Virgin renewal - Broadband + Landline + Television - how much to haggle renewal down?

Anon · 10 February 2022 at 6:58PM

makara said:

He needs the anytime calls plus landline.

I suggested he use landline for incoming calls, and his mobile for outgoing.

But he is elderly, so wants to make use of a landline.

EDIT ADD - Virgin's tariff guide says the "Talk more anytime" is £27 - I suspect that's what is keeping the overall bundle price high. As said above...he (like a lot of my elderly customers) is addicted to landline phones and making calls from them. I would personally sacrifice the call package and get a cheaper price overall / and / or faster broadband for the same price. But then I'm not in my 70s or 80s...

EDIT ADD 2 - something similar happened last year with my school friend's elderly (70s and 80s) parents. I haggled hard with Sky to get them a much better deal. Then they scuppered it by insisting on an anytime landline calls package. Even the Sky retentions person tried to explain to them it was an unnecessary extra cost, given I had ported their mobiles over to Sky Mobile unlimited calls for next to nothing. But they dug their heels in, saying the landline is easier for them.

Must be a generational thing.

Hyperoptic isn't available.

So in the circumstances it's going to be a tough job to get cheaper for a customer who doesn't want the hassle of cashback deals.

Anytime call package is £8 on top of the advertised offers - it is worth checking what offers they have on their website then make the adjustments to get an idea of price (noting that the offers are generally much better Monday to Wednesday on most weeks on the Virgin Media website, and sometimes better coming in from Quidco Compare, MSE etc).

makara · 10 February 2022 at 7:33PM

Anon said:

As an existing customer renegotiating, it is always recommended to cancel then await a call from outbound retentions within your 30 days - it seems from discussions on here and other forums that the vast majority of good deals reported were after actually cancelling (not from the inbound retentions that you call in to speak to).

I agree with this - a couple of years back I actually DID start the cancellation process with "Sky" - not because I was trying to call their bluff, but because I could get a better deal from "EE" with cashback.

Sure enough "Outbound retentions" (also called "WIN-BACK TEAM") called me - apparently a department so secret that others in Sky hadn't heard of them (note my comment "apparently")

- they did offer me a better deal on both Broadband and TV - but after taking the best offer, I did in the end ditch their TV - and the Win-back guy said he would ensure his better Broadband price would stay - and I could leave 4 months before my contract...

(EDIT - the "leave 4 months early" was in regards to the amount of time left on my TV contract)

BUT...when I called up Cancellations AGAIN they refuted this...until I told them to listen to the recorded call between me and the Win-back chap - then they caved - let me cancel the TV 4 months early with a tiny "penalty" - and let me have the cheaper than EE Fibre broadband too.

However...I am just on my way to a school-friend's to re-negotiate his elderly father's Virgin contract - and his father has just gotten out of hospital - much like my elderly client (mentioned in the OP).

I suspect due to HEALTH reasons neither will want the added hassle of getting out-bound retentions to chase them

- and that is fair enough, as their health is a priority / versus younger folks (like us) who are happy to chase prices down to the nth-level...

HaroldWren5 · 11 February 2022 at 8:51PM

Anon said:

Others are reporting around the £20-£25 price (some less) just for 100 or 200mb broadband and phone line, so I would expect less than £30 including the calls package (limited or no tv package) should be achievable (after cancelling and getting a call from outbound retentions).

Exactly. Should check if Ultrafast Full Fibre is available via Openreach/CityFibre/Altnet ISP broadband providers as well.

mopezone said:

Blimey! Am I getting diddled here?

I pay £127 rising on 1st March to £136 for Anytime calls (must have the landline as elderly relatives prefer not to call a mobile!), Maxit TV with Sky Sports HD and BT Sport, 1 TV box and M200 Broadband.
Just phoned retentions and after some haggling was offered £101pm for the same package on an 18 month contract - (I'm currently out of contract)
I would have liked to have got it down below £100, but he wasn't moving any further - so I don't seem to have been offered as good a deal as what is being suggested above?
Any views? Should I call back in the hope of getting a different agent? Should I put in my 30 days notice and hope to be called back?

By the way, is there any time, day or phone number which gets you connected to somebody in the UK? I could barely understand what the agent was saying!

Neil_Jones said:

Find out what the new customer deals are for the same package and aim for that. Ring them up and go for it.
But until you know how much your customer is paying (or what package they're on), any guesses of savings is just that - a guess.

Yes, at the very least the price for a new customer should be sought.

@mopezone You should check if Full Fibre (Ultrafast Fibre to the Home) is available in your area and then check those broadband providers.

1. TV -
a) Freeview (aerial straight to TV), or Freesat to get Free to air channels

b) If recorder is required, a Humax/equivalent Digital recorder can be bought for between £90 to £150 as a one off cost
c) If your TV is smart, you can access catch up apps (iPlayer etc) via the TV built in Apps. Same goes for Youtube. If not, you can buy a Firestick/Roku smart stick to plug into your TV which comes with a remote and that connects to the internet to do all that (one off cost of around £30).
d) You can subscribe to Netflix, or Amazon Prime on rolling contracts if required. (Even if you had both Netflix HD and Amazon Prime that comes to around £18 a month)

2. Sport -
a) Sky Sports HD can be accessed via the Now TV app (via your Smart TV or aforementioned purchased smart stick). Circa £25-35 a month on rolling contracts depending on the deal at the time. Can be cancelled at any time when you don't need it.
b) BT Sport all the way up to 4K can be accessed via the BT Sports App (via your Smart TV or smart stick again). The BT Sports Pass Ultimate monthly rolling contract is £25 a month and can be cancelled at any time when you don't need it.

3. Broadband (with landline)
a) If there is no Full Fibre in your area, then the price tends to be less value for money. Nevertheless, on Openreach, Vodafone offer a 100Mbps Broadband and Home Phone 24 month plan for £32 a month and £8 a month for Unlimited Landline calls if required (£40 a month). Sky advertise the same for £47 a month on a 18 month contract.
b) If you can get Full Fibre in your area via Openreach, then you could opt for 900Mbps Sky Ultrafast and Unlimited Landline calls for £57 a month on an 18 month contract.

4. (If FTTP is available in your area) - Full Fibre Ultrafast Broadband and use a Mobile instead of a Landline

a) Cuckoo 115Mbps Broadband for £39.99 a month on 12 month contract and Unlimited Minutes SIM from Vodafone/O2/Tesco Mobile for £8 a month
b) Cuckoo 900Mbps Broadband for £54.99 a month on 12 month contract and Unlimited Minutes SIM from Vodafone/O2/Tesco Mobile for £8 a month
c) TalkTalk FTTP 500Mbps broadband for £40 a month on an 18 months contract and Unlimited Minutes SIM from Vodafone/O2/Tesco Mobile for £8 a month.

If you tally up each of the options. Please note I am sure there must be other "deals" out there. This is just from a quick web search! :

SCENARIO 1 - Fibre unavailable, the theoretical maximum price could be £95 a month:

Freeview/Freesat TV (using Sky and BT app to access their Sports) would be around £55 a month (30 day rolling) + £40 a month Vodafone 100Mbps Broadband and Unlimited Landline Calls (24 months) = £95 a month in total. That would be if you were using Sky and BT Sports for the entire year. The monthly price would drop if you cancel either one when you don't need them.

SCENARIO 2 - If Ultrafast Fibre is available, the theoretical maximum price could be £118 a month (12 months contract):
Freeview/Freesat TV (using Sky and BT app to access their Sports) around £55 a month (30 day rolling) + Broadband option below:
Option 1 with 115Mbps FTTP (12 months) and Mobile Unlimited Minutes: £103 in total
Option 2 with 500Mbps FTTP (18 months) and Mobile Unlimited Minutes: £103 in total
Option 3 with 900Mbps FTTP (12 months) and Mobile Unlimited Minutes: £118 in total
The monthly price would drop whenever you cancel the Sports subscription (rolling) when you don't need them.

That comes to cheaper than the quoted renewal price and like I said you can simply drop the Sports packages when you don't need them (e.g. when the Football/F1/Cricket season is over) and resubscribe whenever.

HaroldWren5 · 11 February 2022 at 8:54PM

mopezone - To clarify, in the months when you didn't need any Sky Sports package, you basically drop your price by around £30 a month, similarly if you don't need BT by £25 a month, or if you don't need either by £55 a month then and there. And resubscribe at the same price whenever.

Thus some months you could pay £40 a month, or £54.99 a month depending on the availability of FTTC or FTTP in your area.

mopezone · 23 February 2022 at 1:17PM

Thanks for all the advice in this thread - I've now resolved the issue and I thought it might be worth letting people know what I ended up with and how I got there!

I phoned Virgin Media on 0800 952 2277 and went through all the options as far as "if you're thinking of leaving us" - explained that my monthly charge of £127.50, rising to £136.00 on 1st March, was more than I wanted to pay, and I could get faster broadband, plus a landline, for less if I switch to BT's FFTP service, and, having a Smart TV I could watch all the channels I needed on Freeview and use the TV's apps for catch up etc.

The guy, after some to-ing and fro-ing, offered the same package (M200 broadband, TV + Sky Sports HD, landline + Anytime calls) for £111 for 18 months, a reduction of £25 monthly, or £51pm without any TV.
After more discussion he came down to £101 pm or £42 without TV, at which point I said I would think about it.

After 10 days or so I got back to the same number, having checked what the current 'new customer' offer was for the same package as I am on - this is/was £69 pm with uprated M350 broadband as opposed to my M200, plus an extra £8 for anytime landline calls, making a total of £77 pm. I put this to the agent that a new customer would pay £77 for the same service with faster broadband, as opposed to the £101 that her colleague had offered me, so I would like to give 30 days notice of leaving. After further discussion she offered me £99 pm for the same package but with the faster broadband and also Sky Movies as well! I pointed out that I didn't need Sky Movies or faster broadband, what I wanted was to pay less for the package I already had, at which point she said she could only do it at £99 with the Sky Movies included, as that was how the packages work!
I then gave up and asked her to transfer me to cancellations as I needed to leave.

The Scottish lady on the cancellations line asked me why I wanted to leave, which I explained was all about the money and because I was unhappy to have to pay so much more than a new customer. She said she would look at it and eventually came back with £84 per month for an 18 month contract for exactly the same package as I am currently getting.

I accepted this offer - I probably could have could have got more, maybe an upgrade on the broadband from M200 to M350 if I had asked? But ultimately for £84 per month I am getting virtually the same as a new customer who would pay £77, and I am paying £52 per month less than the £136 I would otherwise be paying from 1st March.

It probably doesn't make me a 'top money-saver' but I feel reasonably happy with a saving of £52 a month and not having the hassle of changing provider!