Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

pharmatoise

Thought i'd chime in with the consequences of the 30 day notice period on Virgin media contracts.
My contract was coming to an end on the 18/6/23 and I received routine communications from Virgin to let me know what the price was going to be after my contract expired: More than double the in-contract price for M125 and talk weekend.
I called up on the 6th June and arranged what I thought was a better deal, much closer to the price I was already paying and for M250. I logged into my account on the 10th and noticed the price was still nearly double. I Called up to query this and was informed the operator on the 6th had misapplied the discount. The best price disconnections could offer me was about 1.5 times what I was paying form M125. I stated that I would like to leave. Because I wanted to take my number with me, I was advised to call back on the 18th to make sure the porting was going ok. I have had new services installed. The 30 day notice is being counted from the day my landline ported. This is especially galling because I could not arrange for new services to take over towards the end of the 30 day notice I'm required to pay for.
None of the operators could explain why my notice is not counted from when I said I wanted to leave on the 10th. I have put in a complaint asking for the notice to be counted from the 6th because I would have made the decision sooner had I been given correct information. To no avail. I am now severely lacking in goodwill to become a customer again in future. 
TLDR
The 30 day notice period has involved me paying the overinflated after-contract price for 30 more days after my contract has finished.

ladruid

I had similar.

They have a few different departments, if you want to keep your number it goes to a special outbound porting team. Once it is with the porting team, retentions both inbound and outbound cant help.

You need to get in contact with the porting team to sort out the mess (I had too!). I was going to have to pay more due to the cancel being removed by the porting team, and it would have to be passed back to retentions after porting had cancelled their bit, only to incur another 30 days notice period from retentions (which would have pushed me into the new billing cycle at £146 or so!).

I was not a happy chappie, kicked off and lucky I had an email with the pre contract details I had been offered by the automated website offers section (Ultimate Volt for £60 to Virgin + £25 to O2). I got through to an outbound manager eventually, who then passed me onto the port team. I got a phone call about 30 mins later and they had the authority to sort out all the mess and (nearly) match the offer I had, which means I didn't incur any extra costs as the contract changed instantly to the new rate.

ChukkleOdeon

Current package that is expiring on the 2nd Aug 👆

Was paying £29/pm, discounted from ~£72/pm.

Have started the merry dance of cancellation, put the request in day before yesterday and, during the text negotiation yesterday, was offered the same package for £35/pm on a new 18m contract which I declined and asked to proceed with the cancellation request.

Was that a 'good' offer? Should I expect a better offer closer to the disconnection date?

I'm wondering about my chances of at least getting an upgraded TV box... 🤔

Best wishes to anyone else going through the process and thanks in advance for any replies.

ladruid

Always look at what they offer new customers... that should be the minimum best deal you should aim for...

digannio

ChukkleOdeon said:

Current package that is expiring on the 2nd Aug 👆

Was paying £29/pm, discounted from ~£72/pm.

Have started the merry dance of cancellation, put the request in day before yesterday and, during the text negotiation yesterday, was offered the same package for £35/pm on a new 18m contract which I declined and asked to proceed with the cancellation request.

Was that a 'good' offer? Should I expect a better offer closer to the disconnection date?

I'm wondering about my chances of at least getting an upgraded TV box... 🤔

Best wishes to anyone else going through the process and thanks in advance for any replies.

I've just been through the negotiations and agreed on £29 a month Big Bundle. My package is V6 Box and Mixit TV, M125 Broadband and Weekend Chatter phone. May have just been lucky but didn't have to go down the route of mentioning disconnection. This was through a phone call with a real, live (and very helpful) person. Hope this helps.

ChukkleOdeon

ladruid said:

Always look at what they offer new customers... that should be the minimum best deal you should aim for...

Good point.

Yesterday I had a missed call from Virgin then they called me back up at lunchtime and, despite being flat out at work, I took the call and popped in here so read your message and digannio's above whilst I was on the call.

Weirdly, I was offered a worse deal than I was initially offered in chat when I asked to be disconnected (£35/pm). The "best" they said they could offer was £37/pm for the same package as I'm currently on, I pointed out that this was worse than the deal they offer for new customers and whether they could match that but no... apparently not possible.

Anyway, I declined and once I did, the guy on the other end didn't try to persuade me at all and wanted to get off the line asap. So... the game continues... 🤞 get a call from the 'real' rententions team before disconnection at the start of August.

ladruid

ChukkleOdeon said:

Anyway, I declined and once I did, the guy on the other end didn't try to persuade me at all and wanted to get off the line asap. So... the game continues... 🤞 get a call from the 'real' rententions team before disconnection at the start of August.

Strange they came back with a worse deal, is this some sort of FOMO tactic, or strange psyop... Good luck in your quest for a better deal!

Imagine, if as a company, they offered the same deals as a new customer without haggling... our lives would be so much easier and it would save them £1000's in saved staff and infrastructure costs.

Ildiko

ChukkleOdeon said:

ladruid said:

Always look at what they offer new customers... that should be the minimum best deal you should aim for...

Good point.

Yesterday I had a missed call from Virgin then they called me back up at lunchtime and, despite being flat out at work, I took the call and popped in here so read your message and digannio's above whilst I was on the call.

Weirdly, I was offered a worse deal than I was initially offered in chat when I asked to be disconnected (£35/pm). The "best" they said they could offer was £37/pm for the same package as I'm currently on, I pointed out that this was worse than the deal they offer for new customers and whether they could match that but no... apparently not possible.

Anyway, I declined and once I did, the guy on the other end didn't try to persuade me at all and wanted to get off the line asap. So... the game continues... 🤞 get a call from the 'real' rententions team before disconnection at the start of August.

I would say you have got a good chance for a call from Outbound only team - if you miss their call, you can't ring them back, even Virgin's own staff can't put you through them. But  my experience is that their discounts are one of the best. I have had a call from them, they offered me slightly less than what they advertise for new customers, but i have refused.  Nearly couple of weeks later (one week before my notice to cancel was up), after some missed calls from them, i have got a text message offering me even less than before. This is how i have gone from increased form £21/month to £52/month offer after my original contract ended, then final offer was £16/month for the same contract (M125 broadband). 

Ryan_Holden

Sigh, here we go again

Reached the end of my contract, received an email today 25 days before the contract end saying I need to give 30 days notice if I want to leave. What a swizz.

My M350 is £30 with the discounts but ends on August 27th. It will switch to £63 in September on a new contract and then go to £70 in early 2024.

I've called them up, they put me on hold and came back saying the best they can offer me is £47. They have a new customer deal which has M350 and a TV package for £36.99.

I also pointed out that I can get a better speed through Vodafone for £29 on the CityFibre network so I sent her to go talk to someone else.

And after 5 minutes, I was disconnected lol.

It's always the same with Virgin, they just cut you off when they're disinterested.

So I think this might be the day I break away from Virgin though I am fully expecting now to have to be penalised for missing the 30 days notice.

victor2

Ryan_Holden said:

Sigh, here we go again

Reached the end of my contract, received an email today 25 days before the contract end saying I need to give 30 days notice if I want to leave. What a swizz.

My M350 is £30 with the discounts but ends on August 27th. It will switch to £63 in September on a new contract and then go to £70 in early 2024.

I've called them up, they put me on hold and came back saying the best they can offer me is £47. They have a new customer deal which has M350 and a TV package for £36.99.

I also pointed out that I can get a better speed through Vodafone for £29 on the CityFibre network so I sent her to go talk to someone else.

And after 5 minutes, I was disconnected lol.

It's always the same with Virgin, they just cut you off when they're disinterested.

So I think this might be the day I break away from Virgin though I am fully expecting now to have to be penalised for missing the 30 days notice.

Call them back, give your 30 days notice (no penalty should apply), and wait for retentions to call you back within a day or two with a better deal.
Frustrating, but I’ve done that for my last two contracts successfully.