Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

dirtyred619

Fancy having a go at this but I'm not sure if I will be able to.

At the moment I get quite a good offer, 1mb Broadband @£9.99 and TV Base pack with line rental for £15, so a total of £24.99 a month.

I've only been on broadband for about 9 months and the TV and Telephone for about 2 months so obviously still being within the 12 months contract I can't threaten to leave.

So do you think I should give it a go? I'm happy enough with the price but looking at offers above, there could be room for an upgrade of speed on broadband or a better TV deal perhaps.

theowl_2

It seems to me that all Telewest will do, is offer existing customers their best new customer rates, reducing services as and where necessary to reduce monthly fees. I have skimmed through the posts and this seems to be the case, and was so with me. Is that not something existing customers could have done at any time regardless of the TalkTalk offer?

dtucker1

Thanks for the advice. Armed with my current contract costs (£24.99/ mnth 2Mb broadband, £11 per month phone rental and £11.50 per month basic digital TV) I rang up and said I wanted to cancel. They asked for a reason and I said I could get a much cheaper deal. They immediately offere to reduce my braodaband charge to £19.99 with an upgrade to 4Mb in 2 months time. They added Talk unlimited 24 worth £14.50 a month (free local and national calls) for free and I don't have to pay my digital TV charge of £11. All in all I'll be saving £16 per month + call charges in real terms. I told them about Talk Talk and they gave a right load of waffle about all sorts of loopholes, contract periods, poor speeds, security issues etc.

cambslass

Hi Moneysavers:-

At the moment, I have
Low usage line rental via NTL @ £5.99 per month
1MB Broadband via NTL @ £11.99 per month

When telephoning, I use 1899, which as you probably know, charge !p connection fee for Landlines, and 10p per minute for mobile calls.

I checked to see if I could get Talk talk's new package in my area, but a message came up to say that it wasn't available in my area?

As I am on an extremely low income, I am wondering if any of 'you experts' could advise me of a way of reducing changing my internet /phone, rental costs?

BelfastJ

Not sure how I did really with NTL, the fella with them denyed that anyone has got the 10MB for £9.99...

I was on 1MB for £17.99 and basic phone for £10.99 with £5 light user discount.

Managed to get the 10MB for £17.50 for 3 months (renewed by them)
and phone costs at same price...

Maybe I should try again?

They did the ususal tell you talk talk is rubbish, it'll crash etc...

Still am pleased with getting the upgrade for less than I am paying now....but just frustrating not everyone is getting the same!

ian1966_2

I phoned Telewest and mentioned the Talk Talk deal, i was put through to another department and the guy there asked why i wanted to join Talk Talk, i told him it was cheaper, he said his boss drives a BMW and he drives a Renault, his cost £10 grand his bosses £40 grand which do i think gives a better and faster service, this was the same as Telewest to Talk talk and that i was 1.3 killomtrs away from my talk talk main frame, i said that was all very well but there telephone and broadband was £20.99 with Telwest i pay £29, he then come back with what if i was to do you a deal today, so i said ok.
The deal i got was not to have to pay £1 for premiem rate barring, half price line rental for 6 months and a £20 free credit of my next bill, and he also said that he would improve the deal when other services become available. (within 6 months)
i am happy with the deal

ali28

I called NTL today and got 2mb BB (upgrading in June to 4mb), Family pack tv package and fee daytime & evening calls for £32.50, no limit on price. We used to have 1mb BB, used 18866 for all calls at 1p a min & family pack tv package and we were paying for NTL £38 pm and about £10 for phone calls It's true if you don't ask you don't get... Thanks.....

CelticLhad

Spoke to Telewest tonight with great success!!!!

First I called the general call centre number and mentioned talktalk and the guys laughed at me! Seriously...he did. Told me they were doing nothing. He was infuriating after about 30 seconds of his demeaning manner I was certain to change to TalkTalk. Got put through to customer services and things improved!!!

Cust Services ask for my reasons and I gave them the financial argument (essentially a saving of £240 pa excluding install and connect charges)
I told them the the previous agent had got me so frustrated that the sooner I could change hte better.... after 20 minutes he came up with the of of a £25 'loyalty bonus' and 50% off my monthly broadband.

I negotiated the broadband saving to be added to the account as a credit from customer services each month because my company ultimately pays the BB bill.

Total Saving £100 over next 6 months.

alison74

It would also help if people posted if they were NTL or TW customers when quoting their great deals.

I wouldn't want any TW customers thinking you can get a good a deal as with NTL (although they are technically same company)

NTL is offering the best deals, no doubts about it.

But TW customers stand firm - you can do it to and get something off !

Ram_3

dominiquereynolds wrote:

Well after reading that people were getting the 10mb cheaper than me I phoned them to get a better deal AGAIN. I am presently on
Talk Unlimited 24, Broad band 10mb for £30.99

I told them that people wee getting the same deal as this and much cheaper. The NTL guy said "no this is the cheapest they get". As they should know because they are the customer retention department.

Even mentioned that I had read about it here. He would not budge and said I was on the best deal they could offer!!

Got the same response.

In the end 2meg BB for £12.50
no reduction on my line rental but got free evening and weekend calls.

So have saved £12.50 a mth + the about £5 on calls makin around £ 17 - £18 in total a mth.

Now over to saving the the fuel bills.

Thx Mumof3

Ram