Virgin Media Retention thread

paragp

I currently have the following:

TV XL
2 x V+HD boxes
Asian Mela
Multiroom
BB M
Tel Line Rental
Talk Unlimited
Talk 0845

and am paying £64.40 per month including a discount. This wiill go upto £68.90 per month with the price increase.

Can I get a better deal? I also want to get the Tivo boxes instead of the V+HD.

thanks

Saeed

I was on a special retention deal of £12.99 for L BB, M phone and M TV for 12 months. 6 months later, the price shot up to £16, then £21 the following month, this was without the April price increase. I wrote a letter of complaint and they told me that they had decided to renege on their side of the deal. I wrote to CEO without much success. I got offered £17 for L BB alone, I asked about S/M BB and got told £17. I cancelled.

Now on TalkTalk. Line installed free, 12 months half price Essential BB + free evening and weekend calls, all for £11/month inclusive of line rental.

I wrote a letter to CEO re the above TalkTalk deal that I got and told him that most people just want reliable BB, not constant speed increases that really don't affect the average user much, coupled with their twice annual price increases.

blueyellowred

Got call from retentions yesterday(more than 2 weeks after my cancellation notice) and was offered:
XL TV
L phone
XL BB(doubling up to 60Mb in July)
for £49 per months + £150 credit on account and no increase in April(full price for this package would be £69.40).
Same but with Tivo would have been £54 per month + said credit but OH said No.
Still happy as was on £65 per months + £4.25 increase as my previous deal finished in end of February(£50 per months but with 50Mb BB and XL phone which we do not use much).

sunnysideup_nw1

Saeed wrote: »

I was on a special retention deal of £12.99 for L BB, M phone and M TV for 12 months. 6 months later, the price shot up to £16, then £21 the following month, this was without the April price increase. I wrote a letter of complaint and they told me that they had decided to renege on their side of the deal. I wrote to CEO without much success. I got offered £17 for L BB alone, I asked about S/M BB and got told £17. I cancelled.

Now on TalkTalk. Line installed free, 12 months half price Essential BB + free evening and weekend calls, all for £11/month inclusive of line rental.

I wrote a letter to CEO re the above TalkTalk deal that I got and told him that most people just want reliable BB, not constant speed increases that really don't affect the average user much, coupled with their twice annual price increases.

Could you confirm whether it was free installation and not just free connection? I was under the impression that installation meant that an engineer had to come to your property and that you had to pay for that.

Saeed

sunnysideup_nw1 wrote: »

Could you confirm whether it was free installation and not just free connection? I was under the impression that installation meant that an engineer had to come to your property and that you had to pay for that.

Yes they installed a new line for free. BT phone line was damaged so they put in a new one for FREE :-)

top-timm

been with virgin for about 5 years and getting the following

BB M
PHONE XL with talk unlimited and mobiles
NO TV

paying £13.54 plus 13.90 line rental = £27.44

what does this compare with people with about same package

iain999

Hi all,

Below was my original post back on 20th April 2011 when I was offered what I think was the cheapest basic retention price ever (i.e. £12.99pm), however from reading some of the other posts on this thread, it does look like some other lucky people manage to get excellent deals as well.

iain999 wrote: »

Was paying silly money for Anytime Calls, 20mb BB, Full TV. Decided to cut costs and remove Phone and TV and just have 10mb BB at £21. The guy wouldn't give me any good deals.

After getting a disconnect date Virgin have been phoning me constantly for the past week on their 0800 number. I only managed to answer the phone today.

Deal offered (and snatched) £12.99 including line rental, evening and weekend calls, caller display, 10MB BB, Freeview TV with 18 month contract.

Couldn't believe the deal. I asked her to confirm about 5 times on the call that line rental was included!!!! Still sceptical however will wait on paper work coming through.

Update: I phoned VM back today and confirmed £12.99 for 12 months with 18 month contract. Base price £20.59 + £7.90 recurring credit!!!

I just wanted to inform everyone that my 12 month line rental discount is coming to an end shortly (£5.99pm) however I was indeed charged £12.99 a month for 12 months in row (excluding extra call charges of course). So there are 'excellent' retention deals out there, you just need to be lucky enough to find them.

I think my bill will now go up to about £23 a month (i.e. full line rental and price increases) which includes the following:

• L BB (i.e. 10MB moving to 20MB soon)
• M TV (i.e. freeview)
• L Phone (i.e. evening and weekend calls)
• Calling features: Caller Display, Call Divert, Call waiting
• ongoing recurring credit of £7.90.

Still a good deal (i.e. when comparing my package to the web site prices and looking at the fact BB alone is £22.50pm). When my 18 month contract runs out though, I think I'll be booking my disconnection date again and waiting for the retention call

Good luck to everyone else who is trying to get the best deal in these hard up times!

sandeshsaini

thanks for this nice post.

The_Flying_General

Spoke to both Sky and Virgin since my original post. Sky seemed happy to see me and started to throw things at me, with 2 slightly different offers from 2 different Sky TV stands:

1. Sky HD Entertainment Extra inc F1 HD package with free HD box and installation for £35.25 / month, plus if I took a phone line for £12.25 / month they would give me free multiroom and broadband. i.e. £35.25 or £47.50 for the lot.

2. Sky HD Entertainment Extra package inc F1HD as above and if I signed up there and then, free multiroom all for £35.25. I'm not sure about this as the first guy said I had to have a phone line for the multiroom to work - anyone know if this is the case? If you don't this looks like a good deal, and whilst I might have missed the 'one time offer' it shows they have the ability to offer it, so will find another Sky TV stand ;-)

Virgin in response said they would be willing to swap my old V+ and standard boxes for a new Tivo and HD box, but without any reduction in price - big deal, nothing given away there. I explained I wasn't happy with the channels on offer - too much Ch5 daytime TV / made for TV stuff on many of them, and to get the high quality shows I either had to get Sky or the XL package - which I'm not willing to do for a couple of extra channels. Then they went on to admit Sky have played a blinder with the F1 package channels like Sky Atlantic and they are losing people in droves.

The long and short, the offer from Virgin was new boxes for the same price or if I ditch the TV but agree to stay on BB for 12 months, they will do me the L broadband - soon to be upgraded - for £15.50.

I'm seriously thinking of splitting the package to Sky TV and Virgin Broadband, which I reckon I can get for around £50 / month, which is only a few pounds more than I am paying now (£48 after the price rise), get better channels, free F1HD and the benefit of fibre broadband.

meanscot

Had the e mail yesterday from Virgin Media telling methey are increasing my package from £37.39 to £39.39.

Last August, I signed up for a year for Virgin Broadbandand Telephone. Price quoted was Broadband £19.99 and telephone line rental £13.90 + £3.50 for unlimited calls.

However, a rebate of £10 per month was offered for a year. Virgin reneged on this after 6 months and agreed to let me out the contract without a penalty.

I decided to stay with them as I had been with Virgin a long time and thought I was not getting an increase this April.

I phoned up today and pressed 5 hoping to get the £2 increase cancelled.

They were not interested, said I could have my account cancelled within 6 days no problem. Not even the chance of Retentions phoning me.

The problem lies with my local country exchange whichVirgin say they have to pay extra to BT Connect to use for my rental.

All other providers say that they would have to pay extra to BT Connect as well and price the package within a pound or two of Virgin Media.

Looks like I'm stuck with this price.

Any other suggestions ?

Meanscot