Virgin Media Haggling

Former_MSE_James_F

Virgin Media is offering automated discounts to cable customers put on hold who call up seeking a price cut, MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) has learnt, although we've heard of users securing far better deals if they stay on the line and haggle in person.

Read the full story here:
'Virgin Media offers automatic discounts to customers put on hold - but wait to speak to someone in person as you may get a better deal'

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

luciamasova

Hello, just wanted to share my experience with Virgin media yesterday. Spend over an hour on the phone patiently waiting to see if Virgin can offer a price reduction on my package which was du to end in February. I was offered packages at higher price which I don't really want as I don't watch over 200 programs, so I asked a customer representative if I can cancel my package. I was not offered to go through retention team and she ended up cancelling my services, as I did say I was not willing to pay for the package I was offered. Well, I guess I will just go and find a better provider to have my TV and broadband with. :-)

JJ_Egan

Do let us know who the better provider is that you move to .

misty_optic

Followed the tip to use the direct line to disconnections. Waited about 5 minutes first call and less than 2 minutes today. First conversation wouldn't give as much discount as I wanted. Left it "to discuss with my partner". Today's call gained another 10% off and a new TV360 box. Very pleased with outcome which will save me about £350 over the next 18 months.

Thanks to Martin and the team for haggling advice, haggling is not something I normally feel comfortable with and the guidance gave me more confidence to stick out for what I wanted.

MrN_2

Thought I'd share my experience, in case it helps anyone.

Like many people, I received the letter saying Virgin wanted to increase my monthly cost. For 200mb broadband - no TV or phone - I was paying £46 a month. They wanted to increase this by £3.25 a month, so with 8 months left on my contract it felt like time to haggle. First I used their online chat, but it's awful - I just went around in endless loops with a bot. 

So having wasted a bit of time messing with that, I called their customer services and selected the option for 'I want to leave'. While in the queue, I received the automated message saying I could have an automatic discount of £3.25, cancelling out the price increase. At this point though, I'd spent too long on this and wasn't happy, so I persevered.

I'd gone in armed with competitor offers, so when I got through to a representative, I quoted Sky's offer of 500mb for £45 and said I was leaving for it. The rep went away in classic 'speak-to-my-manager' style, and came back with an offer of reducing my monthly cost from £46 to £36, and increasing my broadband speed from 200mb to 500mb. Not bad when I started off with an increase of £3.25.

brynhh

Called last week and quoted BT's 500Mbit FTTP prices (cheaper plus 6 months game pass), they said "oh ok, its 30 days notice, please hold", then just did the cancellation. No attempt to even offer anything, suspect they've had enough. For once I'm going through with it, as its faster and cheaper. Openreach came out the other day to asses before installation date, trees need cutting by the pavement so let's see what happens!

clint42

Any help for someone like me who due to historical reasons, isn't in the strongest position to haggle.

Current setup per month

Broadband - Virgin Media 108Mb fibre optic - £44.75
Landline - BT - no use for BB (see below) - £27.23
TV - Sky - no use for BB (see below) - £53.00

Total - £124.98

All are rolling contracts so far as I know as I can't find the contract period dates.

Obviously I'm currently in the worst possible scenario for haggling as I'm already a customer to all 3 providers.

Where do I even start with trying to save in my position?

N.B. I will need to keep broadband with VM as anything else in my area is a massive downgrade in speed and can't use Sky for BB as telephone cable is not able to support BB at any usable speed.

Any help or suggestions how to go about solving my dilemma would be greatly appreciated.

JasperAlex

clint42 said:

Any help for someone like me who due to historical reasons, isn't in the strongest position to haggle.


Any help or suggestions how to go about solving my dilemma would be greatly appreciated.

Yikes. I really feel for you. I would call up Virgin, choose the I'm thinking of leaving option and try and negotiate a new contract with them. I'm on exactly the same package as you, paying £16/month. £44.75 is well over the odds. I would expect them to offer you something in the region of £24/month. Also discuss with them about porting your phone line and TV package with them and see whether they offer you a better deal.

If you are not in contract with BT/sky, it should be pretty straightforward to cancel with them giving 30 days notice. Good luck!

Bigphil1474

Clint, I'm with Virgin for everything, which has its issues. However, I get 200mb broadband, Max TV +HD channels, as well as full Sky and BT sport +HD channels, any time calls on my landline, and I pay £90 a month. You should get everything you currently have from Virgin for less than I pay, depending on what Sky channels you want. I also get Sky Cinema through Now TV and pay about £6 a month. 

ClockworkLavo

Very positive experience with Virgin Media today after following the MSE haggling guide.

I’ve been a customer since September 2018 and have always had the most basic version of the TV, Broadband and Line Rental package. My original package was a 12 month contract for £32. When that lapsed I rang up and they gave me some more channels for a limited period and reduced the price to £27 for the next 12 months, which was a nice surprise.

However, I was fairly sure that I wasn’t going to have this luck again, so since September 2020 I’ve been paying £51 per month (with reduced channels), which has gradually crept up to £58 and was due to rise to £62 this year.

Having been out-of-contract since 2020 and with this and energy price hikes on the rise, I rang up to explore possibilities for a better package.

After ignoring the automated message offering to reduce my monthly cost by £4 per month, I stayed on the line to try my luck. Admittedly I waited ~34 minutes to get through, but when I did, the Retentions Team couldn’t have been more accommodating.

I told them I was out-of-contract, had been a customer for a few years and that I just wanted to explore what other options were available to me.

In less than 10 minutes I’d reduced my monthly cost from £58 down to £33, and had my broadband connection upgraded from 100Mb to 200Mb. It’s an 18 month contract, but at this price it’s absolutely perfect for me, given it’s a saving of £303 over the next 12 months, which can go towards the rising energy bills.

Big thanks to MSE for their guide. People, if you haven’t done this yet, try it! The worst that could happen is that they say no. In my case, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t try this in 2020!

Silvia2001

In my area Virgin Media is the only provider of broadband. There is no openreach network. They may be aware of the situation. I don't know how to bargain for a better deal as I can not leave them. I can pretend but in the end I should get what they offer. Any hints?