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

davidjones90

what if you aren't a customer and ring up saying 'what do you have to offer'?

and then blag em saying sky can offer 8mg tv and phone for £x a month

would tht work?

crazygoog

Firstly, I never really thought of doing this to be honest. I have been a silent reader of the forums for a while now, but this is the one that has really appealed to me the most. Now, this coming Saturday I was due to have V+ installed, BB upgraded to 10Mb, my current standard Virgin box relocated to my bedroom, and also unlimited use of my landline. This was a result of wanting to save some money a couple of weeks ago, a called them to try and reduce the £85 p/m that I was paying them, to a more manageable level. But he offered me this and that extra all for what I was paying previously for a poorer package. So that is a little bit beside the point. So today I have read through all these posts, and getting ideas of what I could say etc. So, I have managed to get my XL tv service reduced from £20.50 p/m to £11.50 p/m - so a nice saving of £9 per month suits me down to the ground. Although I dont watch anything at all on Sky One, Two, Three and News, I really would miss Sky Sports News, and I would be absolutely gutted, BUT my tv has built in freeview, so at least I can still get my favourite station on earth!

Good luck to others with this. AND..... CHEERS MARTIN!

shawthingz

Hi All,

My parents have been ntl customers for a long time & have had various sweeteners / discounts offered to them over the years to keep their custom. I got them a better deal today without resortig to the loss of Sky channels dispute:

Their last (VM) bill was:

Phone Line Rental £11:00
Talk Evening & Weekend Local* £2:00
TV package - XL: £9:75
Broadband mid package** : £18:00


*Free local calls in the evening and at weekends - whoopee! :rolleyes:
** 2MB max download speed - wow!! [sic] :eek:


They were also getting a £7.99 "Goodwill" disount each month, which brought their total outlay (including VAT) to about 37 quid last month after they'd paid for their outbound phone calls.

Now here's the thing I found. At the moment, they're paying about £20 for 2MB broadband and free evening local calls.

However, (and this is the pitch I made to their "retention" dept) if they were to ditch VM and move back to a BT line, they can get up to 8MB broadband and get free phone calls to any UK landline at any time for the same price (Unlimited Broadband & Talk Bundle 1)

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/noncable.html

...so VM have 2 products competing with each other. It took a while for me to explain VM's offerings to their own staff (2 different areas of the business) but I basically told them that my parents could leave VM, move back to BT for the phone and then get a better BB service & free calls! (Not quite the truth, but then they didn't spot that!)

So, this is where I got to - my parents now have free calls to any UK landline (effective immediate), they're going to be upgraded to 4MB broadband for free as soon as it can be installed (early April) and they can also claim back 50% of the cost of a wireless router (to a max purchsae price of £60)

They're also going to get a £2 reduction in their monthly subscription for the next 12 months

That work for me! BTW, the "retentions" phone number is 0800 052 9403 (option3)

Hope this helps

Andy

tracey29

Well I just phoned Virgin and was on hold for 35 minutes before I finally got through to a customer service rep – all they can offer me is unlimited landline phone calls (don’t use the phone so no good) or the XL pack rather than the basic pack which would give 70 channels – I told them that they’re all rubbish anyway and that the only decent thing to make me want to stay would be sports and movies channel – he offered me them and my whole package would be £52.50 instead of the normal £73, I’m only currently paying around £35 per month so that’s no benefit. I told him that I’d move across to Sky, he said that was fine, and I’m on a 30 day notice period. I replied that I’d move straight over to Sky and not give them notice as they didn’t give me notice that that I’d lose Sky 1, he said that in the contract it says that they can remove channels at any time. I said I’d never signed a contract with Virgin, my contract was with NTL, he said that by accepting their services into my home I was entering into a contract with them, I said I hadn’t accepted their services, they’d put them there. I told him I wouldn’t be paying and that they could take me to court.
I’ve now cancelled my DD on the basis that they’re not going to take thousands of people to court over this – does this sound OK or could I be in trouble for this?

Lady_Chatterbox_2

Have just called VM after this advice. We currently have the XL TV package and this costs £20.50 a month, just had it reduced to £11.50 a month for the next 6 months. HOORAY! That's £54 saved, enough for a good night out!

Mountain_3

Has any one noticed the information channel for Virgin. When it was Telewest you could phone 150 free of charge but now it gives 2 numbers of which 150 is 1 and another. It also now states that there is a 6p conection charge and a 5p per minute cost. It is a bit unclear if this applies to the 150 number (which probably does) so be wary about these long periods of being on hold.

Gary_S_3

OK gang, I've just had an excellent result on this.

Now I rang Virgin three weeks ago to ask what the differences in service would be between them and Telewest. As a result of this call, I received a £15 bill reduction and my broadband went from 1mb to 2mb. So I wasn't hopeful of getting anything this time!

However, I decided to give it a try anyway. After waiting for 45 minutes I got through to an extremely nice fellow called Andy. I explained to him that I was really hacked off at losing Sky One and also was very tempted by Sky's internet packages. I also mentioned that I fancied a Sky+ box. I then asked Andy what I'd need to do to leave Virgin Media. Andy explained that 30 days' notice was required, but then told me we could discuss different options. He looked at my current contract, did some workings out on pen and paper and came up with the following offer:

My current package was M broadband (2mb), XL TV (plus Sky Sports) and M landline telephone. For this, I was paying £60.50 a month. Andy explained that he could work out a package with me that upgraded my broadband to L (4mb), upgraded my landline phone to L and included a V+ box for £61.50 a month. In other words, for an extra quid I'm getting double broadband speed, free evening calls and a V+ box!

Now I have to do quite a lot of negotiation and mediation as part of my career, but none of this was necessary. All I did was politely explain to the guy why I was considering leaving and he offered me the package mentioned. So my advice is to do what I did and see where it gets you.

I have always been impressed by Telewest/Virgin's customer service and have always been a satisfied internet/phone/TV customer. This has demonstrated to me the lengths that they will go to to keep their loyal (five years!) customers happy. Give it a go!

cjackson4

I had 10meg broadband
basic phone line
V+ box (tv drive)
2 extra boxes
XL tv package
no premium channels total £86.50 month.

i now have 4meg broadband and EVERYTHING else the same but now I'm paying £53.51 SAVING £33.99 month just for phoning up. NOT for 6 months but for forever.
It was worth the 30 minute wait in the queue to ge through.

good luck and MAKE THAT CALL!!!

Red1708

Well I was thinking about ditching the tv package and going to Freeview anyway so I thought I'd give them a call and see what I could get.

I was paying £62 a month for Telephone Line Rental, Talk Weekends & Evenings, Disney Channel, 4MB Broadband & XL TV.

So I've ditched the TV, an automatically go onto their 'Freeview' package (no need to go out and buy a set top box), I've kept my 4MB broadband, Increased to Talk Unlimited, added Talk Mobile & Talk International and kept the Disney Channels all for a reduced rate of £26.95 a month. That's a saving of £35.05 a month or a cool £420.60 a year!. Oh and it's for 'as long as I remain a customer' not the usual 6 months promotional offers.

I'm one happy girly!!

brand_2

I rang virgin media a few minutes ago. I got offered free calls, but i do not use my landline for making calls, so told them this was no good. The only thing they said they could offer was free months trial of the 9 movie channels. I settled for this, not bad free movies for a month. I just hope they have decent films on now!