Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

Katykat

Sister rang me and told me sh'd taken Martins advice, called NTL again ( she's done it before) and told them she wasn't happy with the package and thought TalkTalk were offering more. She got upgraded to 2mb BB, & unlimited calls. I just phoned and obviously spoke to someone whose commision is facing being cut. I have 3for £30 plus sports channels & she told me I was getting a very good deal (it's still £52 though) Told her Sky had better choice, she said I could change my package to Family, but I hardly ever watch those channels, hubby only watches sports a couple of times a month, she advised dropping sports and just having basic. Whats the use of that, I might just as well have freeview. She wasn't budging, told me I had a discount last year when I rang & complained that new customers were getting 3 for £30, so I've used up all my discounts. Dont really want the hassle of changing BB providor after seeing the problems others have ( like waiting ages for connection) so think I'll lie low for a few days & ring back. Problem then is, from 8th they are CHARGING to contact them. Cheeky ****s. Have to look on SayNoTo0870. Incidentally, let things lapse a bit. Was using 1899 for landline to mobile calls @ 10p min.After using call checker, found Call Cheap was only 2p. THANKS MARTIN:money:

stuartw101

Anyone knwo if you can phone back up even after you have made changes? I have been looking at what other people got and now think they didn't offer me as much as they could have.

Anyone know? Also is talk 24 unlimited, free calls?

comics

Just finished my talk with Telewest

I phoned 150 on my TW phone, selected option 3 (general) and 3 (other) again.

They gave me the works about talktalk, and saying how my BB connection would be way slower than the upto 8MB offered (was told that I would only get 1MB). Also saying that it talktalk can't sustain the free BB offer.
I can't hassle for my life and got whopped by the operator.

All I got in the end was
Phone and BB (same as before) for £14.50 for only three months.

Currently on
Basic Phone £10.50
4MB BB £25.00
Total £35.50

Saving only ((£35.50 - £14.50 £21 x 3 months) £63

It's not great, but better than nothing.
The good thing was I was not put on hold for too long (less than 1 minute).
Called at 17:40, finished at 18:05 equals 5 minutes of negotiations (one sided, from them), and 20 minutes of them talking down talktalk.

Thanks to this site and everyone who posted on this site, who gave me the confidence to call TW.

Peace

DAZnJEN

i received an email from Martin to suggest telling NTL you were thinking of leaving due to a Telewest offer.

i did this and my phone bill went down from £16.50 per month to £8.00 and my broadband went from £17.99 to £9.99 !!!!!

a saving of £16.50 per month just for asking and thats without any haggling.

maybe with a bit of forethought i could have haggled a bit but i was so shocked at just how easy that was that i just smiled and said 'thank you'

and so to Martin - 'THANK YOU' :beer: cheers

moggsy

stuartw101 wrote:

Anyone knwo if you can phone back up even after you have made changes? I have been looking at what other people got and now think they didn't offer me as much as they could have.

Anyone know? Also is talk 24 unlimited, free calls?

As I mentioned previously in this thread - I decided to phone NTL again today after yesterday being offered 2 Meg broadband (soon to be 4 Meg) for £12.50 a month but realising there was a better deal on offer.

So after speaking to a rather polite chap I now have 10 Meg for £9.99 a month! Well worth another call :j

scala

just phoned the cutomer relations number (not the main customer services number) and expressed concren about my charges
offered an instant £11.00 a month discount off my current charges of £72.50 which was for cable package(inc sky sports and movies) line rental 1mb broadband and international call charge packet. 10 minute call(at their expense) to save £132.00 a year. will give it a month or so then go back to work on them!. wouldnt budge on the broadband this time but hey.. a start

note the customer relations only work 9-5 number is 0800 052 9403. choose option 2.
worth the call any day lol

Lincolnman

I spoke to customer services re: talk talk package. They were unable to match price, but after asking they upgraderd my broadband to 2MB (soon to be 4MB). You also get Broadband Plus free with 2MB, this is worth £3.99 pm. So i got £10.99 of extras free.

clifton2

If you are with Telewest you have to get put through to disconnections and ask to cancel before they will offer you a deal, only the DISCONNECTIONS department have the authority to overide the standard and special offers available.

Look at my post on VONAGE AND TELEWEST

You do have to be prepared to go through with it though if necessary

Kathyc_2

Finally made the call to Telewest, and spent 15 mins chatting with a very polite (but determined and knowledgeable) lady from Telewest

I got the usual spiel about Talk Talk, but I quoted some figures about what I could save, cut her short when she started explaining the differences, and said that I didn't really care, I just wanted to ask what they were prepared to do to for me.

She reduced my bill by £23 a month!! :T

I am on a pretty high tariff, but that is still a saving of £276 a year for a quick free call!

The number I rang was 0800 073 0591 and selected option 3. They are open 8am to 8pm.

Go on - make that call!

Kathy

simannegeo

This morning I received a letter telling me that my line rental was to increase by 50p a month and call display going to £1.75 per month. I called Telewest on 0800 073 0591 and explaining that I wished to cancel my £39 per month package. After being told that to switch now was bad being that too many were going to Talk Talk and the exchanges would not be able to handle the increase in broadband traffic. I had all the other things put to me that others have mentioned. In the end I said I was not convinced that what was said was correct and I still wished to cancel. I was then offered £6 per month off for 3 months and free caller display for 6 months. So I save £7.75 per month and was told they would review the package at the end of the 3 months.
Thank for a great site and all the savings I have made following your tips