Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

TriathNanEilean

Went through the 'Virginmedia Foxtrot' today (26/1/22), lord what a waste of time. Didn't go as far as actually cancelling and trying for a bit more of a discount but couldn't face the stress of counting down for 30 days. In case this helps others:

Currently: Talk w/e phone, 200 Mb broadband, Fun TV (legacy package) and Sky Sports package. Been out of contract for a while so costing £98.22 pcm, going up to £102.47 with March's increases.

All calls done from Virgin landline, dialling 150. Waits were 20 mins at 10:15 and about 35 mins at 13:30.

Call 1:  non UK call centre, Wanted a price for Talk w/e, 100 Mb, Mixit + Entertainment & Drama (the package Big Bundle + Drama on website for new customers). Too much for call handler, his computer wouldn't give a price. That last but without Entertainment + Drama was £56, later down to £54. Our existing package minus Sky Sports was £65. He moved the latter down to £60 after a while.

Call 2:  Got through to retentions, UK call handler. Helpful but didn't move much on previous offers. In fact, he only added Entertainment + Drama and 100 Mb to the Big Bundle and came up with £58. After 15 mins of no movement from him I asked to be put through to Cancellations.

Call 3: Cancellations, UK call handler. At first he just wanted to take details for disconnection (playing hardball maybe) but then we got down to my sob story about being so poor(!). He worked from our existing deal (minus Sky Sports). Dropping from 200 Mb to 100 Mb *increased* the price slightly. Crazy. Dropping from Fun -> Mixit (fewer channels) then adding Entertainment also increased the price. Eventually he went to £52 for existing package - Sky Sports, no increase in March.

So that is:  Talk w/e, 200 Mb, Fun TV (a little fewer channels than Maxit but close to it) for £52, when we would have been on £102 with Sky Sports extra. I'm only partly content but at least it is over for another 18 months. And I was concerned (not sure if I should have been but ..) that if the January Offers on Virgin, Sky et al ended soon, they might not offer the same reductions to existing customers.

Good luck those who still have to go through the 'dance'.

The_Boss

Had a painful call to Virgin Media retentions just now (using the 0800 952 2277 number Martin referenced in recent article). The person could barely speak English which meant it took nearly 20 mins to get them to understand what I wanted. No retention offer was made (unlike two weeks back when they offered a saving of £40/month) so not sure what this person was doing and so I went through with the disconnection request.

How long does it take thesedays for the onshore retentions guys to call to make an offer after a cancellation request is put through?

JasperAlex

The_Boss said:

How long does it take thesedays for the onshore retentions guys to call to make an offer after a cancellation request is put through?

Got my phone call next day after cancelling. Have read on other forums that they tend to call you a few times though as the first  offer is not usually the best. 

Think it's luck of the draw who you get when you call up retentions. Had to call up 3 times yesterday because they kept cutting me off. Got UK based agents twice and the overseas guy could barely speak English. The Indian call centre agents I've spoken to in the past were pretty decent so was surprised it was so bad this time.

andylad72

Wasn't expecting the result I got today. Currently paying £56 / mth for Maxit TV, M350 BB, Talk Weekends, V6 box and a TIVO box in a second room. Due to go up to £98 in April, meaning £104 with price increase. Phoned VM yesterday afternoon and got through to disconnections after about 35 mins - said I wasn't happy with the price increase. Best they could offer was £53 / mth for 18 mths. I politely declined and initiated cancellation. Call back today from retentions. Initial offer was to keep package at £56 for 18 mths. Said I'd hoped to get price down lower and would continue to look elsewhere. Seems like he was having trouble loading the deals onto his computer at home so said he would call me back. Call back this evening resulted in an offer of £44 / mth for 18 mths with no change to package and no price increase this year. VERY happy with that so accepted. Really nice chap in retentions was a pleasure to deal with.

Mark2019

andylad72 said:

Wasn't expecting the result I got today. Currently paying £56 / mth for Maxit TV, M350 BB, Talk Weekends, V6 box and a TIVO box in a second room. Due to go up to £98 in April, meaning £104 with price increase. Phoned VM yesterday afternoon and got through to disconnections after about 35 mins - said I wasn't happy with the price increase. Best they could offer was £53 / mth for 18 mths. I politely declined and initiated cancellation. Call back today from retentions. Initial offer was to keep package at £56 for 18 mths. Said I'd hoped to get price down lower and would continue to look elsewhere. Seems like he was having trouble loading the deals onto his computer at home so said he would call me back. Call back this evening resulted in an offer of £44 / mth for 18 mths with no change to package and no price increase this year. VERY happy with that so accepted. Really nice chap in retentions was a pleasure to deal with.

Sounds like a great deal and well worth your time. Did you get any push back about your contract being up in April? Mine is up in July and I’m keen to haggle whilst they’re giving out some good deals but not sure if it’s premature. 

andylad72

Mark2019 said:

andylad72 said:

Wasn't expecting the result I got today. Currently paying £56 / mth for Maxit TV, M350 BB, Talk Weekends, V6 box and a TIVO box in a second room. Due to go up to £98 in April, meaning £104 with price increase. Phoned VM yesterday afternoon and got through to disconnections after about 35 mins - said I wasn't happy with the price increase. Best they could offer was £53 / mth for 18 mths. I politely declined and initiated cancellation. Call back today from retentions. Initial offer was to keep package at £56 for 18 mths. Said I'd hoped to get price down lower and would continue to look elsewhere. Seems like he was having trouble loading the deals onto his computer at home so said he would call me back. Call back this evening resulted in an offer of £44 / mth for 18 mths with no change to package and no price increase this year. VERY happy with that so accepted. Really nice chap in retentions was a pleasure to deal with.

Sounds like a great deal and well worth your time. Did you get any push back about your contract being up in April? Mine is up in July and I’m keen to haggle whilst they’re giving out some good deals but not sure if it’s premature. 

I had the e mail about the price increase and used that to leverage out of my contract early. Did you get that e mail related to your account?

Mark2019

andylad72 said:

Mark2019 said:

andylad72 said:

Wasn't expecting the result I got today. Currently paying £56 / mth for Maxit TV, M350 BB, Talk Weekends, V6 box and a TIVO box in a second room. Due to go up to £98 in April, meaning £104 with price increase. Phoned VM yesterday afternoon and got through to disconnections after about 35 mins - said I wasn't happy with the price increase. Best they could offer was £53 / mth for 18 mths. I politely declined and initiated cancellation. Call back today from retentions. Initial offer was to keep package at £56 for 18 mths. Said I'd hoped to get price down lower and would continue to look elsewhere. Seems like he was having trouble loading the deals onto his computer at home so said he would call me back. Call back this evening resulted in an offer of £44 / mth for 18 mths with no change to package and no price increase this year. VERY happy with that so accepted. Really nice chap in retentions was a pleasure to deal with.

Sounds like a great deal and well worth your time. Did you get any push back about your contract being up in April? Mine is up in July and I’m keen to haggle whilst they’re giving out some good deals but not sure if it’s premature. 

I had the e mail about the price increase and used that to leverage out of my contract early. Did you get that e mail related to your account?

Yeah although it said I wouldn’t be affected as I’m still in contract… strange as I think it’s different for others in contract. 

andylad72

Mark2019 said:

andylad72 said:

Mark2019 said:

andylad72 said:

Wasn't expecting the result I got today. Currently paying £56 / mth for Maxit TV, M350 BB, Talk Weekends, V6 box and a TIVO box in a second room. Due to go up to £98 in April, meaning £104 with price increase. Phoned VM yesterday afternoon and got through to disconnections after about 35 mins - said I wasn't happy with the price increase. Best they could offer was £53 / mth for 18 mths. I politely declined and initiated cancellation. Call back today from retentions. Initial offer was to keep package at £56 for 18 mths. Said I'd hoped to get price down lower and would continue to look elsewhere. Seems like he was having trouble loading the deals onto his computer at home so said he would call me back. Call back this evening resulted in an offer of £44 / mth for 18 mths with no change to package and no price increase this year. VERY happy with that so accepted. Really nice chap in retentions was a pleasure to deal with.

Sounds like a great deal and well worth your time. Did you get any push back about your contract being up in April? Mine is up in July and I’m keen to haggle whilst they’re giving out some good deals but not sure if it’s premature. 

I had the e mail about the price increase and used that to leverage out of my contract early. Did you get that e mail related to your account?

Yeah although it said I wouldn’t be affected as I’m still in contract… strange as I think it’s different for others in contract. 

No harm done in giving them a ring. 30 min call could save you £100s.

PZ19

This 0800 number quoted I assume is Inbound retentions, not outbound retentions that only call in some cases after cancellation? 

andylad72

PZ19 said:

This 0800 number quoted I assume is Inbound retentions, not outbound retentions that only call in some cases after cancellation? 

Believe so, it's the 'thinking of leaving, please initiate my 30-day cancellation' number. Once cancellation in, the other retentions team contact you to tempt you to stay. Don't think you can contact that team direct. I rang initially on 0800 052 2001.