Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

aaron1

So so our bill for maxit package including Sky and Bt sport and broadband etc was set to rise from around £110 to £144 a month, not being happy with that we have managed to negotiate them down to £70 a month, losing no channels and getting a 3rd V6 box, so we are getting more than we was getting, but at a much lower price.

I think we've done really well there indeed and it just shows what can be done if you push them hard enough.

JSmithy45AD

aaron1 said:

So so our bill for maxit package including Sky and Bt sport and broadband etc was set to rise from around £110 to £144 a month, not being happy with that we have managed to negotiate them down to £70 a month, losing no channels and getting a 3rd V6 box, so we are getting more than we was getting, but at a much lower price.

I think we've done really well there indeed and it just shows what can be done if you push them hard enough.

I'm glad you've got them down but be under no allusion, that was because you were paying far too much at the £110 level.

hushmore

I'm posting this more as a steam-letting exercise for myself, but also a cautionary tale about the complete and utter chaos at the root of Virgin Media and 02 - and the most appalling customer service I have ever experienced.

I've been a customer of Virgin Media since it's inception and was with NTL World prior to this from as far back as 2003. Since 2007 I have had top tier everything - broadband speeds, TV packages etc...always scraping the top end of whatever is available although this has become increasingly harder to negotiate.

After using the "notice of disconnection" tactic along with a formal complaint, in November 2021 I was contacted directly by someone at Virgin with the ability to actually make a difference - they offered me the Volt Package at £89 a month for 18 months - including sky sports and everything - which I accepted. I was told this included a sim card with 02 - I told the agent I didn't want it, but he said I had to have it anyway.

I was surprised when 02 set up a direct debit and started taking £25 a month, but when I saw my Virgin Media bill for £64 it made some sense. When the sim card arrived, as I had no intention to use it, I put it away in a drawer and forgot about it.

Fast forward to March and I get the letter from Virgin all about the price increases. Conscious my contract was coming to an end anyway, I decided to contact Virgin to get a new contract which I did fairly quickly. I told the agent I no longer wanted or needed my O2 sim card and was willing to "give it up" to try and reach a comparable deal to now.

I was offered effectively the same package (minus sim card) on March 11 - paying £91 a month for Gig1, Maxit TV, Anytime Chatter plus all the Sky Sports and Cinema etc...which I agreed to.

I contacted 02 on March 14 to tell them to shut down the direct debit and stop charging me - the agent arranged a disconnection and told me that he would "waive" the £10 disconnection fee. I said I was happy to pay to the end of my Virgin contract. 

Within the cooling off period I renegotiated to have Sky Sports and Cinema UHD added for an additional sum of £7 a month. (they told me they would add an additional credit of £3 a month)

Imagine my surprise when I receive a Virgin Media bill with no £3 credit attached and imagine my surprise when today a bill lands in my email inbox to tell me I now owe 02 the sum of £32...as part of my ongoing package with 02!!!!

I phoned Virgin and 02 up to cancel my contract - we have Lila Connect in our street now and I fancy a new telly off sky, so I decided given all this confusion it was high time to break links - mainly as I was sick to death of having to manage two business relationships with two companies apparently working together but unable to actually interface properly together.

When I phoned them earlier via 150, the Virgin agent refused to disconnect me and said that I needed to speak with 02 - against my wishes. I was then passed through several different 02 agents, being told all manner of weird and wonderful things - including telling me that I was wrong and that I had not, in fact, ended my relationship with 02 back in March and that I was very much still a customer - and also that I still owed 02 money whatever happened.

I spent the past one hour and 45 minutes on the phone earlier before eventually getting through to a customer service agent who agreed to cancel my 02 Sim Card with nothing being owed.

I raised a written complaint via the online portal. Finally today I spoke to an agent via 150 who has agreed to disconnect my Virgin packages in full - although obviously threatened me to return the equipment or face a £100 fine!!

I am so pleased to be free of this company. I have handed over tens of thousands of pounds over the years and have never been able to get anything like decent customer service, but tbf the broadband and TV services were always passable enough. But the complete and utter chaos and confusion over the 02 relationship has tipped me over the edge - is having one bill in one place too much to ask?

ladruid

Virgin and O2 are still run as separate companies (although merging more and more together). You took out the Ultimate Volt package with Virgin, which included a £25 unlimited sim with O2. For the time being your contractual arrangements for the O2 are/were with O2, and the VM part with with Virgin Media.

You could have changed your O2 contract at anytime as I did, I changed it to a monthly rolling £13 deal as I only used it as an emergency backup. Saved me £12 a month and I could cancel at anytime giving 30 days notice. The VM side would have been the deal price minus the £25, in your case £64... mine was £74 at this time.

Virgins main failing on this debacle is that they did not communicate this mess of dual companies and dual contracts effectively.

I will be having the fight next month with VM... As I don't watch live TV anymore and only use Prime/Netflix and catch-up, I will be telling VM to shove their TV and mobile services where the sun don't shine and drop back to 1Gig BB only if they don't give me a really sweet deal.

hushmore

ladruid said:

Virgin and O2 are still run as separate companies (although merging more and more together). You took out the Ultimate Volt package with Virgin, which included a £25 unlimited sim with O2. For the time being your contractual arrangements for the O2 are/were with O2, and the VM part with with Virgin Media.

You could have changed your O2 contract at anytime as I did, I changed it to a monthly rolling £13 deal as I only used it as an emergency backup. Saved me £12 a month and I could cancel at anytime giving 30 days notice. The VM side would have been the deal price minus the £25, in your case £64... mine was £74 at this time.

Virgins main failing on this debacle is that they did not communicate this mess of dual companies and dual contracts effectively.

I will be having the fight next month with VM... As I don't watch live TV anymore and only use Prime/Netflix and catch-up, I will be telling VM to shove their TV and mobile services where the sun don't shine and drop back to 1Gig BB only if they don't give me a really sweet deal.

Wow - I didn't realise I could have changed my 02 deal. The joke of all of this is that in a few months time my mobile contract is coming up and I would have been in the market for switching to a competitive sim only deal. After today's stressful madness I will never again be going to 02!

The real problem at root of all this as you point out is the dual contract/dual company issue - but it is also really poor call centre agents who are clueless about the joint deals. One incredibly rude 02 agent today told me unequivocally that Virgin and 02 are completely separate and have different owners and that my relationship with Virgin was completely irrelevant to the problems I was raising - despite the fact I NEVER USED the 02 sim card once.

The key thing is the way Virgin advertise the deals - they do not make clear you have to effectively have two separate relationships with two companies with two different log ins etc...in this day and age it is madness to have to pay two separate bills as part of one "package".

For good measure I have sent a detailed email to the CEO today complaining about all this. The clock is ticking on my disconnection too - I wonder if the magic people who you can't ring but have the ability to suddenly fix everything might show up like they did last time.  I get the impression the company is so poor that I won't get any sort of response...

Anyway good luck with your fight - if your experience with the call centres is anything like mine, prepare yourself for complete chaos.

parkercass

I’ve signed up to the forum just to share this story, but having read some of the other posts I’m not sure it’s such a great win! 

Tl;dr Have reduced my bill from an increased price of £81 to £43, but it’s not like-for-like. Should I go back again? 

I’ve been with Virgin for years, and when I moved house almost five years ago I upgraded to TV and phone as well as broadband. Never really used the landline, so unplugged the phone and put it away. Also stopped using the TV as I’d got a Firestick and only occasionally watch live tv now — so I packed the TV box away and waited for the end of my contract to switch back to a broadband-only deal. When I got an email from Virgin saying my existing package was going to increase from £57 to £81 a month, that was even more reason to ditch the phone and tv from the package! 

I read the advice on MSE about haggling, and looked up a few other deals, and spoke to a friend who works at Ofcom for their point of view. 

Tried the WhatsApp chat first as I could get on with work. First offer was an upgrade to V500 only for £55/month. I said no to that, because there were better offers elsewhere. 

They then brought that cost down to £52/month, but I thought I could do better. Third offer from the first person was £46/month for V350 broadband, which was more enticing. I said that was still a bit too much, so the fourth offer they made was V1GB for £58/month?! 

Then the person disappeared and that was the end of that. I tried to pick the conversation up again the next day, but had to start again. 

Day 2, offer 1: Volt M500, tv and phone for £64/month. No thank you. 

Offer 2: Volt 1Gb for £71/month. What?! This was going the wrong way. 

Offer 3: Volt 500 for £50/month. Still more than yesterday’s offer, so I said no. 

I gave up and decided to call the main number, which offered an automatic £6/month reduction. No thanks!

When I got through to someone, the best offer they said they could give me was £72/month! At this point I thought I really was going to have to leave, so I hung up to take another look at other deals and nearly signed up with BT. 

I thought I’d try once more with Virgin, and again was first offered additional services and products. I repeated that I was looking to leave as I’d found other deals, and was initially offered a deal with an O2 sim for £53/month — but two contracts. I said no, because I don’t need an O2 sim and it just sounded messy, plus the cost wasn’t appealing. Then they offered me the same without the sim, £43/month, and I thought: “it’s not much more than BT (which was a 24 month contract) and I know it works — fine.” So I said yes. 

My broadband package is changing from the V350 to the V250, but I doubt that we’ll notice any difference day to day. 

BUT now I’m wondering if this is even too much for that and I could have got something better? I was panicking a bit because I’d been offered such a wild variety of options and felt bamboozled. 

I’m glad my monthly cost is going down, but I’m frustrated that I didn’t hold out my nerve for longer! Is there any point trying again now that I’ve agreed to the new contract? 

ladruid

parkercass said:

Then they offered me the same without the sim, £43/month, and I thought: “it’s not much more than BT (which was a 24 month contract) and I know it works — fine.” So I said yes. 

Always look at what they are offering new customers and aim for something better than that. £43 for M250 on its own is bloody expensive!

Examples:-
Their M250 is £15 a month for 6 months, then £33 a month for 18 months. This works out at £28.50 a month over the life of the contract (not including the 2 rises, ofc).

or...

M250 bundle Volt including a O2 sim (10gb data) for £31.99 a month on an 18 month contract, so only one price increase.

TrooperJB

Have been a virgin customer for 15 plus years at different address, managed today to reduce broadband only bill from  £62 to £38 for the next 18 months....  didnt really have to haggle to get this and might have got a couple of more £ off if pushed it further to cancel but the new price is in the ball park of a new package with a new provider without the hassle of cancel/reconnect... 

knightstyle

I can't believe the payments some people are agreeing to.  Do you all need top of the range BB?  I find the volt125 is fine for us, streaming, video calls etc. BUT I am not into gaming so perhaps that is where these are needed.
Here is my contract after complaining about the last increase, plus last bill was £12.50 as the increase was refunded.

GamerDadNerd

old deal -

£48 per month, 250mb broadband, tv box with standard tv mix (no films or sports), landline with free weekend calls

end of contract i was paying £91.25 per month

just phoned them - auto message offered £6 per month discount just by pressing "1" - rejected

spoke to first guy, instant offered deal of £75 per month for just staying as we were (£16.25 saving)

rejected offer

his second offer was £66 per month but upgrading broadband speed (£25.25 saving)

rejected offer

he put me straight through to cancellations department

new offer straight away - keep it the same, £52 per month (39.75 saving, just £4 more than my old contract)

was tempted but rejected

final offer was £49 per month, same deal but added BT Sports (£42.25 saving, and matching old deal) - i decided that , yes this is a good deal for me and i will accept this as a last resort

i decided to be a bit cheeky and claim that new customers get this deal for 39.99, they didnt bite and stated thats an introductory offer to get people to join, i already used that offer last time i joined. fair enough.

i asked about getting faster broadband, then id accept the deal. got put on hold, but ultimately they said no, but can throw in the new virgin 360 tv box for free instead.

so overall im paying £1 per month extra than the deal ive had for the last 18months but get new tv box, an extra 90 channels and bt sports thrown in. but ive saved £42.25 from what i paid last month, and would've paid going forward.