Virgin Media Retention thread

aloneinthedark

managed to get mine down from £135 a month (inc line rental) down to 90 with line rental (plus netflix and £50 credit), the new package is the VIP package...

ikr2

I am trying to sort out what I should be paying for VM. All we really want is unlimited broadband at or around the current rated speeds we enjoy (up to 20MB)

Currently our package is:

We have L Unlimited Broadband (up to 20MB)
But we also have XL phone (anytime landline calls), which we don't need/ could use VOIP at £6 per month

Virgin charge us £40.64 per month for this.

Plusnet's unlimited broadband is currently being offered at £2.99 per month (admittedly up to 16MB speed), if I pay £131.88 for line rental in advance
Actual cost (inc. line rental) £14 per month

BT's unlimited broadband (up to 16MB) is £16 per month but 6 months are at £8 pm. Line rental is £141 in advance
Actual cost (inc. line rental) £23.75 per month

BT looks good as an actual option as we are not listed on their landline database (there is an old one we haven't used for over a decade) and they waive the £130 connection fee

Are these fair comparisons? If so, time to call VM and haggle.

Altarf

aloneinthedark wrote: »

managed to get mine down from £135 a month (inc line rental) down to 90

So down from £1,620 per year to £1,080.

A big saving, but still a lot of money for phone and tv.

ikr2 wrote: »

I am trying to sort out what I should be paying for VM.
Currently our package is:
We have L Unlimited Broadband (up to 20MB)
But we also have XL phone
Virgin charge us £40.64 per month for this.

Far too much. Half that would be reasonable.

ikr2 wrote: »

Plusnet's unlimited broadband ... (inc. line rental) £14 per month

BT's unlimited broadband ... (inc. line rental) £23.75 per month

BT looks good as ... they waive the £130 connection fee

Are these fair comparisons? If so, time to call VM and haggle.

Possibly. Have you -

a. Established the speed that you will actually get with Plusnet/BT's "up to 16MB" service. At my house their 16MB service would be about 1.5 to 2.5MB.

b. Thought about what speed you need. VirginMedia are good at persuading people they should have faster speeds than they really need. It is quite funny to see people on here say "I asked for a discount, but they offered me faster broadband, so I got a great deal". VirginMedia are still taking the same amount of money and you got a "deal". Yes you did if you needed that extra speed, otherwise VM have just got one over on you.

c. Is fibre in your area, what are the prices for that, and how does it compare to VM.

Dustykitten

Hi all

2 years has passed quickly and the lovely people at VM have decided now is the time to take away our £10 per month loyalty so current deal will be

M+ tv - this is ok for us
upto 20MB broadband - need to check what we get, it is not fast enough really with 5 of us using the internet at the same time in the evenings
large phone - don't need that to be large as hardly use the phone
caller display
Line rental of course

New price £56ish - old price £44ish

What should I aim for? Through work DH can get Sky for £25 - all the sports and stuff but we'd still need BB and phone so I think we'd end up paying more and don't really need any more channels IMHO.

ikr2

Just tested the current VM connection and it is 9 MBs-1 down and 1.1 up. That is fine for our needs (browsing, some TV catch up and gaming).

If the BT and Plusnet non fiber packages are slower than that then they are probably not good alternatives. BT's unlimited fiber is £38 a month inc. discounted line rental.

They offer limited packages up to 10GB or 20GB per month but we do stream TV over Sky and iplayer and our children do use the internet for Minecraft so I do not know our bandwidth needs there.

thor

Dustykitten wrote: »

Hi all

2 years has passed quickly and the lovely people at VM have decided now is the time to take away our £10 per month loyalty so current deal will be

M+ tv - this is ok for us
upto 20MB broadband - need to check what we get, it is not fast enough really with 5 of us using the internet at the same time in the evenings
large phone - don't need that to be large as hardly use the phone
caller display
Line rental of course

New price £56ish - old price £44ish

Aim for what I negotiated in post #3542.
I have got a very similar package. I will be getting a tivo box(don't know which tv box you have) and have elected to pay 12 months upfront. It will come to about 30 quid per month incl line rental.
At a minimum, I'm pretty sure you could get your loyalty discount back. Paying over £50 is a ripoff but low 30s or less is quite a good deal if you ask me.

donfanatico

VM will be upgrading me for free form 30Mb to 50Mb between Aug2014 and Jan 2015. I've read that some people have managed to get upgraded earlier by calling retention. Does anyone know what to say or has successfully managed to to get the upgrade earlier?

By the way it's 150 option 5 then option 3 (or 2 , I cant rememebr now )

donfanatico

jatinmistry_uk wrote: »

All the deals posted here assuming are exculding phone line rental as no one seems to mention.

Nope, I pay 27.99£ (after the 3£ increase) per month. Normal price is 35.99£ but I get 8£ good will gesture taken off every month. This includes the phone.

They call it 'Starter Bundle' this is 20£ and 15.99£ for the phone
I am only on TV M, BB 30 and Talk Weekends though. THis is plenty for bearing in mind that I dont even have aphone plugged so I will be dropping this as soon as my contract is done.

donfanatico

Called retentions now as well to complain about the terrible wifi signal of the SuperHUb1 so they are sending me a Superhub2 free of charge.

Dustykitten

Can anybody confirm if you can use the 118180 for free phone calls? From what I can work out you can use the number 10 times a day to be connected to numbers free of charge. Is this correct? Thinking of downgrading my phone part of my deal and just using this - only probably make 3-4 calls a week. Would it work for all numbers - residential and business?