Haggle with Virgin - our new guide 24 August 2015 at 5:03PM edited 25 August 2015 at 4:06PM in Phones & TV 383 replies 108.3K views

burner03

Contract coming to end, inevitable price rise on the cards in August. Phoned virgin up to negotiate a new deal, went to retentions. Agreed new package of basic tv and 100mb bb for £28/m. Confirmation email comes in at £38/m. Fuming. Having to raise complaint now....sigh.

Tyrone2012

Burner03, Be a £10 manager Discount for 18 months (Doesn't show on your contract) its their new way of doing things for some reason, did they give you a reference number? 

Hans33

I saved £20 a month and got better than a new customer deal. I didn't even have to persuade them. I just followed the menu options up to "thinking of leaving us" and when I got through to someone he started by saying he'd look into the best deal he could get me. Easy!

Stuieboy123

Garf said:

I reached my 30 day notice point in my contract with Virgin Media.
I rang and cancelled and was offered Ultimate Oomph for £99/month. No thanks!

I ordered the Ultimate Oomph package on £89/month as a new Customer in my Wifes name. Same bank account (joint) that I was using on my previous Contract with Virgin Media.
I went via Quidco (£200) which tracked within 30 mins.
I also qualified for the £125 Shopping Voucher.
I set the install date the Tuesday after my disconnection date (Saturday).

Reading through a lot of comments on here and HotUKDeals, there doesn't seem to be any reward for Loyalty at Virgin Media. I used to (5 years +) get phone calls from Virgin Media telling me I was paying too much and they would offer me better deals. Shame.

Did this actually work? im in a similar position currently. The new customer deals are so much better than what they've offered

photome

charlies_mum said:

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 

I have searched everywhere and cant find online chat.I have put in my notice 12 days to go, havent heard a thing

charlies_mum

photome said:

charlies_mum said:

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 

I have searched everywhere and cant find online chat.I have put in my notice 12 days to go, havent heard a thing

I’ve had a look and can’t find it now.   Unless you do want to leave, It looks like a long wait on the phone 

Rosa_Damascena

charlies_mum said:

photome said:

charlies_mum said:

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 

I have searched everywhere and cant find online chat.I have put in my notice 12 days to go, havent heard a thing

I’ve had a look and can’t find it now.   Unless you do want to leave, It looks like a long wait on the phone 

Many firms have trimmed down on the chat in response to the pandemic, which I think is short-sighted given that a properly triaged system could be so much more efficient than hanging on the phone.

I've just been through the haggling guide and think I have got to point 14. Its time to bid VM farewell..

danlightbulb

No success for me today on trying to get a better price out of Virgin Media. Its a real shame, as I've been with them for 10 years and am happy with the service. Its just that nowadays there are many more alternatives in the market and as such, I want my core package to be smaller and then to diversify a bit into some of the streaming services.

My existing package was just out of contract and had crept up to £55 a month for the 100Mb broadband, phone line (never used) and 'fun' TV package (an older package no longer offered). The best they could do after some minutes on hold was £41 for this same package.

Now, that is a good discount to be fair. Its just that I never use the phone or 95% of the channels I have. So I want to go even lower still and reduce some of my services.

The new customer bundle called 'big bundle' (lowest TV, 54Mb fibre, phone) is £33 per month. Also there is a 100Mb broadband only deal for £24 per month plus a £75 Amazon voucher currently on MSE. I'd have taken either of those.

But they simply wouldn't do it. So I've given my notice for disconnection and have 30 days to find a new provider. What's the odds of getting a call back from someone with more authority? Also, can I simply sign up as a new customer with Virgin to get the newest deals?

daztraction

danlightbulb said:

No success for me today on trying to get a better price out of Virgin Media. Its a real shame, as I've been with them for 10 years and am happy with the service. Its just that nowadays there are many more alternatives in the market and as such, I want my core package to be smaller and then to diversify a bit into some of the streaming services.

My existing package was just out of contract and had crept up to £55 a month for the 100Mb broadband, phone line (never used) and 'fun' TV package (an older package no longer offered). The best they could do after some minutes on hold was £41 for this same package.

Now, that is a good discount to be fair. Its just that I never use the phone or 95% of the channels I have. So I want to go even lower still and reduce some of my services.

The new customer bundle called 'big bundle' (lowest TV, 54Mb fibre, phone) is £33 per month. Also there is a 100Mb broadband only deal for £24 per month plus a £75 Amazon voucher currently on MSE. I'd have taken either of those.

But they simply wouldn't do it. So I've given my notice for disconnection and have 30 days to find a new provider. What's the odds of getting a call back from someone with more authority? Also, can I simply sign up as a new customer with Virgin to get the newest deals?

I'm in almost exactly the same boat - my discount expired so now I'm paying £54.50 a month for 100MB broadband, phone line (never used), and basic TV (that I hardly watch).  "Best" discount I was offered was £45 a month, so I cancelled 30 minutes ago.  I've been with VM since the blueyonder days, but if the likes of NOW Broadband are now offering basically the same thing for £35, maybe it's time to finally move.

I'm hopeful somebody phones me back though.  If nobody does by the end of August, I'll just leave.  I don't think you can simply sign up as a new customer to get the newest deals though - but I think you can if you live your partner and just use their name.

danlightbulb

Its really silly. I'd have been happy to stay with Virgin if they'd just have given me the same package as new customers can get. I really hate this whole new customer deals thing - if they can offer it to new customers then why can't I have it?  What difference does it make? Well now they won't earn anything from me as I will go somewhere else.

Unless these packages are loss leaders then it makes no sense - surely its better to have a customer you're making a profit from (even though its lower than before) than to not have that customer.

The only worry now is the reliability of the standard BT line network. I'll be going for something like 50 Mbps package but when I last had BT line broadband (over 10 years ago) the line speeds were much more variable.

I just spent an hour cleaning up and reconnecting the old BT line master socket - it had been extended by previous occupants and the wiring was a mess so I stripped it all out and re-made the original master connection into a new socket.