Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

BexTech

chloecc wrote: »

I've just spoken to the Virgin Media rep on the phone as was considering the move from BT to them to include the TV as well as home phone and broadband bundle for £20 a month, what hard sales people they are!!! Very good technique - I crumbled and went for the deal!! Still saving me £8 a month on what BT offered and that's inclusive of more free calls and the TV per month. Now to call BT and cancel my contract with them *gulp*

You could port your BT number across to Virgin Media, you'll have to tell Virgin Media you want to port your number across and they will then contact BT and when the number goes live on VM, BT will then cut their line off. Depends if you want to keep your phone number or get a new one. IF you tell BT to cancel the account then the port won't go through and you'll lose the number and VM will have to issue a new one.

chloecc

BexTech wrote: »

You could port your BT number across to Virgin Media, you'll have to tell Virgin Media you want to port your number across and they will then contact BT and when the number goes live on VM, BT will then cut their line off. Depends if you want to keep your phone number or get a new one. IF you tell BT to cancel the account then the port won't go through and you'll lose the number and VM will have to issue a new one.

thanks so much for this, i found this out when i called bt yesterday, within the spance of 30 mins virgin had done the necessary work there. Must be keen!! haha

kitchpoo

I've joined VM today, as a £30 mobile contract is ending, and our current monthly phone bill is £26, wheras a similar VM package is £37, plus some additional calls (we are light phone users).

Problem has been we are with TalkTalk, and want to port the landline number over.

On 3 occasions - from VM, TT and BT I was advised VM can only port from BT. So I would have to re-join BT, no connection fee, but £10.75/ month + a £70 cancellation fee if before 12 months!!

EVENTUALLY spoke to someone with common sense in VM who arranged to...

a) port the number directly (I have his mobile contact details!) - saving £80.75

b) Match my online Quidco cashback £65

c) Match the online cashback offered for new customers £50

d) Used my parents as a referral (which I had forgotten about) £30 x 2

e) 1 month trial of TV XL (dont know if I would have got this anyway)

Very happy with VM's sales team member (Cheers Matt!) and the outcome, not so happy with the earlier advice and BT/Talk Talk seemingly digging their heels in with the full authorisation of OFCOM!

The_Jester

I had the Virgin XL package for £37pm. I moved out of the address I had it with about 3 months ago but I couldn't port my account because my new temporary address was not in a cable area. However the rep at VM told me once I had moved again in to a cable area then this account could be reactivated for the same price.

I called VM today and told them I was moving in to a new home this Friday. I explained the situation only to be told that I couldn't get the same deal for £37pm but it would cost £56pm. After a bit of haggling I got it down to £44pm. I decided not to proceed at the moment but I would think about it.

Is £44pm a good deal for the XL package or could I get better? I download a fair bit of stuff (;)) so I'm wary about their capping system anyway.

Sol00

I think £44 is the price they charge anyway. It's £45 with Sky, so not much of a saving.

The_Jester

Yes but I'm told that Sky don't cap there speeds as badly as VM. Is this true do you know?

littleange

Sol00 wrote: »

I think £44 is the price they charge anyway. It's £45 with Sky, so not much of a saving.

Cable broadband is much better than ASDL, in my opinion.

BexTech

The_Jester wrote: »

Yes but I'm told that Sky don't cap there speeds as badly as VM. Is this true do you know?

Sky don't cap their speeds as such, however it works as follows:-

You pay Virgin Media for 2Mbit broadband and you will get 2Mbit broadband or extremely close to it. You pay for 10Mbit and you get 10Mbit or extremely close to it, you pay for 20Mbit and you get 20Mbit or extremely close to it.

If you download too much within a certain time-frame then they slow your speed for a few hours, that still means you can download hundreds of GBs per month and VM don't mind.

If ADSL and Sky, you pay for a speed and it depends on the quality of your phone line and the distance from the exchange whether you get that speed.

You pay for up to 2Mbit and you may get 2Mbit, though you could get 1Mbit or 0.5Mbit or 0.25Mb all depending on the line.

You pay for up to 8Mbit and you'll highly likely not get 8Mbit (not to say you won't), though you could get 7Mbit or 5Mbit or 3Mb or other speeds all depending on the line.

You pay for up to 16Mbit and you'll extremely likely not get 16Mbit (not to say you won't), though you could get 14Mbit or 12Mbit or 9Mb or other speeds all depending on the line.

Sky say they have unlimited service however the fair use policy is around 40GB, so if you download more than 40GB per month they can either kick you off their service and tell you to go elsewhere or charge you for the extra, though not known this to happen yet, but it can't be far off as they are already bringing in blocking people using other phone call providers if having their phone calls package, so you can see their thinking.

yogal

I feel a bit frustrated with Virgin but just need some advice as maybe I am just being greedy...

Have been paying £30 for:
Telephone: Talk Weekends
BB 2Mb
TV M

Durung this year I called them a couple of times asking if I could get the XL tv for the same price as lots of people I know had that and it was not fair, in my opinion. My contract is up this month: I have called them and was honest - I am looking at sky and think they offer more for my money but I would prefer not to have to switch -; all they offered me was exactly what I have been asking for the year, XL TV and keep the same monthly price. I was hoping that maybe they would throw a V+box or 4mb internet (apparently this would cost another £8!!!) but nope. I was talking to a nice lady at retentions. If I go ahead with my wish to disconnect, will I be put to another department who has 'more' offers or is that just a rumour?

Thank you in advance.

dipsy

Hi not sure if this helps

I pay £35.95 + £3.50 (for 4 services, call waiting/caller display/call back when free and Divert)

Telephone Talk unlimited
TV - Medium
Broadband XL for the price of BB L (20 Mb)

Shows on bill as

Rental 11.00
Talk u/l 7.95
Broadband £37.00

Rebate £8.00
Rebate £12.00

= £35.95 + £3.50 as above = £39.45 total

I notice online though that they have 20Mb broadband for £29 pm for the first 12 months and then £36 pm thereafter

Going to call them now to try and save some money :-)

even if I only get the £1 a month then its £12 for a year in my pocket rather than theirs.....