Virgin Media Retention thread

Anon

chrissyxx wrote: »

Cancelled two days ago, and had a call from (presumably) retentions today. The gentleman was lovely, but said he couldnt offer me anything except to increase my broadband to Large from the current medium (which I think is being done automatically anyway) and decrease tv package. So L broadband, L TV with skysports and M Phone for £55.49. Declined, but am worried that could be the final offer.....

Doubt that will be the last offer, you can see from this thread that others have been offered better even recently.

Anon

JamK

I have been with VM for 14 years and every now and then I have telephoned them and got what I thought was reasonable deal.

This year, however, its a different story, they were almost insulting and apart from them every other service provider is not worth it, and they told me that other service providers lie to sign customers up.

They offered me a deal which I accepted and after reading some stuff on the internet, I rang back to confirm what package I was going on and it was more expenssive with less services then I was told, so VM do tell anything to customers to sign them up.

I have a XL phone, M tv and L (10 MB) BB and I pay £39 PM (after £11 discount).

After this experienece with VM I have looked around and found that I can get the similar phone service with BT for £13.73 pm (by paying the 120 line rental up front and taking into account the 3 months free on anytime calls). I already have a BT line which they will activate for free, but even if they had to put in a line, its £30, which still makes it cheaper then VM.

I have also checked my neighbours BB connection with Plusnet and although it is advertised as 20MB, it averages at 8.4MB, my virgin broadband is never higher then 6MB.

I have freeview box and I am getting all the M TV Channels via my ariel and a saving of £20 pm.

This might not suit people who have all the different TV channels and other services, but people on basic package like me can save more then half. The reason people are getting deals from retention department is because VM is already charging twice the normal price.

dwhl

c_smith wrote: »

I find that hard to believe. Are you on the wind up? If it's true, you'd be mad not to jump at it, but I'd be asking for written confirmation first because certain Virgin employees have been known to offer you the earth to get you to sign up to a new contract and then suddenly change the goalposts. And you'll probably find it's an 18 month contract for the phone but 12 for BB and TV.

Sorry for the long delay in replying

Now confirmed (after many telephone calls to virgin) the deal is XL TV with V=HD(already had this) and XL TELEPHONE with caller display and L BROADBAND for £34.99 a month for a 12 month contract with one month free.

They did offer that initially but when I called to get it in writing was told that the price was £37.99 and the phone line rental was 18 months not 12..... Hence the numerous phone calls to resolve this

Went through the same process as others including waiting for the outbound team to call upon giving notice of cancellation...they matched the sky offer which I quoted at £35 and knocked off a month

Hope that helps


Hope that helps

JamK

One of the other things that they mislead you on is your right to cancel the contract.

Under the distance selling regulations,.. " the customer must be given a 7 days cooling off period, during which they have an unconditional right to cancel the contract".

This applies to telephone and internet sales (some exceptions apply but VM services is NOT one of those).

The 7 days start from the date of order is made or the written confirmation is recieved (whichever is later).

With your new contract, you should, by law, receive a notice titled " Your Right to cancel" and 7 days usually start the day after you receive the notice.

Please don’t be baffled by the CS reps who may not know the law, or may mislead you when they say that you are outside the cancelation period.

Same goes for the price rises, if you look at the terms and conditions on your VM contract, J 5, clearly states that you have right to cancel the contract by giving 30 days notice!, that might get you a better deal again!

c_smith

dwhl wrote: »

Sorry for the long delay in replying

Now confirmed (after many telephone calls to virgin) the deal is XL TV with V=HD(already had this) and XL TELEPHONE with caller display and L BROADBAND for £34.99 a month for a 12 month contract with one month free.

They did offer that initially but when I called to get it in writing was told that the price was £37.99 and the phone line rental was 18 months not 12..... Hence the numerous phone calls to resolve this

Went through the same process as others including waiting for the outbound team to call upon giving notice of cancellation...they matched the sky offer which I quoted at £35 and knocked off a month

Hope that helps


Hope that helps

Great deal then, but as you've found out, what they promise you isn't necessarily what you get in the end. Well done for complaining and getting it sorted though, that's what's needed.

c_smith

How long are retentions taking to phone people after the 30 day notice is given?

Optimist

JamK wrote: »

One of the other things that they mislead you on is your right to cancel the contract.

Under the distance selling regulations,.. " the customer must be given a 7 days cooling off period, during which they have an unconditional right to cancel the contract".

This applies to telephone and internet sales (some exceptions apply but VM services is NOT one of those).

The 7 days start from the date of order is made or the written confirmation is recieved (whichever is later).

With your new contract, you should, by law, receive a notice titled " Your Right to cancel" and 7 days usually start the day after you receive the notice.

Please don’t be baffled by the CS reps who may not know the law, or may mislead you when they say that you are outside the cancelation period.

Same goes for the price rises, if you look at the terms and conditions on your VM contract, J 5, clearly states that you have right to cancel the contract by giving 30 days notice!, that might get you a better deal again!

You have no right to cancel if the service has already started

JamK

Optimist wrote: »

You have no right to cancel if the service has already started

I am afraid thats not correct. If the service has started, you might have to pay "pro rota" for it if you have utilised it during the cancelation period, but you do have a right to cancel.

Optimist

JamK wrote: »

I am afraid thats not correct. If the service has started, you might have to pay "pro rota" for it if you have utilised it during the cancelation period, but you do have a right to cancel.

Section 13 of the DSRs to be read in conjunction with section 8 (3)

JamK

I agree, but that is dependent on s8.3, the supplier must have informed you in writing or any other durable way. Phone call will be durable, if it was recorded. if it was recorded, you wont have problems, because you know exactly what you agreed to, so no lies will be told, and no need to cancel because they told you something different on the phone than what is on the actual written contract!