Virgin Broadband Contract

Clara2020

Hello all,
First time posting so apologies if in the wrong place but wanted to share with any others in similar situation - my broadband contract with Virgin Media is coming to an end in a couple of weeks and they contacted me to say whilst I'm free to change provider (although that isn't currently possible as moving from virgin requires an engineer to attend the property, which isn't an option under lockdown) they will otherwise put me onto another 12 month contract giving me the same service for an increase of almost £20 month. Their website and emails all ask people not to call as their call centres have been affected by the Coronavirus situation so please keep lines free for most vulnerable customers. Having tried various alternatives to the phone over the last week, today I bit the bullet and rang them - after being warned of waiting times over an hour by the automated messages, 4 minutes later I got through to someone in retentions who instantly looked at my account, agreed it was quite a steep increase and offered me the same deal I'm currently getting (100 meg) for £1 a month extra I didn't even need to try to haggle and it was all sorted in a couple of minutes - less time than it's taken me to register on the site to post this!
So the moral of the tale is even in these times it's still worth following the MSE advice of contact them and ask for a better deal than they're offering. Retentions are the "I want to cancel / leave my contract" option and logically, they're a different department to general customer service, so it's not actually blocking a vulnerable person from getting the support they may need. I could have saved myself a week of stress if I'd stuck it out the first time I rang them!   
Clara  

[Deleted User]

Clara2020 said:so it's not actually blocking a vulnerable person from getting the support they may need.

Are you suggesting that vulnerable people will not want a retention deal? 

RealGem

Clara2020 said:

Hello all,
First time posting so apologies if in the wrong place but wanted to share with any others in similar situation - my broadband contract with Virgin Media is coming to an end in a couple of weeks and they contacted me to say whilst I'm free to change provider (although that isn't currently possible as moving from virgin requires an engineer to attend the property, which isn't an option under lockdown) they will otherwise put me onto another 12 month contract giving me the same service for an increase of almost £20 month. Their website and emails all ask people not to call as their call centres have been affected by the Coronavirus situation so please keep lines free for most vulnerable customers. Having tried various alternatives to the phone over the last week, today I bit the bullet and rang them - after being warned of waiting times over an hour by the automated messages, 4 minutes later I got through to someone in retentions who instantly looked at my account, agreed it was quite a steep increase and offered me the same deal I'm currently getting (100 meg) for £1 a month extra I didn't even need to try to haggle and it was all sorted in a couple of minutes - less time than it's taken me to register on the site to post this!
So the moral of the tale is even in these times it's still worth following the MSE advice of contact them and ask for a better deal than they're offering. Retentions are the "I want to cancel / leave my contract" option and logically, they're a different department to general customer service, so it's not actually blocking a vulnerable person from getting the support they may need. I could have saved myself a week of stress if I'd stuck it out the first time I rang them!   
Clara  

Very helpful thanks Clara.
I was offered a deal with BT yesterday that was £13 a month less than VM. 
VM are clearly taking the mickey out of people. In addition to the £15 price hike, they added a £4 "usage fee" on top of my monthly payment. I took this as blatant exploitation because I hadn't call them straight away when my contract ran out. So they obviously think they can keep adding nonsense charges on top, and I won't notice. 

JJ_Egan

Are BT going to be able to connect you as they are on lockdown ?? Though rumour says Open Reach easing their lockdown next week .

RealGem

JJ_Egan said:

Are BT going to be able to connect you as they are on lockdown ?? Though rumour says Open Reach easing their lockdown next week .

They said they are sending out engineers to the vulnerable and that I qualify. But yes it might be different by next week.