Virgin renewals - after CityFibre arrive

markocosic

FYI Virgin seem to be soiling their underpants when Cityfibre / Vodafone arrive in a new area and trying very hard at the moment to stop Cityfibre / Vodafone from winning any business.



£36/mo for 350 Mb broadband. Renews at £62.50/month. No thank you.

Call renewals
-Say that you are only interested in a fair offer, that the price on the website is £39 for 350 Mb (new customer) and the price for Vodafone is £35 for 500 Mb, and you require Virgin Media's best offer
Renewal offer £60ish for M350
-Explain that this is a "screw you for your loyalty" offer and that you object to their thinking that you would be idiotic enough to agree to it when Vodafone is £35 for 500 Mb. Request cancellations WITHOUT asking for a better offer
Transfer to cancellations
-Explain that you were offered a "screw you for your loyalty" offer by renewals and that you objected to their thinking that you would be idiotic enough to agree to it when Vodafone is £35 for 500 Mb so you want to cancel. They'll make another offer.
Cancellation offer £55ish for M350
- Cancel. Ensure that they don't have a phone number for you. Only email. They can't gauge your response by email and nothing says that you should be attentive more than an ice cold email from a customer. 

Retentions will try again
In this case retention offer M350 with a free SIM that has 5 Gb and unlimited free minutes/texts. Finally a sensible offer. Had they offered this in the beginning I would've just said yes instead or cancelling and arranging for the Cityfibre/Vodafone to be installed.

Say no. 

"I'm sorry, but your colleagues at renewals and cancellations have already lied to me twice, by making me two offers that were clearly not Virgin Media's best offer, and they insulted me twice by inferring that I would be idiotic enough to accept this offer. Dishonesty is not acceptable in any shape of form and there is no excuse for insulting the customer either.

As a result of this behaviour I've already been into town and signed up for the Vodafone offer. This is £35/month for 500 Mb download / 500 Mb upload. Your offer is more expensive and slower. You would have to match this - or offer me something mediocre for less money - for me to cancel the Vodafone offer now.

Retentions will try again
In this case retention offer £37 for M500 with a free SIM that has 5 Gb and unlimited free minutes/texts.



I still said no, because Virgin Media are a bunch of lying bullies and I want to encourage the people digging up the streets and breaking Virgin Media's nose, but I can see why you might say yes to this if you needed a SIM.



Shorter version - if you're in an area that's getting Cityfibre then give Virgin a hard time. And ideally leave too. Don't renew at their "f**k you" loyalty rates though!

JenB79

I very much doubt Virgin will match Cityfibre based resellers considering the likes of Zen are selling 1 Gig down & up for as low as £40/m though Zen aren't available nationwide on the Cityfibre FTTP network just yet.

Anyway good result, you will find a symmetric FTTP service far superior