Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

BexTech

tiff wrote: »

This week we negotiated with Virgin and got

XL TV
24/7 free calls (Inclusive calls - can't be free as you are paying £37 in total for your package)!
M Broadband
Setanta

Total £37 which we thought was good as our last bill was £102 for everything incl calls.

Setanta comes as standard with the XL package - all XL customers get it.

I'd have a heart attack if my bill was ever close to £100. I don't like spending £35 for phone, mobile, TV and broadband - tight-fisted me. I wouldn't even pay for Caller Display so got Virgin to give me that for free too, Sky and BT offer it free, why should VM charge me? On;y reason I have VM phone line is due to the offer, I'd have stayed VoIP only otherwise.

ukuwi

My story...

45mins ago I dialed 150 -> 2 -> ?forgot but was to customer relations + thinking of disconnecting

I'm 10+yrs CableWireless,NTL,VM customer and been getting more and more *&^%$ about my broadBand costs.

Few weeks ago I called up 150... and was connected to offshore (India I think) cust rep who did not know much and just accepted that I wanted to move from L to M (the 2Mb) broadBand. No arm twisting attempted etc. So I go away having saved £7 from 25 to £18/month.
(of course still paying another £10.50 for telephone so final damage high at £28.50)
...
Week ago I get VM postal flyer shouting about M being offered for £4.50/1st12 then £9 thereafter. --> for NEW custs or so I thought!)

I land on MSE and search and see BT 29.95 reconnect offer...
Spend hours reading and making comparison tables - blah, blah

So ok, I think - better call VM and astaLaVista dudes!
But - was I in for a shock because Customer Relations/Disconnection Representative ("Liz") could not have been more polite and understanding etc. and totally knowledgeable about what was on offer and what Virgin future plans were etc.
I end up getting the 4.50/m M + 10.50tel for total of £15/m, and she backdated the discount to when I made my first downgrade call giving me another £7 rebate!
In the end basically saving another 13.50/m, which was nice!

What she said:
1. Any VM offer is possible to be applied to existing customer.
2. Non cable areas before year end will be able to have VM accounts as they are going to take over the BT line (similar to what PostOffice doing at the moment)
3. Currently, any existing cable customer moving to a non-cable location can still keep services with VM via BT line of course - she mentioned Virgin .Net...
4. I was explicitly told that my 10+ yrs relationship with them was good news and that in the future, they would (effectively bend over backwards to offer me whatever to keep me happy. Of course, this can be seen as subjective info, but was nice anyway...
5. con?, was 12month contract. TBH, is that really a downside? If migrate to other supplier, could well get locked into much longer: eg, going to BT would set me back 18months and IF you look closely at the 29.95 'deal', ya gotta commit to minimum of 10chargeable calls per month and take out at least their Unlimited wkEnd +Unlimited Eve & wkEnd plans at £2.70, so 10.50 line + 2.70 plans + at least cost of 10 calls.... Oh yes, still gotta then sort out broadBand (and I have friend that is only able to get ~500kb speeds on his BT line...)

Ok, thanks to MSE and posters, I've saved loadsa dosh.

Hope above comments give hope to some currently frustrated VM customers!

I believe that by surfing MSE, you really do 'see' real life happenings which can empower you big time
thanx for staying tooned

PatchLatics

Hey, I've got the Sky basic package in my living room and we pay about £20-25 a month (Sky, line rental and 10MB broadband). But my mum who didn't want to pay to go over to sky line rental and broadband. So she ordered Virgin Media basic package and pays about £16-22 a month (Basic channels, 2MB broadband and phone line rental). We have been with both for about 1 and half years. Whats the best deal we can have by cancelling Sky? We would prefer a boring line rental (don't use the phone much), a decent set of channels (sport and movies) and good broadband (around 10MB).

Thanks for any help!

ukuwi

good broadband (around 10MB).

As far as aware - getting 10Mb is hard call. Why? BT copper line not going to provide that.
I would get your mum to call Virgin Customer Relations on her virgin phone it's 150 and select options ... I chose first option 2 and believe that disconnect was one of the keywords remember hearing...
I hardly ever use telephone - but regards TV packages I know not a thing.

May I suggest that whatever you do at Virgin - be sure to say that you would like some 'help' in making a decision based on their 'current offers'... fwiw, I had the greatest conversation with the Cust Rep. simply by staying cool about the whole thing. In return, I ended up with great savings and exactly the service level required!

Happy Hunting !

Saeed

ukuwi wrote: »

As far as aware - getting 10Mb is hard call. Why? BT copper line not going to provide that.

Happy Hunting !

Is that what the Virgin rep told you? I have VM 2mb cable at my house, but trialled O2 ADSL2 BB service. I got 15meg down a COPPER line on the 20 meg service at 7-8am. I am sure I could have got higher, so don't believe all that you hear.

ukuwi

Saeed wrote: »

Is that what the Virgin rep told you? I have VM 2mb cable at my house, but trialled O2 ADSL2 BB service. I got 15meg down a COPPER line on the 20 meg service at 7-8am. I am sure I could have got higher, so don't believe all that you hear.

My comment is generic to BT lines [& plans] - maybe not clear enough said first time around. The physical limitations are indeed much faster and as you found out with O2. There is at least year old technology out there which will get you 200Mbps and current research suggests 1 to 2 Gbps... both on copper. However, back in the real world of every day BT copper line ADSL connections which BT customers hope to aspire to, 10meg is indeed fast in this generic to BT lines [& plans] context.
Regards your O2 test.... Well done - trust you enjoyed the speed.

stphnstevey

Interesting thread

creddish

ukuwi wrote: »

My story...

45mins ago I dialed 150 -> 2 -> ?forgot but was to customer relations + thinking of disconnecting

I'm 10+yrs CableWireless,NTL,VM customer and been getting more and more *&^%$ about my broadBand costs.

Few weeks ago I called up 150... and was connected to offshore (India I think) cust rep who did not know much and just accepted that I wanted to move from L to M (the 2Mb) broadBand. No arm twisting attempted etc. So I go away having saved £7 from 25 to £18/month.
(of course still paying another £10.50 for telephone so final damage high at £28.50)
...
Week ago I get VM postal flyer shouting about M being offered for £4.50/1st12 then £9 thereafter. --> for NEW custs or so I thought!)

I land on MSE and search and see BT 29.95 reconnect offer...
Spend hours reading and making comparison tables - blah, blah

So ok, I think - better call VM and astaLaVista dudes!
But - was I in for a shock because Customer Relations/Disconnection Representative ("Liz") could not have been more polite and understanding etc. and totally knowledgeable about what was on offer and what Virgin future plans were etc.
I end up getting the 4.50/m M + 10.50tel for total of £15/m, and she backdated the discount to when I made my first downgrade call giving me another £7 rebate!
In the end basically saving another 13.50/m, which was nice!

What she said:
1. Any VM offer is possible to be applied to existing customer.
2. Non cable areas before year end will be able to have VM accounts as they are going to take over the BT line (similar to what PostOffice doing at the moment)
3. Currently, any existing cable customer moving to a non-cable location can still keep services with VM via BT line of course - she mentioned Virgin .Net...
4. I was explicitly told that my 10+ yrs relationship with them was good news and that in the future, they would (effectively bend over backwards to offer me whatever to keep me happy. Of course, this can be seen as subjective info, but was nice anyway...
5. con?, was 12month contract. TBH, is that really a downside? If migrate to other supplier, could well get locked into much longer: eg, going to BT would set me back 18months and IF you look closely at the 29.95 'deal', ya gotta commit to minimum of 10chargeable calls per month and take out at least their Unlimited wkEnd +Unlimited Eve & wkEnd plans at £2.70, so 10.50 line + 2.70 plans + at least cost of 10 calls.... Oh yes, still gotta then sort out broadBand (and I have friend that is only able to get ~500kb speeds on his BT line...)

Ok, thanks to MSE and posters, I've saved loadsa dosh.

Hope above comments give hope to some currently frustrated VM customers!

I believe that by surfing MSE, you really do 'see' real life happenings which can empower you big time
thanx for staying tooned

That sounds like a resonable deal if you are happy to pay the cost of calls on VM. You presumably are aware that you can't dial prefix numbers to access providers such as 18185 for cheap geographic UK calls on a VM phone line (i.e no per minute charge 24/7) and would therefore have to access such providers via a 0808 number and pay the provider a per minute charge or pay VMs expensive call charges.

Colin

Edit:- I note from your later post that you do not make many phone calls so the cost of calls may not be an issue for you.

Steve_f_4

We have just negotiated a simple basic package for £24.45 per month.
basic tv, medium broadband, telephone line, free weekend landline calls and SKY SPORTS 1,2 & 3. They also discounted a months charges, because i was unhappy that they hadn't sorted it out last month,(or several months before). the free sky is because i had lots of problems before . . . it is unusual and a little odd, but i hope to have it for a further year (we've had it for a year so far).

we dont need much, and would love to get this cheaper, but £24.45 is the best i can do for now - could i get it cheaper on SKY?

p.s. love this site martin :money: - tho it has got a bit big now :eek: - also why have you not started a campaign to make energy providers simplify their charges so we can just see who is cheapest? i have never been able to work out what the best deal is. its a CON! help us

InnerBeauty_2

I have just negotiated a deal with Virgin Media, my last bill was nearly £54, for tv large, talk unlimited and Broadband Large. They have offered me deal for £35.95 a month for the lot, so I am happy with this. To get it any cheaper I would have to loose talk unlimted and just get free weekend calls, I don't fancy that much as it would only save £5.95.