Virgin Media Automatic £3.50 discount by calling 150

JasperAlex

BigBlueSky said:

Thanks - Got the offer on my sisters Virgin account, but not on my own

One year I didn't accept it in time and it never came back up on the automated phone line so I just got retentions to give me the 6 months' worth of credit in one whole lot added to my account. Not sure how generous they are being this year but you could try that. Good luck!

Speculator

JasperAlex said:

BigBlueSky said:

Did those who receive the automated discount find out whether it affected your existing minimum contract period ?

I called them up to confirm that it doesn't affect your existing contract period and that nothing else has changed apart from the added discount. They told me just to ignore the e-mail confirmation they sent and added a note to that effect on my account. I have seen someone else on this forum on the virgin haggle thread have the same thing confirmed to them as well. 

Looks like Virgin lied and my contract has increased by £3.50.
Bundle price before discounts was £49. Now it's £52.50.

JasperAlex

Speculator said:

JasperAlex said:

BigBlueSky said:

Did those who receive the automated discount find out whether it affected your existing minimum contract period ?

I called them up to confirm that it doesn't affect your existing contract period and that nothing else has changed apart from the added discount. They told me just to ignore the e-mail confirmation they sent and added a note to that effect on my account. I have seen someone else on this forum on the virgin haggle thread have the same thing confirmed to them as well. 

Looks like Virgin lied and my contract has increased by £3.50.
Bundle price before discounts was £49. Now it's £52.50.

Did they put you on a new contract as well as the price increase? I haven't received my March bill yet but I have an e-mail confirmation from them detailing my agreed discounts and no new contract when I used the online complaint form. Had them lie to me so many times that I now get them to write a note of what we agreed to and then have them read it out to me and save it on the system otherwise they just hang up without any record of what has been agreed and it's my word against theirs. 

jsinc

Speculator said:

Looks like Virgin lied and my contract has increased by £3.50.
Bundle price before discounts was £49. Now it's £52.50.

My latest bill (25 Feb - 24 Mar) includes the £3.50 discount, and no £3.50 hike. Renewed contract in October.

ThomasG101

jsinc said:

Speculator said:

Looks like Virgin lied and my contract has increased by £3.50.
Bundle price before discounts was £49. Now it's £52.50.

My latest bill (25 Feb - 24 Mar) includes the £3.50 discount, and no £3.50 hike. Renewed contract in October.

Exactly the same has happened to me today when I got the next bill. I called them up and they refused to honor the £3.50 off that the automated message has offered me. The reason was that I was already on what they called the lowest possible rate they could ever offer so the £3.50 off apparently wasn't applicable (then why did they set it up to offer it to me?). It's irritating as when I called them to cancel in January (and decided to stay because of the £3.50 off) there were better alternative options available. In my opinion not honoring this for the remaining 6 months of my contract is terrible customer service and I've asked to cancel and would happily pay a little more to not have to deal with them again.

jsinc

ThomasG101 said:

Exactly the same has happened to me today when I got the next bill. I called them up and they refused to honor the £3.50 off that the automated message has offered me. The reason was that I was already on what they called the lowest possible rate they could ever offer so the £3.50 off apparently wasn't applicable (then why did they set it up to offer it to me?). It's irritating as when I called them to cancel in January (and decided to stay because of the £3.50 off) there were better alternative options available. In my opinion not honoring this for the remaining 6 months of my contract is terrible customer service and I've asked to cancel and would happily pay a little more to not have to deal with them again.

Not sure if that was meant as reply to me - if so perhaps I didn't word it well. But they have honoured my £3.50 discount for six months (and not increased by £3.50), so this month's bill is £3.50 lower than previous one.

I called them up twice to clarify things at the time, following Speculator's earlier post, and second rep seemed to know what they were talking about more than the first. I suspect the 'thinking of leaving' option doesn't always go through to retentions.

Fair enough cancelling if they're messing you around.

Brewer21

I rang when I received a letter, it told me my package was increasing by £4 from March. The phone message said I could accept £3.50 discount  for 6 months. I held the line to speak to someone, I still had 12 months to run on my contract.
When I got to speak to someone (retentions) they told me you now have the option of £2.50 off for the next 6 months. I left it at that and decided to ring Sky, I am now hooked  up with them for broadband/TV/phone and told Virgin I no longer wanted their services.
They've actually lost £756 of my money if I stayed, all for £48 that's how much the rise would have cost me extra. Yep I know they offered me some discount but I'm not being taken for a mug.
I'm now getting more for my money with Sky for an extra 60p per month as I've now got Sky sports and cinema whereas before just BT sport's as an add on with Virgin. Over 20 yrs a customer and they didn't care to keep my business.

jsinc

My newest bill has increased by £3.50 after all. Called them up to complain ('thinking of leaving us' option). Fortunately my previous contact had been noted, included an assurance that my price wouldn't rise according to details on letter. A £3.50 discount adjustment made going forward to remain in line with promise that there'll be no change until contract ends.

If in a similar situation would suggest ringing them to have a polite grumble. Especially if given promise within fee-free cancellation period, that has now passed.

But Virgin are incredibly annoying on this stuff. Opinion and action varies subject to who you speak to, they still tried pushing the price rise until I pointed out their colleague promised otherwise (eventually got around to being told those details were noted on my file so they already know), and a lot of people just aren't up for complaining over the telephone.

jsinc

Should add that progressed into a real hassle. Have spoken to a few people at VM since March. All agree that notes detail new price but manual adjustments still resulting in being billed wrong amount. Hoping now resolved after another call last week, but pretty frustrating.

ScoobyZ

Same here. I am leaving them now.
Bill was £29, jumped to £36 (Basic everything)- best they could offer was £42. Nothing on TV and back to Freeview.
Looking at Now TV now, £110 cashback and £24 a month, broadband and phone.