Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

PZ19

surreychap said:

After being with VM for many years I finally - after many fruitless attempts - got through to retentions. I politely explained to a charming lady we really could not afford the current package plus their competitors were offering tempting introductory deals. I genuinely did not want to leave but was certainly prepared to do so if they would not negotiate. She very quickly reduced my M200 fibre broadband and landline (weekend free calls) monthly bill from £55 to £35. 

I’m convinced the hour plus spent on the call plus previous aborted attempts is part of VM’s plan to put potential hagglers off, so don’t give up!

Many thanks to MSE for the haggling tips which were very handy. I am now on a new 18 month contract so over that time I will save £360! 

PS. Chatting to the call handler I advised her about MSE's bank switching, money making scheme which she said she will follow up on! One good turn....

If you had,put cancellation in you probably could have saved yourself another £11-13pm with a retentions offer, via callback.  Obviously there’s always the risk they don’t call back..but as with all these offers, it’s all about being happy with your final deal. You are, great saving.

PZ19

Realgonekid said:

My usual routine at renewal just completed.

 

First, I make a point of calling at least 1 month before the end of the deal, that way they don’t compare their offers to the price after the deal (£124 or whatever). Instead on their screen they can see what I am paying now.

 

First call is just to suss out the opening offer, take a long as they like to play around with packages, then I end the call telling them I will think about it.

 

Second call I give notice. It is much easier to do this by saying you spent a lot of time on the first call comparing figures so don’t really want to go through it again. Interesting, what happened on that call this time is I got offered an “on the call only” loyalty offer, but I still intended to cancel.

 

Up shot is this.

 

Package   Maxit TV, 200MB, Talk Weekends, Sky Sports HD,  

Currently                                           £60pm

First call offer                                    £86pm

Second call “on the call offer”          £76pm

Outbound Call first and last offer.     £64pm

After giving notice, outbound retentions tried the home number 3 times in the following 24 hours, I finally caught them calling the next day and we agreed on £64pm.

 

I’m reasonably content. I did make him ring back twice more but he really wasn’t going any lower, though still missed the opportunity to get a SIM negotiated in I am sure!

That’s same package as me, I been paying £56pm up for renewal now, was offered £76 on phone, turned that down.  Put cancellation in, this time though I am willing to go. Stream lot of stuff now so hardly watch any non freeview content apart from sport. Now will cover me for what I need at far cheaper price.  Broadband speed obviously lot slower but spoken to people and they have no issues streaming whatsoever. We will see what happens.

surreychap

PZ19 said:

surreychap said:

After being with VM for many years I finally - after many fruitless attempts - got through to retentions. I politely explained to a charming lady we really could not afford the current package plus their competitors were offering tempting introductory deals. I genuinely did not want to leave but was certainly prepared to do so if they would not negotiate. She very quickly reduced my M200 fibre broadband and landline (weekend free calls) monthly bill from £55 to £35. 

I’m convinced the hour plus spent on the call plus previous aborted attempts is part of VM’s plan to put potential hagglers off, so don’t give up!

Many thanks to MSE for the haggling tips which were very handy. I am now on a new 18 month contract so over that time I will save £360! 

PS. Chatting to the call handler I advised her about MSE's bank switching, money making scheme which she said she will follow up on! One good turn....

If you had,put cancellation in you probably could have saved yourself another £11-13pm with a retentions offer, via callback.  Obviously there’s always the risk they don’t call back..but as with all these offers, it’s all about being happy with your final deal. You are, great saving.

Thanks for that. Your right it’s all about the final deal. I guess I could have done what you suggested but I feel I had aged hanging on waiting for ever to talk to someone, therefore was not prepared to devote any more time.

Maybe others will persevere and achieve better prices?

PZ19

PZ19 said:

Realgonekid said:

My usual routine at renewal just completed.

 

First, I make a point of calling at least 1 month before the end of the deal, that way they don’t compare their offers to the price after the deal (£124 or whatever). Instead on their screen they can see what I am paying now.

 

First call is just to suss out the opening offer, take a long as they like to play around with packages, then I end the call telling them I will think about it.

 

Second call I give notice. It is much easier to do this by saying you spent a lot of time on the first call comparing figures so don’t really want to go through it again. Interesting, what happened on that call this time is I got offered an “on the call only” loyalty offer, but I still intended to cancel.

 

Up shot is this.

 

Package   Maxit TV, 200MB, Talk Weekends, Sky Sports HD,  

Currently                                           £60pm

First call offer                                    £86pm

Second call “on the call offer”          £76pm

Outbound Call first and last offer.     £64pm

After giving notice, outbound retentions tried the home number 3 times in the following 24 hours, I finally caught them calling the next day and we agreed on £64pm.

 

I’m reasonably content. I did make him ring back twice more but he really wasn’t going any lower, though still missed the opportunity to get a SIM negotiated in I am sure!

That’s same package as me, I been paying £56pm up for renewal now, was offered £76 on phone, turned that down.  Put cancellation in, this time though I am willing to go. Stream lot of stuff now so hardly watch any non freeview content apart from sport. Now will cover me for what I need at far cheaper price.  Broadband speed obviously lot slower but spoken to people and they have no issues streaming whatsoever. We will see what happens.

Further to this the outbound call was £71 with HD sports or £64 without.  Not happy with that so off to Now for broadband and sky sports for around £37.50 including cash back. In years gone past would have missed virgin, but not now.  Offered 200mb broadband for £31, which is high..

leew

Hi all.

Well it's that time of year folks! 

I was paying £18 for 100mb and it was due to go up to £25.16! rang up the 1111 number and got some miserable women saying I can do it for £34!!!!! burst out laughing! said that's more than it would be If I did nothing!

I told her to cancel the contract, so she put me through to cancelations who asked the usual why etc etc old them and they initially offered same package for £22 then it went to £21 but I still said no thanks, he waffled on like they do anyway I didn't want to pay more than £18 so he said I could drop the speed and offer me that so I took that.

Price is more important than speed for me especially at the minute! and maybe I could have got a better deal with a callback but I'm ok with it.

Good luck to anyone else and hope you get a happier person than I did this time!!   

The_Flying_General

Just played the end of contract game and for once got a decent deal from them having slowly but surely ditched everything else over the past 3 years when they refused to budge on price (even my local Virgin store when it was still open said I was being ripped off). 

Volt 200 (100mb upgraded) - was paying £35/month until recently, discounts ending was due to hit £47/month next month.

Rang and expained it was too much, we had to do some serious belt tightening and what could they do.  Wanted to stay but Vodafone now doing FTTH and offering a good deal.

Original offer was to downgrade to Volt 100 for £27/month (£2 more than Vodafone) or stay on Volt 200 for £33/month (£3 more than Vodafone).  Said I needed to talk to my wife as we had a budget and I knew we were  likely to get a letter come new year with a whacking great price rise that would torpedo the budget.   Rang back and they weren't budging, that was the best offer so asked to cancel.

Got transfered and straight away was told we're the people that can sort this out.  I see your Vodafone offer, so I'll do your current package for £24/month for 18 months.  Almost half price on what it would have been had I done nothing and cheaper than VF.  Bit his hand off, happy with that and life's too short.  Amazed though, I've never had that response from them before when I've cut services. Maybe the prospect of losing me completely now I'm down to BB only was the trigger.

vanillaspice

I have a couple of discounts that are coming to an end 2nd and 3rd week July.  Should I start talking to them now.  They haven’t notified me about them ending.

mro85

100% I would. Give them 30 days notice if they won't budge. 

victor2

vanillaspice said:

I have a couple of discounts that are coming to an end 2nd and 3rd week July.  Should I start talking to them now.  They haven’t notified me about them ending.

They don't notify you as such. It will be stated on your monthly statements.
You can contact them up to 30 days before the end of your contract, which often coincides with your discounts ending, to negotiate a new one or give your notice to leave.

Pippa_Panthers

I would be grateful for some advice as I am not sure where to start.  Currently paying £66.75 month for:
Mix TV, M100 Fibre Broadband, talk weekends and line rental

Out of contract and this feels really expensive so would love to know what others are paying for similar to help me haggle.  Really don't want to leave as Virgin is fastest and most stable provider here.  Thanks