Leaving Virgin Media - Scared

one_dull_guy

I've been with Virgin Media for my TV, Landline, and Broadband for 21 years (since they were Telewest) and have been thinking about leaving them for quite some time. Now it's time to get serious, but am scared because of the big change. I've found that we don't use the landline, and I rarely watch any TV that isn't on Freeview, so why pay the extra. I've spokent o Virgin and they've told me that Broadband only would cost £40 per month, compared to the £58 I'm currently paying. I realise that cheaper deals are available elsewhere, but I'm really happy with the service and speed of broadband that they provide.


Has anyone else made the switch from Virgin to Freeview/Freesat? How did it go?

AndyPK

So this is more of a TV question?

Have you got an arial on the roof/loft ? Because you need one

WOuld have thought you could get BB from virgin for £30! Push harder or tell them you intend to move to nowtv.


Often, if you say you want to ditch TV (and keep phone and BB), they will say you can keep the TV box and freeview at the very last minute, but you need a backup plan if they don't.

It is usually cheaper to have phone and BB rather than just BB

jfdi

We’ve just done it. Gone with vodaphone, freeview and an Amazon firestick. Still got landline and 2 mobiles all with vodaphone now.
Half the cost.
Do it!

Cybermiles

I ditched their TV as it had very few HD channels and I wasn't recording off it. I watch BBC Amazon and Netflix on Apple TV and that works fine for me, and I can play music and my photos on it too.

My broadband and phone just went up to £47 so when I rang up to 'leave' they gave me a £7 a month loyalty discount and a free month as well over a 12 month contract. Sounds like you'll certainly be able to get that even if you decide to stick with them.

The problem is I have tried other broadband down the BT line and it is noticeably more patchy for me.

Brewer20

Stick with what you've got if happy but do ask for a discount. Retentions are the ones to talk to, don't get fobbed off with anyone else they'll try and bluff you into some sort of nonsense to keep you.
When you get through to retentions be nice and tell them you can't afford it but as said have a back up plan if it seems they won't play ball. You can put the phone down and have a rethink if they don't offer anything acceptable.
I got a one off refund last year of £60 plus extended my deal price with them until August this year, they told me to ring back in August for a fresh deal.

danthemoneysavingman

Want to do this and move to Vodafone. Currently paying £54 a month, which would drop to £24 - pretty significant saving!

I note we will lose the email addresses we have had for 16 years, which is the main sticking point.

How have others worked round this issue?
Changing your email address with every person and institution, assuming you can remember all of them, is going to be a massive pain the proverbials surely.

Wondering how others have handled this?

I may lose business by changing my email address.
On the plus side, my wife's garbage mail will drop by significant levels.

My thought was to start moving everything over to (say) our Gmail accounts, and then should pick up most significant misses over the following month. In that time maybe a new vodafone amazon voucher deal will surface.

Has to be the so-called superfast fibre (63Mb) line as the 100Mb virgin line has had us spoiled. Though I wonder how much of this bandwidth we actually use...

Any thoughts on this would be welcome!

Thanks

JJ_Egan

Usual is to move emails to a non ISP server .
GMail or a paid for web host.
You will have xx months at end before email from VM cut off .

Pikeyp

This is exactly what I did before September last year , move from Virgin to Vodaphone ... don't panic about your emails! , it's much easier than you think!

Just go through all your contacts and as many old emails as you can and see what's important and what's not ... its supposed to be 60 days (I think? ...) before your old email stops so you've got plenty of time! ... mines still working some 4 + months later though ...

Log into anywhere were you signed up with your VM email and change it to your new one ... (gmail in my case ..)

For TV use you got a few choices , I went for a BT Vision+ box which is connected to the broadband and works fine ...

danthemoneysavingman

the email updating process has begun... feels quite cathartic tbh!
Will be in a good position to move pretty quickly.
ta

Sibz

I left them and was delighted. Won't go back
Only issue we had was with freeview but that was only down to me and lack of any good aerial and any real desire to sort it (regardless of how easy it would have been). I'm happy with Netflix

mgfvvc

AndyPK wrote: »

Have you got an arial on the roof/loft ? Because you need one

You certainly need an aerial for Freeview, but you may not need a roof/loft aerial.

My mother gets very good reception with a £20 indoor aerial, however we are in a valley and need a loft aerial to get a decent signal.