Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

buglawton

All the rural houses for miles around me have been easy targets for Gigagclear. Their network now covers rural lanes for miles around here, sometimes with only a house or 2 per mile. Their network stops when it reaches the edge of the town. Obvious to see why: Laying fibre is faster and cheaper along country lanes or across fields than under paving and the offer is compelling compared to copper.

Meanwhile Starlink is beginning Beta trials this year with it's low orbit satellite network. High bandwidth and low latency will be on offer. A bit of patience and even rural dwellers will be awash in data.

Mister_G

I await with bated breath!  I live in rural Hampshire, but no sign of Gigaclear coming here.

h158

h158 said:

I need to reduce what we are paying with Virgin, been with them 8 years so after many phone calls with them, eventually cancelled on 31 May. I’m hoping that we hear from the retentions team with an offer....any recent experiences of this, or due to lower staffing at the moment will they be doing retention calls? 

They haven’t rang me yet. 1 day to go. Not expecting a call now. Will rejoin in my partners name and his account....

Brosgidi

h158 said:

h158 said:

I need to reduce what we are paying with Virgin, been with them 8 years so after many phone calls with them, eventually cancelled on 31 May. I’m hoping that we hear from the retentions team with an offer....any recent experiences of this, or due to lower staffing at the moment will they be doing retention calls? 

They haven’t rang me yet. 1 day to go. Not expecting a call now. Will rejoin in my partners name and his account.... 

This might be too late to be of any use to you but I did get a great result today.
My disconnection was due to be on Friday 3rd. After giviing them the 30 days notice, they called me back the next day to offer a price of £77.50 to instead of the £93.50 that led me to ask them to disconnect. I was paying £67.50.
I rejected the £77.50 and kept the disconnection order on, believing they would call back again. They didnt.
So I called them twice each week for the past two weeks but they insisted on  £93.50. 
I did look around and in all honesty, none of the others could match the VM value. BT could offer cheaper for 3 months, but then it would shoot up, so overall I would still be paying more.
I decided Id stick with Virgin no matter what, and probably just amend my package to cut that £93.50 down a bit at the last minute if they didnt call me with a better offer.
So today, i got an email with my bill for the next month - £97, which was the full price of my package without any discount but less the Sky sports and Bt Sports discount that had been on  till football started back. I was a bit surprised so I rang them (retentions) and the lady i spoke to said the bill will be recalculated after the disconnection on the third, but I need not worry because the disconnection will go ahead and then I will get a cheaper final bill.
The fact that she never asked why I wanted to leave or what she could do to convince me to stay convinced me they couldnt care less. To sort it out once and for all, I decided to call them back, ask them to disconnect my second V6 box and take off the kids channels. This would have saved me £12.50, bringing my bill down to £81. So I rang them again but couldnt get through, and this turned out to be where good fortune set in for me.
After holding on for about 30 mins, I thought Id try the live chat on the VM website. Got through to an agent called Gemma, and she agreed that the price rise was too steep. She asked me to hold on and she would see what she could do for me and came back after about 10 minutes offering me £72.50 to keep my package exactly as it is. I couldnt believe it but I told her to go straight ahead. Here was me ready to take off some of my services to get a price of £81 and all of a sudden, I can keep all my services for an even cheaper price. She actually apologised too on behalf of all her colleagues who had kept offering mr £93.50.
Now I wont be able to say for sure that going through the live chat can get you a better deal but its definitely worth it. They are probably a different set of people to the ones who answer the phone, who are probably working from home and cant be too bothered.
And for those who want to make a comparison, my package is TV maxit (BT Sports and Sky Sports included with the HD pack), kids pick, 200Mb broadband, talk weekends phone (never ever used anyway) and two tivo v6 boxes..
So if you have given a disconnection notice and are expecting a call back, it might not come but dont give up, keep contacting them over the phone and through their live chat till the last minute.

Graddew

I'm coming up for renewal on Aug 7th - currently on the Ultimate Oomph bundle paying £84 per month - had an absolute bargain on original contract having played off sales team with Quidco - had £300 credit applied to my bill and £5 per month reduction on the £89 per month bundle price - safe to say not expecting that this year.
Just on hold and live chat wait to hand in my resignation having been quoted £139 per month - Hahahahaha, sure thing .
Anyone had any issues with starting a new contract in the Mrs name as a new customer? Might go through Quidco this time but heard the success of the cashback isn't great - anyone had experience on the Quidco cashback side for Virgin?
Will also follow Brosgidi advice and go for the live chat route - see how i get on...
Thanks in advance to any responses. 

vjkld

My contract was up for renewal this month. Last year I had mix tv 200mb broadband and basic weekend phone for £57 a month. 

I was offered the same package for £56 a month for 18 months. Ive gone ahead because it’s a saving on last year. I can’t fault Virgin when anything goes wrong with the service. 

r3614

What's the best deal anyone's been able to get for M100 for existing customer? My new customer 18 month deal is finishing at the end of August and I going to ask what's the best they're offering. I've only got M100 and line rental and only looking to renew just this again. Ideally I don't want to cancel and wait for retentions to call me if I can help it.

charlies_mum

I haven’t received any notification from a virgin but my bill has shot up From £79 To £95 this month, that’s almost £200 a year !

Trying to contact live chat, but I can’t find it.   Can anyone help please ?

edit :    Found live chat but they said they can’t do anything.     Spoke with someone in the UK and they got it down to £85, but that’s it.    We have the max tv package, broadband and weekend phone calls.    Is this a good deal ?

photome

charlies_mum said:

I haven’t received any notification from a virgin but my bill has shot up From £79 To £95 this month, that’s almost £200 a year !

Trying to contact live chat, but I can’t find it.   Can anyone help please ?

edit :    Found live chat but they said they can’t do anything.     Spoke with someone in the UK and they got it down to £85, but that’s it.    We have the max tv package, broadband and weekend phone calls.    Is this a good deal ?

How did you find live chat , I can’t...I have just handed notice in as they want £139 a month from £99 for ultimate oomph...new customers get it for £89 !, I was on phone she said can’t do it any cheaper than £135

charlies_mum

Think it was hidden somewhere in the Moving House section.    Phoned them again today and got it for £85 with no contract so I can phone again in a month to see if they have any better offers