Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

J50Claret

So I'm useless at haggling. Contract with VM will have run out a while ago. We have all the tv and fast broadband and sky sports etc and pay £138 pm.
So with no sport on telly I'm thinking that I'll take us down to the basic level. On the website the "Bigger Bundle" is £45pm for 12 months which would be fine.
So I ring them and the 'Best they can do for me is £96 pm for that'. I'm quite shocked and just put the phone down.
I can go the cancellations etc. My slight problem with that at the moment is no other phone line and therefore no alternative. Also too much of a reliance on the old email - @ntlworld.com
Plan?? 

J50Claret

ohit said:

tracker528 said:

My contract is not due to expire for a couple of months but I have heard that as my wife has never had a contract with Virgin, (all contracts have always been in my name), what is to stop her applying for a "new user" deal and me cancelling the current contract? That way we get the best deal going for a 'New Customer'.  

Nothing stopping you doing that - we do that every year between us.

But what happens to your @ntlworld.com or @virginmedia.com emails in that process of account switching?

ohit

J50Claret said:

ohit said:

tracker528 said:

My contract is not due to expire for a couple of months but I have heard that as my wife has never had a contract with Virgin, (all contracts have always been in my name), what is to stop her applying for a "new user" deal and me cancelling the current contract? That way we get the best deal going for a 'New Customer'.  

Nothing stopping you doing that - we do that every year between us.

But what happens to your @ntlworld.com or @virginmedia.com emails in that process of account switching?

Those are lost -yes.
Which is fine for me (and nearly everyone I know) as we use ISP-independent email services like gmail, hotmail, yahoo (or the main others available to choose from).

J50Claret

ohit said:

J50Claret said:

ohit said:

tracker528 said:

My contract is not due to expire for a couple of months but I have heard that as my wife has never had a contract with Virgin, (all contracts have always been in my name), what is to stop her applying for a "new user" deal and me cancelling the current contract? That way we get the best deal going for a 'New Customer'.  

Nothing stopping you doing that - we do that every year between us.

But what happens to your @ntlworld.com or @virginmedia.com emails in that process of account switching?

Those are lost -yes.
Which is fine for me (and nearly everyone I know) as we use ISP-independent email services like gmail, hotmail, yahoo (or the main others available to choose from).

Thanks for confirming. Time to start the laborious process of changing my email to a an independent one I have then I can have a more potential alternative.

Rachel_123

chrisfiss said:

ohit said:

tracker528 said:

My contract is not due to expire for a couple of months but I have heard that as my wife has never had a contract with Virgin, (all contracts have always been in my name), what is to stop her applying for a "new user" deal and me cancelling the current contract? That way we get the best deal going for a 'New Customer'.  

Nothing stopping you doing that - we do that every year between us.

Thanks for responding. Do you normally have a gap of A few days without broadband or can it be seamless?

Would also like to know this as I’ve put my cancellation in today - it’s looking likely I’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future and would need a smooth transition! 

ohit

Rachel_123 said:

chrisfiss said:

ohit said:

tracker528 said:

My contract is not due to expire for a couple of months but I have heard that as my wife has never had a contract with Virgin, (all contracts have always been in my name), what is to stop her applying for a "new user" deal and me cancelling the current contract? That way we get the best deal going for a 'New Customer'.  

Nothing stopping you doing that - we do that every year between us.

Thanks for responding. Do you normally have a gap of A few days without broadband or can it be seamless?

Would also like to know this as I’ve put my cancellation in today - it’s looking likely I’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future and would need a smooth transition! 

I have gaps. I don't put in the new order until the old one is completely off with a day to clear.

This works for us as we have 2 internet connections (with a 'smart' router that lets us use both) - one with Virgin Media and one with a provider over the BT landline. And we rotate each 6 months apart for the best deal on each.

I understand this won't be possibly for most people. We do this as we depend on the Internet to work from home nearly full-time.

pod495

does anybody have any experience of how responsive and generous the VM retentions department are at the moment while the'ye apparently short staffed during the covid19 thing?
I'm wondering if it makes it less likely that they'll offer good deals or call back to retain custom.

MrN_2

pod495 said:

does anybody have any experience of how responsive and generous the VM retentions department are at the moment while the'ye apparently short staffed during the covid19 thing?
I'm wondering if it makes it less likely that they'll offer good deals or call back to retain custom.

I just tried to haggle with them. I'm at the end of my contract, so they want to put my bill up from £54 to £78. That's for Maxit TV, Fibre 100 and Talk Weekends. New customers get the same package with Fibre 200 for £49 a month, so I tried to politely haggle. They'll go to £60 but no lower. Quite aggressives sales people, compared to past experiences.

ohit

MrN_2 said:

pod495 said:

does anybody have any experience of how responsive and generous the VM retentions department are at the moment while the'ye apparently short staffed during the covid19 thing?
I'm wondering if it makes it less likely that they'll offer good deals or call back to retain custom.

I just tried to haggle with them. I'm at the end of my contract, so they want to put my bill up from £54 to £78. That's for Maxit TV, Fibre 100 and Talk Weekends. New customers get the same package with Fibre 200 for £49 a month, so I tried to politely haggle. They'll go to £60 but no lower. Quite aggressives sales people, compared to past experiences.

I think they have come to expect it. So do give some discount, but know that overall you are going to accept it.

It also works in their favour that new customer offers are not available as new connections to those customers you have had an account with them in the last 6 months - I work around that by being ok with no Internet for a few weeks (from them - see above: we have 2 internet lines), and alternate the account name every year between me and my wife.

HTH

buglawton

donnac2558 said:

My problem is:

I have £19.50 loyalty going back years anyway.

So the moment I mention no I do not want sport or movies, they are lost.

I was offer Tivo (happy with my V+ box until it breaks down) and 125 boardband, I have 50 and don't need 125 anyway they are doubling the speed shortly. I have caller display which is very important to me, they wanted me to cut that. No thanks I see a weird number or Out Of Area I know not to pick up. Saving me £12 for a year, but I lose my loyality.

I have 50mg boardband, XL TV (no movies or sport), M phone, rarely use the latter anyway. My bill is usually around £68,73.

If you are wedded to a landline with your current number I think it makes it harder to leave. As part of my programme to sharpen up the VM deal I agreed to ditch the landline. In any case I've heard that if you want to keep your number, VM keep billing you for some part of your contract till the transfer is done even if your broadband is terminated. 

I had found the LL to be supremely useless - you had to go to the phone charger point to check if a call was spam. When making 0800 or free weekend calls the weak rechargeable AAA cells of the cordless handset never seem to last more than 20 mins. And the call log is hard to access with a hard to use address book. My mobile with free UK calls knocks all of that into a cocked hat.

Now if VM try to gouge on price when my current deal ends, it will be much easier to switch.