Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

thor

markharding557 wrote: »

This is why they are getting tougher because of people who pretend they're going to leave.

I have suspected as much for quite a long time. I suppose you have to say that sites like mse must shoulder some of the blame for popularising these tactics.

tg99

thor wrote: »

I have suspected as much for quite a long time. I suppose you have to say that sites like mse must shoulder some of the blame for popularising these tactics.

Do you have high data useage? I recall some have suggested that those who tend to have high data useage are less likely to get a call back. Personally I have had a call back every time, as have family members (none of us are high data users though).

rawhammered

Phoned them today following the notification of price increase.

Easily negotiated below for £25.89:

TV - Player (M), Virgin TV V6 Box, powered by TiVo
Broadband - M100 Fibre Broadband
Phone - Telephone Line Rental, Free Voicemail, Talk More Weekends

Not too bad?

BigBlueSky

rawhammered wrote: »

Phoned them today following the notification of price increase.

Easily negotiated below for £25.89:

TV - Player (M), Virgin TV V6 Box, powered by TiVo
Broadband - M100 Fibre Broadband
Phone - Telephone Line Rental, Free Voicemail, Talk More Weekends

Not too bad?

That's a very good deal. I was on it originally at £20 but at renewal I think I was paying around £30 (after a deal).

drphila

Price for 50Mb bband was going up from £18 to £27 at beginning of June. Rang and was offered £22 which I declined. Got a call from retentions offering 50Mb for £19 or 20Mb for £18.55 (£7.50 discount per month on the latter if usage below 32Gb) and I declined both of these.


Switched to NOWTV non-fibre (£8.50 factoring in cashback and free anytime calls which to me are worth about £2/month) - needed new line but no charge.


Getting speeds around 19Mb (as compared to around 30Mb with VM) which is adequate for my needs.

thor

tg99 wrote: »

Do you have high data useage? I recall some have suggested that those who tend to have high data useage are less likely to get a call back. Personally I have had a call back every time, as have family members (none of us are high data users though).

This was the theory that I settled on the last time I did not get a call back. I do download more than I originally thought and for many years in succession I always used to get a call from retentions but sometime last year they must have had a change of policy and decided they would not be too fussed if high users switched away.

buglawton

Due to bill ratcheting I'd called Virgin Media cancellations before and they tried deflecting me saying dept busy, try at another time. This galvanised me into deciding to drop the landline forever in preparation for more choice. Then I tested out 4G for whole house on the family and while doing online work at home. The family didn't notice any difference while streaming HD, making calls via apps etc. 2nd time I went back to properly cancel with the intention of staying on the line till done. Got proper retentions dept. Refused 1st offer. Got a callback another day with an offer I couldn't refuse.

Observations:
1. The only real way to haggle is to actually sign up with another provider. On a long contract you have a 2 week cooling off period. If you go 4G there are 1 month SIM deals or monthly rolling contracts. For 4G you'll need a router solution, even a spare old 4G phone with a cracked screen can be a WiFi hotspot.
2. The Retentions dept at any provider is probably a well trained and canny team. Mine was. I wonder how it would be if ISPs, Openreach and mobile networks had equally well trained customer service and tech support!

seventhefundog

Haggle success thanks to MSE. I love you Martin Lewis and team 😍.

Our 100m broadband and basic TV went up to £51pm last month.
I said I wanted to move to talktalk until they can match their price (£27pm)

First they offered me £35pm for 100meg or £30pm for 50meg
I still said that wasn’t enough so they also gave me £30 credit on my account.
I went for the 50meg 12 month contract which is costing me an average of £27.50pm over the year.
I’m happy with that.
Then £31

riptide12

I got my price hike letter through today, an increase of £4.01, bringing me to £30 for the M100 Fibre Broadband deal alone.

I phoned up just now and they offered a £4.50 discount for 6 months and then the contract ends in March 2020.

I think I got caught out by some strange discounts they offered when I renewed last year - I definitely don't think it's worth £30 a month!

When I mentioned the Post Office deal of £15.90 for 11Mb that was laughed at - "You can't even open Facebook with that speed!"

silverwhistle

The other week I had my household insurance renewal which had gone up 13+%. I was going to attempt haggling - the rate of inflation would have been fine - but I went online and ended up almost halving. (Bit annoyed with myself I was so slack last year).


Today I've moved from Virgin to Plusnet and will be saving myself well over £20 a month (depending on what increase they had in store for me). I've checked my current speeds through Ookla and what Plusnet offer will be fine. Sod haggling, they also have been taking the mickey with a loyal customer, so if retentions come phoning tomorrow they can whistle.