Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

embers123

This guide is fantastic. I'm going to use it the next time I need to get a better deal from them

geekybloke

So I followed the advice - served notice yesterday calling the "thinking of leaving us" option and they sent the cancellation email through after I mentioned I will go to BT/ Plusnet for less money. The guy on the phone offered a higher amount than I am paying with discounts - £35 for 200mb, phone and tv. I don't need the tv or phone. I've fitted a VOIP line that costs 1p a min via Sipgate (plus a Grandstream box connected to the router) and also freeview is enough. Anyhow, today was called and offered £28 a month for the same (quoting BT / Plusnet were about £26 per month). Result! 

The first retentions guys was awful. Telling me speed test will show me what I need (incorrect as speedtest shows maximum and actual download was different to laptop, phone, x-box). Then repeating the same script over and over again. You have to tolerate this and be polite as they don't budge in the hope you'll just say renew. He also told me I would get faster speeds if I separated 2Ghz and 5GHz bands. I told him I run a sophisticated mesh network (what that has to do with renewal I don't know...) and that I can prioritize devices if little johnny was gaming online. I was 50/50 in moving or staying and would have called back and said I'll renew if I couldn't be bothered with the switch towards the end but I'm glad I held out. 

PZ19

geekybloke said:

So I followed the advice - served notice yesterday calling the "thinking of leaving us" option and they sent the cancellation email through after I mentioned I will go to BT/ Plusnet for less money. The guy on the phone offered a higher amount than I am paying with discounts - £35 for 200mb, phone and tv. I don't need the tv or phone. I've fitted a VOIP line that costs 1p a min via Sipgate (plus a Grandstream box connected to the router) and also freeview is enough. Anyhow, today was called and offered £28 a month for the same (quoting BT / Plusnet were about £26 per month). Result! 

The first retentions guys was awful. Telling me speed test will show me what I need (incorrect as speedtest shows maximum and actual download was different to laptop, phone, x-box). Then repeating the same script over and over again. You have to tolerate this and be polite as they don't budge in the hope you'll just say renew. He also told me I would get faster speeds if I separated 2Ghz and 5GHz bands. I told him I run a sophisticated mesh network (what that has to do with renewal I don't know...) and that I can prioritize devices if little johnny was gaming online. I was 50/50 in moving or staying and would have called back and said I'll renew if I couldn't be bothered with the switch towards the end but I'm glad I held out. 

The first guy doesn’t have access to the deals the second one would have.  Different retentions department.  One tries to persuade you not to cancel, the second tries to offer something to make you stay as a customer. 

frankersBri

One 30 minute call with VM, I have saved £14pm (37%!) off my 100Mb internet.

Armed with competitor quotes from Vodaphone for the same speed in my area, I called and told them I intended to cancel. The rep was friendly, offered to review the best deal they could give me and he came up with a £25pm price. Basically the same as the Vodaphone service, but no hassle of switching.

Fixed for 18 months; 30 minutes to save £252 over that period - well worth it!

shinyufc

I have just put my cancellation through for broadband.
The chap on the phone did not even try to persuade me to stay. Was on a introductory offer of £26 a month for M50 broadband (£75 cashback). The renewal price was +£40. 
Should I expect Virgin to ring me or shall I ring them in a few days?

geekybloke

shinyufc said:

I have just put my cancellation through for broadband.
The chap on the phone did not even try to persuade me to stay. Was on a introductory offer of £26 a month for M50 broadband (£75 cashback). The renewal price was +£40. 
Should I expect Virgin to ring me or shall I ring them in a few days?

Give it a couple of days and they'll ring back. Did they call you?

Anon

frankersBri said:

One 30 minute call with VM, I have saved £14pm (37%!) off my 100Mb internet.

Armed with competitor quotes from Vodaphone for the same speed in my area, I called and told them I intended to cancel. The rep was friendly, offered to review the best deal they could give me and he came up with a £25pm price. Basically the same as the Vodaphone service, but no hassle of switching.

Fixed for 18 months; 30 minutes to save £252 over that period - well worth it!

It is better than you were paying without negotiating, but from reports on various forums £25?is probably at least £7 per month more than you needed to be paying. The best prices are always after you give notice and they call you back (not when you call in to cancel).

100mb alone from threads on hotukdeals is  coming in as low as £12-£14 per month for many.

You should be within a cooling off period if you wanted to put in your notice again/cancel the new deal. 

Obviously if you are happy with your deal then there is no need to do anything.

pop77db

My experience at haggling with Virgin just last week.

My contract was up so I phoned to try and get a better deal on the ultimate oomph. Had a look at sky and a mobile provider to compare the package and worked out I could get the same (slower broadband but good enough for us) for £60 cheaper than I am currently paying. I told them what I had found and after speaking to a few people who couldn't do anything I got put through to the retention department who came back with a deal that was £9 a month more expensive than the full price I have just started paying now the fixed term is up. I have now arranged to switch to sky. I said that I may come back in 18 months and get a new customer deal to which they replied 'you will not be treated as a new customer and will not be eligible ', something that I don't believe is correct.

Does anyone know how long to wait before being treated as a new customer again?

pop77db

pop77db said:

My experience at haggling with Virgin just last week.

My contract was up so I phoned to try and get a better deal on the ultimate oomph. Had a look at sky and a mobile provider to compare the package and worked out I could get the same (slower broadband but good enough for us) for £60 cheaper than I am currently paying. I told them what I had found and after speaking to a few people who couldn't do anything I got put through to the retention department who came back with a deal that was £9 a month more expensive than the full price I have just started paying now the fixed term is up. I have now arranged to switch to sky. I said that I may come back in 18 months and get a new customer deal to which they replied 'you will not be treated as a new customer and will not be eligible ', something that I don't believe is correct.

Does anyone know how long to wait before being treated as a new customer again?

Forgot to include the £170 cashback through my company discount scheme as well.

PZ19

If you’ve actually cancelled you may well get a call back from Virgin outbound retentions with a far more competitive offer.