Switching from Virgin to Plusnet - connection fee

gaia66

I have been with Virgin for a year (was with TT for years before that), my contract is coming to an end, and doubling up. I tried to haggle with them but they would only come down to £28 (instead of 40) I am considering going with Plusnet which offers a £20 a month for basic ADSL, as money is more of an issue right now. I am not interested in phone or tv. Plusnet wants to send an engineer, for an extra £50, to reactivate my old BT line, something that they say cannot be done at their end. Apparently 'Virgin's engineers fiddles with the box', was the explanation...My worry is that once I switch back to Plusnet with a BT line, in a year time, when I will be looking around for new deals, I may have to go through the same installation/ engineer/ extra charge to revert to Virgin, should I choose to do so.

Gaia

iniltous

Leaving and returning to Virgin after a period of time probably wouldn't cause a problem, Virgn are the only company that can use Virgins infrastructure , using company's that use Openreach infrastructure (like Sky , Talk Talk, Plusnet , BT etc) can be more complicated so your chosen provider may say a 'new' line is needed.
Looking to the future , if you migrate between OR providers, rather than having a gap in OR's service (by going back to VM) then they just takeover the line from each other so a 'new' line wouldn't be needed

AndyPK

£28 is very good if there are no additional costs and lasts for 12 months.

I doubt virgin has messed everything up.

However your line may have been left in a state where providers want money to reactive it. Apparently not all providers charge, so worth ringing around to see if everyone wants money. Try sky.

gaia66

Thank you!

mije1983

If you (or rather your property) has had Virgin services previously, quite often you can choose to do a self install so no need for a home visit.

The Virgin installers wouldn't have 'fiddled with the box' as they don't use OR services, but install their own.

You may find that you don't actually need an OR engineer visit in the end when the order has gone through. When I recently moved I was told by my ISP I would need a visit, however they then came back to me and said OR could sort it remotely.

gaia66

So, I rung VM again about my expiring contract , and my price was slashed at £20 a month with and increased broadband to 100Mb and weekend calls.
I am pretty happy with that.
Gaia

gaia66

The interesting thing was that I put the operator straight onto my partner, who also had a similar contract and increase with VM at another address and she could not negotiate this for him

AndyPK

Just check the paperwork very carefully when it arrived to ensure it matches what you agreed on the phone. If it doesn't get straight back on to them.


Also check the minimum term

gaia66

Thanks Andy. I have asked her so many times to confirm the figures and what was included that I would be surprised if there was any chance of retracting on that. However, I will check immediately of course.

The minimum term is 12 months.
Cristina

KILL_BILL

PLUSNET ARE CRAP - AVOID

talking from personal experience and all the others who complain on their forums

AndyPK

its what's on the paperwork that matters.