Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

mike.k_4

just phoned virgin.

currently paying £29 month phone and broadband
£45 month for sky.

asked them what my phone package was and my broadband size is as i had seen talktalk offer and wanted to compare.
they immediatley (without asking) dropped my phone and broadband to £15 month fixed price as long as i stayed for 1 year.
i then asked what they charged for v+ tv compared to the top package i have with sky.
the offer was £50 month for 1 year for all 3 services (possible £24 month saving).
when i challenged the £150 installation charge for a long standing customer, price dropped to £35 installation if i sign up before end of may.
needless to say broadband and phone changed as of now, tv in next few weeks as i have already paid for mays sky.
be interested to see what sky offer when i phone to cancel next week.

phoned sky to cancel.

they were not interested in offering any deal

goodbye sky!!!!

antoneykent

• XL(V+ box) and XL(standard box)
• Broadband - M (2Mb)
• Phone service- XL (24/7)
• V+, extra box costs £75 (one off)
• £41 per month + £8 one off installation charge
• Length of deal- indefinite (12 months min contract)

I slightly disappointed because i think i could have got better broadband as well

can anyone give me advice on weather this is a good deal, SHOULD I PHONE BACK AND ASK FOR A BETTER BROADBAND SPEED AS WELL?

Strike_Team

Just been on the phone to Virgin. I was paying £29/month for Broadband M (2MB), and Phone M (free weekend calls). I was expecting to have to haggle, but as soon as I said that new customers are paying £15.50 from what I'm paying £29 for, they immediately agreed to give me the same deal. I didn't have to threaten to switch to TalkTalk.

£162/year saving for about half an hour's work reading MSE, comparing prices and talking on the phone.

In terms of money gained vs. time and effort put in, haggling is one of the most efficient and effective activities out there .

linuxsapien

Ive been a cable customer throughout the years, and ive seen it peak and low and peak and low.

Back in the good ole days with basic telly and telephone with uber cheap call charges for £8 a month. I miss the 3.5p calls to my girlfriend that could last hours (well you know what you girls are like )

Now its bloody extortionate!.. Bigger name, bigger company, bigger whatnot, and they think we all have bigger bank accounts..

Still, im happy with my around £30 a month for ALOT of good services. Telephone, 10MB, talk unlimited, voice mail, caller ID, etc. etc... I have discounts, and loyalty discounts on top since I have been a long term subscriber (meaning ive spent thousands of pounds to date).

Seriously, the service as always been topnotch in my area, I just resent having to pay so little and HAVE to have a phoneline LOL..

such is life :T

karensayhi

Been a Virginmedia customer for quite a while, just rang up and told them I was leaving for a better offer with TalkTalk.

With barely a hesitation they rolled over and cut our monthly payment down from £33 to £20.49, plus added free daytime UK calls to the evening/weekend package I already had.

So, I've saved over £150 pa on the monthlies alone, and I'll save a wedge more on the call charges.

Only downsides:

- TalkTalk offer inclusive international calls (not a big thing for us)
- We'll have our TV downgraded to just the Freeview channels (but then its a fair trade as we still have access to iPlayer through the Telly, and Virgin's fairly good VoD service...)

speedy2056

My story is almost the same as the person above: I am on the 10mb Broadband and 24/7 anytime call plan and I called to say I was switching to TalkTalk and they quoted 23.49 but they would have to downgrade my internet to 2MB.

Told them I wasn't happy with that as TalkTalk can do 8MB for an additional measly 50p.

They then quoted 27.49. I tried hard to haggle that I should be given the 10MB for 20.99, the same as TalkTalk but they weren't having it so I settled for that. They then mentioned about me getting paper bills and that costs an addition pound so my total bill per month is now 26.49 a month.

As I predicted, Virgin were trying to diss TalkTalk by saying their internet is done through the phone line which was bad in their opinion bla bla which I never took notice of.

I have a feeling I could have done a lot better but considering my last bill with Phone and Broadband combined came to 57.32, it's still quite a substantial saving.

I even got a bill through today saying they were going to take 40 something quid on the 25th June. It's ridiculous!

The_Anomaly

I've been getting a discount for being a 'valued customer' where I was given the 20mb broadband for the cost of the 2mb. The only catch was that I had to call up the retentions department every three months to get the offer re-applied to my account. This went on for over a year, until today; I called them up to get the offer going again as I noticed my speed was reduced, and they flat-out refused to give a discount stating that they are not giving offers any more due to wanting all customers back to where they should be for the amount they are paying. This puts me in an odd position; my anger wanted me to get them to cut me off immediately, but I have my phone service from Vonage (where my bill is a good £40 - £50 cheaper than BT was) so have had no need for the additional cost of a BT line. Now it seems I have to shell out £11 a month for that while at the same time changing to ADSL and getting considerably less speed; while paying more in total.

Virgin Media need more competition from the cable side of Broadband, and by the sound of some of the stories above on top of my issue, they know they are getting away with it.

creddish

I've been getting a discount for being a 'valued customer' where I was given the 20mb broadband for the cost of the 2mb. The only catch was that I had to call up the retentions department every three months to get the offer re-applied to my account. This went on for over a year, until today; I called them up to get the offer going again as I noticed my speed was reduced, and they flat-out refused to give a discount stating that they are not giving offers any more due to wanting all customers back to where they should be for the amount they are paying. This puts me in an odd position; my anger wanted me to get them to cut me off immediately, but I have my phone service from Vonage (where my bill is a good £40 - £50 cheaper than BT was) so have had no need for the additional cost of a BT line. Now it seems I have to shell out £11 a month for that while at the same time changing to ADSL and getting considerably less speed; while paying more in total.

Virgin Media need more competition from the cable side of Broadband, and by the sound of some of the stories above on top of my issue, they know they are getting away with it

That's a bit worrying. I've always been able to get a good deal on broadband from NTL and now Virgin Media despite the fact that I moved all other services elsewhere. I'm currently getting 4Mb for £10 per month and have been on that rate for about 3 years now without the need for periodic negotiations with Retentions so I guess I have to keep my head down and hope they don't put me in the same position as yourself.

Colin

The_Anomaly

creddish wrote: »

That's a bit worrying. I've always been able to get a good deal on broadband from NTL and now Virgin Media despite the fact that I moved all other services elsewhere. I'm currently getting 4Mb for £10 per month and have been on that rate for about 3 years now without the need for periodic negotiations with Retentions so I guess I have to keep my head down and hope they don't put me in the same position as yourself.

Colin

That may be the best thing for now!

Although, it must be said that the guy I spoke to today in the retentions department was a little too assertive for my liking; I definitely don't like assertive when I am the customer because straight away you feel that the call is going to end up being negative. I think my guy was the receiver of the 'disgruntled employee of the month'! Someone else more humble and customer oriented may give a different response; I'd like to test that theory myself; however, due to the nature of my position, I would end up with egg on my face if they called my bluff because ADSL just wouldn't provide the speeds I need due to me being over 2 miles away from the exchange. Then again, even Virgin Media's download speeds were very often less than 6mbps when I was set for the 20mbps service; can't win either way!

If I get any joy in the future with this poor excuse for an internet service provider, I'll provide updates.

polardesign

Telephone line rental = £11.00
Talk Unlimited = £7.95
TV Size XL = £22.00
1 additonal v box = £15.00
Disney Cinematic = £5.00
TUL Base tv 512k Saving = -£6.49
Broadband Size: L = £25.00

Total = £79.46

Is this to much ??????