Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

knowlton

rosemaire2 wrote: »

hi
i've been with virgin for over a year and am paying a total of £35.99 per month breaking down as follows:

Phone Line rental £12.99
Talk E&W £4.99
Phone Broadband & TV Saving £-7
Broadband size L £26
TV size M £0

Even though they have given me TV for free, still seems a bit much, esp the broadband cost - any ideas as to what i should ask for in terms of a better price?

thankyou
rosemaire2

To be fair, that's not a bad deal - although you could try and get them to knock of Talk E&W - BT offers it for free....

savingmoney05

Hi

Just thought I would write a post about my experience with virgin media. My last couple of bills with virgin media had been really expensive so I decided to look into changing my provider. My current package from Virgin Media is as follows:

Phone Line rental £12.99
Talk Weekends £0
Broadband size L £26
Phone & Broadband loyalty discount Saving £-15.05
Total cost £23.94 per month

Before calling Virgin to cancel, I looked at other providers and decided to go with BT and pay the phone line rental upfront £120 for a year (with free calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers and free evening & weekend calls) and BT broadband £13 per month (with 3 months free, plus a BT wireless hub and £25 Amazon gift voucher). When I phoned Virgin I told them I wanted to disconnect as I had decided to go to BT. The person on the phone said they could match this offer but unfortunately he was unable to put the offer through on the computer due to a technical fault with the system. He said he would call me back the following day. He did not call me back and after 3 separate telephone conversions with Virgin staff they all said they could not match the offer and if I wanted the same from Vigin my total monthly charges would go up to £24.94!! So I decided to disconnect.

A week later I received a call from Virgin to say they had noticed I had been with NTL and virgin for a total of 10 years and they would like to know why I had chosen to disconnect so I explained the above and the person on the phone offered me my existing package (phone line rental, talk weekends, large broadband, plus they said they will send me a wireless router) for £16.99 a month. A saving of £6.95 a month or £83.40 a year!!!!

Roger81

I am currently paying the following with Virgin:
Broadband 2mb unlimited: £10.95
Line rental inc free weekend calls to landlines: £12.99
TV freeview: £0
Total: £23.49
I have been with them for 2 years now. Do you think I'm being realistic if I ask for more bb and a larger TV package?

rowellp

Currently have the following:
Telephone Rental £12.99
Talk Unlimited £8
Broadband M £21.50
TV M £0
V+ HD monthly fee £10
Additional V Box £15
Add set box discount -£8.50
Loyalty discount -£18.46

TOTAL £40.53

Just spoke to Virgin told them that I believed I would need to cancel to get the best deal and was assured that I was on the best deal. Warned me that I will ony get 2-6MBit from BT/TalkTalk. Warned me that I would lose my Customer Loyalty discount. Told me only 5% of customers get a callback from the outbound team. Told me only those above £50/month get a call! Told me that I had down loaded 44GB and 37GB in the last two months.

Have started the 30 day notice, will let you know how it goes!

-Paul

mrwibble

Currently have

Sky+ with 6 packs - £24.50
Virgin XL BB 20Mb - £30pm

Rang to cancel on Wednesday as Sky could do 20Mb BB + Sky+ for £37pm total I got offered

Virgin XL TV
V+ HD box (£49.99 install)
XL BB 20Mb
Phone M

£43.99 pm plus £49.99 install - or £55 pm plus £49.99 install if I went for 30Mb BB :eek:

Playing the "outbound retention" game I cancelled as it did not beat Sky offer (they played the "Virgin BB better" card as I'm 2m from BT exchange but deflected it).

Got the predicted outbound retentions call today and was offered (and accepted) :

12 month contract (waiting to see if the paperwork matches)
Virgin XL TV
V+ HD box - free install
Phone M
XL BB + free SuperHub (mentioned my flaky wifi router to get that - will request 30Mb upgrade in due course on the back of that)

£36.99 pm plus zero install :j

It's all a game really ..... hope my experience can help others play it as well (if not better !)

scooby75

Roger81 wrote: »

I am currently paying the following with Virgin:
Broadband 2mb unlimited: £10.95
Line rental inc free weekend calls to landlines: £12.99
TV freeview: £0
Total: £23.49
I have been with them for 2 years now. Do you think I'm being realistic if I ask for more bb and a larger TV package?

You should get the 10mB which is the same price.
I'm on the same package and have been for over 10 years. I asked about getting a cheaper deal. They said no and then asked if I wanted the MAC - so much for loyalty! I think they only give deals to customers who make them money (i.e, pay over the odds). What I AM going to do though, for the time being, is get them to upgrade the broadband to 10 mb which is the same price as the 2mb, until I move house soon and look at my options again.

Virgin really annoy me as I only use the broadband, but the BB alone is practically the same price as with the landline and TV. You can get a BB dongle for about £17 for 15gb data allowance (I'm a heavy user and use about 10 gB a month), but I don't think the speeds are that good.

Someone really needs to enter the market and start providing cable broadband without chucking in all the extras. I think 10gB download a month at 10 mb speeds is worth about £10 - £12 and would definitely get my custom.

Oh, and incidentaly, I have some penpals in the US who get unlimited BB at 40MB speed for $20 - and that includes unlimited landline calls.

mrwibble

scooby75 wrote: »

Someone really needs to enter the market and start providing cable broadband without chucking in all the extras. I think 10gB download a month at 10 mb speeds is worth about £10 - £12 and would definitely get my custom.

Sadly that is not going to happen when BT Wholesale can give any BB startup access to their network without any significant capital expense. Why invest - even in non-VM cable areas - in new fibre networks, cabinets, dig costs etc etc over many years to generate a return when BT can sell you access immediately ? ROI in months not years. Really not going to pass the Dragon's Den test is it ? VM use BT outside cable areas so obviously they have done the sums comparing increasing cable areas vs buying in DSL from BT Wholesale.

In the future WiMax and similar technologies are going to change the game anyway.

I have a keen interest in non-DSL solutions as I live at the far end of a valley - 0.5 mile further on over the M40 I would get DSL at decent speeds whereas at the moment 1.5Mb is about the top end. Paying VM their 30 pieces of silver is really the only game in town for good speeds.

VfM4meplse

mrwibble wrote: »

12 month contract (waiting to see if the paperwork matches)
Virgin XL TV
V+ HD box - free install
Phone M
XL BB + free SuperHub (mentioned my flaky wifi router to get that - will request 30Mb upgrade in due course on the back of that)

£36.99 pm plus zero install :j

Well done! I was thinking of hassling them for a free router, but now I know what you have negotiated I'm going to go for the XL TV and V+ HD box too. My problem is I am very quick to lose patience with the outsourced call centre.

crazy_house

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Well done! I was thinking of hassling them for a free router, but now I know what you have negotiated I'm going to go for the XL TV and V+ HD box too. My problem is I am very quick to lose patience with the outsourced call centre.

I have had virgin media service for that many year it was originally Yorkshire Cable... If you call Customer relation letting them know what your issue is, whether that be a friend getting same as you cheaper or off shore communication barrier the list could go on for ever I suppose,


THEY HAVE ALWAYS HELP ME, BUT I DONT PLAY GAMES TELL THEM THE ISSUE OR WHAT YOU WANT AND THEY WILL GIVE YOU A STRAIGHT ANSWER

they also have TIVO now :j

johnfarquhar74

crazy_house wrote: »

THEY HAVE ALWAYS HELP ME, BUT I DONT PLAY GAMES TELL THEM THE ISSUE OR WHAT YOU WANT AND THEY WILL GIVE YOU A STRAIGHT ANSWER

they also have TIVO now :j

+1,,,I've been with Virgin since they were United Artists, then Telewest. Every time I think my contract needs a little tweak I call retentions and tell them exactly what I want and what I'm willing to pay. I'm not greedy, am not looking for silly contracts but then I'm not willing to pay all these install/admin fees for services that THEY want to introduce/promote. Just yesterday I called to get the Tivo500, no fees and although I'm paying the extra £3 a month, I'm getting to keep my V+ & my 2nd HD box at no further cost. Looks like the daughter is getting a TV in her room for her birthday:D