Virgin Media Retention thread

christie_m

nicknameless

I've been through the process fairly recently and had a few callbacks from the outbound retention team before I finally managed to speak to them. The number that they use is 0800 052 2160 although you can't call them back on this number.

Given your package I'd be very surprised if you weren't called back, but it probably depends on a number of factors that build to determine if you're a customer Virgin want to keep.

In terms of preparation work, there are a few things you must do if you want a good deal:

1. Do your homework - you need to know what the comparable deals are from Sky / BT / TalkTalk / etc. You need to know the details of these deals, including what's included / excluded, the likely Broadband speeds, etc. The Virgin staff will use a range of tools during their discussion with you to check whether you know your stuff - if you do you'll be able to negotiate a better deal with them.

2. Work out the services you want included in a Virgin deal - the outbound team will throw a number of deals at you in an attempt to up sell and ultimately get more money out of you. The typical approach will follow the line of "...if you pay an extra £x you can have this increase in Broadband speed...or these extra channels...". If you haven't worked this out, you could end up paying more rather than less!

3. Play the game - you may have to go through a series of "I just need to speak to my manager to get authorisation for that". Play the game and keep the discussion friendly, but remember to try and tweak the deals that you're offered to try and get the one you want.

4. Check what offers are available on cashback sites - there are usually deals being offered by the likes of Quidco. Make sure you know what these are so you can put them in to the negotiation at a suitable point.

5. Finally - be realistic. You're not going to get your current deal for £29 a month. Check what others have achieved in terms of savings for similar packages by reading the previous pages on this VM Retention Topic. It'll give you an idea of what's on offer and what's achievable.

Best of luck.

nicknameless

Thanks both.

I did the figures for the current sky sign up for broadly equivalent services thorough top cashback which works out at nearly £69 per month for 12 months taking into account the cashback. I would be happy to pay that and said so on the phone but was told they could not match a cashback offer as it was not directly from sky. At that point I went ahead with the cancellation.

I will do some more homework.

visidigi

they wont match the cashback and they won't deal against cashback.

If you want the cashback you go to Sky, its really that simple as far as VM are concerned.

The issue here is you have to decide what you want and stick to it.

I was a VIP virgin customer with the full bundle at over £100 a month - the latest rise due next month was too much. Thanks to MSE I got a 50% deal from sky, so took that, at £38 a month.

Then I kept my Tivo, got M+ TV, phone line and 60mb BB from virgin - its £38 a month.

So £76 a month versus £100+

25% reduction by planning what I wanted and working it out in my favour not anyone elses.

You need to set your stall out, be realistic and go with it. Remember cashback isn't guaranteed, and it take 4-6 months to pay out.

I had, during my Sky setup a REAL problem avoiding speaking to them, any contact could have seen my contract completed over the phone and cashback lost - to this day the Cashback has tracked, but I don't know if it will come through as no one seems to know if MSE offers qualify...

christie_m

Visidigi

While VM may not deal against the cash back specifically, they may try and structure a deal that includes a similar "loyalty discount" that looks and appears similar to the cash back. I made sure I had the cash back offers to hand, as it also proves that you know what's on the market.


It's a great negotiating point to be able to say "I see you're offering new customers half price BB for six months and £xyz cash back via Quidco...". When I said that I got the response of "I'll have one more chat with my manager..." (Yeah right!). I did end up with a better deal to the one that had been offered before.

christie_m

Given I've used this thread to get information on the deals that others have secured recently, it's only fair to list some information that might be helpful to others dealing with Outbound Retentions.

My previous contract was M TV, 10MB BB and eve/wkend calls with line rental. This came in at around £28.50 a month once the various loyalty bonuses on my previous contract had expired.


I handed my notice in late December, and finally had a call back from Outbound Retentions earlier this week. Ended up on the phone for over 30 mins until I got the deal I wanted, having worked around the various attempts at upselling. The sticking point during negotiations with the Outbound Retentions team was the BB speed increasing to 30MB which seemed odd...but hey never mind.


Inbound Team Deal A : Talk XL, 30MB Bb and Line Rental for £26.64 (not including Line Rental saver).


Inbound Team Deal B : Talk XL, TV M+ but no TIVO, 30MB BB and Line Rental for £ 36.19 per month (not including Line Rental saver).


[I declined both of these offers and served my 30 day cancellation]


Outbound Team Deal 1 : Talk XXL (anytime and calls to mobiles and "08" numbers), 30MB BB and Line Rental for £30.64 with a one off credit of £30 odd.


Outbound Team Deal 2 : Talk XL, 30MB BB, Line Rental for £24.90 and a one off credit of £35. This was on a 12 month contract.


I took deal 2 from the outbound sales guy, and then reduced the price further by taking Line Rental Saver. Means I'm effectively paying £21 a month for the deal I took - I'm happy with that.


Hope this helps someone...

visidigi

christie_m wrote: »

Visidigi

While VM may not deal against the cash back specifically, they may try and structure a deal that includes a similar "loyalty discount" that looks and appears similar to the cash back. I made sure I had the cash back offers to hand, as it also proves that you know what's on the market.


It's a great negotiating point to be able to say "I see you're offering new customers half price BB for six months and £xyz cash back via Quidco...". When I said that I got the response of "I'll have one more chat with my manager..." (Yeah right!). I did end up with a better deal to the one that had been offered before.

Agree that its a good bargaining chip, but it should not be a like for like when comparing overall costs. What I mean is that retentions can't offer you a deal which will match £200 of cashback over a 12 month term.

VM and Sky both offer cashback to new customers, Sky's is higher for the 12 month deals, when Virgin up their amounts they usually also up the minimum contract term.

visidigi

Important tip to add.

Once you have the equipment at a certain level this gives you much better bargaining power 12 months down the line.

So if you take the hit to get the kit as it were you will find you don't then see the cost impact further down the line.

Case in point is the TiVO, I have a 1TB tivo, M+ TV, Basic phone and 60mb BB - £33 a month.

chopps

visidigi wrote: »

Important tip to add.

Case in point is the TiVO, I have a 1TB tivo, M+ TV, Basic phone and 60mb BB - £33 a month.

Is that including line rental at the new price of £14.99pm ?
If so it seems like a good deal.:j

The problem with cashback, eg.Quidco, is that there's no guarantee it will actually be paid out. Their own website (Quidco's) gives Sky poor ratings about the process. Virgin are more likely to pay out.
Sky recently offered new customers half-price TV and £100 in M&S vouchers so they're not likely to pay out a further £100+ in cashback. What with free installation of the dish etc. and the Sky + box (which you own unlike Virgin) they would end up paying customers to use their service !!:)

visidigi

I got a £72 credit to cover me for the increase and a bit of goodwill - don't owe them anything for two months now as currently in credit.

Sky's poor ratings on payout is more to do with people not realising that ANY contact to sky prior to install could decline cashback as they see that as completing the deal over the phone.

I took up the MSE 50% off code and made a massive point of not speaking to sky at any point until well after installation - the cashback is still showing as tracked in the system - don't know yet if it will payout mind.

nicknameless

Well I got a deal I'm happy with. Tivo box upgrade and keeping everything else the same apart from TV package (moving from L to M+) for a price that just coincidentally works out to within a couple of pence of the Sky Deal with cashback.