Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

The_Flying_General

Out of contract by some time and thought it time to review after prices had crept up. For £65.46 / month I'm currently getting:

Large TV with Tivo
100mb on an ancient original superhub
Phoneline & talk weekend

All I can say is wow, I've never experienced such indifference when dealing with an unhappy customer. Having explained they were simply getting too expensive, that I rarely watched most of the channels, that I was often only getting in the region of 50mb broadband and that I never used the phone that I'm paying £19/month for they came back with the following:

Keep package as is for £55/month. Or
Large Tv + 100mb no phone for £55/month
I could downgrade to the Mix bundle with 50mb broadband at £50/month
Or going to 50mb broadband only would be £33/month with the same old router

When I asked about broadband only, I was told the £27/month was new customers only. I asked what happened to loyalty, I think she is still looking the word up in the dictionary.

I pointed out I'm paying a high price for a premium product but not getting any where close - largely terrible tv channels, old kit and inconsistent broadband, but this was lost completely on the lady I spoke to. That I'm getting nowhere near my broadband speeds was my fault for using a wireless not wired connection. That I'm sat with the router less than 12 inches from my iPad and that I'd had lower than 10mb on several occasions with 30-40mb a regular occurrence was lost on them. I need to raise a tech issue. Every day if necessary.

When I said if I wanted 50mb broadband I could go to BT and take out a separate streaming service for £6-8/month to get the channels I actually wanted I got the usual flannel about I need to use a wired connection, BT won't give you the speeds you pay for (neither do you Virgin) and if your equipment breaks we'll fix it.

Has anybody else been surprised by how little they actually seem to want to help or retain customers these days. I'll sleep on it to see if I calm down a little, but frankly her attitude was appalling. This could very well be the end of our relationship with Virgin.

Anon

The_Flying_General wrote: »

Out of contract by some time and thought it time to review after prices had crept up. For £65.46 / month I'm currently getting:

Large TV with Tivo
100mb on an ancient original superhub
Phoneline & talk weekend

All I can say is wow, I've never experienced such indifference when dealing with an unhappy customer. Having explained they were simply getting too expensive, that I rarely watched most of the channels, that I was often only getting in the region of 50mb broadband and that I never used the phone that I'm paying £19/month for they came back with the following:

Keep package as is for £55/month. Or
Large Tv + 100mb no phone for £55/month
I could downgrade to the Mix bundle with 50mb broadband at £50/month
Or going to 50mb broadband only would be £33/month with the same old router

When I asked about broadband only, I was told the £27/month was new customers only. I asked what happened to loyalty, I think she is still looking the word up in the dictionary.

I pointed out I'm paying a high price for a premium product but not getting any where close - largely terrible tv channels, old kit and inconsistent broadband, but this was lost completely on the lady I spoke to. That I'm getting nowhere near my broadband speeds was my fault for using a wireless not wired connection. That I'm sat with the router less than 12 inches from my iPad and that I'd had lower than 10mb on several occasions with 30-40mb a regular occurrence was lost on them. I need to raise a tech issue. Every day if necessary.

When I said if I wanted 50mb broadband I could go to BT and take out a separate streaming service for £6-8/month to get the channels I actually wanted I got the usual flannel about I need to use a wired connection, BT won't give you the speeds you pay for (neither do you Virgin) and if your equipment breaks we'll fix it.

Has anybody else been surprised by how little they actually seem to want to help or retain customers these days. I'll sleep on it to see if I calm down a little, but frankly her attitude was appalling. This could very well be the end of our relationship with Virgin.

Instead of getting angry or annoyed, read the advice on here first before negotiating. See what other deals people have secured on here and other boards.

Cancel.

Then wait for them to call you. It is the most successful technique as reported on here time and again. Inbound rarely give a good deal - they can’t, it is not on their system to offer as they are a different team.

The_Flying_General

I’ve already read this thread so had a reasonable idea what can be achieved.

I’m cross not at the price, that’s expected and happens every year in every field. But decent customer service shouldn’t be optional. And you’d think that with more people starting to cut the cord that Virgin would be alive to the issue and the risk that whilst people may leave, if they leave with a bad taste in their mouth you probably won’t get them back in future.

I know what the completion are offering, other half is keen to press the button to see what happens.

Anon

The_Flying_General wrote: »

I’ve already read this thread so had a reasonable idea what can be achieved.

I’m cross not at the price, that’s expected and happens every year in every field. But decent customer service shouldn’t be optional. And you’d think that with more people starting to cut the cord that Virgin would be alive to the issue and the risk that whilst people may leave, if they leave with a bad taste in their mouth you probably won’t get them back in future.

I know what the completion are offering, other half is keen to press the button to see what happens.

My point was it is a game and you just need to follow a set process. Yes they could do it differently but their current process doesn’t. I do it every year as my deal ends. I have been with Virgin/NTL/C&W since 1995(?) and have had to do this dance each year. I haven’t left yet (apart from a brief gap when I moved house and their system said we couldn’t get their services - long story, we could!) and always get a deal to stay. You are asking to leave to move onto the right team to negotiate (hopefully you should not have to leave!). Good luck.

chib

I'm paying £32.25 at the moment for my Vivid 100 (Broadband only) package and having read some comments on here, will try and add a V6 Box with Mix TV for the wife for a few quid more. We're using Freeview at the moment and she hates it.

paulnicoll

So just got the call from outbounds. After an initial 'oh you really were on a good deal I'm going to struggle to do anything here' the representative then found a deal keeping me on the same package (Full House, 200MB, Weekend calls) for £40 per month. That's £5 more than I was paying per month but given I knew it would be more that's pretty acceptable. She's included a free v6 box too.


I'd asked about adding Sports HD but that doesn't seem to really have much room for discount - that was coming out at £66 per month.

c_smith

paulnicoll wrote: »

So just got the call from outbounds. After an initial 'oh you really were on a good deal I'm going to struggle to do anything here' the representative then found a deal keeping me on the same package (Full House, 200MB, Weekend calls) for £40 per month. That's £5 more than I was paying per month but given I knew it would be more that's pretty acceptable. She's included a free v6 box too.


I'd asked about adding Sports HD but that doesn't seem to really have much room for discount - that was coming out at £66 per month.

How many boxes do you have and are they TIVO or V6?

chib

Sounds like a great deal Paul. I'd love something similar but need to wait until I can cancel my current contract.

notapurplecat

Didn't see this thread when making a post earlier.

I've been with VM for a few years, last year was around £25 per month for 50mb broadband, the basic TV package and line rental. Bill came in for £49 this month, so I phoned to cancel, as I'm out of work and that's a huge amount of money, and we don't really need anything bar the internet. All I was offered was the current package at £33 per month if I took out a fresh 12 month contract. I declined and gave my months notice as I knew Sky were doing broadband and line rental for £18 per month, with a £50 prepaid card as well.

This was back on the 18th January. I've not had any communication from the VM outbound team. One day this week I'll actually end up booking Sky! Probably should've done that sooner...

Cuilean

Having missed a call from outbound retentions on Wednesday, I was convinced I'd missed my chance to haggle. Thankfully, a nice man from the retentions team called again today.

I was on
Vivid 150 (I'm aware this no longer exists, it's 100 or 200)
TV Mix
Weekend phone

Introductory price of £36, gone up to £58.99 per month.

After some debating, we settled on
Vivid 100
Talk Weekends
Fun TV (Effectively Mix, but with some extra kids' and factual channels - list here )
V6 box, with the £20 activation fee waived

£40 a month, fixed for 12 months. I tried for Full House, but he wasn't having it. Oh well, that's next year's target sorted.

If you can hold your nerve and take the risk that you might end up going elsewhere, cancelling and waiting for them to call is definitely the way to go.