Virgin Media Retention thread

janed9388

I put my cancellation in on the 19th and got the call back today (I think I had one missed call from them last week too), was £83 now £57 (including phone line rental with 12 month contract), no idea what package I have, but I think it's XL + 100 mb broadband + inclusive phone calls including some premium numbers - I suspect I could have played hard ball and got a bit more off but they called as I was trying to deal with noisy baby & 3 year old so I'm happy enough. Thanks for the advice.

KEROUAC1957

When negotiating are Virgin likely to try to get you on an 18 month contract? I noticed that is standard for new customers but just wondered if it's possible to insist on 12 months if you are an existing customer.

visidigi

KEROUAC1957 wrote: »

When negotiating are Virgin likely to try to get you on an 18 month contract? I noticed that is standard for new customers but just wondered if it's possible to insist on 12 months if you are an existing customer.

All my renewals through OUTBOUND retention deals have been 12 months.

Inbound where I called them tried to get me on 18 months more than once.

If you are worried, ask for 12 months - its yet another thing they can do if you ask.

[Deleted User]

jh7even wrote: »

Since the start of my account I have probably had 30-40 late charges added to my account

Yes I know late payment is my fault but due to the amount I have paid to Virgin over the 5 years I have been with them it seems to me a little excessive,

The only thing "excessive" I can see is the number of times you have been late with payment!
You have no chance of getting a refund of these charges and the fact that you can't pay by direct debit and are frequently tardy with manual payment suggests you have affordability issues.
I would strongly recommend you switch to direct debit and, if this is not possible, perhaps consider cancelling or downgrading your Cable services. Do you really need pay-tv, for example?

bioboybill

Well I got on to retentions at VM again last night and got on to a rather more helpful fella. Basically he said that with the £3.99 increase this month my bill will go up to £88.62, but he offered to put me on the Big Kahuna with Sky Movies for £56.48 for 9 months rising to £91.98 the following 9 months, but said i could phone and renegotiate after the first 9 months. I'm not sure how I could do that as i would be half way through the contract. Anyhow I worked that out as averaging £74.23/month over the 18 months, so not too bad. I would be losing the free calls 24/7 and only getting them weekends, but rarely use the phone anyway so no real loss. I would get faster broadband and Sky Movies and be paying £14/mth less overall. I did say I didn't need my extra V box anymore. I said I would discuss with my wife, so he said he would put it through now and gave me his personal email address and told me to email him if I didn't want to go ahead and he would call me back. Said he wasn't working today but would see the email at work on Saturday.

I got home and saw an email from Virgin confirming the package, but charging me £58.99 for 9 months then £94.49, so £2.50/mth more than agreed. It also had me keeping the extra V Box. I emailed him and pointed out the price difference and said it was still too steep and said if they take £6.50/mth off for the extra V box I would be reasonably happy, but if not I want to leave. I hope he calls me back tomorrow!

visidigi

bioboybill wrote: »

Well I got on to retentions at VM again last night and got on to a rather more helpful fella. Basically he said that with the £3.99 increase this month my bill will go up to £88.62, but he offered to put me on the Big Kahuna with Sky Movies for £56.48 for 9 months rising to £91.98 the following 9 months, but said i could phone and renegotiate after the first 9 months. I'm not sure how I could do that as i would be half way through the contract. Anyhow I worked that out as averaging £74.23/month over the 18 months, so not too bad. I would be losing the free calls 24/7 and only getting them weekends, but rarely use the phone anyway so no real loss. I would get faster broadband and Sky Movies and be paying £14/mth less overall. I did say I didn't need my extra V box anymore. I said I would discuss with my wife, so he said he would put it through now and gave me his personal email address and told me to email him if I didn't want to go ahead and he would call me back. Said he wasn't working today but would see the email at work on Saturday.

I got home and saw an email from Virgin confirming the package, but charging me £58.99 for 9 months then £94.49, so £2.50/mth more than agreed. It also had me keeping the extra V Box. I emailed him and pointed out the price difference and said it was still too steep and said if they take £6.50/mth off for the extra V box I would be reasonably happy, but if not I want to leave. I hope he calls me back tomorrow!

Did they ring you for that deal or did you ring them?

If you haven't been through with the cancellation process then you need to. You will not get value for your bundle if you deal with the inbound retentions team.

bioboybill

I rang them, but the guy said he will ring me back if I'm not happy with the deal, which i have said I'm not but tbf if they knock another £6.50 off then I think £52.49 for 9 months and then £87.99 for 9 months is reasonable for:
200MB BB
Tivo Box
Free Weekend Calls
XL TV
Sky Movies

The area I live in I have checked with Sky and BT and they reckon I would get 1-3.5 MB/s, which would be horrendous compared to 200Mb/s, so I really don't want to leave. If they don't play ball I will cancel at the weekend.

visidigi

bioboybill wrote: »

I rang them, but the guy said he will ring me back if I'm not happy with the deal, which i have said I'm not but tbf if they knock another £6.50 off then I think £52.49 for 9 months and then £87.99 for 9 months is reasonable for:
200MB BB
Tivo Box
Free Weekend Calls
XL TV
Sky Movies

The area I live in I have checked with Sky and BT and they reckon I would get 1-3.5 MB/s, which would be horrendous compared to 200Mb/s, so I really don't want to leave. If they don't play ball I will cancel at the weekend.

You say you would be happy...

But if I told you I am on a 12 month contract paying £84.99 for this...

200mb BB
XL TV
Sky Sports / Sky Movies
Sky HD pack
1 x 1TB Tivo
1 x 500GB Tivo
Line Rental
Weekend Calls (I never use the phone)
New Superhub

Would you still be happy? There are deals to be had, but you MUST cancel and await the callback.

My area is horrendous for BT - it doesn't matter...

bioboybill

Well that looks like a very good deal. You've got an extra Tivo box that I don't have and you have Sky Sports that I don't have (and the new Superhub, but AFAIK my Superhub 2 can do 200Mb/s) and you are paying £17.75/mth more than me if I get it for the price i hope to. I have a way of getting Sky sports free anyway, so I'm not worried about that. I will cancel if they don't cut the £6.50/mth from their price. I admit I would prefer a 12 month contract.

visidigi

bioboybill wrote: »

Well that looks like a very good deal. You've got an extra Tivo box that I don't have and you have Sky Sports that I don't have (and the new Superhub, but AFAIK my Superhub 2 can do 200Mb/s) and you are paying £17.75/mth more than me if I get it for the price i hope to. I have a way of getting Sky sports free anyway, so I'm not worried about that. I will cancel if they don't cut the £6.50/mth from their price. I admit I would prefer a 12 month contract.

I am not paying more than you, proportionally.

You cannot take your first 9 month price and say thats what you get it for...

Seriously you must go through the cancellation process to get the best price. You have nothing to lose.