Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

cem

Heinz wrote: »

If you are on Virgin cable, you have no real choices/options except using 1899/18185/18866's freephone access numbers for your calls.

How do these numbers work? and what would you use them for? (sorry read about those numbers 1st time on here)

Also when you cancel your virgin package (& you want ur partner to sign up as a new customer) , do you have to wait for 30 days till they totally cancel and then get your partner to call to signup as a new customer?

Tarquinius

Hi Sol00,

Sol00 wrote: »

That's an excellent deal and you're not likely to get cheaper elsewhere!

I get - XL TV; M broadband and Talk Unlimited for £75 a month. I think I'll be haggling!!

Yes, its worth haggling. Last year I called VM and told them I wanted to leave. I worked out what the best alternative offer would be at that time for what I wanted using Sky / cheap Broadband provider / cheap home phone provider, and I told VM - which is when they offered me this deal.

I hope you get good price !:j

itsj2

I have VM broadband (2mb) for £17 per month. They 'phoned last week to offer me TV and & phone for an additional £3 i.e. all three for £20. I wasn't interested but am posting this for info.

jamilkj

Hiya, Need some advice.

Currently have:

XL TV
Talk Unlimited + Line Rental
XL Broadband
Sky Sports and Sky Movies

82 pounds approx

Requested cancellation last week:

Got call from Virgin enquiring why I was leaving. Said because of non-competitive price which is true.

Offered same package for 77.50 after being offered about 79 pounds initially and also managed to get V+Box for free as Sky+ was being given to be free. I still feel their offer is not very good especially regarding the price. Any suggestions in trying to get a better deal?

scarletjim

scarletjim wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what I should expect to me paying for my package after haggling? I've been through the thread but not many people have 2 additional boxes... My bill says:

Line rental: £11
Loyalty Pack BB/Phone/TV B Sky: (-£21)
Talk weekends: 0
TV Size XL: £22
2Additional V Box: £30
Add Set Boxes Discount: (-£11)
All Movies & Sports: £25
Broadband Size M: £18

So total debits £106, total credits £32 = monthly cost £74.

Should I really be paying this much? I'd like to get it down by a tenner or so if possible, but we do use all 3 of our boxes and we do watch all those channels.

Sorry to bump but was wondering if anyone knows what the 'going rate' is for a package like this? On the mobile phone retention threads everyone seems to know what is the 'right' price to settle for - is Virgin less predictable?

BexTech

cem wrote: »

How do these numbers work? and what would you use them for? (sorry read about those numbers 1st time on here)

Also when you cancel your virgin package (& you want ur partner to sign up as a new customer) , do you have to wait for 30 days till they totally cancel and then get your partner to call to signup as a new customer?

You get an account with 18185 for example (no monthly fee) and any calls you want to make via them you dial their access number - on cable lines it's an 0808 number as cable don't offer the short codes like BT do, prices are slightly on some calls via the 0808 service due to higher costs involved running the number. For example from a BT line using 18185 you can call UK landlines for 5p per call, where as from a cable line using 18185's 0808 access number it's 1p/min + 4p connection.

You don't pay cable for the call to the 0808 Freephone number, when you connect to the service it asks you to enter the number you wish to call followed by the # key, then it calls the required number at lower rates than what cable would charge - no answer - no charge.

andyfff

hi folks,
We were
tele rental and talk evens weekend 14.45, tv size m 0.00 (free but we didnt didnt use it, use PVR instead), broadband L 25.00
total 39.45

phoned cust servs, sales then finally retentions
tele rental and talk even 14.45, broadband L 8.00 (for 12 months then 12.00, but tie in only 12 months anyway) and wireless 0.00
total 22.45

best deals from "retentions", the deal wanted 7.50 for wireless modem. So I said i'd think about it and when i phoned back I asked the next guy for one for free as we had been with them for years.
All I found was 1.get figures from sky, tiscali, and in our case 'new' virgin customers 2. Always give a reason for wanting something thrown in.
thanks to the help on the boards. Good Hunting!
Andyfff

useyourillusion2

Tarquinius wrote: »

I just called VM as I thought my discount deal was about to finish.

However, I was told that my deal was 'for life' and won't change as long as I stay with them. I tried to haggle them even lower, but with no success, but I think I will stick with them anyway (I am a bit stuck as I cannot receive Sky or any terrestrial TV where I am).

Any views on this deal? Should I have been able to haggle something better? My current deal ('for life') is:

TV: XL (I have a V+ box with this too)
BB: L
Phone: Line rental + XL (Talk Unlimited)

= £40.50 per month (Plus £5 per mth for additional (standard) set top box, less £1 for online billing, gives £44.50 per month. I would have liked have agreed an all in price of £40.00, but my current price of £44.50 is the best I could get them to do.)

Is this good or should I be able to do better?

I think this deal sounds pretty similar to the one I was offered except I have no extra box and didn't opt for V+.

My offer was:

TV: XL
BB: L
PHONE: talk unlimited

£35.95

truescot

Moving house and told virgin i was just going to cancel. they have given me:

Phone with talk unlimited
M Broadband
M TV
V+ box for £30

27.95 a month.

This seemed okay and I cuold not be bothered haggling with all the other move stresses.

Is it worth trying to get them down?

Steve.W_2

Does anybody have an up to date telephone number for the retentions department?
Thanks.