Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

Oldrocker

Just negotiated £192 a year reduction on my bill, well pleased and well worth the phone call. Just chose the thinking of leaving option. Contract was ending in just over a month.

ratechaser

Just cancelled. 150mb BB and basic phone (no TV) was coming in at £43.99/month, and was getting no decent retention offer - a few months back I was only paying £21/month! Let's see if they call me back, but didn't get a warm and fuzzy feeling like I normally do when haggling...

latecomer

I've generally found that the initial call just has a token effort to keep you. You need the call back from the retention team to get a decent deal. If you get a call but not a good offer ask them to let you think about it and call back the next day - gives you another shot at it.

Georgeb1971

I've been on £30 per month deal with virgin for 100meg broadband, basic tv and basic telephone. Service has been good but phones up to check new price and quoted £48 per month. I've told them my limit is £30 but best they can do is £45. So I'm moving to sky on their current £25 per month offer for fibre which seems best value at moment. Virgin don't appear bothered.
Over the last 5 years I've been with sky, bt, Vodfone and virgin and each time changed after 12 months to get the best deals. It can't be in their interest to keep increasing prices after 12 months as they're supplying new equipment every 12 months.... madness

latecomer

Obviously they are relying on new customers staying longer than the initial 12 months and hence they make their money back afterwards. If you change every 12 months then that's not playing their game!

The_Flying_General

I cancelled today as they were just not willing to offer a decent discount - there was a discount but nowhere near what some folk and new customers are getting.

Interestingly, during the hard sell, the lady I was talking to commented that she was working the hardest she had in 10 years to try and retain people, but people were just now more aware of how the game worked and that they had to dance between providers which wasn't a good business model. They are still working on their fibre offering being the thing that keeps people, but when you only need around 5mb/s to stream, 350mb connectivity is a hard sell. Given the market conditions, I'm surprised they aren't doing more to keep people. Or maybe I'm just being hopeful of a call back!

pjapk

I just called to threat to cancel. Was paying £84/month for 200Mb, phone and TV I wasn't even using (still have an old scart box somewhere in the loft!).

They've offered me £61 for upgrade to 350 (upload is useful to me for cloud backups etc.) plus phone plus a superhub 3 (I pointed out I've been having issues with mine). Pushed harder & got a further £3/month off for 6 months.

Said I wasn't convinced it was worth it, might as well switch to sky etc. & he was insistent that I could try for 14 days & still change my mind so said I might as well give it a go but will still call back to cancel after 10 days or so & see what they come up with...

KCS1503

Definitely worth asking for a discount particularly if you're not under contract and so free to go alsewhere.



Do a bit of homework first as to what packages are around from the other respected providers and then just keep cool when you ask. The customer services team have a small discount that they can apply for a limited time (like 6 months) but don't agree to that.



Point out what a similar high speed fibre package would be for a new customer with Sky/BT/Plusnet etc. and once they know that you've looked at the competition then they soon want to put you through to the customer retention team who are able to offer better discounts. In my case it will be pretty much £200 over the next 18 months.


Keep your cool, don't rubbish the service without justification, point out your previous loyalty.


Good luck!

Brummie85

Think Virgin are getting wise, or are reaching a point that they don't need/want to negotiate to retain customers.

My Mom rang to cancel them following a recent price increase and they flatly refused to offer an improved deal with her, even when she quoted a better deal being offered by Sky.

So she's gone with them. Sadly having issues since Sky installed with poor signal but hopefully they have a remedy for that.

gb908010

Ive been with Virgin for over 10 years and also managed to haggle a new deal but this time they dont seem bothered

100mb BB
Xl tv
talk weekends
Was paying £50 for 6 months and then went upto £65 and now going up to £69.

Sky can do the same for £45 for 18 months (Albeit BB is slower)

Plus cashback via quidco.

Best virgin can do is £59!! which they will probably will increase with months of starting like they did last year.