Difficulties with Virgin - alternative options help please

ss2020jd

My mum has gone into a care home following my stepfather’s death and then a fall and I am trying to find a solution to reduce the price of her monthly package which is a £73 per month just for Virgin broadband and phone line! She is out of contract which is good as we will be hopefully putting the house on the market soon so do not want to be tied in.

I spoke to someone last week at Virgin who said they could remove the talk anytime and talk international package and reduce it by £7 per month but because she was in a care home I would have to speak to a different department but confirmed removing services would not result in a recontract. This bereavement and critical illness department said I would have to put the bill in my name but they couldn’t offer any less either. I asked to speak to a manager and they said if I wasn’t happy they could raise a complaint and get someone to call me back. 

Of course, nobody did and now when I call back today I get told that there was no complaint raised on the account and if I remove any package/service it will automatically recontract!

it looks like I am completely stuck. The only thing they said was that I would only need to give a day’s notice to cancel because it is under the critical illness team. I do need the broadband for the Wi-Fi for the alarm system and know there are monthly no contract broadband services but it’s hard to find one online. Honestly I really can’t believe this is the only option with Virgin but everyone I speak to says a different thing. If anyone has any advice or experience or alternative options on dealing with this I would be so grateful as I am really tearing my hair out how to deal with them. 

Many thanks in advance for any replies. 

Robin9

Could you not simply give the one days notice they have suggested -  then start afresh with someone else with a 18 month contract.


Edit

www.moneysavingexpert.com/compare-broadband-deals/

QrizB

If the house is unoccupied, do you need any sort of phone/bb service at all?

You could just terminate it?

littleboo

Cancel Virgin and get a 4g/5g router, assuming there is coverage. When the house is sold you still have the router to reuse or sell on

ss2020jd

Hi thanks everyone for the replies. 

I will definitely look into 4G/5G router option @littleboo as I think there is 4G there. just need to make sure that will be enough for the alarm to run on.

@QrizB I need Wi-Fi for the alarm otherwise I would just cancel now especially since just got notification it’s going up by 8.8%! 

@Robin9  ideally we will have the house sold within the next 9 months so an 18month contract would be too long.

I think Now TV do £20pm 1 Month notice broadband but £70 set up cost - it’s still cheaper than almost £80 per month though! 
 

If I can ascertain if the alarm works on the 4G router that would be the best/easier option I think. 

QrizB

If you're looking for a 4G/5G router, my son's away at college and is using a cheapish eBay ZTE MF286D (as recommended here) with a TalkMobile SIM. His whole flat are sharing the connection and are happy with it.

JSmithy45AD

ss2020jd said:

Hi thanks everyone for the replies. 

I will definitely look into 4G/5G router option @littleboo as I think there is 4G there. just need to make sure that will be enough for the alarm to run on.

@QrizB I need Wi-Fi for the alarm otherwise I would just cancel now especially since just got notification it’s going up by 8.8%! 

@Robin9  ideally we will have the house sold within the next 9 months so an 18month contract would be too long.

I think Now TV do £20pm 1 Month notice broadband but £70 set up cost - it’s still cheaper than almost £80 per month though! 
 

If I can ascertain if the alarm works on the 4G router that would be the best/easier option I think. 

Cancel Virgin now. Do you really need the alarm system for a short period if selling the house? If so then go with Nowtv on the monthly rolling, the costs are immaterial really.