Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

gnash123

The trick here is to actually cancel and sound really sure you want to.
I was on a loyalty offer with Virgin that came to an end last month. New price after discounts ended was £51 a month for 100mb broadband and basic TV package. I called them three times to try and negotiate a better price and they weren't moving. Best they could do on the last call was £46 a month, then £43 a month once I'd waited for 40 mins in a queue.
I went through with the cancellation and lo and behold, this morning I got another call from their retentions team asking what price I was going to be paying going forward with the new provider. As soon as I told them, they brought my price down to £31 a month!
So always actually go through with the cancellation - they managed to reduce the bill by £20 a month to keep a customer - scary really how much others could be paying through the nose!

gnash123

And just to add - I didn't have any qualms about changing my mind - it was a good deal. The other provider was fine when I called to cancel the order I'd submitted less than 24 hours previously and said at the end of the day everyone just wants to save money!

Hubble_Bubble

I am on full house with broadband and phone for £55 pm, and since the introductory offer has expired it was going up to £79. Rang up to cancel and stated I couldn't afford it, and was happy going back to using my FreeView box and the internet down the library. Cost = 0). Was offered a reduction to £69 plus £50 off a bill, which wasn't too bad but still more than I could afford. The thing is, she stated that it was definitely her final offer, no haggling possible. She then tried to sell me broadband only which I wasn't interested in. But I'm posting here because I live just down the road from where the Retentions Team is housed and I've failed to get a job there on two occasions (lucky me, as I now have a job that doesn't pay much but I love!) but from those 2 days I can tell you all about the mechanics of the team. Each advisor has a pot (weekly or monthly, can't remember) from which they can offer reductions. If they can hang on to a customer while giving up as little as possible then their pot stays bigger which they can either use on future customers or save to earn a bigger performance bonus for themselves. This is why not everyone gets treated equally, it depends on how focussed the Advisor is on their bonus, or on what size their pot is at the time you ring up. The annoying thing is that the Advisor who dealt with me had no rapport with me at all. She didn't want to know how much I could afford and didn't come across as personable on any level so she was never likely to negotiate successfully anyway. However did she get through the interview??? So really it depends on who you get and at what time you ring them in their working cycle, neither of which you can control. I'm not expecting a ring back, I get cut off on 26th July which is OK, but if they were just prepared to haggle then they could have easily kept me. Oh well, best of luck! :beer:

Hubble_Bubble

gnash123 wrote: »

The trick here is to actually cancel and sound really sure you want to.
I was on a loyalty offer with Virgin that came to an end last month. New price after discounts ended was £51 a month for 100mb broadband and basic TV package. I called them three times to try and negotiate a better price and they weren't moving. Best they could do on the last call was £46 a month, then £43 a month once I'd waited for 40 mins in a queue.
I went through with the cancellation and lo and behold, this morning I got another call from their retentions team asking what price I was going to be paying going forward with the new provider. As soon as I told them, they brought my price down to £31 a month!
So always actually go through with the cancellation - they managed to reduce the bill by £20 a month to keep a customer - scary really how much others could be paying through the nose!

Could I ask how many days after the initial cancellation request was it before the Retentions Team rang you back?

gnash123

Hubble_Bubble wrote: »

Could I ask how many days after the initial cancellation request was it before the Retentions Team rang you back?

It was literally the next day. I cancelled at about 3pm on Monday and got the call at 11am the next day. I'd already had the disconnection email saying how sorry they were I was leaving.

pphillips

I'm with Virgin and am currently moving over to BT after a refusal to budge on price.

My Dad is also with Virgin, he rang Sky to take out a cheaper package with them and wanted to transfer his phone number. Sky said they would get in contact with Virgin and he then got a call from Virgin. They offered a £28 per month price reduction by reducing the number of channels he could record at the same time from 6 to 3 and halving his broadband speed. He was happy to stick with Virgin in the end because these were immaterial changes as far as he was concerned.

marv101

Thought I'd give my success story.

I'm on Full House + Movies bundle, 350 Mbps. Was paying £77.50/month, up to £106.50. Phoned retentions department, offered £94.50/month straight away. Spoke about what channels I use and what I'd seen with Sky, etc. Tried saying an equivalent package they offer new customers is only £79/month but that doesn't include the second box that I have. Offered another £50 off the first month only, making an effective charge of a little over £90/month for 12 months, so saving roughly £16 or so/month or over £192/year. That's quite a decent saving, so I decided to take it.

I didn't expect much being on the 350 Mbps as no one else can compete with this offering, and they know that. Dropping to 200 Mbps would have saved me an extra £1/month, or going to 100 Mbps would have been £88.50/month. That speed probably would have been fine and certainly 200 would have been, but I felt staying with my package was the better deal.

Overall I'm quite pleased. I really didn't expect any saving at all, I haven't had to sacrifice anything, and honestly, I would have just stayed anyway. Yes I probably could have gotten more if I went through the cancellation process, but it's hassle and really how much extra would I have saved? I had in my mind a target of £85/month (effective) and I wasn't far off.

buglawton

Wow this thread is dusty. But I came here from the MSE Haggle with Virgin current news item.

Just to say, I called Virgin to cancel last week (they absolutely refuse to discuss a better deal). Was told there's a 40 minute wait to speak to the cancellations team. I will try again at a time of day that's supposedly quieter.

clough99

Not being happy with the latest price hike that would have taken my package up to 54 pounds I called virgin to cancel.
This first person I spoke to ( offshore ) tried to get me to agree to just delaying the latest increase for 6 months as I had been happy paying the price before ?!? I had to insist twice on being passed to cancellations.

Once with cancellations they offered me a 270 pound a year reduction !

charlies_mum

Finally after speaking with half a dozen different people I was told to phone back in a few days when my contract has expired, and they may be able to match my current price. If so, that will save me over £20 a month.

However, I have received an email from Virgin saying that their prices increase by £4.50 a month in a September.

If they can't offer me a good reduction, I will move to Sky