Virgin Media Retention thread

gaj2002

Hi

I'm coming to the end of a twelve-month retentions deal at the moment

TV M+
Line rental and Phone L
Broadband L
Caller ID
£23.99/month

Except they put the price up £2.80 but I called to cancel and they refunded me the difference for the remaining term of the contract

I see from their website that apparently Virgin only do eighteen-month contracts for new customers so does anyone know whether I would be able to secure another twelve-month retentions deal or not?

I live in a rented flat where we renew the lease for twelve months at a time, really I want the contract to tie up with that as I might want to go back to living with parents for a few months before buying my own place, so wouldn't really have anywhere to take the contract to.

Also what sort of price should I be aiming for this time round?

I have no Freeview reception so I'm really stuck with Virgin or Sky for a bundle, I can't really be bothered to change to Sky but I suppose I would do if there was a big saving in it and they could do a twelve-month contract.

Thanks in advance for any help

christie_m

caz2003uk wrote: »

Im quite annoyed with virgin!

Is it standard procedure to give you your mac code, tell you that you have 30 days with that mac code, but if i decide not to leave that I don't need to do anything as everything will still run as normal if i don't pass the mac code on to anyone else.

anyway...I received a letter on Saturday saying sorry your leaving us and giving me a date in July where they will be coming to collect the modem! I've had no phone calls from outbound retentions and now this against their word of no cancellation unless I use the mac code....

confused.com!! Can anyone shed any light please?

Caz2003UK

I'm assuming this is standard process for VM - if you request a MAC number they issue it via E-Mail/letter. As the comms say, if you don't use the MAC number nothing will happen (i.e. your services will continue to run with VM). With ADSL broadband, the migration to another supplier is triggered when the new supplier uses the MAC number supplied by VM.

Unfortunately I'm not sure if VM will reduce your BB price much (if any). As I understand it, your ADSL broadband is supplied by BT (unlike with cable BB where it is run over the VM fibre infrastructure). This means that VM are restricted in the ADSL deals they can offer due to the base cost charged by BT. [I'm sure if I'm wrong on this, someone else will correct me]

If you're not in a VM cabled area, check what services are available at your local BT exchange by using the SamKnows website http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

Once you know what providers offer services at your exchange you can start looking for alternative providers.

christie_m

gaj2002 wrote: »

Hi

I'm coming to the end of a twelve-month retentions deal at the moment

TV M+
Line rental and Phone L
Broadband L
Caller ID
£23.99/month

Except they put the price up £2.80 but I called to cancel and they refunded me the difference for the remaining term of the contract

I see from their website that apparently Virgin only do eighteen-month contracts for new customers so does anyone know whether I would be able to secure another twelve-month retentions deal or not?

I live in a rented flat where we renew the lease for twelve months at a time, really I want the contract to tie up with that as I might want to go back to living with parents for a few months before buying my own place, so wouldn't really have anywhere to take the contract to.

Also what sort of price should I be aiming for this time round?

I have no Freeview reception so I'm really stuck with Virgin or Sky for a bundle, I can't really be bothered to change to Sky but I suppose I would do if there was a big saving in it and they could do a twelve-month contract.

Thanks in advance for any help

gaj2002

Given your previous deal is marginally better than the one I managed to secure at the same time, it seems I need your help negotiating with VM when my deal comes to an end. :rotfl:

If you want a 12 month deal you need to make it part of your negotiations. Make sure you ask for the contract details, as VM have a habit of sneakily extending the contract length to 18 months.

In terms of current offers, check the deals that BT and Sky are offering. I did see a Sky billboard driving home that appeared to offer "6 months free broadband" and some sort of voucher. I'd check that out and see if that helps give you a negotiation tactic with VM.

visidigi

gaj2002 wrote: »

Hi

I'm coming to the end of a twelve-month retentions deal at the moment

TV M+
Line rental and Phone L
Broadband L
Caller ID
£23.99/month

Except they put the price up £2.80 but I called to cancel and they refunded me the difference for the remaining term of the contract

I see from their website that apparently Virgin only do eighteen-month contracts for new customers so does anyone know whether I would be able to secure another twelve-month retentions deal or not?

I live in a rented flat where we renew the lease for twelve months at a time, really I want the contract to tie up with that as I might want to go back to living with parents for a few months before buying my own place, so wouldn't really have anywhere to take the contract to.

Also what sort of price should I be aiming for this time round?

I have no Freeview reception so I'm really stuck with Virgin or Sky for a bundle, I can't really be bothered to change to Sky but I suppose I would do if there was a big saving in it and they could do a twelve-month contract.

Thanks in advance for any help

I scored a no contract extension retention deal recently,I did go through the cancellation and wait for call back though...

sparrer

This is what I have -
TV Size: X L
Broadband Size: L
Talk Unlimited
Phone line rental
Costing me £54.90 a month.

Is this reasonable, as it seems quite a lot to pay every month? The XL TV is okay but many programmes are HD, which I can't get unless I pay yet another monthly fee, but as they're just repeats of what's not on HD I'm not interested in doing that.

I could cut the Talk Unlimited to evenings/weekends only as I pay Virgin £10 a month for 200 calls/3000 texts a month on the mobile, and don't use anything like that!

Any ideas, please?

andy2004

well no phone call from retentions, no phone call regarding my new modem still being behind the firewall using the old one, till my disconnection date of 13 June, still no letter regarding me leaving virgin media.
So much for their free upgrade to 20mb, 3 weeks and still firewalled, even the engineer sent out by David some bloke in complaints / under the CEO, couldnt get it removed from the firewall due to the fact i'm leaving,
on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being brilliant customer service and 1 being pi$$ poor, i'd give them -100000000, they have to many incompetent people working for them, lairs = indian's, what else can you call them, was told an engineer was booked for tuesday 2 weeks ago 8am-12pm. when i phoned at 2:30pm to find out why he hadnt come out, was told not booked., maybe i should start from the monday the new modem arrived.

monday new modem arrived. 10:30 after reading the instructions, basically disconnect old modem, connect wires and turn on, phone 150 to activate. 1hr later still couldnt get it activated error code 0070, told me they'd have to get the other activation department to do it as they have a different method and it should be working by 4:30, which it wasnt, phone up and spoke to some indian who told me he'd book at engineer to come out the next day between 8am-12.
Tuesday waited for engineer, 12:10 went out to get food, 2:30pm phoned VM to find out why the engineer didnt turn up, reply no engineer was booked. told the bloke error code 0070 told me it would be working Wednesday 3:30pm, waited, ask to be put through to cancellation as i took out a NEW CONTRACT a week earlier, so cancelled it within the 7 day period and also put in my 30days disconnection.
Wednesday tested at 4pm still not working, phoned up again, spoke to a indian again, got told 7days i would have to wait without internet.
reconnected the OLD modem and tested still working.
7days later, still not working. phoned yet again. got told i was a day early.
Thursday, tried agai, stlll not working on new modem, phoned yet again, told 24hrs, but you problably wont believe me says the bloke.
26hrs later, still doesnt work, phoned yet again, and gets told I have to wait another 7 days. asked to speak to his supervisor, couldnt understand him 1 accent, and 2nd the connection was poor.
next day, came on here and found the CEO email address, and sent off an email. recieved a phone call from David who said he would sort it out, and send an engineer out to check the modem i was sent 2 days later.
2days later, engineer arrived, disconnected the old modem, replaced with a new modem he bought with him, and tried to connect, FIREWALLED, so he phoned up to get it removed from the filewall and got told cant customer is leaving on the 6th, wrong 13th i replied. he told the bloke he was speaking to i was entitled to the broadband service until the 13th and to remove from firewall, bloke told him to speak to some one else, so he did, who told him to speak to the bloke he just spoke to. after 1hr mostly of him being on the phone, and me telling him i spoke to david who's under the CEO he said he couldnt do anything, but told me i could fix it, phone up and cancel the disconnection, wait for them to activate the modem and then put in for 30days notice again. after he left i phoned david, told him the engineer couldnt fix it due to the technician he spoke to on the phone, said he would deal with it. said he wouldnt be working friday due to the bank holiday so that meant wednesday, still no phone call to find out whats happening, no phone call from retentions, no letter about leaving, guess on the 13th i'm going to be left with no phone, and no internet.
Oh i phoned him today but he was on the phone with another customer and would phone back, that was 2hrs ago. still waiting..
So much for the free upgrade to 20mb, using a max 10mb modem and still being throttled to 2mb 90% of the time.
So who would any of you lot recommend i go with for telephone and BB, got till wednesday to find out and order a new supplier.

Dotty13

Whats the best site for comparing bundles and packages? Or do you visit each providers site seperately?

christie_m

andy2004 wrote: »

well no phone call from retentions, no phone call regarding my new modem still being behind the firewall using the old one, till my disconnection date of 13 June, still no letter regarding me leaving virgin media.
So much for their free upgrade to 20mb, 3 weeks and still firewalled, even the engineer sent out by David some bloke in complaints / under the CEO, couldnt get it removed from the firewall due to the fact i'm leaving,
on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being brilliant customer service and 1 being pi$$ poor, i'd give them -100000000, they have to many incompetent people working for them, lairs = indian's, what else can you call them, was told an engineer was booked for tuesday 2 weeks ago 8am-12pm. when i phoned at 2:30pm to find out why he hadnt come out, was told not booked., maybe i should start from the monday the new modem arrived.

monday new modem arrived. 10:30 after reading the instructions, basically disconnect old modem, connect wires and turn on, phone 150 to activate. 1hr later still couldnt get it activated error code 0070, told me they'd have to get the other activation department to do it as they have a different method and it should be working by 4:30, which it wasnt, phone up and spoke to some indian who told me he'd book at engineer to come out the next day between 8am-12.
Tuesday waited for engineer, 12:10 went out to get food, 2:30pm phoned VM to find out why the engineer didnt turn up, reply no engineer was booked. told the bloke error code 0070 told me it would be working Wednesday 3:30pm, waited, ask to be put through to cancellation as i took out a NEW CONTRACT a week earlier, so cancelled it within the 7 day period and also put in my 30days disconnection.
Wednesday tested at 4pm still not working, phoned up again, spoke to a indian again, got told 7days i would have to wait without internet.
reconnected the OLD modem and tested still working.
7days later, still not working. phoned yet again. got told i was a day early.
Thursday, tried agai, stlll not working on new modem, phoned yet again, told 24hrs, but you problably wont believe me says the bloke.
26hrs later, still doesnt work, phoned yet again, and gets told I have to wait another 7 days. asked to speak to his supervisor, couldnt understand him 1 accent, and 2nd the connection was poor.
next day, came on here and found the CEO email address, and sent off an email. recieved a phone call from David who said he would sort it out, and send an engineer out to check the modem i was sent 2 days later.
2days later, engineer arrived, disconnected the old modem, replaced with a new modem he bought with him, and tried to connect, FIREWALLED, so he phoned up to get it removed from the filewall and got told cant customer is leaving on the 6th, wrong 13th i replied. he told the bloke he was speaking to i was entitled to the broadband service until the 13th and to remove from firewall, bloke told him to speak to some one else, so he did, who told him to speak to the bloke he just spoke to. after 1hr mostly of him being on the phone, and me telling him i spoke to david who's under the CEO he said he couldnt do anything, but told me i could fix it, phone up and cancel the disconnection, wait for them to activate the modem and then put in for 30days notice again. after he left i phoned david, told him the engineer couldnt fix it due to the technician he spoke to on the phone, said he would deal with it. said he wouldnt be working friday due to the bank holiday so that meant wednesday, still no phone call to find out whats happening, no phone call from retentions, no letter about leaving, guess on the 13th i'm going to be left with no phone, and no internet.
Oh i phoned him today but he was on the phone with another customer and would phone back, that was 2hrs ago. still waiting..
So much for the free upgrade to 20mb, using a max 10mb modem and still being throttled to 2mb 90% of the time.
So who would any of you lot recommend i go with for telephone and BB, got till wednesday to find out and order a new supplier.

Andy2004

Don't think there's anything any of us can say about this saga - other than "amazing". Given that any trust you had in VM is clearly gone, I'm not surprised you're planning on heading elsewhere.

If you're using VM cabled services, you'll probably have to have a new BT line installed for any of the other BB ADSL services. There is a page somewhere on the MSE site that details the offers available to reduce the cost of getting a brand new line installed.

Best way to take a look at which providers are available in your BT exchange is to use the following website : http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

Alot of people rave about the O2 service (both from the BB service and customer service perspectives). You might be lucky to be in a BT Infinity area, and this will give you close to the VM BB speed level.

DrHackenbush

christie_m wrote: »

Good to see your stalling tactics have potentially saved some more cash on the monthly bill - well played

Given that the line rental IS bundled in, that BB and Phone deal starts to look attractive. Bear in mind that the line rental if you transferred to BT would be £13+ alone, before you added any services on top.

You can try and enhance the deal by squeezing out any additional services you might want for nowt (e.g. callerID), and some folks on here have managed to get their BB speed uprated as the final offer for a sign-up from VM.

Make sure you ask to see a copy of the contract details. VM were shirty about supplying the paperwork to me when I was negotiating, but it's worthwhile so you can challenge any problems with your bill, or to see if the line rental jumps after 12 months, or if you're being tied in for 18 months, etc.

Don't kick yourself for not sorting this out sooner....you've done it now which is more than many VM customers do!

Just had another call from retentions. Different guy from last time, he went through the whole thing again after telling me how bad Primus were and then offered me BB 10 Ph M and M+ tv for £32.40 or the BB10m Ph M for £20.40(?).
I said I was not bothered about the TV and had already been offered the other deal for £15.90. He then offered me a £30 credit to bring the price down to £17.90. When I mentioned that was still £2 dearer than I had already been offered he said there was nothing on his computer to say that I had been offered that:mad:. I then told him I had written everything down when speaking to the other chap and it was definitely £15.90. He then said it must have been a special offer which ended at the end of the month. My response was that the first person that had made the offer had said he would ring me back next Monday giving me time to think about it, so why would he do that if the offer was not going to be available then? He did not seem to have an answer to that and I said I would continue with my notice to leave.
After that he replied the only way he could give me the £15.90 deal would be if I agreed to a 18month contract on the phone and 12 month on the BB.
I said if you put that in writing then I will agree to that and lose the TV services.
The contract is on its way, and as long as it is as he said I will go with that.
Thanks to all the posters in this thread it has been a great help. :beer:

andy2004

christie thanks for the reply but already checked on the infinity and its not available in my area also we already have a phoneline for bt it just needs to be reactivated, before we switched to VM years ago we were with BT. so it shouldnt be much of a problem.
just checked my email and had a final bill from Virgin Media, which i cant understand.


To DrHackenbush how close to your leaving date did you get the call from retentions.
2nd your BB should be a minimum of 20mb due to all 10mb customers being upgraded for free.which is what i should have been on in March / April but wasnt until May, when i phoned for a better deal and they told me they would send me a new router/modem, which as you can see went like Captain Jack Sparrow, down south.