Virgin broadband renewal

soolin

I have tried searching as I thought there was a thread about Virgin and negotiating deals at end of contract, but I can never seem to get search on MSE to work properly for me.

I just wondered what the latest position is with people trying to negotiate at the end of their contract.

My position is I have Gig 1 and am currently paying £45.50 pm., renewal is showing online at £42.75 a month- which surprised me as I've never had a lower offer before . On the basis of money saving I thought I'd try live chat to see if they could do better as new customers have the offer of £26.99 for the same deal. I got an agent who was obviously cut and pasting his welcome as it ran for lines and lines telling me what a brilliant customer I was and how much they value me- but seemed happy to just take my cancellation - no offer to see what could be done. I asked whether there were any offers if I decided not to go ahead with cancellation and was told they can do me an extra special deal of £64.50 for the same deal I'm currently on. I queried this and he said that the deal on my account is obviously a special today but would definitely be over £60 if I left it until later- he also denied that new customers can get a £26.99 deal .

I'm still several days of my date on which I need to give 30 days notice, so may try them by phone later - but I wondered what other people are getting as offers at the moment.

The days of companies caving in and offering retention deals seems to be long gone , I gave up everything but the basic £16 sky package as they offered no deals at all and in the 2 or 3 years since I cancelled have never come back with a single offer.

iniltous

As with most ISP’s it can be the luck of the draw , some are offered cracking deals (one on here recently was , if I remember correctly it was £22 for the VM 1Gb broadband and included Netflix ( with adds ) but that person was unimpressed, although they had an alternative offer from someone else (an alternative network) of £20 for 1Gb , they took the alternative network, others are not given any discount at all and Virgin tell them to take it or leave it , so it can and does vary enormously …..probably the best offer is if you serve notice to quit , and the retention department contact you although even this may not you get a killer deal .

Although not myself , friends recently contacted VM about a renewal offer which was basically pay the same as the previous deal but 24 month more , in their case a child of theirs had recently bought their own place not that far away , and took VM (the same package as the parents ) and it was half the price , my friend had to serve notice to quit to get any discount, and even then the new renewal offer although cheaper than the original quote was still 25% more expensive than the price the child had , but they took it anyway , in that case the alternatives were relatively slow (no FTTP ) , VM no doubt know what’s available in your area and the likelihood of you switching if the alternatives are unable to match VM for speed

I’d say check the alternatives, many still think Virgin are the only company with Gb speeds , they aren’t , there has been a massive FTTP rollout from Openreach and Alt Nets , so it’s more likely than not you have a realistic alternative, especially if you haven’t checked for a while .

soolin

I spoke to someone else and they have offered me the same price as I see online £42.75 and with Netflix added for the 24 month contract at £2 pm . I'm not sure about Netflix but for £2 a month I might give it a go and accept. It just irritates me to see that new customers are getting the same for considerably less.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071639#Comment_82071639

Presumably that includes TV then, if you're just looking for broadband find an alternative supplier, use the OTS to switch and ignore all future calls trying to change your mind. Do the same in 2 years time.

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071687#Comment_82071687

No TV, just Netflix through an app. I can't change, I have a lot of extra extenders etc supplied by Virgin, and despite opening a new email several years ago- my work refuse to use anything other than my Virgin one. They are also sending an engineer to see if they can improve my connection as they say it is under performing against expectation even with the new mini hubs they have supplied.

sheenas

I am with Hyperopic with a 1gb. Renewal price £40 but new customers price £26.99 (from another price comparison site). I just requested a switch and next day they were on the phone with a price match. Hyperopic have been very reliable and consistently fast, so I have stayed with them.

iniltous

VM 1Gb , if I were to join again (I had Virgin probably 6 years ago but have had FTTC since ) is £26.99 so £42.75 doesn’t seem very good ,but if you are unable or unwilling to move to another provider and don’t actually say you are quitting ( you can cancel the cancellation in the 30 day notice if you don’t really want to quit ) that may be the best you can do …..VM must love customers that will accept paying so much more than what a new customer gets ….if they couldn’t get within £5 a month of the new customer price personally I’d walk ,

As you have WiFi extenders supplied by Virgin , do you pay rental on them and if you do , how much ? , if you do pay something for them obviously the comparison to a new basic 1Gb VM customer for £26.99 changes .

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071723#Comment_82071723

The extenders are something else that has kept me with Virgin, they are like little mini hubs that I use in difficult rooms. I’m not charged for them at all as apparently I’m not receiving the speeds that are expected for my service.

I spoke to Virgin again about offers, but nothing was offered annd they were happy to process my cancellation. They did say they can see from their side that my service is not performing well. I thought it was OK since my last engineer visit about 6 weeks ago when he gave me these mini hubs . They are sending a new engineer Monday to see what can be done, apparently my service dropped out 113 times in the past 4 weeks. I’ve accepted the £44 renewal which includes Netflix .

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82072044#Comment_82072044

"apparently my service dropped out 113 times in the past 4 weeks. I’ve accepted the £44 renewal"

I'm sorry but that makes no sense whatsoever to me, it's a faulty service that they don't seem particularly bothered in fixing and you're happy to pay £20 a month more than you need to for it?

iniltous

Just because they were seemingly are happy to process you cancellation, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t subsequently contact you , offering a better deal to stay , and as stated if you (for example) gave 30 days notice , and hadn’t been contacted after 25 days , you can still cancel your cancellation and be no worse off …

.TBH , they probably now know you are not a serious switcher , you didn’t use a switching service, so they know you didn’t sign up already with an alternative, they have had several conversations with you and you never at any point said you are quitting and now have agreed to renew at an awful renewal price (compared to new customers) so the fact is now , anything short if actually leaving , they know you are bluffing, and no need to make any real offer to stay , I’m afraid you are the classic example of how not to negotiate, hopefully they sort out your dodgy service, it’s remarkable that you even considered staying if your expensive Virgin service isn’t even working properly.

Hope this doesn’t come across as harsh , customer inertia is something they all rely on , and if you only have fast speeds from Virgin as no other providers can give you the speed you need , they know they have you over a barrel, as they also know what’s available in your area …but did you even check ?

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82072243#Comment_82072243

Based on a USwitch (I think it was them) fed speed test and my postcode they said Virgin were able to offer the best speeds for me at my address but others were cheaper and for the same service I could pay £10-£15 less but might have to use an add on extender as these are at an extra cost.

My neighbour left Virgin and switched to Sky 2 or 3 years ago as we all got an offer with our then TV services, but has since gone back to Virgin as she works from home and needed a service which could guarantee speeds to her study which was then at the top of the house (hers is third floor my study is 2nd), the hub is on ground floor.

I kept notes when I did the uswitch thing and it said for me Sky was next best for 150mpbs at £24, I'm currently on Gig 1 with Virgin., they also came up with EE Full Fibre 1.6Gbps at £33.99.

Although my internet apparently drops out it is not noticeable when I'm working, all I get is an occasional 'your internet is restored' but I don't lose data and if I'm on Teams or a similar service we use I don't drop out. This has improved significantly since the mini hub things were installed.