Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

muggle

Have just come off the phone from telewest.They certainly try and talk you out of going with talk talk! In the end I just said I was disappointed with telewest as new customers get better deals. The lady said 'what makes you think you can't get one' and promtly moved me onto the comparable tariff for new users and, importantly, said I wasn't actually starting a new contract and all prices would stay as they were for a whole year. Lovely. I am now £7 a month better off, and my account is £9 in credit! All for the sake a phone call. Thankyou Money Saving Experts xxx

frodo_baggins_2

Hello everyone. Right just rang Ntl and wanted to see what they would offer me to stay with them and not to leave and join TT.

Old bill...
line rental...10.50
talk local....6.50
Broadband...17.99
normal cost for calls about...20.00
total....57.99, normal bill is between 55-60 amonth.

new deal....
I now get line rental, talk unlimited 24 and 2mb broadband all for 23.50 a month, and the broadband is going up to 4mb on june 1st so the lady told me.

Felt really sorry for her as I was on the phone to her for about 40 minutes refusing offers she was making me. What do you all make of the deal i've got, i think it's a right result, saving me at least £30+ a month or £360 a year.

stuartw101

I think iots a good deal, although im sure you could have gotten the price down to £20.50 or even get 10mb for the price.

alison74

I would just be happy with what you've got - what's an extra £2 a month when you are saving £30 per month already ? Yes, it may be £24 a year, but you might have pushed them too far and they say 'fine, here's your cancellation date'

Look at the deals NTL are getting, an deals TW are getting - you are saving FAR more a month

frodo_baggins_2

I know what your saying but I wasn't going to turn it down,to get my bill down from nearly £60 a month to hopefully nearer 25-30, if the misses doesn't ring mobiles will be a cracking result.

tired_mum

well i did it called telewest usual bill with all 3 packages and disney £70 said i wanted to leave and after a bit of haggling got the price reduced by £40!!!!! couldnt believe it i had to drop down to 2mgb from 4mgb but thats ok well happy
thank you thank you martin and all other posters for making it easier to haggle

jamiroquai78

I have 10meg with NTL and pay £36 per month.

One phone call later mentioning the Talk Talk deal and how I was moving to it and my bill was halved to £17.99 per month in a heartbeat. They also mentioned to call back re the phone line package next month if I was still unhappy.:j

imiweb

Hi all,

It's great to hear so many of you have had successes with NTL.

I think its critical to note that you have to be quite blatant and say 'I'd like to disconnect please' from the word go when speaking to disconnections then to Customer Retentions Dept.

Here's my tried and tested method, 1st my Brother tried it then I tried it then a friend of mine tried it and it worked for all of us.

---

Go thru to NTL cust serv. and say 'i wanna disconnect'! They'll ask why and u say 'Talk Talk have a fantastic offer I cannot refuse'. You'll get put thru to cust retentions tell them the same thing as above.

They'll probably ask you some probing questions such as "Talk Talks cust connection time is 3 months, are you aware of this" etc, just say yes and that you'd still be saving a hell of a lot of money in the long run!

They'll either start saying ok here's what we can offer or they'll say how can we keep your custom: just say 'make me an offer like TalkTalk has and I'll base it on what you give me'. Whatever you do just get the offer it in writing (via email I said, due to it being a quick confirmation)! Then at least if anything goes wrong you can speak directly to the same person who offered you the deal.

Also ensure u get the SAME as what has been described below:
in a nutshell Talk Talk offer you 8Mb broadband, Unlimited 24/7 free calls to landlines & unlimited calls to 28 countries.

This is what I got from NTL in the form of an email (my brother and friend also got similar worded emails):

---

I can confirm that the offer I made to you today is:
10mg broadband 12.49
talkunltd24 free of charge, All Local & National Calls are free at any time & to 28 International destinations incl.
Line rental 10.50
22.99 in total

---

Please ensure you get like for like as I think some of you guys are getting duped into lower bb connections! Oh and also ensure that you have the full Talk Talk details in front of you so that you can refer back to them at any time. Remember you 'want' to leave NTL for the Talk Talk package therefore if they do waiver from the Talk Talk offer in the slightest, just bring them back on track!

Hope you guys had as much fun as I did saving money.

Over the course of one year I will be saving over £340.00 all thanks to Talk Talk coming on the scene! :T

Sorry for the long post.

N'joy
imiweb

doccer1967

My current set up is:

telephone - 2 lines
Plus talk unlimited
Plus paid voice mail
2MB broard band

COST £60.99 per month (£24.99 for BB and £36 for phone)

New Cost base

telephone - 2 lines
Plus talk unlimited
Plus paid voice mail
10MB broard band

COST £22.74 per month (£9.99 for BB and £12.75 for phone) 12 months fixed

HOW I GOT THERE
Called NTL normal Customer services mentioned talk talk etc, though not too assertive - Initially. they offered me £6 per month discount!!!!!

called BT asked to get connected to them - they started the porting process for my numbers, arranged engineers etc etc

2 days later spoke to NTL on the disconnections number as posted here (long wait etc) - I was offered the following

2mb BB 12.50 per month
telephone 19.75

Didn't accept offer said ok and left it there.

Called 15 minutes later (after another long wait) spoke to advisor told him that I spoke to someone earlier about disconnecting and I didn't get a reference as I need this to give to BT (this was not true). He then said lets look on the system - he told me that he could see the previous offer and he wasn't surprised (NOTE I did not mention the previous offer, therefore it was on the system so they do track what they say to you BEWARE!!!) I didn't accept it he then offered the offer as outlined above with the 10MB BB.

how about that then!!!!

FANTASTIC

Now off to call Sky to see if I can get my package cheaper!!!

mr87009

Thanks Money Savers!

I just called Telewest, spoke to a very nice lady who at first tried to put me off TalkTalk/Freeview.

After I told her that a friend had TalkTalk and was very happy with it (a white lie) and quoted some figures to her managed to reduce my monthly bill from £53/month to £39/month for at least 12 months. Plus she gave me a £20 voucher on my account towards my next bill!

Maybe not saved as much as some, but I'm happy with the £188 saving :-)

Matt