Virgin Media Retention thread

powerful_Rogue

Currently paying £48 for the following:

20MB Broadband
Medium phone line
2 x V+ XL

Phoned up last Saturday to cancel and received a call on the Monday from retentions offering me the following:

60MB Broadband
Medium phone line
1TB Tivo + V+ HD

for £52.40 plus a £50 credit to the account.

Said it wasnt much better then what new customers are getting and that if I was going to stay on the package ive got then then boradband would jump from 20MB to 60MB anyway. Asked if they could throw in free evening calls, but was turned down. Asked to continue with the disconnection.

Am I likely to receive another call from VM or should I start contacting Sky?

latecomer

As posted in the Haggling thread (thought it was worth reposting in here!)

We were paying £38 a month for

M TV
10 Mb BB
and Phone XL

Phoned on friday to cancel and have just agreed to the following after being called by retentions:

M+ TV and 500Gb TIVO box
30Mb BB - inc wireless router but I suspect thats standard
XL phone
£34.40/month and a £34.40 credit to account to give first month free.

12 month contract on TV and BB and 18 month on Phone but apparently I can re-negotiate after the 12 months for the TV and BB are up.

Maybe not the best deal ever but its good enough for me and its low effort. Got an engineer coming this week to fit the new BB and TV boxes.

matay99

I have used this forum many times in the past to help in my negotiations with VM. Thought it was about time I gave a little back, so here’s this year’s experience. Hope it helps someone out.

OK, first of all just to reiterate the point, the best deals are offered by the “outbound retentions team”. You cannot call these guys, you need to give notice of termination of your agreement and they will contact you. So, if you’re on the ball (unlike me this year) 30 days before the end of your contract, phone VM up using the 150 number, go to the “thinking of leaving option” and ask for a better deal. No matter what they offer decline it. In my experience outbound retentions will always beat any offer you given at this point, and I have done this for the last 7 or 8 years. Also they have never failed to call me.

I currently have 3 x V+ HD Boxes, Phone XL (or Talk Unlimited) + 08 numbers, TV XL + Sky Sports + Sky HD, XL(20) BB (no Sky movies). Up until the end of February I was paying £79.49 for the above. Not being as quick of the mark as usual I did not get around to calling VM until the end of May, by which time the price for the above package had risen to £101.00 after price rises were added and various loyalty discounts ended.

So, called VM 150 number and was offered same package as above, replacing 1 V+ HD box with a 500Gb Tivo and upgrading BB to 30Mb for £96.50. As usual was told that I would not get a better offer, so went ahead and asked them to terminate my services in 30 days time.

A few words of advice, be prepared for the call from retentions, do your homework and find prices from Sky, BT Talk Talk etc, for the services you want. If they are cheaper tell them how much cheaper. I originally thought of dropping the TV this year and going to Sky direct. Hence the BB and Phone prices below. Sky have some good offers on at the moment, especially if using cash back sites as well. So use this as a bargaining point.

Also when retentions do call and offer you a deal don’t commit to it initially, write it down tell them you’ll think about it and ask them to call you back. Make sure you give them your mobile number, they will use it if they can’t get hold of you on your home number.
Over the last week or so retentions have called me back four or five times, and I asked for prices for various packages, I noted most and have listed them below just in case that’s what you’re looking for.

Finally when you have the package you want at a price that is acceptable, don’t let them know that, tell them you’ll think about it and ask them to call back again. When they phone, say you want the package you previously discussed and just quote the price back to them minus two three pounds .

Anyway, here are the other deals that I was offered along the way by retentions:
£19.60: Phone XL + 08 Numbers, 30 Mb BB, No TV

£24.10: Phone XL + 08 Numbers, 60 Mb BB, No TV

£59.90: 500Gb Tivo, 2 x V HD boxes, Phone XL + 08 Numbers, TV XL, 60 Mb BB

£91.90: VIP Collection as per website, with phone upgraded to XL. (liked this but when adding my 3rd box back on the price was £117.40 for some reason).

£56.40: 1TB Tivo (no install fees etc), 2 x V HD boxes , TV XL, Phone XL + 08 Numbers, 30MB BB (Increasing to 60MB in a month or so)

And finally the deal I took;
£83.40: 1TB Tivo, 2 x V+ HD boxes, TV XL, Sky Sports & Movies, SkyHD, Phone XL + 08 Numbers, 30MB BB. No install fees etc for the TIVO and the BB will be temporarily increased to 60Mb until it doubles for free. Initially they wanted to replace the 2 remaining V+ HD boxes with V HD boxes, but they finally agreed to leave them with me.

My Initial retentions offer for this package was £85.40, but when they called back I talked them through what I thought I was getting just to confirm that I had understood correctly and had everything I wanted, I just quoted a price of £83.40 and they said yes!.

Anyway, ended up paying less than £4 more than last year for same package but upgraded BB, Sky Movies and a 1TB Tivo. Not a bad result, although I must admit I would have liked to have got it under £80.

Hope this is of use, best of luck.

Oh!. And apparently the price will not change for two years?. I’ll believe that when I see it.

angelsmomma

I am paying £35.90 for M tv, L BB and the lowest Phone package. The contract is up at the end of September.

I have had really bad service for the last few months. 10 days without BB one month and 5 days without BB the next.

I am not bothered about the Phone I use mobile for calls or TV as we never watch it.

I would just like unlimited BB, is it possible to get this without a phone line and how much would I be expecting to pay? I am not technical at all so have no idea if a phone line is even needed for BB.

chopps

BB is available separately if you're in a cable area.
You should be able to negotiate a price between £15-20 for the lowest tier of BB that's without their minimum phone service which would have added on only a few £ to the overall monthly cost.

boobbby

angelsmomma wrote: »

I am paying £35.90 for M tv, L BB and the lowest Phone package. The contract is up at the end of September.

I have had really bad service for the last few months. 10 days without BB one month and 5 days without BB the next.

I am not bothered about the Phone I use mobile for calls or TV as we never watch it.

I would just like unlimited BB, is it possible to get this without a phone line and how much would I be expecting to pay? I am not technical at all so have no idea if a phone line is even needed for BB.

I pay £15.50 for cable broadband and no other service from Virgin

Ash88uk

I'm thinking of replacing Sky Movies with Netflix

Has anyone done this yet and what do you think is it a good substitute?

I currently pay around £100 a month for the whole VM TV package with 30MB broadband and I've looked on the VM website and I'm interested in the "essentials" package, basically I want to find the lowest cost of getting broadband with Sky Sports which is mostly the only channels I really watch which I've worked out would be around £65 a month including Sky Sports in HD and that also includes doubling my broadband speed from 30MB to 60MB

My friend has Netflix on his PS3 and he recommends it, so all in all would be around £70 and a saving of £30 a month.

If I rang Virgin Media up would they help me downgrade to this package? I know I'm not going to get the 6 months half price but I'm currently about to move house (maybe I should wait until I move and then do it and I would get half price for 6 months?) but the place I'm moving to has cable so it wouldn't be a problem but ideally I'd like not to go into a new 12 month contract but if I have to it would save me alot of money long term.

Or is there any other way to get Sky Sports and Broadband cheaper?

powerful_Rogue

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Currently paying £48 for the following:

20MB Broadband
Medium phone line
2 x V+ XL

Phoned up last Saturday to cancel and received a call on the Monday from retentions offering me the following:

60MB Broadband
Medium phone line
1TB Tivo + V+ HD

for £52.40 plus a £50 credit to the account.

Said it wasnt much better then what new customers are getting and that if I was going to stay on the package ive got then then boradband would jump from 20MB to 60MB anyway. Asked if they could throw in free evening calls, but was turned down. Asked to continue with the disconnection.

Am I likely to receive another call from VM or should I start contacting Sky?

Anyone know if im likely to receive another call from Virgin prior to cut off on the 16th.

monsterlane

Hi there i gave my 30 days notice on friday and got a call this morning. They offered me xl tv/m phone 100mg internet and sky sports for £78 per month and he has given me 2 months free sky sports so will be £45 for 2 months then £78 after, I already have tivo and v+hd box upstairs so didn't really need any other boxes. Also he's sending out the new superhub for free and all free installation. I would just like some opinions and do you think its a good offer? thank you.

visidigi

monsterlane wrote: »

Hi there i gave my 30 days notice on friday and got a call this morning. They offered me xl tv/m phone 100mg internet and sky sports for £78 per month and he has given me 2 months free sky sports so will be £45 for 2 months then £78 after, I already have tivo and v+hd box upstairs so didn't really need any other boxes. Also he's sending out the new superhub for free and all free installation. I would just like some opinions and do you think its a good offer? thank you.

About right...you make no mention of movies, so if its not included then its about right, pretty good deal for you overall...