Only joined Virgin Media for Sky? Blag some extra channels for the loss

deejay62

Have just had Sky installed as I couldn't do without SKY1. I rang VM and they were polite and very helpful. They have put me onto Broadband and telephone for £19.95. A huge saving of nearly £25 a month.
My son who is still within his 12month contract with NTL (VM) rang and was told that for this month only, they will allow people to leave if they so wish.
Also, the engineer who came to install the SKY assured me that although I need a phone line for the box (Or pay £25 and not have one!) it didn't matter that it was not a BT line. (So I saved the £25!! LOL)
If ever VM get Sky1 back........I'll be returning!!!!!

Nicky321

I was on a deal from September 06 - August 07 at £58.00 for 4MB Broadband, XL Tv, and talk 400. I rang disconnections on monday and told them I wanted to change over to talk unlimited but keep the 4MB Broadband and XL TV and that I could get a equivalent package for £42.00 with sky(including £11.00 line rental to BT). The total of this package with Virgin would be £70.50, I told them the deal with sky seemed a better deal as I would still receive the sky channels lost from virgin, and would have 8mb broadband compared to their 4 mb. They instantly gave me a price of £29.45 for the package!:j

John_Rothwell

Have phoned Virginmedia.
They have reported SKY to OFCOM, and have given SKY 30 days to reconsider.
We can only watch and wait.
P.S Virginmedia are offering V+ boxes for an installation fee of£25 instead of £75 if you don't want to keep your old box.
Regards

CrashDive

Phoned Virgin up twice now - keep getting through to the India? call centre, they are nice enough but they don't seem to understand that Sky basic channels were free and part of the basic channels but have now been withdrawn.

Plus without wishing to be funny it was a slow, frustrating process talking to them.

Spoke to a guy from Glasgow last week who was very helpful, maybe I am calling to early will try again later. Trying now to get a deal that Nicky321 described in #94 and maybe V+ and bedroom V for a £10pm.....

brownbake

I was on the 3 for 30 broadband, tv, phone - read your forum waited 45 mins last night then got told to phone this morn as they were closing at 8pm. Was told to ask for tel icoms in Sheffield and ask for retention pack 5. I got an upgrade for 6 months to the XL tv package, basically all channels except premium, better than a kick in the teeth and I like their on demand too - although the navigation could speed up and be improved.

Maybe I could of hammered out a better deal but if I don't get Sky 1 back soon then I will push for keeping this pack indefinitely. I know they get slated for a bad service but, touch wood, their broadband and phone has all been fine for me. Not bad for £30 a month but maybe I should have left the package as was and asked for a mobile sim which apparently gets you 300xmins a month. Now that would have been good for £30 a month, TV, broadband, phone and mobile!! I may ring em back. With T mobile on phone and not happy with their cust servs - cheers!!

SaverSarah_2

hansi wrote:

Why did you have to put this on three different threads!!!

I'm guessing they were trying to be helpful and get their message across to as many different people as possible.

Where's the harm in that?

ThePinkRat

sarab66 wrote:

Yes, I've bucked the trend. Last Autumn I was looking to save costs and realised I'd be better off combining packages (NTL=broadband & telephone, Sky=tv) and called Sky, they reduced my package for 6 months by 50% to try and keep me.

I'd been keeping an eye on the new potential deals once NTL became Virgin Media but am also really bored with the Murdoch media empire controlling what I can/can't see and the political opinion. Also whilst I'd been a big Lost fan was hacked off when it went to Sky One as the showtimes didn't fit in with me so I'd missed a few episodes (video not working and can't justify the extra expense for a DVD Rec or Sky/Virgin+) and that was all I watched on the Sky channels as I watch BBC News 24.

However, whilst Virgin is fighting and negotiating on price and has been playing hardball with Sky I believe they are challenging the potential monopoly that Sky had in dominating how much we will all have to pay for cable/satellite services. I like what it is going on because in the long-term so long as Virgin/Branson keep negotiating hardball style it can only better us, the consumer with lower prices. It's not just the short-term loss.

Congrats to the people who've negotiated better deals with Virgin as you could have longer term benefits in longer-term price wars.

In summary, I had great pleasure on 'blackout' day in calling Sky to cancel my subscription and saying it was because I didn't want to support the Murdoch empire any longer and was switching my allegiance to branson. I then called Virgin and made one of the customer operatives very happy as he'd been having nightmare calls from irate customers all morning. Was I the only person to call up and take new services that day? And the key thing is I've saved myself £11.50 per month which I can now transfer to my credit card payments!:rotfl:

My sentiments entirely. This is more than just about saving some money in the short term. This is also about curbing a potential Murdoch monopoly where Sky could charge whatever they liked if they had no viable competition.

SaverSarah_2

pipmoss wrote:

What number do you ring 4 customer reations I rang 150 and got a customer advisor who wasn`t helpful at all ?

Option 3 (anything else), then option 2 (if you're moving house or thinking of leaving us), then option 3 (if you're not moving house but you're thinking of leaving Virgin Media).

Hope that helps!

kduffy101

hi,just found this site,and after reading about virgin i thought i will try this...
i was paying £18.00 for broadband+£11.00 line rental(i pay firsttelecom for my calls)and i had the minimum tv package free,that was £29.00 per month.
so i called them and says "what can you offer me not to move to sky"
first offer...up my tv package to LARGE+drop the price to £24.00 per month.(Mmm).
second offer...cut my monthly bill to.....£19.95 per month...YES
thats nearly £100 saving per year..
thanks martin.

CrashDive

John_Rothwell wrote:

Have phoned Virginmedia.
They have reported SKY to OFCOM, and have given SKY 30 days to reconsider.
We can only watch and wait.
P.S Virginmedia are offering V+ boxes for an installation fee of£25 instead of £75 if you don't want to keep your old box.
Regards

"Already with us and want to keep your existing set-top box for another room? Installation of your V+ service is free"

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/dtv/vplus/index.html :T