No choice but Virgin

EnergyUser

To be fair I knew this before we bought the house earlier in the year but its a worry that I have had to defer to the future.
I live in a town that has been cabled, originally for TeleWest I think, for forever. When the town was first cabled I think that it was pre-broadband but just for cable television! As a result there is no (BT Openreach) fibre installed or ever likely to be installed by them or any other network provider. That means that there really is no choice for us when it comes to broadband. Of course we can get a regular landline and get a low speed connection but that isn't going to support our lifestyle of four/five devices online, online and streaming video games. Being a new customer to Virgin I have a reasonable deal for now but in the next twelve months I fear being at the mercy of Virgin as I really will have no leverage as there is no competition here and I am sure that they know that!

AndyPK

option 1 - don't take phone or TV.

option 2 - blag it! Say speed does not matter, and you can get by with ASDL.

spanish_inquisition

EnergyUser wrote: »

To be fair I knew this before we bought the house earlier in the year but its a worry that I have had to defer to the future.
I live in a town that has been cabled, originally for TeleWest I think, for forever. When the town was first cabled I think that it was pre-broadband but just for cable television! As a result there is no (BT Openreach) fibre installed or ever likely to be installed by them or any other network provider. That means that there really is no choice for us when it comes to broadband. Of course we can get a regular landline and get a low speed connection but that isn't going to support our lifestyle of four/five devices online, online and streaming video games. Being a new customer to Virgin I have a reasonable deal for now but in the next twelve months I fear being at the mercy of Virgin as I really will have no leverage as there is no competition here and I am sure that they know that!

Sadly two of the issues of lack of competition are often lack of service and costs.

Hope you can resolve the situation.

Cisco001

Wait for couple of years and hope 5G will be there at reasonable price...

robti

After 12 months cancel and resign in partners name

pphillips

robti wrote: »

After 12 months cancel and resign in partners name

...if you're fine with having no broadband at all for a few months.

Bobbybuilder59

Hi we where in similar position and being ripped off by virgin, so I did a bit of googling and saw advert for 3 mobile broadband £22 a month unlimited so already having a 3 mobile contract I thought give it ago as you can change your mind within 14 days. Couldn't be more pleased. No cables just find a good place for router they send you and off you go. I'm getting about 50mbs on average download and 30mbs upload. I believe 3 are investing a lot in the new 5g so that should fly. As long as you get a good 4g mobile signal somewhere in your house it's great, and even if you haven't you can buy a cheap antenna for Amazon and stick outside

EnergyUser

Thought that it was time to give an update. So we were paying an amount per month that I was comfortable with for Virgin Media cable broadband 220/20, their 'Mix' tv package which is all we need and the Virgin TV V6 box works well, plus the landline with the weekend calls package  £43. Essentially my contract of 12 months was up and the new price was advised to us  which was a price hike of plus 50%. This happens in the midst of the country and world being shutdown and the VM off shore call centres closed or with limited access,  the chat system on the website closed and I can't help feeling concerned that I am going to be stuck with a huge bill. Thankfully I found that there is a way of contacting VM by text so with nothing to loose I gave it a go. Through the text I explained my situation and that whilst I appreciated that it was no ones fault that the usual methods of communication were closed I really couldn't consider such an increase in price. We have had a great and seldom interrupted broadband service from VM (and there are still no options for any 'conventional' fibre at all) but please was there a way of getting us a better price for the year ahead. The text system worked really well and the time between each incoming message was very reasonable. Within minutes I was quoted for a further 12 months at the same rate as we had been paying for the first year. Very pleased with that as an outcome I expressed my thanks and was pleased to accept the offer. Within a few minutes I received a further message that actually the monthly rate could be reduced by another £1.50 so year two will be marginally cheaper than year one. That makes me a very happy Virgin Media customer.
From what was looking like a dark situation I am pleased to report that I felt very  fairly dealt with and valued as an existing customer.

OrbitHeadache

EnergyUser said:

Thought that it was time to give an update. So we were paying an amount per month that I was comfortable with for Virgin Media cable broadband 220/20, their 'Mix' tv package which is all we need and the Virgin TV V6 box works well, plus the landline with the weekend calls package  £43. Essentially my contract of 12 months was up and the new price was advised to us  which was a price hike of plus 50%. This happens in the midst of the country and world being shutdown and the VM off shore call centres closed or with limited access,  the chat system on the website closed and I can't help feeling concerned that I am going to be stuck with a huge bill. Thankfully I found that there is a way of contacting VM by text so with nothing to loose I gave it a go. Through the text I explained my situation and that whilst I appreciated that it was no ones fault that the usual methods of communication were closed I really couldn't consider such an increase in price. We have had a great and seldom interrupted broadband service from VM (and there are still no options for any 'conventional' fibre at all) but please was there a way of getting us a better price for the year ahead. The text system worked really well and the time between each incoming message was very reasonable. Within minutes I was quoted for a further 12 months at the same rate as we had been paying for the first year. Very pleased with that as an outcome I expressed my thanks and was pleased to accept the offer. Within a few minutes I received a further message that actually the monthly rate could be reduced by another £1.50 so year two will be marginally cheaper than year one. That makes me a very happy Virgin Media customer.
From what was looking like a dark situation I am pleased to report that I felt very  fairly dealt with and valued as an existing customer.

Fantastic!

Just goes to show it is perfectly possible to get a bargain Virgin deal for the second year as well as the first.