ 21 per month fixed for 12 months.was currently paying nearly £26....

[Mark_S]

Just called NTL.
Below you will see my savings.
Use the number provided above (member).

Cancellation line 0800 052 9403 Option 2
(20 min que but well worth it).

It was easy
"Hi I was told that you could offer me a better prices as im
considering moving to Talk Talk?"

"Lets see what we can do for you"

"WOW I'll have a bit of that thanks"

Orignal Price
1 Base = £21.50
1 1Mb Broadband = £17.99
Total per Month = £39.61
(Note telephone and Tv were package together on my bill,
but there was no charge agianst this item).

New Deal (For 6 Months)
1 Base = £21.50 - £5.50 = £16.00
1 1Mb Broadband = £17.99 - £8.00 = £9.99
Telephone - £5:30
+ £30 credit over 3 months.

I don’t have a telephone package lol...
We use 1 tel due to overseas calls.

I'm now saving £18 per month + £30 in credit over 3 months.

My Bill should come down to ~ £26 per month yipeeee

I was told to call back in 4-5 months to see if any better
deals are out there as the broadband war is on.
And in 6 months who knows what the best price may be.

Funny realy i was prepared to accept £30 per month.
But NTL have gone better to make it £26 per month
and for 3 of them it will = £16 per month ...

[Edinburghlass]

Friend of mine "made that call" for the second time yesterday to Telewest and got their package reduced from £40 to £34 per month for TV, BB and Telephone