Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

worldwide3rider

I tried to cancel and got offered £29 a month for 2MB broadband, Starter TV and phone line rental.

sandi_2

I'm with NTL and not able to get Talk Talk because i'm not in the right area or need to be with BT first - something like that However, i thought i would try and bluff my way to a decent package and it worked quite well. I called up NTL today and told them about Talk Talk's package - they offered me a TV, phone and internet deal at £32 which i was not happy about because the free calls were only in the evenings and on weekends. I said i needed to think about it.
then i rang back an hour later and spoke to a different person - asked them if it would cost me to switch - they said no because i was out of contract- i asked them to tell me the procedure for switching. I then asked if NTL could match Talk Talk's offer and without any further haggling this is what i got:

Broadband (only up from 1Meg to 2 Meg, though) - £9.99 (for six months)
TV and phone base package - £11 (for six months)
Talk unlimited 24 - FREE! (for 3 months)

the best thing is that i am still not on a contract and have no obligation to stay with them - i can cancel at any time.

after 6 months the whole package will cost me around £49 if i decide to stay but i will have to shop around before then

£20.99 for 3 months - bargain!

i did ask for it in writing but was refused so just took down the fella's details. Hope that NTL dont stuff it up.

paulhgc

worldwide3rider wrote:

I tried to cancel and got offered £29 a month for 2MB broadband, Starter TV and phone line rental.

not bad but you still have to pay for your phonecalls :money:

Sponge

Do you think the CSRs know if TalkTalk is available for certain customers?

I put my details into TalkTalk's site and it says it's not available for me, so I couldn't move to it if I wanted. But would Telewest know this? Do you think I could bluff them?

The last time my wife called Telewest to try and get a better deal, they simply dropped our broadband from 4mb to 2mb. (£17.99)

They advertise cheaper bundles for the three services and even say existing customers can benefit, but it's a con. It's only for existing customers that take out a new service. So if you've already got all 3 (like us), you're stuffed!

We're currently on their cheapest TV package too. I considered ditching the TV and going with Freeview, but I'm not sure that would save me any money. The TW starter pack is £5.50 pm. So, calculating cost over a year, any Freeview box would have to be cheaper than 12x£5.50=£66. Furthermore, I don't have a TV aerial, so there's the extra cost of having one installed. Even if I ditched the TV with the intention of getting it back as a 'new service', thus qualifying for any bundle offers, chances are there'd be an installation fee - negating any savings made. And now I've read that the starter pack may become free by the end of the month. But knowing them it'll only be free for new customers! Arrghh, my head hurts!

There is no BT socket in my house (that I can find) and we have been with Telewest since we moved in 6 years ago. So new connection charges would eat into any savings made by switching. (This is one of the reasons we have stuck with Telewest.)

presto

Yes!! :T after 4 ph. calls, many minutes on hold and being told by three different people that the best they could do was £34, £28, £26 I finally got Talk unlimited and broadband for £22.49 per month with one month free to offset the fact that it is £2 per month more expensive than on my last year contract which runs out this month. The mention of Talk talk's £20 worked but you need to get put thruogh to the disconnections department before anyone has any authority to offer 'real deals'.. worth the effort!!

lil'H

Ooohh I'm on hold as I write this, woman at BT has just gone to see what she can offer me! How exciting!

lil'H

lil'H

OK gone from £11 line rental, £1 itemised billing and £17.99 broadband (usually £20 call charges on top) to a fab £21 Unlimited landline calls 24 hr/day and broadband for £21 a month! Rang and said could get the £19.99 deal through talk talk and they said it was the best he could do. Little does he know hwever talk talk aren't able to do my area!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Oh and even better, thanked him, flirted slightly (you have a nice accent) and he gave me £1.50 credit onto my bill as he'd kept me on hold, shameless I know!

lil'H

sondheimsoc

Followed Martyn's advice and phoned NTL. Finally got through to the right person in the right department on the 4th attempt and it was worth the wait, very successful.
I currently have home phone (used as my fax line) and 4 meg broadband for which I pay £9 phone, £24.99 broadband plus any phone call costs (for faxing during the day as eve and w/e is free).
He first told me all the disadvantages of TalkTalk and after some negotating I have ended up with:
a £4 permanent customer loyalty bonus
plus half price 10 meg broadband for 3 months. So for the next 3 months I'll be paying £22.49 for a faster service, a saving of £12 per month.
Hopefully by then there wil be some newer deals out there.
he also asked about my TV package (Sky+) and told me that NTL will be bringing out their own version in the next 6 months, only it will be better because it will also be HD.
He also offered me a second NTL phone line (to replace my main BT line) and an unlimited calls package for £11 line rental and £14 for the calling package. But they would then extend the unlimited calls pack to my first phone as well.
Currently I pay the BT line rental and then a package with Primus.
Lynne
Nottingham

Heinz

£14 for the calling package?

That's a lot more than the £8.49 Primus charge for their Primus Saver Option 3 package.

sondheimsoc

Yes it is, which is why I didn't take it. He was trying to sell me the addition of that calling package to my existing phone for free if I took it as a sweetener.
Lynne