Virgin Media but moving to an area not serviced by virgin...

starrynight23

I have a TV, phone and broadband package with Virgin Media. I have been a customer for 7 years but towards the end of last year I got a letter through saying my bill would be going up to nearly £40. I really only have it for the Broadband but I did watch TV a few times a month and need a landline for various things although I never make calls on it, only receive. I phoned up to complain and disconnect my service and they did the whole "please don't leave us" rubbish and said that if I entered into a new packaged they'd send me a super hub (brilliant) and a TiVo box (much more likely to use that than their regular box) and cut the price by £10/month so I felt I was getting a good deal and took it as I wasn't planning on moving any time soon.

Fast forward about 5 months and I have been offered a brilliant job and I have to move. I have checked the post code of the flat I am moving to and Virgin Media doesn't serve the area (also checked the postcode of another 2 potential flats and had the same response). On phoning up I was told I'd need to pay nearly £250 disconnection fee because I'm ending my contract early (I think it is by about 13 months).

Obviously I am kicking myself for taking the contract out but I did think I was saving money in the long run. I did want to take my service with me but I can't because they don't serve the area. The response from Virgin was "can't you move to another area"... :mad:

The don't serve the area my mum stays in either so I can't transfer the contract to her address. They did say they'd take £50 off the bill if I could refer a friend:p

I take it there is nothing I can do but pay the bill? I suppose I was hoping there would be a fantastic loop hole I could use to get out of it/reduce the cost? Anyone?.:o As it is it will be going on an interest free credit card and being paid off bit by bit, with a deposit and extra rent coming out my account I can't afford what is essentially 1 months rent on top of that!

mije1983

starrynight23 wrote: »

I take it there is nothing I can do but pay the bill?

Yes you are correct. This question comes up almost daily (with the same answers) and I've never seen anyone report that they have got out of the contract with no cost.

starrynight23

Thanks.

I'm sorry I did have a look but couldn't see anything last night, I may not have been looking in the right place or put in the right search words.

I was never expecting to get away without paying anything at all. I just felt that was a bit much. I've seen that EE will pay up to £100 to buy you out the end of your contract so that would at least be some money towards it. I'm going to look into that.

macman

There is no get out. VM contracted you at the current address only and do not offer service at every other UK address. Today's announcement of their network expansion is unlikely to come in time to benefit you.

John259

I'm not sure if it's relevant to your situation, but FWIW Virgin Media actual serve the entire country. You don't need to be on their cable television system. You can be on a traditional phone line. This is called their "National" service and it was inherited from the old Virgin Net. I'm on that service. I pay Virgin Media for everything: the line rental, the phone service, add-on features such as Caller ID and anonymous call rejection, chargeable phone calls, and broadband. Because I'm on a non-local loop unbundled exchange I pay a bit more than those who are. We're not on FTTC let alone FTTP and unlikely to be in the foreseeable future, so broadband speeds aren't wonderful but they're ok. When there's a fault Virgin report it to BT OpenReach who then mend it, and that can take a long time.

Hope this info is useful.

System

John259 wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's relevant to your situation, but FWIW Virgin Media actual serve the entire country. You don't need to be on their cable television system. You can be on a traditional phone line. This is called their "National" service and it was inherited from the old Virgin Net. I'm on that service. I pay Virgin Media for everything: the line rental, the phone service, add-on features such as Caller ID and anonymous call rejection, chargeable phone calls, and broadband. Because I'm on a non-local loop unbundled exchange I pay a bit more than those who are. We're not on FTTC let alone FTTP and unlikely to be in the foreseeable future, so broadband speeds aren't wonderful but they're ok. When there's a fault Virgin report it to BT OpenReach who then mend it, and that can take a long time.

Hope this info is useful.

They stopped selling the national service in October last year.

And the good news for your service is http://recombu.com/digital/article/talktalk-buys-virgin-media-copper-adsl-broadband

National Broadband customers will start to be migrated to TalkTalk’s network soon, with everyone to be moved over by Spring 2015.

John259

!!!!!! wrote: »

And the good news

Thanks for the information, even though it is deeply unwelcome.

TalkTalk???!!! Ugh! I hope I can avoid that fate.

And apologies to the OP for being unaware of this development.

macman

Virgin National was simply a resold BT Wholesale product.
Presumably ex VN customers who happen to be on a non-LLU'd TT exchange will be 'invited' to take their business elsewhere, since TT won't want to provide for them on a non-LLU basis.

brewerdave

The whole switch from Virgin National to TT is a mess .....an old lady in our village has just been switched for b/band -fair enuf,she was informed....but they have also slammed her BT telephone service without ANY communications -and left her without a working phone line -I suspect this is happening in a lot of cases -some people will not realise until they get the "sorry you are leaving us" letter from BT/phone supplier, probably a few weeks after it has happened!
Then ,as macman says, there will be those whose b/band service will simply stop !!

John259

Oh this sounds like it's going to be a total misery. BTW I haven't received any notification from Virgin yet.

My apologies for being unintentionally responsible for diverting this thread off topic.

Oblivion

I actually got cold called by a Virgin Account Manager in early December who gave me the shock news that my Virgin ADSL via BT phone line was being sold off to Talk Talk :eek:, and would I like to be put on Virgin Cable instead. They said I could keep my BT phone number and our old @virgin.net email addresses, so I jumped at the chance. I also negotiated a very good deal financially on an 18 month contract.

It's taken a while to implement because my property is a very long way from the nearest street cabinet and they had several abortive attempts to pull a new cable through ... blockages in the underground ducts apparently ... not surprising since the cable network around here (Epsom, Surrey) is by Nynex and was one of the first to be installed in the country. It must have cost Virgin a fortune to connect me up!

Well this week they finally got a brand spanking new, state of the art, high speed cable pulled in and connected me to the latest Superhub 2ac, so I'm getting a splendid 53Mbits on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. Lovely jubbly.

Apart from being a bit miffed at the start because Virgin didn't tell me about the Talk Talk transfer in advance e.g. by email and I don't like being cold called, the end result has turned out very well.

I have nothing but praise for my Virgin Account Manager who has, during the process maintained close contact, kept me updated with any developments, answered every email very promptly and fielded several telephone calls from me to his direct line with the greatest courtesy and efficiency. So much better than having to go through call centres with endless button choices.