Virgin Broadband & Landline

SuperMac1

I was a loyal customer until recently. 😩 I am paying £50.50 for M100 package when it is available to new customers for £27/month on an 18 month contract.😩 I rang Virgin and spoke to them to try to get a better deal, but unfortunately the best they could offer was £38.50/month. I thus decided to give them my 30 days notice to end the contract. The contract ends at the end of this month, and I need advice from you lovely folks. We as a family decided that it was best to cancel the current contract and take another one as a new customer by one of the family. My daughter is currently working from home and needs the  internet connection. Since my contract ends at the end of this month and I don’t want her to be without internet connection.
1) What are the best options for us ?
2) When would be the best time to apply for a new connection at same address under another family member?
3) All cables would already be in place so could we get virgin to just send the new router in the post ?
4) If we are unable to get new connection to coincide with current contract ending, is there any alternative we could use to continue to get internet connection?

We obviously want to stay with virgin because they have the fastest internet connection and I have also had very poor internet connection from Sky in the past. 

Neil_Jones

This post at https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Cancel-and-my-partner-join-as-new-customer/td-p/4164546 implies you have to be Virgin-free for 90 days before you can be a "new" customer again, you can't just cancel it and start again 24hrs later.

1) If you need the internet at home at this time, it probably wasn't a wise thing to cancel it.  Other options are available outside of Virgin, any BT line based provider.  The speeds won't be as good but them's the choice.

2) See above - 90 days from when it ends, so if it ends end of October, not until February.

3) You're supposed to send the hardware back I believe when your contract ends.

4) Mobile internet, public wi-fi spot, neighbours (if you ask nicely, though it will probably violate the terms of their internet connection)

SuperMac1

Thank you for your response. 

Virgin told me I couldn’t get another contract for at least 30 days after expiry of current contract. Also tgey told me that I didn’t need to return the router since it was old. 

Can another person living at the address not open a new account ?

onomatopoeia99

SuperMac1 said:

Can another person living at the address not open a new account ?

Expect that they can.  Also expect that they won't be able to access any "new customer" deals until the requisite period has passed, so they'll be paying list price, or whatever they can negotiate off it.

matelodave

It's always a good idea to have a back-up plan just it case it all awry. It might be a good idea to consider a 4G MiFi solution or tethering just in case you end up losing you broadband etc during the "transition period".  Assuming that they do allow someone else to take over there may several days or even weeks between your contract finishing and another starting, especially if they dont allow another contract to be in place before the end of your notice period.

It does also appear that you cannot become a "new" customer until 90 days have passed so you may be no better (or even worse off than you are). You might be lucky and get a phone call from the retentions team otherwise its a case of seeing what transpires

woodentie

My contract with Virgin Media is ending soon.
when looking for new deal with providers, when I enter my details they say I need a new landline(that’ll be £60!) As far as I know, I have a physical landline already, as used by previous providers - am I missing something here??

matelodave

You will need it to be activated which will cost the supplier money especially if it's been decommissioned since you've been with Virgin.
The fact that the cable is already there probably means you wont have to pay even more to have a new cable laid.
In the end it's swings and roundabouts - you pay to have the line re-commissioned rather than the whole cost of a brand new line. Generally everyone pays the same which avoid some people getting a ginormous bill because they need a totally new connection.
It's a similar argument about paying for landline rental - even though you may not use it for telephony it is still in use and has to be maintained etc for broadband for which there is a cost.

BTW it's better to start a new thread to ask your question rather than hijacking another as your answers and comments will get confused with the original

SuperMac1

When you give your 30 day notice to cancel with virgin, do they confirm this in writing ? I was told on the phone when my cancellation date would be and how much money Virgin would credit me back. 

Also should one cancel their direct debit or wait until the credit is reimbursed ?

Farway

SuperMac1 said:

When you give your 30 day notice to cancel with virgin, do they confirm this in writing ? I was told on the phone when my cancellation date would be and how much money Virgin would credit me back. 

Also should one cancel their direct debit or wait until the credit is reimbursed ?

Can't answer the first but can the bold second, leave the DD alone, that is how any refund will arrive

Preempting stopping DDs can cause problems as reading these boards will show.

Just keep an eye on your bank to ensure Virgin really have stopped taking your money