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Haggle with Virgin - our new guide

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Comments

  • Ryan_Holden
    Ryan_Holden Posts: 261 Forumite
    100 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 2 August 2023 am31 11:35AM
    victor2 said:
    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.
    Yep, great shout. I'm just doing that currently. I just checked with Talk Talk, Zen etc and none of them will struggle to install on the date at the end of my contract so I can afford the time. 

    Edit - And just like that, after half an hour on hold, the cancellation team have offered me my exact package for £32.

    So I've stayed because, as I'm sure they count on, it's less hassle.

    I half regret it because I can get a better speed for £3 a month less with Vodafone but again, it's the kefuffle that they bank on I guess.

    Thanks for the advice victor.
  • Hi all,

    I (think I) started the dance with VM. 

    My current contract ends in a months time. Below you can see what I currently have. 

    I was £57 until the latest price hike, and although I called retentions, I didn't get a good offer. Since then, the bill went up to £74.



    My plan is to actually carve TV and Phone out of the bundle and just keep broadband, considering we don't even have the phone and TV is just full of reruns. However, I could be tempted to continue with the trio, if we get the good offer.

    As I was a work, I reached out to VM via WA. Once the chat was picked up, the agent offered the following:

    Bigger VOLT bundle comes with 300MB broadband, weekend chatter, Maxit TV, 5g O2 100GB SIM with unlimited minutes and texts with double data so giving you 10GB, plus the choice of an extra (Disney+/Amazon/Music for 3 months) plus priority access all for only  £68 per month for 18 months new contract from Virgin Media and only £15 per month from O2 for the O2 SIM.

    As I don't need mobile contract (after recently saving money going from Vodafone to Lebara), I had 0 ambitions to even consider this. The second offer was:

    M350 Fibre Broadband, with the Maxit TV and Weekends Chatter for landline, for a special discounted cost of only £69 per month for 18 months new contract.

    Again, tempting, however, that's £10+ more expensive than what I was paying until recently. 

    I said, thank you, but no thank you and that we should proceed with noting down the cancellation of my contract at the end of the contract term. 

    Now, I expect that someone will call me back although I believe they didn't flag the cancellation - I need to verify this with another interaction with agents. 

    I will keep you updated on the progress/results.

    Thanks.
  • You can get their basic (mixit) tv and BB for about £22
  • Update.

    I initiated another Whatsapp chat to check if the agent marked me for disconnection - and they wanted.

    Started the same discussion with a different agent and they presented offers to keep me:

    1) Volt package - I said I was not interested
    2) M125 broadband speed, Mixit TV and weekend chatter for a monthly package price of 59 GBP - declined as this is a downgrade and more expensive I was on a couple of months ago

    They said they will forward me to the customer retentions team. They haven't responded until this morning.

    Again they kept pushing Volt package with O2:

    1) Big Bundle which includes Volt 250 Fibre Broadband, Mixit TV, and Weekend Chatter. This package has separate bill which is £55.00 for Virgin Media and £10.00 for O2 for the total of £65.00 a month with 18 months contract - declined, as I'm not interested in O2 at all.

    2) broadband only which includes Volt 250 Fibre Broadband only. This package is available for as low as £40.00 for Virgin Media and £10.00 for O2 for the total of £50.00 a month with 18 months contract - declined, as this was the worst of the deals so far.

    3) they continued to lower the O2 data allowance to get the bill down, but no real value in any of the offers since I said I don't want O2.

    I said, disconnect and not extend the contract and they said okay. I have received instructions on how the cancellation works..

    Now, I need to keep my cool and hope someone calls me back. If not, any advice on going back and renegotiating?

    Thank you.



  • PZ19
    PZ19 Posts: 492 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Update.

    I initiated another Whatsapp chat to check if the agent marked me for disconnection - and they wanted.

    Started the same discussion with a different agent and they presented offers to keep me:

    1) Volt package - I said I was not interested
    2) M125 broadband speed, Mixit TV and weekend chatter for a monthly package price of 59 GBP - declined as this is a downgrade and more expensive I was on a couple of months ago

    They said they will forward me to the customer retentions team. They haven't responded until this morning.

    Again they kept pushing Volt package with O2:

    1) Big Bundle which includes Volt 250 Fibre Broadband, Mixit TV, and Weekend Chatter. This package has separate bill which is £55.00 for Virgin Media and £10.00 for O2 for the total of £65.00 a month with 18 months contract - declined, as I'm not interested in O2 at all.

    2) broadband only which includes Volt 250 Fibre Broadband only. This package is available for as low as £40.00 for Virgin Media and £10.00 for O2 for the total of £50.00 a month with 18 months contract - declined, as this was the worst of the deals so far.

    3) they continued to lower the O2 data allowance to get the bill down, but no real value in any of the offers since I said I don't want O2.

    I said, disconnect and not extend the contract and they said okay. I have received instructions on how the cancellation works..

    Now, I need to keep my cool and hope someone calls me back. If not, any advice on going back and renegotiating?

    Thank you.



    You should get a call back tomorrow or next day, so long as your marketing preferences in your account are set so they can call you.  If not you have 30 days in which to change your mind and cancel the cancellation.  At that point you just call them back and see what they offer you again.  The likelihood is someone will call you and make you a good offer to stay
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 14,558 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 27 August 2023 pm31 8:47PM
    Update.

    I initiated another Whatsapp chat to check if the agent marked me for disconnection - and they wanted.

    Started the same discussion with a different agent and they presented offers to keep me:

    1) Volt package - I said I was not interested
    2) M125 broadband speed, Mixit TV and weekend chatter for a monthly package price of 59 GBP - declined as this is a downgrade and more expensive I was on a couple of months ago

    They said they will forward me to the customer retentions team. They haven't responded until this morning.

    Again they kept pushing Volt package with O2:

    1) Big Bundle which includes Volt 250 Fibre Broadband, Mixit TV, and Weekend Chatter. This package has separate bill which is £55.00 for Virgin Media and £10.00 for O2 for the total of £65.00 a month with 18 months contract - declined, as I'm not interested in O2 at all.

    2) broadband only which includes Volt 250 Fibre Broadband only. This package is available for as low as £40.00 for Virgin Media and £10.00 for O2 for the total of £50.00 a month with 18 months contract - declined, as this was the worst of the deals so far.

    3) they continued to lower the O2 data allowance to get the bill down, but no real value in any of the offers since I said I don't want O2.

    I said, disconnect and not extend the contract and they said okay. I have received instructions on how the cancellation works..

    Now, I need to keep my cool and hope someone calls me back. If not, any advice on going back and renegotiating?

    Thank you.



    Consider a deal including Volt (it gets a higher speed). Once you have agreed the deal, you will get two contracts - one for Virgin, the second for O2. My understanding from other discussions is you can call and cancel the O2 contract without it affecting the price of the Virgin part 😉.

    It is playing them at their own game.
    That said, you should now get better offers as you have cancelled and that opens up a different team/better discounts (the prices they offered you weren't the best, compared to other reported deals).

    HTH
  • Hi all,

    update / closing the loop of my situation.

    As suggested, the day after officially canceling my contract, I received a call. 

    Very pleasant conversation, top notch support - we didn't beat around the bush, they went straight into the offer - new contract 18 months, my existing package (with increased speed to M500) for £55

    I didn't feel confident negotiating further, and have accepted the offer. 

    Thank you for all suggestions!
  • Hi all, not sure if this has come up before - I’ve a 360 box, maxit tv, weekend phone, M250 broadband, Sky movies tnt sports and kids pack package and earlier this year in May when they put up prices mid contract, I complained and a helpful person gave me a big discount on my package through to my contract end next month (now £43/month). Today, I just went on the virgin media app and clicked on “change my package”, but changed nothing, then checked out - it has given me a new 18 month contract at the £43 reduced price, saving me the hassle of the usual negotiation, threats to terminate, triggering termination, waiting for call back etc. it has sent through the new contract stating this price will rise on 19th month so looks like I’ve had a great result. If anyone else did similar back in May, it might be worth trying this trick via the app to lock in that discounted price for another 18months……
  • Hi, Currently paying 78.05 with Virgin for M125 Fibre Broadband, Virgin TV 360, TV Essentials, Phone Line Rental and Weekend chatter. Can upgrade to the same package for 70.00 but can add M250 broadband for an extra 5.00. What do you think I can haggle this down/up to or should I just switch to Sky? They are offering: 9 months free ultrafast broadband with SKY TV and Netflix, 26.00 for 9 months and then 74.00 for 9 months. What would you do? Haggle or leave? Thanks, Shaun
  • HampshireH
    HampshireH Posts: 4,758 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 17 September 2023 pm30 6:16PM
    Had a nightmare with Virgin today.

    Current package is everything skysports, kids, cinema, tnt (was bt), netflix standard all HD maxit and fast fibre broadband was paying £64 (but had to also have a £25 Oz SIM)

    We upgraded the O2 SIM 3 months ago with O2 categorically telling us in store that this would be part of any Virgin upgrade "as we are all one company now" 

    The best they could offer me this time was the same package but 1GB speed for £98 doesn't include any SIM and they told me the O2 store were talking rubbish.  Plus I use the same boxes I already have (2)  (Allegedly down from £174 - which is an absolute disgrace)

    So that's £34 more a month plus I have a £25 O2 contract for 24months based on an mistruths from O2 that it would remain part of any Virgin upgrade.

    No one was preparing to budge and sky couldn't offer me a better deal (their two room plus adds ons for netflix standard etc worked out worse)

    I've accepted this for now after 3 hours across 3 phone calls after they confirmed £98 then sent a contract for £108 plus it's going up in April.

    Definitely prepared to use the cooling off period to cancel if I can find better. But very annoyed/feeling defeated this evening to say the least about my day of dealing with Virgin


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