Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

sweetestthing

TenerC wrote: »

this must be the only company where they make you beg to get the advertised price. we`ve been with them for 18 years, but every year the price goes UP for customers yet DOWN for new customers, so every year we have to phone them tell them were leaving just so we can have the price advertised. at the moment were on 2 for £21, but a look at there web sites shows the price for NEW customers £15.50 (2mb BB & phone) so this morning we phoned them up, when is our contract over & can we have the new price, got the date, but was told that price is for new customers only and we have a reduction anyway we should be paying £30!!!!!! but no more!! when our contract ends they can shove it, were off to BT and sky BB

I called VM customer relations today as I'm cancelling the tv package and moving to Sky and they offered me to keep the phone line and broadband for 15.50 pounds (sorry pound sign not working). Really depends on who you speak to which is so unfair on long term customers.

GARAGE240

Phoned VM yesterday got phone,bb and talo unlimited for 19.4 per month on 12 month contract and garunteed not to go up after 12 months were up

mutty_hc

hey all, i'm a 'new' VM customer and want to get the 'best' deal possible. I tried haggling for a better deal than they were offering but they weren't having any of it and just offered me the stuff I saw online. Am I unable to really haggle until I'm an actual customer because they wouldn't want to 'lose' me? Whats the best procedure to use guys? am after phone, bb and tv. Maybe even the mobile offer too? 4 for 40 thing? cheers.

TenerC_2

if your a new customer still in your first 12 month, then they wont give you a deal as they have you, but after your 12 month then you can haggle them as you can pack up and leave them. you could maybe haggle if your going to add to your package, but even then it`s doubtful, and they`ll lock you in for a new 12 month contract.

Anon1

I have previously be paying;
Telephone: M £11
Broadband:

bobgrover1941

I have the good offer from virgin, £19.50 for bb L and talkanytime, but I can't get virgin to transfer my phone number from talk talk - they say I have to cancel talktalk to get back to BT, than apply for BT to transfer to virgin.
BT say they only take on new customers on 12 month contract and this would cost at least £70 to break.

Any ideas on how to get virgin to transfer my number from talktalk directly either free or cheap?

superhans

Virgin Media are rubbish I must of spoken to the fake disconnections 5 times so far and got wildly different answers from each person, (this is the disconnections you speak to if you haven't cancelled your contract and given your 30 days notice),

Call 1,
Firstly they tried to start me on a new contract when I was only on month 9 of my previous contract, the new one would be 2mb bb & phone for £21, instead of my old price £15.50, so I got them to put it back down as I did not authorize this,

Call 2,
I am on my 12 th month of my contract, I was told I had 2 months left, which is definately wrong as I have 12 paper bills, so decided to leave but them noticed their "12 days of christmas" promotion,

http://www.virginmediapeople.com/12days/

Each treat is clickable for more information, He told me these offers are running until the end of December, I asked him to connect me to 10mb for free for 1 month, which is no3, he did this but he had to upgrade me to Large broadband, and then said I would have to phone them back the next day to cancel the large broadband once it had been connected, they can only cancel a service that you have running, otherwise I will be paying £29.00 per month to stay on L broadband.

Call 3,
I phoned to complain 2 days later, that my 10mb broadband wasn't working, only to be told that it had been connected, I then did a speed check online while I was on the phone and it came back as 6.5mb, I told her this and then did another check to find it had jumped to 8.5mb,

The very important thing is that I didn't notice any difference in my internet surfing speed, even though it had been running on 10 mb for 2 days this is why I complained, the rep said that you won't notice any difference between 2mb and 10mb unless you download films or music, I very rarely do this, so I don't notice any speed difference, I wonder how many people realize that it won't speed up browsing only downloading, all the ISP's make it sound like surfing will be faster when it isn't.

I use free download manager which breaks downloads into many different parts and downloads all sections in one go, so it's a lot quicker on 2mb,
http://www.download.com/Free-Download-Manager/3000-2071_4-10301621.html

I am glad I didn't pay for Large broadband, at least I get 1 month for free though, then I mentioned that I had 12 paper bills so must be at the end of my contract she agreed, and started the cancellation process, so hopefully will get a call soon from the real customer retentions department, lets se how low they will go to keep me,

I have found a good deal with o2 broadband for £2.50 per month for 8mb, to get this price you need to sign though Quidco for £60 cashback,

http://www.quidco.com/o2-broadband/
and have a o2 mobile,

And a BT landline for £4.50 per month called BT basic, that is a total of £7.00.
Here is the MSE thread about it, if you don't qualify use it as a bargaining chip to lower your bill.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1231765

BexTech

bobgrover1941 wrote: »

I have the good offer from virgin, £19.50 for bb L and talkanytime, but I can't get virgin to transfer my phone number from talk talk - they say I have to cancel talktalk to get back to BT, than apply for BT to transfer to virgin.
BT say they only take on new customers on 12 month contract and this would cost at least £70 to break.

Any ideas on how to get virgin to transfer my number from talktalk directly either free or cheap?

Sadly this is the problem from having line rental from anyone other than BT. TalkTalk don't have a porting agreement with VM as the line is really a BT line, that TT are just reselling.

dave_dph

bobgrover1941 wrote: »

Any ideas on how to get virgin to transfer my number from talktalk directly either free or cheap?

I am not 100% certain but I seem to remember someone with the same problem as yourself and they did manage to get it sorted.

Try posting to vm's support team via the vm newsgroups. Ask the question in virginmedia.support.telephony and they will be able to check with the porting team whether it is possible. Virgin may now have a porting agreement with Talk Talk, I do not know; but I do recall someone getting this problem sorted.

Alternatively ask the question at www.cableforum.co.uk , some vm staff use that forum and can be very helpful.

laughable

Hi All,

Just to clear this up. Talk Talk 'borrow' their lines from BT. As such VM can take telephone numbers from BT but not from Talk Talk. If you switch the number to BT first then you will lock into contract with BT and then have to buy out of that contract with BT. In the same way that if you want to switch from VM to Talk Talk you would have to go via BT and pay install and cancellation fees to BT and then set up fees etc to Talk Talk. Better to take VMs products but accept a new number.

Thanks
Laughable - that's my opinion on some of the sillier comments on here not on VM.