Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

jcrennie

Will be my first time haggling - my contact ends on 21st August, should I start haggling now or leave a while? However on my upgrade it says my current package runs until 21st September. Had a terrible experience with Virgin, but I'm kind of stuck with them in my area.

Currently on bigger bundle with Maxit TV,  BT Sport & M350 paying £49 a month. Would like to keep it at a similar figure, although be tempted to pay £60 if Sky Sports is included too.

bill888

@Kingsblue

So your posted image, and prices you quote in another post last week (see below) were actually for Volt deals.  Do you have a separate o2 sim ?

125MB for £23 a month
250MB for £20 a month
350MB for £20 a month

reddwarf2002

bill888 said:

@Kingsblue

So your posted image, and prices you quote in another post last week (see below) were actually for Volt deals.  Do you have a separate o2 sim ?

125MB for £23 a month
250MB for £20 a month
350MB for £20 a month

I suspect they don't.  It's probably VM agent's way of negotiating the system to give you a better package for the same price as the M250. I was also offered the M350 for the same price as the M250 but did not pursue it as I thought the base price (before discount) may be higher so any price increase would be more.

bill888

I read the price rises from April 2024 going forward will be fixed RPI + 3.9% with no option to terminate contract unless you pay early termination fees.
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/prices

One would assume the price increase is applied to the monthly subscription (eg. £20 for 250 and 350mb)?

reddwarf2002

bill888 said:

I read the price rises from April 2024 going forward will be fixed RPI + 3.9% with no option to terminate contract unless you pay early termination fees.
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/prices

One would assume the price increase is applied to the monthly subscription (eg. £20 for 250 and 350mb)?

They actually apply the price increase based on the full price before the discount which is grossly unfair. It should be applied to the contracted price that you actually pay. It's bad enough having an increase to the price during the minimum term, never mind having upto 30%-50% increase.

I certainly will be kicking up a fuss when they do, and I suggest that everyone in the same situation does too.

victor2

reddwarf2002 said:

bill888 said:

I read the price rises from April 2024 going forward will be fixed RPI + 3.9% with no option to terminate contract unless you pay early termination fees.
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/prices

One would assume the price increase is applied to the monthly subscription (eg. £20 for 250 and 350mb)?

They actually apply the price increase based on the full price before the discount which is grossly unfair. It should be applied to the contracted price that you actually pay. It's bad enough having an increase to the price during the minimum term, never mind having upto 30%-50% increase.

I certainly will be kicking up a fuss when they do, and I suggest that everyone in the same situation does too.

That is probably why they show the cost the way they do. The discount is a separate item and only the base price gets the annual increase, not the discount!
Mind you, the first person I spoke to when I called them to negotiate renewal assured me that the price she quoted would be fixed for the 18 months, and not subject to an annual increase. She even repeated that when I questioned it. I gave my notice anyway and waited for retentions to call me with a better deal, which they did - and confirmed she was wrong in what she said.

DonnaJerrily

Thanks for creating a new thread. Like to see what discounts are available before I ring them end of month.

Detail_Merchant

reddwarf2002 said:

They actually apply the price increase based on the full price before the discount which is grossly unfair. It should be applied to the contracted price that you actually pay. It's bad enough having an increase to the price during the minimum term, never mind having upto 30%-50% increase.

I certainly will be kicking up a fuss when they do, and I suggest that everyone in the same situation does too.

See - https://prod.ctassets.virginmedia.com/uploads/Terms_and_Conditions_TV_Fibre_and_Phone_FROM_01_MAY_2023_42b6cb7201.pdf - go to page 8 which includes section K "Annual price adjustment and changing this agreement" - that includes an example with a discount.
To me it reads that the RPI+3.9% will be applied to your net (discounted) price. Like you say, in the past they have applied the discount to the gross (pre-discount) price, and then kept the discount unchanged, so the net price increases by much more than RPI+3.9% - but as you could cancel before now, that was just a good excuse to to renegotiate.
But from next year the price rise won't give the chance to cancel, so it's good that it they will be applying it in a fairer way (assuming I've read it correctly).

victor2

Detail_Merchant said:

reddwarf2002 said:

They actually apply the price increase based on the full price before the discount which is grossly unfair. It should be applied to the contracted price that you actually pay. It's bad enough having an increase to the price during the minimum term, never mind having upto 30%-50% increase.

I certainly will be kicking up a fuss when they do, and I suggest that everyone in the same situation does too.

See - https://prod.ctassets.virginmedia.com/uploads/Terms_and_Conditions_TV_Fibre_and_Phone_FROM_01_MAY_2023_42b6cb7201.pdf - go to page 8 which includes section K "Annual price adjustment and changing this agreement" - that includes an example with a discount.
To me it reads that the RPI+3.9% will be applied to your net (discounted) price. Like you say, in the past they have applied the discount to the gross (pre-discount) price, and then kept the discount unchanged, so the net price increases by much more than RPI+3.9% - but as you could cancel before now, that was just a good excuse to to renegotiate.
But from next year the price rise won't give the chance to cancel, so it's good that it they will be applying it in a fairer way (assuming I've read it correctly).

That's not how I interpret it:

1) Unless we have informed you otherwise, your monthly
subscription charges for your core services and any add-ons (apart
from a few specified exceptions) which you may have chosen will
increase each year in April by the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of
inflation announced by the Office for National Statistics in the
preceding February of that year plus an additional 3.9% which is
applied at the same time

My bills show the "Bundle Charges" followed by a credit amount for "Promotions and discounts", The Bundle Charges (core services) will increase each year and the discounts will not change. Haven't seen a bill on my new package yet, but I assume it will be the same layout.

Detail_Merchant

victor2 said:

That's not how I interpret it:

Have you looked at the example in the pdf, page 8, section K, part 2, paragraph (2):

Year 1: In April 2024 you would see your offer price increase to £43.56 a month (if RPI announced in the preceding February was 5%, plus the 3.9%) i.e. £40 x 1.089 = £43.56. Your standard monthly price payable from month 19 would increase also (£50 x 1.089= £54.45), although you would not pay this amount until February 2025, 18 months from the date that you entered your contract

So in that example, the customer was paying £40, vs. a standard price of £50, then a 8.9% increase is applied, and they are then paying £43.56 vs a standard price of £54.45 - hence their discount is now £10.89 This looks different to me from what Virgin Media have done in the past, where the discounts stayed constant in pound terms.