Virgin Media Retention thread

Simon_B_5

Right. Well i called the 0800 number this morning and got completely blagged off by some bloke saying that after 3 months tiscali put their prices up to £24.99. Not having any evidence to hand to disprove him i had to let him blag me off with that and a reduced rate of £19.99 for 3 months.
I then remembered that my sister is on tiscali so i called her and asked had this happened with her? She said no not to her knowledge.
So i called NTL back and basically told them that they had lied to me and i wasnt happy so are they going to do anything for me?
I ended up with it being reduced to £16.99 p/m and a slight apology for the lying bas**rd this morning.
So i guess thats a £96 saving so far
Just dont let yourself be fobbed of.

fsheehan

Hiya, I'm new to the forums and came across this thread.

I'm in the similar boat as everyone here, basically I'm with NTL and have got the following:

Telephone Line
2MB Broadband
Family Pack TV
Sky Sports Collection

I'm paying just over £70 a month for those services. I've been looking around and I think that I should be able to save a fair bit on that price for similar services elsewhere.

Any advice on what I can haggle out of NTL for those? I phoned them about the 3 for £30 pack tonight and after waiting around 40mins, got someone who said that the offer for that has already ended?! She then went on that they're extremely busy and told me that they'd need to call me back sometime tomorrow!

Basically, I told them that I wanted to talk about changing my tariff as I've been with them for nearly 5 years and feel that I'm paying more for services I can get cheaper from other providers. She said that she'll ring me back tomorrow evening to discuss.

Is there anything I can haggle with her with regards to pricing? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Fred

cynicalmiss_2

Just tell them you wznt to cancel because you have found a cheaper provider.....thats what I did. They then cut my broadband price to 9.99 a month ( I was paying 17.99 )....

jockettuk

cynicalmiss_2 wrote:

Just tell them you wznt to cancel because you have found a cheaper provider.....thats what I did. They then cut my broadband price to 9.99 a month ( I was paying 17.99 )....

cut my broadband down to free for a yr.. tell them your not happy and what deal can they offer you to stay with them you will find them bending over backwards to help you if you get no were with the customer services people ask to be put through to disconnections that worked for me ..

swebb

When I started this thread in July, I intended to update it with news of my next haggle with NTL. Tonight I had that conversation. Back in July, I originally had 2mb @ 24.99 a month (for 2 years) and managed to get 3mb for £17.50 a month for 3 months. That 3 months is now up.

I phoned tonight and got passed to 3 different people. It was now nearly 8.00 (their close time). I asked the lady what offers they had and she said they only had 1mb @ 9.99 a month (no good) and that was all (and that they don't do offers on 2mb/3mb in general). I explained what happened before (now taking a bit of time towards 8.00pm). She then gave me my current offer for another 3 months (just to make sure I'm off by 8.00 probably!). My previous offer actually expired at the end of October. I asked her if the price would be affected and she confirmed it wouldn't (so I won't pay anything extra - she had me down for 3mb @ £37 a month i.e. once the offer expired, I was put onto the 3mb price (WATCH OUT)).

So, I got another decent offer for a second time. If people are struggling out there - keep trying and ring a little before 8.00pm!

I also asked about 10mb broadband - she said to watch out for the junk mail next year!!!! Talk about trying to get away.

robd831

I saw a NTL advert for new customers for £10-50 line rental and free calls after 6pm to 01 & 02 numbers, back in August so i rang them up and asked if I agreed to another 12mth contract could I also have the free calls. I got told as I already had a discount for broadband £10/mth 1meg I could only have it for 3mths (but ring back in 3mths and get it put back on said the lovely Welsh lass) which I have done and I now have it until the end of Feb 2006.....So free calls after 6pm & all weekend. Just keep ringing back and asking.......

purestate

Used the good advice here thanks - especially phoning leading upto 8pm. I got free calls evening and weekends, phone and 2mb broadband for 32.99. This wouldn't be perfect for everyone but now I can reduce my mobile contract as well and use the land line. JT

wigginsmum

I've been with NTL for 4 years and currently pay:

3 Mb - £37.99
Family Pack - £29.99
Sky Movies Collection - £15.50 (I shall be having words because my last bill says Sport and Movies for £22.50 and no-one here watches sport so wouldn't have asked for it to be upgraded. I have to check how long we've been charged that so might be able to argue for a refund on that).
God Channel - £5.00
FilmFour - £6.00

I'll be phoning tomorrow and asking to go down to 2Mb at a really cheap rate (we don't need 3 Mb and I'll settle for 19.99 for 12 months for 2 Mb if that's all I can get, although I'll push for more), cancel God channel & FilmFour thus saving £11/month, and sort out the sports/movies thing. I'll keep you posted on how I get on, but 'headology' is obviously needed! I'll give them a psychological workout and see how far I get. I've got all my facts and figues on Tiscali, Bulldog etc on a spreadsheet. I'll make sure I get the CS person's full name as well in case they try to pull a sneaky one, and make sure I check my bank statements to see that they reduce the DD amount.

Jules

wigginsmum

Result!

Did the verbal equivalent of batting my eyelashes, sympathised with his system problems etc. Knocked £17.99/month off the TV channels which we don't need, and got 3Mb broadband for 3 months @ £19.99 (half price - as opposed to the 2 Mb @ £24.99 he initially offered; he went away and checked on the offers he could make when I said I was still thinking other companies were more competitive). Took about 15 minutes with me quoting Tiscali, Bulldog and Wanadoo prices, and threatening to go down to 2 Mb because 3 Mb was so expensive. He said that from January we'll get up to 10 Mb for £37.99, and I said I'd be checking prices then and would phone back. Couldn't get an answer on when we got the sports channels included; I suspect they've been overcharging us for ages but I couldn't prove it so let that one drop.

Very happy indeed! That's a total of saving of £37.99/month for the next three months, then an ongoing saving of £17.99/month on the unwatched TV channels.

Jules

swebb

Further to my post above...

I checked my bank account on line last night and saw that £37.99 had gone out of the account from NTL!!! Should have been half that following the phone call I made earlier this month. So I phoned this morning at about 8.15 and spoke to some guy who was not helpful at all and was talking over me most of the time - great customer service. He had no notes of the offer being extended and said I had to speak to Retentions at 09.00 (when they open). So I phoned back and got through to them. Firstly I asked them how someone not in Retentions can make me the previous offer - to which the answer was unknown. Retentions shut at 5pm, so my previous post above re ring a little before 8.00 to get the best offer, now makes no sense. ONLY Retentions can make any offer apparently.

Anyway, I explained the background and what I was expecting. Basically I'M NOW ON THE 10MB service - yes 10mb. News to me. I also didn't think this came into effect until next year. Obviously not the case then. I was given 2 choices. Either go back to 3mb for 3 months half price or have the 10mb free for a month. The 10mb is £37.99, but will reduce to £34.99 in 'early January'. I took the free month, mainly to see exactly how good the 10mb is (loads of other stuff in as well e.g. a mass amount of gb usage a month (can't remember what now, but more than double what NTL normally offer)). My plan is to ring in a few months and try to see what can be offered then. With the 10mb I would imagine that NTL aren't going to give too many offers yet.

Hope this helps someone.