Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

lai30

I am currently using the VM broadband on a BT line. I haven't had any problems with Virgin's connection. But.. its costing me £14.99 for upto 8MB (I am getting 6MB) and the BT LINE (unlimited weekend and evening calls just switched onto paperless billing which is small saving) £12.79/month. So plus calls and the non direct debit *say £16* total of £30 a month. Looked at switching broadband/phone to O2 , but the primus and plusnet don't seem bad. I am on Broadband Plan Three. Advise please I know I'll have to decide to either drop BT or not , or virgin.

Equinox1000

katie_cat wrote: »

Thank you for your advice. We spoke to Virgin and they explained that his bundle only had free weekend calls, any calls made during the week were being charged. They offered the unlimited talk for £4 per month so he's happy enough with that.

I asked for the list of calls made for the August bill and they are sending that out at a charge of £2. For peace of mind I asked for the next few bills to be itemised. I'm also trying to talk him in to setting up a direct debit but this could take a while

Thanks again.

You're welcome.

Remember though that the inclusive calls are only to 01, 02 and 03 ("geographical") numbers. 08 (companies, doctors' surgeries etc.) numbers will be charged and at a much higher rate than you'd expect. Use the saynoto0870 website to find geographical numbers which will be free to call on your new plan.

Smirfy

leeroy221 wrote: »

Hello All,

I have been with VM for the past 16mths and had no problems at all, thing is i am getting bored with the TV channels i have got.

Currently i have the lowest bundle of M TV, M phone and L broadband, this is the basic package.

I pay around £40 all in all each month for this package. This includes the line rental of £11.99 and calls, although we very very rarely use the phone, only for when my Wife calls her family in Thailand.

Anyway, i want to upgrade the TV to XL so my little boy can watch the cartoons and would also like to get the sports package.

Can anyone tell me if they have apackage similar to this and if they received any deals etc. On the website for the M phone L broadband and XL TV with sports they say it costs £56 + £11.99 line rental so £67.99 a month which is out of my price range unfortunatly. I am only able to afford around £40-£50 max per month.

If anyone could let me know any good deals they have got or any good bargaining tools i would very much appreciate it

Lee

Hi - my first post on here so apologies if it is not quite right! Anyway just read Lee's quote and wanted to say that today we just upgraded our TV package to XL, and kept our M phone and L broadband (I think what you want) - we got this for £40.24 per month with a one off payment of £19 for an HD box. We did this through the cancellation line, so good luck and hope it works for you too!

tinalives

Smirfy wrote: »

Hi - my first post on here so apologies if it is not quite right! Anyway just read Lee's quote and wanted to say that today we just upgraded our TV package to XL, and kept our M phone and L broadband (I think what you want) - we got this for £40.24 per month with a one off payment of £19 for an HD box. We did this through the cancellation line, so good luck and hope it works for you too!

Hiya, i'm just wondering if they discounted the first two months as well?

leeroy221

Just to let everyone know,

Sky offered me S/Sports package, music, childrens and variety package
Unlimited b/band
+ Phone with the freetime package
Free box, wireless router, installation, dish etc and free installation of a new line.
£25 M & S vouchers

For £50 per month inc line rental.

I am a virgin customer and currently get everything from them but they were not able to match sky, the cheapest they could do was £60 per month and would not budge, tried on 3 occasions and they still would not budge each time as they cant compete.

They didnt seem to bothered that i was leaving to be honest, that was all 3 different operators i spoke to so i have carried on and asked for my package to be cancelled and am moving to sky. Shame because i wanted to stay with Virgin.

michellerfc

leeroy221 wrote: »

Hello All,

I have been with VM for the past 16mths and had no problems at all, thing is i am getting bored with the TV channels i have got.

Currently i have the lowest bundle of M TV, M phone and L broadband, this is the basic package.

I pay around £40 all in all each month for this package. This includes the line rental of £11.99 and calls, although we very very rarely use the phone, only for when my Wife calls her family in Thailand.

Anyway, i want to upgrade the TV to XL so my little boy can watch the cartoons and would also like to get the sports package.

Can anyone tell me if they have apackage similar to this and if they received any deals etc. On the website for the M phone L broadband and XL TV with sports they say it costs £56 + £11.99 line rental so £67.99 a month which is out of my price range unfortunatly. I am only able to afford around £40-£50 max per month.

If anyone could let me know any good deals they have got or any good bargaining tools i would very much appreciate it

Lee

Just phone 150 and go select the option for leaving. Tell them you want to cancel all packages, as Sky have offered you a better deal including the Sports and kids channels, etc. They will then give you a better deal, you keep saying no, no, no, I don't know what the lowest price is that they would go to. Although, I doubt very much you will get this near your price range.

I just recently upgraded to the XL package and Sky Sports package. I was paying around £40 a month including calls before switching, this was for M Phone, M TV and L Broadband, so the exact same that you have. I now have M Phone, L Broadband and XL TV package which includes ESPN and also added on sky sports package. I got this for £60.74 per month including line rental and vat, plus calls extra on top of this, so I expect it to be around £65 per month. I also got a free HD box, they tried the it's £49, but you can have it for £19, I said but Sky offer it free, so they gave in. Similar package with Sky was slightly more expensive when you included line rental and extra for the ESPN channels and obviously the hassle of switching. I had no intention of leaving but obviously they don't know that.

Has anyone got the Sky Sports HD channels for free. I called up when I got Sky Sports added and said why don't I have the HD channels, they said it's an extra £7 per month, I was like are you joking! I said I thought this was included but they were having none of it and kept saying, it's £7, it's £7! Obv I said well....forget it!

DON'T EVER PAY FOR THE HD BOX, THEY WILL GIVE YOU IT FOR FREE!

leeroy221

michellerfc wrote: »

Just phone 150 and go select the option for leaving. Tell them you want to cancel all packages, as Sky have offered you a better deal including the Sports and kids channels, etc. They will then give you a better deal, you keep saying no, no, no, I don't know what the lowest price is that they would go to. Although, I doubt very much you will get this near your price range.

I just recently upgraded to the XL package and Sky Sports package. I was paying around £40 a month including calls before switching, this was for M Phone, M TV and L Broadband, so the exact same that you have. I now have M Phone, L Broadband and XL TV package which includes ESPN and also added on sky sports package. I got this for £60.74 per month including line rental and vat, plus calls extra on top of this, so I expect it to be around £65 per month. I also got a free HD box, they tried the it's £49, but you can have it for £19, I said but Sky offer it free, so they gave in. Similar package with Sky was slightly more expensive when you included line rental and extra for the ESPN channels and obviously the hassle of switching. I had no intention of leaving but obviously they don't know that.

Has anyone got the Sky Sports HD channels for free. I called up when I got Sky Sports added and said why don't I have the HD channels, they said it's an extra £7 per month, I was like are you joking! I said I thought this was included but they were having none of it and kept saying, it's £7, it's £7! Obv I said well....forget it!

DON'T EVER PAY FOR THE HD BOX, THEY WILL GIVE YOU IT FOR FREE!

Hi,
I tried 3 times to haggle a deal out of them, they were having none of it. I told them the deal i was getting with Sky and they were not able to match it. I said i would accept Vigin price of £60.74 p/m if they were able to upgrade my box but they were unwilling to do this so i have now cancelled which is a shame because i wanted to stay with Virgin but hey, i feel like they didnt value my custom at all. I lied when i said i have been with them for 18mths, it has been over 3 years on the same package (18mth has been in our new house..lost track of time )

I now get:
Unlimited broadband
Phone inc the freetime - which is free anyway
free sky + box, installation etc, free wireless router, free phone line installation etc
S/Sports
Music
Variety
Childrens
£25 M + S vouchers

All this for £50 p/m so i was happy with the deal but just a shame to leave Virgin.

isotonic_uk

leeroy221 wrote: »

Hi,
I tried 3 times to haggle a deal out of them, they were having none of it. I told them the deal i was getting with Sky and they were not able to match it. I said i would accept Vigin price of £60.74 p/m if they were able to upgrade my box but they were unwilling to do this so i have now cancelled which is a shame because i wanted to stay with Virgin but hey, i feel like they didnt value my custom at all. I lied when i said i have been with them for 18mths, it has been over 3 years on the same package (18mth has been in our new house..lost track of time )

I now get:
Unlimited broadband
Phone inc the freetime - which is free anyway
free sky + box, installation etc, free wireless router, free phone line installation etc
S/Sports
Music
Variety
Childrens
£25 M + S vouchers

All this for £50 p/m so i was happy with the deal but just a shame to leave Virgin.

Fellow members who have moved their broadband from Virgin (fibre optic line) to BT or Sky Broadband (ADSL connection), what are your opinions of your broadband since the changeover....Be honest.

I ask because my feeling is that Virgin has the best BB, in the 10 years I have been with them it has been very reliable and the speeds whilst I dont get the claimed speeds, its still very good. I have a good understanding of the technologies of how these work and I know that fibre optic is far more reliable then an ADSL line. Also distance from exchange is an important factor.

I am thinking of moving away from Virgin after 10 years to BT (for phone + broadband only) and /or Sky for TV and phone and broadband. The phone and TV are better value but I am still not sure on the broadband. From other comments on here it seems the hassle you get when transferring and then the quality of BB is no way as good as Virgin.

Whats are peoples thoughts? members who have moved away from Virgin have you been impressed with BT/Sky BB offerings?

The problem will all these companies if you start just buying individual services, it works out more expensive. I was tempted to just stick with virgin broadband but was horrified with the costs if I dont keep my virgin phone line.

The issue with the phone is i am paying nearly £20 in call costs because I phone a lot of 0870 and 0845 numbers but am tempted on the talk anywhere plans. Problem is when you phone retentions they cannot offer better deals if I take the anywhere calling plan.

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.

worried_jim

I was chatting to an Virgin engineer yesterday about what new things were coming soon and he said they are about to start replacing all the standard set top boxes for HD ones.

Optimist

isotonic_uk wrote: »

The issue with the phone is i am paying nearly £20 in call costs because I phone a lot of 0870 and 0845 numbers but am tempted on the talk anywhere plans. Problem is when you phone retentions they cannot offer better deals if I take the anywhere calling plan.

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Try http://www.saynoto0870.com/ for your 08 numbers.

I get free calls to geographical numbers on Virgin but not the 0870 numbers this site gives alternate numbers to call