Need to save on my TV, Broadband, Home Phone and Mobile package

Cycrow

rollon65 wrote: »

Hello Cycrow,
That's interesting too! Thanks for the information.
I have not heard of that before.
I did look at Freeview, but there are only 19 channels available to me direct, which might upset my better half - which was why I thought that a couple of hundred quid, spent one time only on Freesat might do the trick.
I'm not sure how to check the number of channels on Virgin's Freeview service. If they offered the entire Freeview channel catalogue, then it might be an option that would appease my wife. Do you know anything about that?
I have the M+ package for my Virgin TV service and would have no issues over retaining landline telephone, broadband and mobile services.

I dont know exactly what channels they include, but it should be a similar number to Freesat, there maybe 1 or 2 different

rollon65

Hello Deleted_User and Cycrow,

I phoned Virgin today and what I had planned went out of the window!
Firstly, I am already getting my TV without charge. When I resisted last years’ increase I was then put on the “M” package, with more than 60 channels. So there was nothing to be saved by taking the TV service out of my package, which effectively torpedoed my intended Freesat route! Of course, as that package was not common knowledge, I imagine I thought that it was the “M+” package that was being referred to when my revised set-up was being called over to me at the time.
I have abandoned my “anonymous call rejection” at £2.70-odd a month, as I still get calls where a 1471 check announces “You were called today at 12.17. We do not have the callers’ number”. So that has been a waste of money over the years! With the volume of “nuisance calls” we have been getting lately, everything goes through my answering machine now and if you want to talk to me you will have to tell me who you are first, or I won’t pick up. I was then offered 6 months at £29.00,(exclusive of line rental) and a more current set-top box, plus a new modem/router.
I then capitulated over the “Line Rental Saver” and signed up for a further 12 months, despite it having gone up to £184.00 from £144.00, when I last took it – and the saving has gone in the opposite direction as it is now only £31.00, compared to £47.00 previously.
So how it looks now, compared to £53.70 previously, is that I will pay £44.34 for the next 6 months and £47.33 thereafter – a saving of £94.38 over the 12 months.
I have established also that I am not subject to any kind of contract, but I think that I have also determined that any further saving would only be achieved by leaving Virgin altogether, in view of the fact that I am not paying anything for my TV service at this time.
Not what I had intended then, but enough to give me 12 months breathing space during which I can try and work out my next move.

[Deleted User]

rollon65 wrote: »

Hello Deleted_User and Cycrow,

I phoned Virgin today and what I had planned went out of the window!
Firstly, I am already getting my TV without charge. When I resisted last years’ increase I was then put on the “M” package, with more than 60 channels. So there was nothing to be saved by taking the TV service out of my package, which effectively torpedoed my intended Freesat route! Of course, as that package was not common knowledge, I imagine I thought that it was the “M+” package that was being referred to when my revised set-up was being called over to me at the time.
I have abandoned my “anonymous call rejection” at £2.70-odd a month, as I still get calls where a 1471 check announces “You were called today at 12.17. We do not have the callers’ number”. So that has been a waste of money over the years! With the volume of “nuisance calls” we have been getting lately, everything goes through my answering machine now and if you want to talk to me you will have to tell me who you are first, or I won’t pick up. I was then offered 6 months at £29.00,(exclusive of line rental) and a more current set-top box, plus a new modem/router.
I then capitulated over the “Line Rental Saver” and signed up for a further 12 months, despite it having gone up to £184.00 from £144.00, when I last took it – and the saving has gone in the opposite direction as it is now only £31.00, compared to £47.00 previously.
So how it looks now, compared to £53.70 previously, is that I will pay £44.34 for the next 6 months and £47.33 thereafter – a saving of £94.38 over the 12 months.
I have established also that I am not subject to any kind of contract, but I think that I have also determined that any further saving would only be achieved by leaving Virgin altogether, in view of the fact that I am not paying anything for my TV service at this time.
Not what I had intended then, but enough to give me 12 months breathing space during which I can try and work out my next move.

If I'm paying £29 a month for phone and bb and you are paying £44 a month then you are paying £15 a month extra for TV???

victor2

Deleted_User wrote: »

If I'm paying £29 a month for phone and bb and you are paying £44 a month then you are paying £15 a month extra for TV???

Likewise, I get phone with Talk Unlimited and 70Mbps broadband for £14.99 after £13 of discounts. Add to that 1/12 of the line rental saver at £13.67 per month and the monthly cost is £28.66.
So your TV may be "free", but be sure you are paying for it.

Cycrow

It sounds like you are maybe on a higher broadband or phone.

The Big easy bundle, which is 50mb, M+ TV and talk weekends, is only £42 including line rental.

with just M tv, that usually goes down to about £32. And thats without any offers or discount.

So maybe look at what speed you are getting on the broadband, as well as the phone services you are currently on

rollon65

Sorry gents, if I have confused you with the way I presented the maths. Both of my 6 monthly sums are inclusive of one twelfth of the annual line rental at £15.34, which matches your £29 Deleted_User.
I had an e-mail from Virgin a while back which mentioned increasing my broadband speed to 200Mbps. I did nothing about it though. It may have been at additional cost, but as my wired modem is an old ntl model, it didn't really matter to me. I get around 20-30Mbps generally.
My phone package is Talk Unlimited Extra.

rollon65

I can hardly believe what has happened today . . .
Last Saturday, I installed the new kit that Virgin had offered as part of my "new deal" and after doing that I rang customer services in pursuit of the free 70Mbps download speed upgrade that they had offered me about three weeks ago.
I was connected to one of their Asian call centres and spoke to a very nice lady who had clearly mastered the need to have a good command of pronounciation. She tried over the course of ten minutes or so to activate this speed upgrade with no success. In the end she said that her supervisor advised that it couldn't be done on account of "the system" had yet to update itself that I had this new kit and asked me to call back in a week.
I've just done that and spoke to a UK call centre this time, only to be told that as a "new" customer I am not entitled to the free upgrade. I told her of over two decades of patronage with Virgin and its predecessors and that clearly I was not a new customer. Her reply was that I was indeed a new customer, as I had signed up to a new deal that was only normally available to new customers and was therefore not eligible for the free speed upgrade!!! Honestly - if it hadn't just happened to me, I would have thought you'd made it up! What would it have cost them to honour their word? I think the appropriate expression is "Sweet F A", to quote the vernacular. Why should anything in this life be straightforward, when with a little bit of effort it can be made flippin' imposible?