Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

c_smith

katies_mum wrote: »

Thank you c_smith, I was also with Telewest. Have Virgin bothered to contact you? Did you take up the Sky offer over the phone, thought I would have to sign up online. Could I please ask, how long do you have to wait for installation?

Like you I have been offered a good deal to stay with Virgin in the past, but there was absolutely nothing offered earlier this morning.

Virgin haven't contacted me since I gave my 30 days notice yesterday. If they come back with a good offer then I'll be happy to stay with them to save the hassle of engineers, new phone lines being installed and a big dish on the side of my house, but if not, then it's Sky here I come.

I spoke to someone online via Chat on the Sky website, but you can also call them. The deals on the website are much more expensive than you'll get if you speak to an advisor who can offer you various discounts.

I got the following:

2tb Sky Q box with multiroom and additional Q mini box
Boxsets TV package
Line Rental with Talk anytime extra
Sky Fibre unlimited

for £39.40 for the first six months and £49.40 for the last six months of a 12 month contract. Installation fees were £69 though.

Others have had similar or better deals, one person on here got the same package for £33.41 for first six months and £43.41 for last six months with installation fees of only £10, so you might be able to do better. Think it's just your luck who you get and what they're in a position to offer you at the time.

Installation was available within 14 days but you can leave it longer than that if you want so that you can give Virgin your 30 days notice.

The_Flying_General

Apologies, not a haggling success, but wondering if I've been seen off as not worth keeping having haggled last time, whether it's an end of the month thing or Virgin just don't care any longer.

Currently on:
Tv L with TiVo
100Mb BB
Basic phone
£7 loyalty deal due to end in Oct, paying £51.

Out of contract by a few months and with loyalty deal coming to an end and the imminent price rise my bill will hit £60/month. Having done an audit, there are a couple of channels pushing me into the L TV pack but Virgin have periodically increased my BB speed 'for free' from the 10mb I had when I joined, although on wifi, I rarely get close to 100mb speeds.

Rang to renegotiate having been offered Sky Box Set + Cinema for £20.48 and then free 17mb BB if I take out line rental at £18. £39 for slower internet but far superior tv package (the MSE deal).

Retentions said no to everything I asked, including a loyalty discount. The only thing they suggested was dropping down to M+ and I could have a reduced package for the same price as I'm on now. No mention of the 150mb BB and new router their site says I'm eligible for and totally disinterested that they were £150-240 dearer than the competition. I wasn't stroppy or demanding, just asked if they could do anything as I liked the brand but it was getting pricey and I was in danger of going to Sky just for Atlantic and the box sets at that price. Was I just unlucky? Worth trying again at the start of Sep? Or just cut my losses and take the Sky deal on offer?

csgohan4

The_Flying_General wrote: »

Apologies, not a haggling success, but wondering if I've been seen off as not worth keeping having haggled last time, whether it's an end of the month thing or Virgin just don't care any longer.

Currently on:
Tv L with TiVo
100Mb BB
Basic phone
£7 loyalty deal due to end in Oct, paying £51.

Out of contract by a few months and with loyalty deal coming to an end and the imminent price rise my bill will hit £60/month. Having done an audit, there are a couple of channels pushing me into the L TV pack but Virgin have periodically increased my BB speed 'for free' from the 10mb I had when I joined, although on wifi, I rarely get close to 100mb speeds.

Rang to renegotiate having been offered Sky Box Set + Cinema for £20.48 and then free 17mb BB if I take out line rental at £18. £39 for slower internet but far superior tv package (the MSE deal).

Retentions said no to everything I asked, including a loyalty discount. The only thing they suggested was dropping down to M+ and I could have a reduced package for the same price as I'm on now. No mention of the 150mb BB and new router their site says I'm eligible for and totally disinterested that they were £150-240 dearer than the competition. I wasn't stroppy or demanding, just asked if they could do anything as I liked the brand but it was getting pricey and I was in danger of going to Sky just for Atlantic and the box sets at that price. Was I just unlucky? Worth trying again at the start of Sep? Or just cut my losses and take the Sky deal on offer?

If Virgin don't want to bother with you, why should you, I did the same. No call or offer from retentions. So left, their loss tbh.

roddydogs

Is it possible that they've worked out that giving 1000,s of people X discount costs more than losing a few customers?, if you go to Sky then you will eventually be in the same boat of haggling/threatening to leave etc.

liviboy

Well after giving my notice to VM after them not really being prepared to offer anything I have finally completed my order with Sky.

Getting Sky Q 2TB (incl another mini box for upstairs)
Boxsets
Telephone line
Unlimited broadband

For £30.40 a month for 12 months.

Given line rental is around £18 I think £16 a month for broadband and TV isn't too bad an offer.

So we'll see just how superior VM is compared to Sky (they would have you believe nothing comes close!).

No doubt in 12 months time I'll be back to joining VM as a new customer and so the circle continues.

liviboy

roddydogs wrote: »

Is it possible that they've worked out that giving 1000,s of people X discount costs more than losing a few customers?, if you go to Sky then you will eventually be in the same boat of haggling/threatening to leave etc.

If things were priced reasonably in the first place we wouldn't have to go through the hassle of haggling/threatening to leave/leaving.

It's the silly fact they sell a service for £70-odd a month to existing customers which they offer for £30-odd to new customers for 12 months. The actual price of the service would be somewhere around £40. Sell it at that price and stop the nonsense.

It is the same with car insurance although I've noted that this year, for the first time ever, neither myself, my wife, my uncle or my cousin have been able to beat Aviva's renewal quote - so maybe they've sussed out it makes financial sense to keep customers rather than the cost of losing and having to advertise, etc. for new.

For Virgin, there are costs associated with equipment, installation, cabling, etc. for new customers (and the same uninstallation costs if you like for a leaving customer (cable needs disconnected in the street, equipment needs returned/checked/inspected/serviced before being given to a new customer). If someone is already a customer those costs are instantly removed. So why not allow people to get a product for a decent price?

itstheone

csgohan4 wrote: »

Same experience here,


cancelled Parent's virgin after 1 year paying 28/month for fibre, no new offers, no offers even after giving 30 days notice.


Pathetic really.


Moved to BT fibre due to recent cashback deals, happy so far

Did you use the thinking of leaving option?

I've just got off the phone and have 70Mb BB only, just come off a huge loyalty discount and this month was £28.
Got the email about going up £2.99 in November and said it's more than i wanted to pay.
Got £23 for 6 months and then £26 for a further 12 months, it's comparable with others so i took it.

I don't have any phone line so it would have been a real hassle to switch to BT/Sky/Other.

worried_jim

I cancelled my tv and phone yesterday. Don't need or use the phone (all calls are made on messenger these days or texts) and according to VM 88% of what I watch is available on Freeview, so I have gone BB only. I was on the 200mb service but in the last two months I've only got above 100mb on four occasions and never more than 107mb so I've downgraded that to the 100mb service. £32pm. Probably could have got it cheaper but I'm happy to have just halved my monthly bill.

c_smith

liviboy wrote: »

Well after giving my notice to VM after them not really being prepared to offer anything I have finally completed my order with Sky.

Getting Sky Q 2TB (incl another mini box for upstairs)
Boxsets
Telephone line
Unlimited broadband

For £30.40 a month for 12 months.

Given line rental is around £18 I think £16 a month for broadband and TV isn't too bad an offer.

So we'll see just how superior VM is compared to Sky (they would have you believe nothing comes close!).

No doubt in 12 months time I'll be back to joining VM as a new customer and so the circle continues.

That's a very good deal. Does that include any talk packages with the phone, and is it standard broadband or fibre?

Mr_Benn

I am currently with Sky, but due to costs , and a better looking package, I may switch to Virgin. I am happy with the Sky product , TV is good, HD good, broadband always connects. But the Virgin offer is cheaper than my Sky will currently offer, and will give me BT Sport, Films and another box.


My slight concern is the number of posts Ive seen about how poor the Virgin TV actually is. Would anybody like to share their good experiences with Virgin to counter balance this ?


Thanks in advance.