Haggling when Virgin Media are the only viable option

potatoman3

Hi

I’m looking to move to an area where Virgin Media is the only viable option for broadband (fibre broadband is only 11mb).

I’m wondering what people do in this situation with respect to avoiding being rinsed by Virgin when the initial “new customer” deal expires? Are Virgin friendly enough to offer renewing customers those deals if you ask nicely enough or are you stuck until Openreach get round to upgrading the connection?

 Thanks. 

Neil_Jones

Same as everybody else - Virgin don't need to know you can't go anywhere else (yet).  Also investigate mobile broadband.

unforeseen

Since VM is in the area then it will be at the back of the queue for Open reach to upgrade, so don't hold your breath. 

FaceHead

Get a long term (i.e 24 months initial offer). When it expires, 'haggle' for a better price, and get something only marginally more expensive for the next 24 months.

After 4 years, in the second round of haggling, they start to realise that you aren't the sort of person  who is going to slip onto the expensive price. At that point, leaving for mobile or that 11mb fibre for year 5 before returning to virgin in year 6 might be the option, or to start paying the actual price for virgin. Or in four years time you might have a better openreach connection, better (cheaper) mobile broadband might be available etc.

Summary: Get a long contract. 

[Deleted User]

potatoman3 said:

Hi

I’m looking to move to an area where Virgin Media is the only viable option for broadband (fibre broadband is only 11mb).

I’m wondering what people do in this situation with respect to avoiding being rinsed by Virgin when the initial “new customer” deal expires? Are Virgin friendly enough to offer renewing customers those deals if you ask nicely enough or are you stuck until Openreach get round to upgrading the connection?

 Thanks. 

Yes, I've been with Virgin continuously for the last 7 years and have managed to keep the prices reasonable with various haggling tactics - I've managed to keep getting my package for about half way between the new customer price and the full out of contract price.

I wouldn't say they are friendly though and the sales tactics are high pressure - they usually end up offering me a massive upgrade (more channels / boxes etc) for less than I'm paying now but with a big stinger when out of contract so I have to insist on keeping the the package I want.

I ended up writing a letter last year to the complaints department and got a lovely phone call with all sorts of discounted packages in offer which results in me paying about £15 less than standard price.

The temptation upon getting the initial contract is to get the all bells and whistles package with all the TV and phone add-ons which will look attractive but then jump by £30-£40 a month once the contract ends so be economical with your first package choice.

Compared to about £18+ for your 11mbps with an Openreach provider, the basic £27 a month 100mbps with phone is a no brainer but the sting is they will revert to about £52 at the end of the contract. But ten times the speed for 3 times the cost and given that an 11mbps is basically unusable it still is better value at £52 but I reckon you will be able to negotiate about £35-£40 without too much difficulty.

Looking at it from the sales persons point of view, it appears they are just after the most monthly money the can squeeze from you, the different packages themselves don't really cost much more for the company unless you are getting premium channels and so they just try to keep dangling carrots with minor upgrades to justify a bit more money per month.

Stick by your guns - tell them your budget is £X when it comes to negotiate and let them work around that once they know that is the max they will get from you.

iniltous

I don’t think there is one single answer , if VM are aware that the competition is relatively slow in comparison ( and the estimated speeds are public knowledge ) they may be more inclined to play hard ball at renewal and not necessarily offer much or anything off the ‘list price’, but anecdotally some people seem to have good offers to renew , and others told ‘that’s  the price take it or leave it’ , it may even come down to the particular agent you speak to at the time , or if there is or isn’t an company wide ‘incentive’ scheme at the time you need to contact them.
Obviously, if someone only did a little browsing, emails , occasional VOD, then 11Mb is adequate, so VM cannot assume no one would ever switch , and could actually lose some customers , however they could look at any  customers usage and make an educated guess about how likely someone is to switch.
Anyone on here offering their own experience of negotiating with VM isn’t necessarily going to help you,  if you take VM and then at a point the future need to renew your deal