Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

spacemanc

After cancelling, the call back offered me:

1Gig Fibre + Home Phone with Weekend calls £35pm
O2 100GB Data + Unlimited Calls / Texts £15pm

I don't need that much data, but there was no other option so when I receive the SIM I'll call O2 and make them match the £8pm for 20GB (40GB with Volt) deal which is available on Uswitch, which means I'll be paying £43pm for 1Gig fibre and 40GB mobile SIM.

Pretty happy with that.

blackrob66

Called VM to discuss costs of current package (Maxit TV / M200 / Phone line).   

Sky new customer offer inc Netflix and Sky Sports is about £80 (UHD/HD) so asked them to match or I'd move.

20 mins on phone to Tier 1 Retentions best they could offer was to add Sky Sports HD for an extra £2

Got passed to 'disconnect team' (Tier 2 Retentions) who immediatley offered to add Sky Sports HD to existing package and drop price to £69

Happy days!

FaceHead

blackrob66 said:

Called VM to discuss costs of current package (Maxit TV / M200 / Phone line).   

Sky new customer offer inc Netflix and Sky Sports is about £80 (UHD/HD) so asked them to match or I'd move.

20 mins on phone to Tier 1 Retentions best they could offer was to add Sky Sports HD for an extra £2

Got passed to 'disconnect team' (Tier 2 Retentions) who immediatley offered to add Sky Sports HD to existing package and drop price to £69

Happy days!

Good job.

I think the moral of the story here, and in a lot of posts, is don't take the first offer. Get your disconnection in, and then you'll get the proper offer from that team or from outbound. Surprisingly, the best deals seem to be even better than what's available as a new customer - I don't see why they don't just say 'OK then we'll match the sky offer, and it'll save you the hassle of moving', rather than actually undercutting the competitor. 

HaroldWren5

Dunnsdale said:

I'm currently paying £31 per month for broadband only. Virgin telling me its going up to £44 pm end of March. Any advice please? 

Are you by any chance in an FTTP area provided by BT Openreach, CityFibre, CommunityFibre, Hyperoptic etc? If so there are good value options available with broadband providers who use those wholesale providers' networks. 

HaroldWren5

fondue said:

HaroldWren5 said:

fondue said:

Just called and going through the yearly painful exercise.....

200gb BB
Maxit TV
Weekend Calls

Currently pay £44 (discount ending in May)

Best they can offer is £49 and signing up to another 18 month contract.

What are people currently getting for that package roughly in the offers?  (after leaving etc)

1. Do you need Landline calls, or can you use a Mobile?

2. Are you in an Openreach area that can receive Full Fibre "Ultrafast"?

1. We do not use landline at all. Phone isn't connected.

2. Just checked, yes it does.

In that case, if Virgin Media don't offer you a good deal, you might be better off with an Openreach FTTP broadband provider. You'll get Fibre installed all the way to your property and good value packages with a fast speed. You can also get shorter contracts varying from 30 days to 12 months and contracts where the price remains fixed as well. The advantage being you have flexibility and can take advantage of new deals over the course of time. 

martyp

Unfortunately I failed a bit and ended up chickening out of the cancel and call back ultimate discount route.
My package:
Line with weekend calls
M200 broadband
Max it TV with movies
Paying £72 a month going up to around £100

I called and spoke to retentions again and was offered £87 by an enthusiastic advisor sure he could get me a good deal. I said it needed to be under £70 and asked to cancel. I was then popped through to disconnections aka tier 2 retentions where I was offered £79 again but I pushed at the max £70 and he said he'd speak with his manager confident he could get it down to £69 but didn't call me back as promised.
Called back rejected the £79 offer from first retentions, went through to disconnections/tier 2 again to cancel and the lady was really nice (other people sounded a little fed up like they had been really hammered by people on the phone). She offered £79 then used her maximum personal discount to get it to £69 for me.

My case for argument was £62 for the same package for new customers (although that is with M100 broadband) and closest match with Sky being £66 although the argument from them was inferior broadband. I also threw in the freeview and Now TV card but think my bad case for haggling was stating I couldn't pay more than £70 so couldn't really contest the offer of £69 on that basis!
Happy though as it least it's not £100 and secured for 18 months at that price whereas before I had odd discounts added on that expired at different times. Next call will be for the next price increase...

nick1234

I am currently on a maxit full TV with sports paying £60 pm going up to £120 pm, which i am looking to reduce.  

Their outbound retentions have offered me M100 + big TV bundle for £31 pm is this good?   they said broadband alone would be £20 so i am paying £10 extra for freeview?  In my block i think we only have Virgin cables so unless whether i can get a freeview box or equivalent?  

PZ19

nick1234 said:

I am currently on a maxit full TV with sports paying £60 pm going up to £120 pm, which i am looking to reduce.  

Their outbound retentions have offered me M100 + big TV bundle for £31 pm is this good?   they said broadband alone would be £20 so i am paying £10 extra for freeview?  In my block i think we only have Virgin cables so unless whether i can get a freeview box or equivalent?  

You’re right, basically tenner for freeview.  The sky sports maxit tv seems to be around £66 if you go through with putting your cancellation notice in.  It’s £67 with sky as a new customer at moment as an example to give the retentions team.  Virgin don’t know that you can’t actually get sky, but use it as negotiation tool.  A lot of flats won’t let you install a sky satellite system but now you could get sky glass I suppose which is a tv that receives sky over net. Now tv is another option 63mb internet and sky entertainment package £26.99pm

moz86

Just got a great deal (or it feels like one).

We are currently on:

100Mbps Broadband
Talk Weekends
Mixit TV + Documentaries.

Have been paying £33 for the last 18 months.  They were going to put it up to £66

Have just called to negotiate/cancel.   I was quite blasé as I really didn't mind leaving and going elsewhere.

Initial guy couldn't offer me prices even as good as a new customer so I said no fine cancel. 

He put me through to tier 2 retentions.  The guy asked what my budget was, I just said give me your best price:

He came through with:

200Mbps Broadband
Talk Weekends
Mixit TV

£34 p/m for 18 months.  Really pleased.  

I wonder in light of the amazing deal Martin emailed through this week if Virgin are on a real drive to sign up new customers/reatin old ones.

cammyloon

I’m coming out of contract from the Ultimate Volt package.  I've been paying £79 pm, but Virgin were now asking for £147.50 pm.  So I called to cancel.  The agent offered £100pm, which I declined.  She didn’t suggest any changes to my package to further lower the cost, so I proceeded to cancel.

I then missed a couple of calls from an 0330 number which appears to be Virgin.  But I was able to pick up a call from Virgin Retentions on an 0203 number (don’t know if this was Tier 1 or Tier 2 retentions).

I was very impressed with the agent - he was friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and took time to run through a variety of options for me.  

He rapidly offered to keep us on the Ultimate Volt package at £75.37 pm.  We also ran through some other scenarios involving slower broadband speed, no Sky Movies/Sports and/or no SIM.  But interestingly the prices coming up for these came out as £69 or more.  

So I opted to remain on Ultimate Volt at £75.37pm. It’s more than I might need but I’m happy to pay a little more in case we sometimes take advantage of those extras.  And it’s a good bit cheaper than even new customers are being charged for this package (£85 pm).

This perhaps reinforces moz86’s sense that Virgin may on a real drive to sign up new customers and retain old ones.