Virgin Media Retention thread

c_smith

My package was getting too expensive and I was offered a better deal with Sky, so I called VM last week to see if they could improve on my package. They only offered to save me money by cutting my services so I gave notice to leave.

I've since received a call offering the following:

XL TV with upgrade to TIVO
Additional V+ box
60mb Broadband
Weekend Calls
Line Rental
12 month contract

for £54.99 for the first 6 months and £59.99 for the following 12 months. They're also throwing in 3 months free TV and adding a credit to my account to cover this. After working out the total cost over the duration of the 12 month contract, it works out at £49.99 a month which I'm quite happy with.

RedDwarf82

I have only broadband, 30 Mbps.
They tried to increase the price to £25 in September, when I was still in contract. I called to leave and they removed the increase.

Now on February they wanted to increase it to £24.5. I found the TalkTalk SimplyBroadband, which would have gave me an estimated 12.9 Mbps for £13/month, plus some cashback from TopCashback.
I simply called and said I wanted to leave. They asked me were I was going to move, I quoted the TalkTalk offer, and they immediately offered me £14/month for 6 months and £19/month the other 6 months; accepting a new 12 months contract. So £16.5/month on average.
I guess I could have haggled a bit to try to get something more. But I though the price was actually fair, so I accepted it.

Del_Boy_Gupta

RedDwarf82 wrote: »

I have only broadband, 30 Mbps.
They tried to increase the price to £25 in September, when I was still in contract. I called to leave and they removed the increase.

Now on February they wanted to increase it to £24.5. I found the TalkTalk SimplyBroadband, which would have gave me an estimated 12.9 Mbps for £13/month, plus some cashback from TopCashback.
I simply called and said I wanted to leave. They asked me were I was going to move, I quoted the TalkTalk offer, and they immediately offered me £14/month for 6 months and £19/month the other 6 months; accepting a new 12 months contract. So £16.5/month on average.
I guess I could have haggled a bit to try to get something more. But I though the price was actually fair, so I accepted it.

I contacted them last night as my contract is due to end in March. I quoted Sky's movie deal including Quidco which if you factor the boots voucher as cash amounts to £29 odd for the TV including movies, phone line and broadband.

I explained this was only marginally more than broadband only with it- £25 after end of contract.

After along chat in which sky was poo-pooed by them the advisor offered £13 for six months and £18 for the remaining six months for 30mb broadband only.

This averages out to £15.50. I rejected the offer and carried on with my cancellation. My view is that they can go lower. I reckon they can reduce it by another couple of pounds. Anyone got any experience of this for boradband only.

He did offer £18 for six months and £23.50 for six months for b/b and landline. However I don't wish to move to cable landline with Virgin.

anna10

We put Virgin on notice to cancel our contract earlier this week as was far too high (£54.99 for 20Mb BB, XL TV & free w/end calls) as best the could offer was £34.99 for M TV , BB & w/end calls.

In a bid to save money, we decided to go down the Freeview TV route & found a good BB & phone deal with Plusnet (didn't actually sign up with them but would have if needs be).

Anyway, waited a few days & Virgin called back. Told them what Plusnet were offering & after a bit negotiation I agreed to free w/end calls £128 up front line rental & 30Mb BB for £2.50 a month. This does include some kind of loyalty discount & special retention discount. I'm absolutely delighted!

MrsBlue_2

Hello everyone, hope all is good, just being friendly first post and all that

I`m hoping this is the right thread to discuss this, it seems it and is concerning Virgin Media!
First off some details. This is my parents household, i`m currently living there but am no spring chicken. They have been with Virgin Media for many years for phone, broadband and tv, actually since it first came to the area as Nynex (then NTL), with a one year period with Sky about 6 years ago.
Last August Virgin sent a letter saying the price of Sky Sports would be increasing by £1.50 and my old man was not happy.
Basically he phoned Virgin and asked to be put through to cancellations. He said he wasn`t happy about the amount he was paying and if they (Virgin) didn`t offer a better price then it would be adios.
The lady on the Virgin side offered a 12 month contract for a package price of £88.24 and explicitely said that this would not go up for the lengh of the contract (12 months to August 2014). My Dad was happy with this so told them to go ahead with it. Nothing was sent as confirmation and nothing was signed.
Fast forward to this month and my Dad noticed his monthly package bill had gone up :mad: Not happy we have phoned Virgin this morning and spoken to numerous people (allegedly a manager but for all i know they could just be passing the call between themselves) and the`ve said they sent out a letter in November with regards to the increase. We never received said letter, and even so had been told that we would be paying £88.24 until August 2014.
Whoever it was i spoke to would not budge an inch on this price (apparently we already get a £10 loyalty bonus). I said this was a disgrace and asked about cancellation whereby was told there would be a fee of around £200.

What are my best options next?

As far as we were concerned we had a 12 month contract at £88.24 with no price increases (i was privy to the conversation).
Virgin have increased the price and said they are well within their rights to do so, having allegedly sent a letter (which a lot, including us don`t seem to have received).
I asked the 'manger' to pull up the phone conversation from August but she said she wasn`t allowed!
Nothing was ever signed, these were verbal agreements, what sort of legal standing do both parties have, if say we said we want to cancel now but won`t pay any cancellation fee?
Do we have no option but to wait until the contract is over then leave? Surely they cant just increase prices like this or they could just add an extra £xx every month and you couldn`t do anything!

Current package:
XL Tv
60Mb Broadband (xl)
Sky Sports Package
Talk Unlimited
One Tivo box and a V+ box upstairs

Was £88.24 now £93.99.

Any advise would be appreciated

Many thanks, sorry it`s a bit long or in the wrong place (please move to appropriate place mods if so),
MrsBlue

SteveBentley

I've just called retentions and renegotiated. Was paying £38/month for 20Mb and phone, pointed out that £35/month would get me "up to" 78Mb and line rental with plusnet inc a new router.

Now paying £35 for 60Mb, phone and new router. Not a bad result when I didn't tell them that plusnet's checker said I had no chance of the 78MB and 48Mb was as good as it gets!

They also offered something like £31/month for 30Mb and phone, but as I'm streaming a lot of TV to my roku, 4 quid to double the bandwidth seemed like a decent deal.

Speth87

Hi all; spoke to VM yesterday to request a disconnection as spoke to them in Jan and offered next to no discount and then upped my monthly price! I'm happy to leave and get separate services if needs be, but also wouldn't mind them calling me back and offering a discount to stay until my flat contract comes up and I know if I might be moving (most new deals have lengthy contracts and hefty moving charges so trying to avoid!).

Only snag is that they've started sending me details about packaging deliveries etc so I can return the equipment at the end of my 30 day notice; does this mean I can count myself out of the "please don't leave" call?!

Thanks!

Dave360180

Hi everyone

It's nearly time for my renewal so I was wondering what sort of price I can hope for. Currently my package is £14.40 :

20MB BB (large)
XL Phone (Talk Unlimited)
Caller display

-No TV

PLUS 12 month rental line saver so about £24.

I've not had a letter about the line rental going up yet either.

Prices are going up a bit so if anyone can help me with what they managed to get recently (and how i.e. retentions) that would be much appreciated - thanks guys

AndyPK

They seam willing to do the line rental at the old price.

Dave360180

Thanks everyone. On reflection negotiation points would seem to be (in priority):

Talktalk offer c. £9pcm (BB and phone after cashback)
Don't need the XL anytime phone
No line rental price increase please
Ask for more loyalty discount due to extra year being a customer
Superhub 2 request
Any extra one off bill credits and full itemised billing
12 month contract rather than 18m ? (see below)

Can you let me know if I've missed anything obvious - thanks !

Question for everyone - what if your contract length (18m) is different to your line rental saver (LRS) period (12m) ? Hypothetically in 12m time you have a choice of whether to renew LRS... If you do then potentially you are kinda tied in when it comes to contract renewal. If you don't then you lose the back end of 6m of LRS. Any ideas ?