Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

Podgey2010

I have been with Virgin Media for over 10 years, but signed upto a new contract on 12th June 2008 for an exclusive bundle that included (prices as included in my last bill)

XL Broadband - 20mb - £37
XL TV - £25
XL Phone + Line Rental - £20.24
V+ HD box - £10
Standard STB £15
Talk International - £1.50
Talk Mobile - £1.50
Discount for Xtra STB - £9.40
Discount for BB/Phone/TV - £29.95

This bundle orignally started out at £60 a month but has gradually increased and increased. so now I am paying £70.89 a month, I contacted VM on Monday to discuss adding the XXL broadband and at what cost each month, I was told it would be £3.21 extra but with an activation fee of £20 which I refuse to pay, so said I would think about it, I then rang back 10mins later spoke to someone else and asked the same thing, only this time I guess the person I was speaking to didnt quite understand me, he came back and said I could save £10 a month (the charge I have never known I was paying for the V+ HD box as I thought it was in the discount) but there was a snag....... a very big snag....... for me to save £10 a month, I would have to pay VM £75, that is after paying them more or less £300 for the crap STB since June 2008, I asked why this was the case and was told I didnt pay any activation charge at the time of taking the exclusive deal, thinking back I am sure everything was said to be free activation and set up so VM obviously now thinking that people cant/wont remember and are moving the goalposts for their own financial gain.

So on Monday I put in a complaint saying how new customers get better deals than loyal customers etc, they contacted me on Tuesday morning only that I wasnt in so missed the call, so I contacted them today to see wha they could do, the person I spoke to didnt seem all that concerned that I was paying as much as I am and that I am being asked for £75 fee straight out just to save me £10 a month in the future, the VM person said they would call me back and see what they could do, 20mins later I got the call back saying they could do nothing and the charge would stay, but they could save me £2!! yes £2 a month but I would have to sign upto a new 12month contract. I felt like telling them to shove their service where the sun doesnt shine, but that would get me no joy!

Has anyone else had similar problems with Virgin seemingly wanting people no matter how long they been with them to stay on packages that are being over priced to them, but drastically undercut for new customers??

pinkdolly87

I currently have M BB M+ TV & M phoneline and i am being charged £31 per month. Am I paying too much? I would like the V+HD box but they are trying to charge me £45 installation, any ideas how I can get this for free?

BonnieWood

I'm awfully confused! At present I have Virgin broadband, TV and phone, my contract runs out in March and I am not sure whether to change supplier or not! I no longer need the TV as I will be getting a Freeview box and I don't use the landline all that often although some family members do still call us on it!

My confusion comes because I have gone on the comparison sites for low cost broadband and phone packages but most of them say I need a non cable phone line to be eligible for them! Does this now mean I have to stay with Virgin, can I still get a cheaper deal elsewhere and if so how do I go about obtaining a non cable phone line or should I contact Virgin and haggle with them, although I have to say their broadband connection is pants recently! :mad:

lingwood

We are currently with virgin for broadband ad phone, no issues with them at all. Only use the BB or basic surfing, and light evening and weekend on the phone.

We are not in a location to get super fast BB or TV, we are happy with sky for our tv.

Got letter yesterday offering BT BB, and ulimited evening and w/c end calls for £8 per month for 18months.

We currently pay £14.99 with virgin. But bill always seams to be about £20 as OH keeps forgetting to use the phone after 6pm and hang up after 59 mins and phone again!!!! Only women can be on the phone for 2hrs.

Also if we pay our line rental in one gove with BT it works out at £10 per month compared to £13.60

Also will be paying with our Tesco CC so will get the points as well.

tprbadboy

I have xl tv, phone with unlimited anytime landline calls, V+hd box, Superhub 50meg broadband and a 5 pound none dd charge total I pay is just under £65 if I set up a direct debit it would go down to just under £60 is this a gd deal? Also maybe I can have some advice my superhub was fitted on thursday 13th 2011 yesterday:D and for some reason I was charged £60 activation fee which I think is wrong and that charge was added instantly so now I've hit my credit limit so they have suspended my service which isn't right due to my billing update date is 20th of every month and a payment date of the 28th the latest so can they instantly update it there end early? Is that allowed cuz my ebilling hasn't updated that's still displaying as last months lol thanks in advance for any advice

lingwood

just phone dup virgin for my MAC code. They asked why I wanted to move, so told them as above.

They said we can do that for £7.50 per month!!!

Great!

And I can still chnage my BT line rental to pay in one go @£120 and save.

So the 2 together are saving us about £130 + tescos points

BillyT_2

i got my residential services contract this morning and the contract says 18 month contract not 12 as the retention department had said so i rang up and they wouldnt change it so i had to cancel my account again. will retentions ring me again or is this goodbye virgin media and hello BT :-(

bulktrans

I have been with Virgin for 6 years now and I changed my home so took a contract out last year in Jan and now my contract is expiring. I was getting
TV-M
BB-L
Phone - talk unlimited

for £26 odd last year. But now they can't offer me any deals as I was already given a deal in the first year and that I have to wait for sometime to get another deal. As a result now to keep the price down to £26 I have to get rid of the talk unlimited option. They couldn't even offer free evenings and weekends. I hardly use phone - use a calling card to phone abroad and some Virgin phone family members.

Can anyone please advice if I can get a better deal with them or change the supplier etc?

Thanks

Verbatim

Can someone translate the jargon for a non techie please? xl is this extra large for TV and phone??
v ?? I get HD (High Definition?) m phone is what?

Our longstanding contract with Virgin has BB, landline but only free calls to 01 02 03 numbers at weekends, and catch up TV but we use our own ancient set. If we make any calls our bill seems to jump from around its usual £37 to high £40s or £50s. I'd like to have a shot at haggling to decrease the cost rather than increase the bells and whistles.

jem16

BillyT wrote: »

i got my residential services contract this morning and the contract says 18 month contract not 12 as the retention department had said so i rang up and they wouldnt change it so i had to cancel my account again. will retentions ring me again or is this goodbye virgin media and hello BT :-(

I had this nonsense from them too although I was told it was an 18 month contract for phone and 12 months for BB - never mentioned it on the phone, only when emailing which I insisted on. Also never mentioned the price would go up after 12 months until 18 months.

I told them I wasn't interested in 18 months with an increased price so would not accept it.

Have not heard from them since. They seem to have cut off my services today and not tomorrow when it should have been.

I'm not bothered though. I have had a BT line for years and now O2 for BB.