Virgin Media Retention thread

bagby

monsta2005 wrote: »

Hi can somebody help me please...looked througha afair bit of the thread, but havent found a single post similiar to this. Have had broadband and phone with Virgin Media for years. I think I last got a discount about 2 years ago (subject to agreeing to 18 months).

At moment Im paying £34.50 (line rental, M Broadband, plus XL Phone package). But the only problem I have is the Broadband is too slow. So I want to upgrade that to XL.

I am likely to phone them up tommorrow to try and get a better deal. What sort of deal should I be looking to get? Will they throw in free installation and a new modem for this? Is it the same trick as Sky to get a discount...e.g. threatenting to leave and hoping they offer me something straight away? or is it a waiting game? (family will be furious if we get cut off!)

My Tv package is with Sky and under contract so switching TV would not be an option.

Thank you for any advice

I've just got this same package for £24. That is price when it goes up as well. I looked at primus but think was going to get evening and weekend calls and unlimited broadband for £22 odd and didn't seem worth switching. I've just upgraded phone to free all day as this was only about £1.50 dearer. Hth

Falloojimafa

visidigi wrote: »

Check your email, EVERYONE is receiving the 'annual' price increase, affects a number of internet, TV and telephone products, which means you will be impacted one way or another.

That 5% is actually 6.5% when you factor in the bundle discount I get - if you don't have email setup then you will get it via letter shortly apparently.

I am VERY fed up with them over this - especially as no one can give me a breakdown of the amount - applies from 1st of April 2012 btw.

I didn't receive this email, but after months of slow broadband and random 'blackouts', I decided to switch to Sky unless VM could offer me better service for a better price! (The recent Usain Bolt adverts tends to add salt to the wond!) :mad:

So I called them up this morning, telling them about what I'm paying (approx £29 for my TV, Phone and Broadband bundle - M, M, L) and that Sky were willing to match it but in their bundle I'd get a £50 M&S voucher, FREE Caller ID (VM currently charge £2.50 for theirs), FREE evening calls, as well as Sky channels for the TV (currently M package with VM, so essentially I'm paying for Freeview!)

The customer service woman curtly told me that VM was increasing their prices by this 5% in April 2012 (ranging from £2-£4 depending on your bundle), and couldn't offer me a better deal unless I wanted to pay an extra £5 per month (so I would be paying equivalent to £10 EXTRA a month with this new price increase for services others are offering for free and to remain a customer of VM, what kind of business sense is that?)

Then the woman went on a MASSIVE rant about how bad their competitor-Sky was and how dishonest they were and how I would get conned by Sky!

MoreBeer

Falloojimafa wrote: »

I didn't receive this email, but after months of slow broadband and random 'blackouts', I decided to switch to Sky unless VM could offer me better service for a better price! (The recent Usain Bolt adverts tends to add salt to the wond!) :mad:

So I called them up this morning, telling them about what I'm paying (approx £29 for my TV, Phone and Broadband bundle - M, M, L) and that Sky were willing to match it but in their bundle I'd get a £50 M&S voucher, FREE Caller ID (VM currently charge £2.50 for theirs), FREE evening calls, as well as Sky channels for the TV (currently M package with VM, so essentially I'm paying for Freeview!)

The customer service woman curtly told me that VM was increasing their prices by this 5% in April 2012 (ranging from £2-£4 depending on your bundle), and couldn't offer me a better deal unless I wanted to pay an extra £5 per month (so I would be paying equivalent to £10 EXTRA a month with this new price increase for services others are offering for free and to remain a customer of VM, what kind of business sense is that?)

Then the woman went on a MASSIVE rant about how bad their competitor-Sky was and how dishonest they were and how I would get conned by Sky!

Yes, I too was given a few rants with how Sky were awful, no other dealers in the area can match V.M's speeds, our Daughter would make our lives living Hell is we left V.M, our Daughter would never forgive us... even one guy swore with Sh*t when quoting Sky's connection speed in our area... I sent a complaint to thier HQ and received 2 identical letters back saying they would contact us via phone within 2 weeks to discuss our complaint and that was about 8 days ago - no call... They are using dirty tactics or scaremongering but i can tell you now - even though the V.M BB speeds are better it's pretty damn useless when it's not working at all, you can't get help from the V.M India BB helpline because you are always cut off plus you are paying through the nose for it all too!
We've been duped over the years with FREE services for LIFE! FREE Discounts for LIFE etc, even our FREE upgrade to 10meg was all cut off so V.M are full of crap! If i don't get satisfaction from V.M (doubt i will) then my trusty Catapult is going to be put into action against R.B's Air balloon!

spud17

They also told me last year (just before I left) that Linux wouldn't work on O2. :cool:
The advisor then insisted that he was a broadband specialist and knew what he was talking about!

Reading the preceding posts, I think I left just in time.:)

bignred05

MoreBeer wrote: »

Hi Matt, well from my experience they won't call you back - this may simply be down to the fact they are bringing out the new BB packages and don't need us time served customers any more... from reading the old posts though lots of people had luck with the outbound retentions calling them back after they called to cancel - hopefully they will call you but we never got a call... just kept getting told by V.M that in April the BB speeds get doubled and that along with the fact other providers are crap should be enough for us to stay and that our Daughter would make our lives hell if we disconnected etc etc.
Your best bet is to check out other providers deals and tell V.M you are leaving them for another company, see if they give you a deal that you want but if not arrange the cancellation, you should get a call back within 3 days (so i've been told... lol). If you deceide not to leave etc you can always cancel or simply move...
Try - http://www.cable.co.uk/
that will give you all the deals and what services you can get at your address - including BB speeds...
:beer:

bignred05 wrote: »

Don't be to sure they won't call you back, I recently cancelled (last Friday) low and behold Monday morning VM phoned me back, must admit I didn't expect it so soon, I was out so requested to call me back after 6.00pm, later that evening VM called back

got offered a deal, not happy with the deal offered, have since cancelled the latest deal, hoping for another call back

if I don't get a call back, I'll just try and blag another deal, I've done this before and it worked

well guess who phoned back tonight........................

cancelled the last deal, last Friday, Virgin have phoned me "SEVERAL" times since Monday, depsite being told to phone back after 6.00pm, they finally realised to phone tonight after 6.00pm

to discuss another deal ??????

MoreBeer

Our BB epically failed again so called their Helpline - for the 1st time ever i got through to someone English - based in Liverpool - they fixed the problem within minutes and during that time they told me that their England based call centre was closing down! I asked if it was being moved to India and i got a "yeah".
BigNRed - firstly we'll hammer the Mancs tomorrow
Secondly, even despite a written letter of complaint to V.M and 2 letters back saying that they will call us to discuss the matter we still have not been called by retentions or by the complaints dept. I can only assume that's because they have closed both down and are in the process of shifting them to India... lol, probably closed the complaints dept down full stop.

little-miss-pinky

Didn't think I would be back here but I rang VM today on behalf of my Nan. She currently pays £54.80 for L TV, XL phone and M? 20meg BB, basic box. I think this is high for what she has and she has a HD telly so I rang up for a compatible box for her and to see if I could better her price. I pressed the 'want to change your services' number

Anyway, they offered her XL tv, lower bb 10meg, same xl phone with Tivo or a v+ hd box for £52. But they wanted the £49 installation fee for Tivo, when asked about the v+ box I was told it would be £20 for delivery of it!!

I thought maybe they could check my package and offer similar but they were not interested at all. They told me Tivo isn't free anymore and there must have been a deal when I got it (there wasn't)

I asked for her to be disconnected, I also asked to have my number put on so any calls would be to me, My Nan hasn't been too well and I want to get her the best deal and not to just accept the first one because she doesn't want to lose her services... The lady told me "why would they need your number? if you're disconnecting no-one will call you" ......LOL! She took it anyway.

Worried now that she's right because I didn't ring the "you're thinking of leaving us" What do you think?

Anon

If you are agreeing a new deal with retentions, make sure to ask whether the price you are being offered reflects the new pricing from 1st April - as some note above, deals recently agreed are still getting letters/emails saying their prices are going up (the 12/18 month contract that you agreed to strangely did not mean that the price wouldn't go up during the term of the contract...!).

Anon

visidigi

I need to wait for the letter to react to it - but I think ill be going back through the disconnection process, got nothing to lose, agreed my deal so if I don't get anything I go back to the deal I have and have to accept the £50+ a year overall price increase...

jpsid

Has anyone received a call from the Outbounds Retention team recently?

We have disconnected twice in the last few months - I cancelled the first disconnection 2 days before the disconnection date, as hadn't had the call, and phoned again a few weeks later on 30th Jan to arrange another disconnection but, again, we have received no call. We have been with VM for 15+ years and were on a retention deal of half price line rental and a loyalty discount of £15.85 but that expired in January so our monthly bill has increased by £22. Was hoping at the very least to get the loyalty discount reinstated but the usual call after 3-4 days of giving disconnection notice has not happened so wondered if this is now standard VM practice.