Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

kennyhead

Thanks for the reply...

Yeah already paying by direct debit... They're never very good on phone and I always get someone a little hard to understand...

Was just wondering if anyone has had any real success haggling on this type of package...

Jox wrote: »

I would just call them and ask them what is the best deal they can do on all the options that you have.
If you don't get a better offer then say you want to cancel and they will put you through to another department and I think they will offer you a better deal.
Call them and if that doesn't work then write a letter and especially complain about not receiving the router and they may offer a gesture of goodwill.
Are you paying by direct debit? I think there is a slight discount if you do.

essexpalin

salski wrote: »

Virgin make me so mad!
I rang up last month to add L TV package and reduce my talk anytime to eve and weekends only. I was told that I would be under a new deal and it would actually be cheaer. I usually pay £35-£38 a month - my bill came in this month at £60! I rang them yesterday to ask them to remove the L TV and was told I would now pay £29.29 for:
M TV
free eve and weekend calls
L BB

Does this sound right guys?
I have been with them since it was NTL from day one of NTL - no customer loyalty. Do you think I should cancel it all? I only really use the BB - but dont have a BT line as we never had BT?! So no idea how I would get BB without paying for a BT landline?

You are right about customer loyalty, we phoned virgin yesterday, they basically said oh theres not much we can do you as you are on a top package, if you want to upgrade you have pay full list price for 'activation' etc (£100) thats totally free to new customers, hardly rewarding 10 years of loyal top package buying!

Dont even get me on to their off shore broadband call centre, lets just say i work in IT so know some things they tell you are incredible! I wont mention multiple missed appointments for engineer visits and so on.

Will try ringing again but the guy yesterday just said well if your not happy you can leave, just give 28days notice (they call this retention line btw). He said theres nothing he can do for us, he said we are on a reasonable deal (about £8pm cheaper than full list price). However I know others that are on a better deal.

Along with moving house etc I think any dealings with Virgin Media are up there with the most stressful things in life!!!

FleetFanatic

salski wrote: »

Virgin make me so mad!
I rang up last month to add L TV package and reduce my talk anytime to eve and weekends only. I was told that I would be under a new deal and it would actually be cheaer. I usually pay £35-£38 a month - my bill came in this month at £60! I rang them yesterday to ask them to remove the L TV and was told I would now pay £29.29 for:
M TV
free eve and weekend calls
L BB

Does this sound right guys?
I have been with them since it was NTL from day one of NTL - no customer loyalty. Do you think I should cancel it all? I only really use the BB - but dont have a BT line as we never had BT?! So no idea how I would get BB without paying for a BT landline?

No it doesn't. I now have:

XL TV, XL phone L BB & 2 V+HD boxes for £49 a month.

Looks like you got hammered using the phone during the day. Seriously everybody should have XL phone - it's about £5 a month extra a month. Think of it this way - one daytime 10min national call works out at about 80p. It can soon mount up.

7knuzz

Hi guys,

I have been with virgin for about 5 years now. I currently pay £49 a month for my bundle. I get the following:


Telephone Line Rental £12.24 (weekends only)
Talk International £1.50
Phone, TV & B B Bundle discount £-9.50
Free Voicemail £0.00
T V Size: X L £25.00
Broadband Size: M £20.70

I just have one normal v box, no HD or anything like that. I keep reading all the people that have all the v+ etc, how do I go about getting it all but trying to keep my price? Please help!

7knuzz

Hi guys,

Me again, just been trawling through my bills and found that the talk international extra on my virgin account is actually really worth while having if you phone overseas regullarly. Costs us £1.50 a month. We ring an Australian landline and it costs us 3p per min, we also phone a South African mobile, it only costs 9p per min. That is just as good if not better than all these overiders etc. Its worth checking out. I remember specifying the countries we would be dialling at the time, getting us a cheaper rate. Just thought I would share!!

FleetFanatic

7knuzz wrote: »

Hi guys,

I have been with virgin for about 5 years now. I currently pay £49 a month for my bundle. I get the following:


Telephone Line Rental £12.24 (weekends only)
Talk International £1.50
Phone, TV & B B Bundle discount £-9.50
Free Voicemail £0.00
T V Size: X L £25.00
Broadband Size: M £20.70

I just have one normal v box, no HD or anything like that. I keep reading all the people that have all the v+ etc, how do I go about getting it all but trying to keep my price? Please help!

V+ is free on XL, it's the activation charge you want to try & avoid.

I cancelled just the tv, with a genuine decision to go to sky. I decided not to book sky straight away, as to avoid an overlap, it took Virgin 2 days to call me to strike a deal. Part of that deal was to install V+HD & waive the activation charges (as I explained the lure of sky was a free HD box). And although only one thing was cancelled, they were open to varying the bundle completely - I got offered 30meg & 50meg broadband as part of the package for varying discounted prices, but 10meg is fine for me.

But if I can blag 2 V+HD boxes without installation or activation costs then I'm sure others can. Would have been nearly £150 to activate the 2 boxes otherwise.

essexpalin

FleetFanatic wrote: »

V+ is free on XL, it's the activation charge you want to try & avoid.

I cancelled just the tv, with a genuine decision to go to sky. I decided not to book sky straight away, as to avoid an overlap, it took Virgin 2 days to call me to strike a deal. Part of that deal was to install V+HD & waive the activation charges (as I explained the lure of sky was a free HD box). And although only one thing was cancelled, they were open to varying the bundle completely - I got offered 30meg & 50meg broadband as part of the package for varying discounted prices, but 10meg is fine for me.

But if I can blag 2 V+HD boxes without installation or activation costs then I'm sure others can. Would have been nearly £150 to activate the 2 boxes otherwise.

Interesting reading. Basically Im after a 2nd HD box to replace my 2nd non-HD box. I want to upgrade the boadband from 20Mb XL to 30Mb XL. Im told theres activation costs for both these circa £150 total as an existing customer plus any applicable monthly increased charges. With the XL BB im told I would have to pay £25 pm still (as I do now) whilst new customers only pay £18 and only half that for the 1st 6 months! I don think my bill is as cheap as many are getting too.

Im tempted to try the quit thing, call their bluff. I dont want all the hassle of quiting but am so tempted with all the sky offers for new customers (the same as virgin do). It doesnt pay to stay and be loyal. If they cant come up with a better deal or reduce activation costs (2nd HD activation as I already paid activation on one line, new customers only pay activation once) at the minimum I will start reducing my options, maybe this will be enough to kick them into action?

I wondering if VM are getting many calls now from people saying im leaving or im paying too much given these forums? I can imagine them thinking ' yeah yeah, every one says theyre leaving but no one really is, theyre just trying to get a better deal' Unless you really say cancel it they dont do too much?

To be honest as you will have seen in my other post im by no means happy with virgin anyhow. Maybe I should give sky a go. I think my biggest hassle is loss of my current email address in moving over. Just want of an easy life keeps me loyal to VM.

hansi

7knuzz wrote: »

Hi guys,

Me again, just been trawling through my bills and found that the talk international extra on my virgin account is actually really worth while having if you phone overseas regullarly. Costs us £1.50 a month. We ring an Australian landline and it costs us 3p per min, we also phone a South African mobile, it only costs 9p per min. That is just as good if not better than all these overiders etc. Its worth checking out. I remember specifying the countries we would be dialling at the time, getting us a cheaper rate. Just thought I would share!!

Might be worth looking at 18185?

7knuzz

Hi again,

Sounds as though I should be ringing up. Did'nt know it was free on XL and low and behold Virgin never told me! Im not really bothered about a second box but would like V+hd. I am going to give them a ring and see whats what. Will stick a post back on and let you all know whats up! Cheers!

Lady_K

I have been told by virgin media that I cannot have a home hub unless I upgrade my package.

They say it's because it is incompatable with my M broadband which they do not do anymore. It used to be 2mb but mine has a free upgrade to 10mb. I don't understand the difference as my daughter has just got a new broadband package with the home hub which is size L and that is only 10mb, am I right in assuming they have just changed the name seeing as they are both 10mb? Is mine really incompatable or is this just a ploy to get me to agree to a higher package?

The reason I wanted to get the hub is because I'm still using the motorolla surfboard modem from 1999 and for the last few months my connection keeps going off I'm wondering if its that. They have sent me 2 different ordinary modems to try to upgrade in the past but for some reason it will not work. I have been talked through tech services to try and instal them each time and even the top tech man there in uk and each time they try everything and then tell me I will have to put the motorolla surfboard back in so I wanted to try just upgrading it with the new home hub.

Do you think there is any way around getting the home up without losing my old package deal?