Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

PZ19

£54 Mega TV, 350mb BB, Sky Sports HD, TNT.  Outbound retentions offer.  £72 was offer for that plus Netflix Standard and Cinema, 500mb.

tg99

PZ19 said:

£54 Mega TV, 350mb BB, Sky Sports HD, TNT.  Outbound retentions offer.  £72 was offer for that plus Netflix Standard and Cinema, 500mb.

Almost exactly inline with my recent deal with outbound for same package but sky sports in SD and for £50 overall (think it’s £5 roughly to upgrade to sky sports HD…..how much of a difference do you find between their SD and HD for watching sports? I think I read some views a while back that for non-sky customers the HD wasn’t that great but can’t recall the technical reasons behind it).

PZ19

tg99 said:

PZ19 said:

£54 Mega TV, 350mb BB, Sky Sports HD, TNT.  Outbound retentions offer.  £72 was offer for that plus Netflix Standard and Cinema, 500mb.

Almost exactly inline with my recent deal with outbound for same package but sky sports in SD and for £50 overall (think it’s £5 roughly to upgrade to sky sports HD…..how much of a difference do you find between their SD and HD for watching sports? I think I read some views a while back that for non-sky customers the HD wasn’t that great but can’t recall the technical reasons behind it).

I’ll be honest I couldn’t watch anything in SD these days. Sports in HD is absolutely spot on with virgin

victor2

tg99 said:

PZ19 said:

£54 Mega TV, 350mb BB, Sky Sports HD, TNT.  Outbound retentions offer.  £72 was offer for that plus Netflix Standard and Cinema, 500mb.

Almost exactly inline with my recent deal with outbound for same package but sky sports in SD and for £50 overall (think it’s £5 roughly to upgrade to sky sports HD…..how much of a difference do you find between their SD and HD for watching sports? I think I read some views a while back that for non-sky customers the HD wasn’t that great but can’t recall the technical reasons behind it).

Watch Wimbledon on BBC1 SD and BBC1 HD (both Freeview) to illustrate the difference on any HD TV. From the crowd to the grass there is so much more detail in HD.

Other sports are probably the same. 

tg99

PZ19 said:

tg99 said:

PZ19 said:

£54 Mega TV, 350mb BB, Sky Sports HD, TNT.  Outbound retentions offer.  £72 was offer for that plus Netflix Standard and Cinema, 500mb.

Almost exactly inline with my recent deal with outbound for same package but sky sports in SD and for £50 overall (think it’s £5 roughly to upgrade to sky sports HD…..how much of a difference do you find between their SD and HD for watching sports? I think I read some views a while back that for non-sky customers the HD wasn’t that great but can’t recall the technical reasons behind it).

I’ll be honest I couldn’t watch anything in SD these days. Sports in HD is absolutely spot on with virgin

Thanks PZ19 and victor2, will upgrade next time though may do so at start of new PL season if can get good deal to do it off Virgin (not sure if they’ll upgrade me for a fiver or so or whether, because it’s not outbound I’d be dealing with and it’s not under the cancellation process, the price will be materially higher).

Fairplayguy

interesting reading all of the recent offers. 

I'm currently out of contract on an old all inclusive deal.. £149.50 for 1gb , all the tv , landline with calls and but no O2 sim card.   Really want to downgrade to just broadband but open to offers.  Last time I tried via chat just got offered less for paying more. Hopeless.   

? maybe best requesting to leave as an opening gambit? 

c_smith

Fairplayguy said:

interesting reading all of the recent offers. 

I'm currently out of contract on an old all inclusive deal.. £149.50 for 1gb , all the tv , landline with calls and but no O2 sim card.   Really want to downgrade to just broadband but open to offers.  Last time I tried via chat just got offered less for paying more. Hopeless.   

? maybe best requesting to leave as an opening gambit? 

Definitely, that's a complete rip off. They prey on people, particularly older people, and let them continue to pay over inflated prices, sometimes three times higher than other people are paying. 

You should check the deals available on Sky, then call virgin, go to the option for "thinking of leaving us" and tell them you want to give 30 days notice. They'll probably offer you a better deal to stay, but in my experience they are always crap and still far too high. Make them take the 30 days notice and then wait for a call, which you will normally get within a few days. You should get a better offer then. 

Don't delay, you are being ripped off. 

PZ19

Fairplayguy said:

interesting reading all of the recent offers. 

I'm currently out of contract on an old all inclusive deal.. £149.50 for 1gb , all the tv , landline with calls and but no O2 sim card.   Really want to downgrade to just broadband but open to offers.  Last time I tried via chat just got offered less for paying more. Hopeless.   

? maybe best requesting to leave as an opening gambit? 

That was the £72 I was quoted which included Netflix.  That quote only came after I had put my cancellation in. I did see on another forum someone got offered it for £66, so even better.  You have to put your cancellation in to get offers.  Broadband only probably starts around £19 (probably not 1gb tho) on a retention deal.

Fairplayguy

thanks very much. Yes it really is a crazy price.  I looked at the sky website and as far as I could work out there was a deal for broadband and tv including sky sports (not tnt though) for about £55.  Top speed available is only about 75mbs, which is of course good enough for most things but might be cutting it a bit fine on occasions. Just me in the house and not a gamer. I'll get psyched up ready to cancel then give them a call.  

Any further input much appreciated. 

PZ19

@Fairplayguy That Sky price is likely to be their streaming service, so be careful with that.  I would ring Virgin tell them you are paying far too much and can’t afford to continue paying for that.  They will offer you a new price.  If you think that is still too high, tell them and then say I want to cancel.  They will either put you through to another department who may offer you a better price or process the cancellation there.  You then have 30 days till they cut you off.  You can change your mind or ring them back for a new price at any time in those 30 days.  Alternatively Virgin outbound retentions team may call you with a far better offer, like they did with me and many others.  That will be miles less than you are paying now.  Make sure in your my virgin media account your marketing preferences are set so they can contact you.  Good luck hope you get to a more reasonable price.  

They may offer you their top package with an unlimited O2 SIM card, netflix with sky cinema and sports.  If you don’t need the SIM card, just stick it in a drawer, the price will still be lot cheaper than you pay (£70-85) now and you end up with more services.  Alternatively ask them for cheapest price for what you have now.  Broadband only can be had from £20 upwards dependent on speed via the outbound team.  That team can only contact you once you have put a cancellation in however