Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

Bossworld

jmarko wrote: »

Hello!

I'm out of contract and currently on...

Telephone Line Rental £11.99
Phone, Broadband And TV Saving £-7.00
Free Voicemail £0.00
Broadband Size: M £20.50
T V Size: M £0.00

Total £25.49

I'll prob get shot down in flames for saying this but it seems a bit steep for what is essentially freeview, phone and bb.

What do people think? Could I do better? I quite fancy tvm+ and phone L but I'm not sure what I should be paying for that.

J

I've just cancelled (moving to a non virgin area) and I had

Telephone Line Rental 01 July - 31 July £11.99
Phone, Bband & TV M Discount 01 July - 31 July £-11.00 Talk Unlimited 01 July - 31 July £0.00
Broadband Size: L 01 July - 31 July £25.00
T V Size: M 01 July - 31 July £0.00

For £25.99 a month.

A few months back they upped it to £27.99 from £25, can't remember why, but I then upgraded to 20MB broadband for the sake of an extra £4 a month, which came to a total of £31 a month.

Then moved back down to 10MB as we weren't using the extra speed, and it's been £25.99 ever since (so £1 cheaper than after the price hike anyway)

Would think they'll still be offering that phone XL/TV M/broadband L for ~£27?

HarpreetRehal

darrenj wrote: »

Sounds good I'm paying £60 for that at the moment, what did you say to get that deal?

I said that I've just moved back home to find that my parents have got sky and virgin in at the same time and that we are looking to get rid of one of them in order to cut costs down. I made it clear to the chap that I don't mind if I go with Sky or stay with VM and will stick with whatever is the cheaper option but I am definately getting rid of one of them.

I knew by doing it this way, they would offer me something that is cheaper than sky and give me a few incentives to stay with them. As soon as he knew I was open to staying with them, he started throwing in the XL package for the same price as the L and the line rental at half price etc - thinking back, the mistake I made was not trying to haggle him down more!!

I enquired about the extra box and he said that the 'standard' box we have now could be moved up to a bedroom for a charge of £5.50 a month. I asked whether I could have a V+ recordable one (as sky were offering the multiroom) for the bedroom instead and although he was reluctant (apparently they are not really allowed to do that?!) I pushed a little and he agreed.

When I rang up a few weeks ago i was quoted £60 plus for the same thing but with one box, a connection charge and the M sized tv package!

Hope this helps others out there!

Thanks!

xscope

Have been with Virgin Media with a few years now.

I have a TV L (with V+ box), Broadband M, and am paying £39.50 per month.
- I got the V+ box, while you had to rent it, not buy.

It seems if you are a new customer you get a much better deal, with a phone line as well.

I'm happy with the service I receive and don't really need a landline phone.

Any suggestions how I get the bill reduced?

lonestarfan

aj9648 wrote: »

Hi

In a similar position to some of you here....feel I am paying too much


Description Date/period Amount
Line Rental 22 June - 21 July £11.99
Talk Unlimited 22 June - 21 July £7.95
Phone, Bband & TV M+ Discount 22 June - 21 July £-12.50
M+ (Starter) 22 June - 21 July £5.50
Broadband Size: L 22 June - 21 July £25.00

I would like to get o2 BB and o2 home phone as I am an o2 customer now. However as I understand I would have to get BT to reconnect my line (had BT before) costing £100+

Is it worth it? Any other deals out there? I pay £25 for my BB (L) which seems extortionate

BT have an offer on for a new BT line for 29.99 until 30.9.10 incl weekend package for calls, 18 month contract and must make 10 calls a month but you can make them out of your package.Their call package includes 0845 and 0870 whereas virgin doesn't. Its £50 installation for a line if you are going to take BT Broadband.
I have sky tv but have virgin cable internet and phone and calls package. I pay £30pm to virgin (11 + 10 + 7.95) . I am thinking of going with BT now they have a deal on the line installation and getting sky broadband but am still shopping around - I want to get phone and internet for £15pm. I think sky bb is £5 for me as I have sky tv. I might look at 02.
I don't think you can take 02 line tho if BT have given the installation for £29.99 - you'd have to wait the 18 months.
My experience of the low useage sky broadband (I got it installed for my sis) is that we are always going over the limit for the basic free package - if you go over 2 months running then they put you on their next package up which is £7.50 pm. and is not competitively priced for the useage so I am going to look around for a better price for my sis as well but its a lot easier as she has a BT line.
I have got all virgin package (tv XL with V+ box, tel, internet M, unltd calls) for my mum as the trees mean she cannot have sky and she pays £44 pm, and I got all sky for my sis. I am part and part because I just had to have a sky + box when I heard what it could do! and virgin at the time had no similar thing (they brought out V+ 3 months later!) and it is definitely better value if you are all with one rather than part and part like me.
However, I have stayed with virgin longer than I should because I like cable internet but my experience of sky BB has been perfectly fine that I feel I could put up with it. Don't forget to add in the line rental when you compare costings. Hope the info about BT offer is helpful.

hansi

xscope wrote: »

Have been with Virgin Media with a few years now.

I have a TV L (with V+ box), Broadband M, and am paying £39.50 per month.
- I got the V+ box, while you had to rent it, not buy.

It seems if you are a new customer you get a much better deal, with a phone line as well.

I'm happy with the service I receive and don't really need a landline phone.

Any suggestions how I get the bill reduced?

I thought the V+ box was always on a rental basis, wasn't it?

lonestarfan

We don't rent or buy the V+ box. It had an installation fee but I do recall when it was launched it had a rental fee. We had it installed in January 2008

lonestarfan

hansi wrote: »

I'm getting all those services not half price rental) and I pay around £50 a month, so that's not bad. And that's without having to ring retentions.

I think you've done ok. I negotiated from £52.45 to £44 last year for the same as you've got. Its coming to an end in October this year.

hansi

lonestarfan wrote: »

We don't rent or buy the V+ box. It had an installation fee but I do recall when it was launched it had a rental fee. We had it installed in January 2008

I think if you check you bills, you will find that you do pay a rental for it.

lonestarfan

No I've checked all bills right back to Dec 08 as you suggest and no rental on there for the V+ box ever. Maybe it was absorbed in the TX XL price as they show it. I got my bill reduced by by £9.45 last October so perhaps thats why they offered a reduction.

hansi

lonestarfan wrote: »

No I've checked all bills right back to Dec 08 as you suggest and no rental on there for the V+ box ever. Maybe it was absorbed in the TX XL price as they show it. I got my bill reduced by by £9.45 last October so perhaps thats why they offered a reduction.

You've done ok there! But beware, they wrote to me some time ago and told me that, due to their mistake, I had not been paying for my TV package for the last year. But to their credit, they only started taking the payment from the date they wrote to me, and didn't backdate it.