Virgin Media - Struggling To Cancel Without Penalty/Notice Period

JohnWstr

I've come to the end of my 18 month deal with Virgin Media. I've been with them for 20 years plus and for the first time I'm unable to negotiate a deal. I want to leave as the price is raising from it's discounted cost of £78 to £239 per month.

I received the e mail notifying me that my contact was coming to an end on April 14th, the contract ends May 15th. My understanding was (perhaps incorrect) that I could terminate the contract without penalty if I was within a month of my contract end date. Having tried to negotiate a deal a couple of times (and failing) I've told them I want to cancel. They are insistent that there is a minimum 30 day notice period to terminate, so even if I instruct them now, I will be charged for 13 days at the new price after my contract has ended which equates to £104.

I feel this is unreasonable, as the only way I could have cancelled without any penalty was to contact them the same day the e mail arrived. They have said the 30 days notice need not apply if the new provider carries out the switch. Unfortunately there is no FTTP, FTTC or 5G service in my area (Middlesbrough TS5) so my only choice is Starlink Satellite broadband and they do not participate in the switching service.

Do I have any option other than to bend over and take it?

la531983

Yup pretty standard, always contact these companies as soon as you are literally able to.

Ayr_Rage

You'll have to suck it up.

Your contract end date would have been visible in your online account the day you agreed it 18 months ago along with a link to their Ts and Cs regarding notice periods.

iniltous

If you just quit then 30 days notice does take you into the first ‘out of contract’ month , but how on earth can that be £239 per month ( and you liable for approximately half of that if you give notice today ) , presumably you must take every conceivable option that Virgin offer for the bill to be well over £200 , were buying everything ? (unlimited phone , movies , all sports , entertainment and the fastest broadband they have ? ) in a way you have done pretty well to get £239 discounted to £78 for as long as you have .

TBH , it’s almost certain that FTTC is available, TS5 is pretty urban (Linthorpe/Acklam) and if Openreach FTTP not available , City Fibre may be available they are in many parts of Middlesbrough , presumably it’s the speed of FTTC you feel is not good enough rather than it not being available at all .

FWIW , 40 to 50 Mb is perfectly adequate for most domestic households , capable of 2 UHD streams simultaneously, or 9-10 HD streams.

victor2

Just give your notice now, and suck up the extra charges if you do actually go through with it.

More often than not, retentions will call you with a reasonable deal, which will continue your service without any excessive cost in-between.

Detail_Merchant

My understanding is that one touch switch does not allow the losing provider to charge for the period beyond the switch.

So if you sign up with a new provider (e.g. an OpenReach based one or some altnet) and they can get you running on or soon after 15 May, you shouldn't have to pay much or anything to VM at the sky high rate.
If they switch you a bit before 15 May then you may have to pay some early termination charge, but it should be proportional to the amount of time before the end of your contract, so hopefully not very much.

Note, OTS applies to broadband and phone, not TV. I don't think VM can provide TV on its own, so you should be ok, but worth keeping an eye on. And just because this is how OTS should work doesn't guarantee that it will.

JohnWstr

Thanks all.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81980336#Comment_81980336

Yes - I never really considered the notice period as I'd no intention of leaving previously (no other choices of provider here) but that's my bad. They e mailed me and agreed to settle at a final bill of £50 if I want.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81980372#Comment_81980372

Yes the package was loaded, but that's how VM give the best price - load you with everything you don't need. It would actually have been more expensive to get what we want.

FTTC, FTTP 100% unavailable. 3 exchanges in Middlesbrough that cover TS5 and my immediate area. On the exchange we are connected to there's no FTTC or FTTP in our area. New houses a few metres away have FTTP from my exchange, existing houses 100 metres in the other direction using Linthorpe exchange have FTTC. Virgin Media is the only option for me.

Broadband only with VM is £39, £47, £51 per month (M350, M500, Gig1) for an existing customer. My choices now are: A) Disconnect at a cost of £50, take Starlink for 6 months at £25 (£35 after), then go back as a new customer to get VM at about £25 on a deal. Or B) When they call later to confirm disconnection, go with M350 at £39 for 24 months. Option B saves me installing the Starlink.

Detail_Merchant

Is there another adult in the household who would be willing to be a 'new' Virgin Media customer?
That could be a way to avoid the Starlink 6 months interlude.

iniltous

In the past , housing very near their serving exchange (Chipchase Road for example for Linthorpe Exchange ) could be served directly from the exchange building, called an E/O line ( exchange only ) as these lines didn’t run through a cabinet (the green boxes you see on the footpath ) ‘fibre to the cabinet’ could not be supplied ( as no cabinet) although because these lines generally were very short (often a only few 10’s of metres from the exchange) the ADSL speeds were good 17-22Mb (good for ADSL) , most E/O lines were ‘fixed’ by installation of a new cabinet just for FTTC (next to the exchange building ) and diverting the E/O lines though it , so when was the last time you checked ,if it were a few years ago , it may be that things have changed , obviously if you recently checked and only speeds around 20Mb then presumably you are on an E/O line …this is the best checker to use

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

FWIW , a friend of mine recently renewed with VM , out of contract and the price offed by VM was poor in relation to his son who had moved into his own place (in the same general area ) out and took out the same package as a new customer….initially VM wouldn’t budge much on price , but did eventually get reasonably close to a new customer deal , he did need to serve notice to get that deal though .

saajan_12

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6666080/virgin-media-struggling-to-cancel-without-penalty-notice-period

I feel this is unreasonable, as the only way I could have cancelled without any penalty was to contact them the same day the e mail arrived. 

These days I find the best way is indeed to cancel the same day and then let retentions call me back with an offer rather than negotiate first and then cancel. The cancellations team threaten that its risky because they may not be able to stop the cancellation request which may result in an interruption but retentions folk assure me its fine and I've never had any issues.

victor2

When I last called them to discuss renewal, just under 2 months from the end of my contract, I declined their offer and they said I could give advance notice of termination when my contract ends. I confirmed verbally that that was what she said, and she went away to look if she could make a better offer. She did, and I accepted a new 24 month contract at the new rate with immediate effect, which suited me as it was cheaper than my existing contract.