The great "what can you blag by threatening to leave' hunt

sharon59

I got the same recently-l wanted to review my package and straight away was offered the deal-been with them since 2002 so they claim l am a valued customer-so will try again when this is up!

keithtalex

I had a flyer through post recently stating new customers could get cable internet access for £11.50 month for the first year then £16 thereafter. As i have been paying them £25 month for ages I gave them a ring. I did not have to threaten to leave Virgin. They were prepared to lower my charge. It took a little haggling to get it down to the flyer charges stated and remain a (large user). In the end i just said If you wont give me the same price as on the flyer you can come and take out the modem and disconnect me and then i will start up as a new customer so you can come back next day to reinstall the modem. This worked.If you do this and you are currently on 4meg connection speed (large) , dont be prepared to go slower. They did try it on and offer me 2 Meg for the flyer price. By the way, do not be tempted to drop to 2 Meg as you will become a (medium) user and you wont get the free increase to 10 Meg later this year. Hope this helps. Its saved me over £150 this comming year. Keith:j

skipitchski

We've been with Pipex for several years now and towards end of 2006 decided to change provider as whilst we were happy with them, the cost was too much and we wanted to upgrade the line to a faster speed (we were on a 512Kbps line). We had wanted to go onto their Anytime package which included phonecalls but kept getting the run around - first we were told it wasn't available to existing customers. Next we were told it was going to be available in a months time so we could have it if we signed up to another 12 month contract and then upgraded. At this point we started getting more into the moneysaving way of things and said no chance! We did the research on alternative providers and in the end I just phoned up and asked for my MAC code please... The magic words I guess, as I was put through to the 'technical department' who, after detailing for them who I was going to and for what money (all genuine - was quite prepared to move) delighted in telling me they were on this occasion able to offer a special deal of £9.99 per month for a 3Mb line with a 2Gb cap and Anytime home phone calls (i.e. 24 hours a day 'free' landline calls) included. I had to ask the guy to confirm what they were offering several times over but of course I took the offer up! My only problem now is that surprise surprise, service has gone downhill (especially on the billing front but don't get me started!) and I would like to change provider but I can't find a deal that matches this one!! (Any pointers gratefully received )

lynneinjapan

Had been paying £18 for 2Mbps with Virgin broadband (which incidentally had mysteriously gone up from £17.99 with the change from Telewest to Virgin - not a big difference but all those pennies would add up!) and decided to change to O2's £7.50 for 8Mbps deal (as I bought into the Cellnet Pay Upfront for Life deal in 2001 and so now have an O2 contract that costs me nothing but qualifies as Pay Monthly). So I called Virgin Media to cancel and they immediately offered to drop the price to £10 a month. Still couldn't match the O2 deal though.

A colleague told me that he threatened to leave Virgin for (I think) Talk Talk, and now he gets phone line rental, unlimited free anytime calls, broadband and a basic TV package (Freeview equivalent I think) for £20 a month.

Nuck_the_king

I have been with Lloyds TSB for about 10 years and opted for their Platinum £15 a month service; usual things: mobile insurance, AA cover, travel insurance etc etc.

I knew it wasn't the absolute cheapest, but it was worth it for me having everything in one place, with one phone number to call when there was a problem.

Anyway, did the sums and worked out that I could get the benefits I used (because inevitably some are irrelevant) for a little bit less money; and that I would get a marginally bigger interest rate by moving my current account.

Called up (obviously using saynoto0870.co.uk, not their 0845 number) to cancel. The upshot? They offered me the whole service free for a year; saved me £180.

As the other posters have said; if they give you what you want (or actually in this case much more than I expected), then stick with them; if they don't move somewhere else. It does seem that it is much easier to get freebies once you have absolutely decided to cancel whatever it is you want to save money on....!

redram52

I've been with AOL on nearly as long as they've been going but I've never had many problems since going broadband, no limits, good speed etc. Used to be 0800 now 0845, better that than 0870 or any 09's. A few years ago decided 17.99 was too dear, better offers on tv etc. Rang, said the magic words cancel or better it. "We can't" so they put me through to "the one who can". Got £9.99/month for life, 2mb unlimited and a free router. Where's that offer" I asked, "We don't advertise this it's just for us to offer customers who want to leave". Good at the time, still good now for non cabled area. Mum was on dial up paying £6/month! Rang last week told them give her my offer or bye bye. Said she can have unlimited dial up for £9.99. No Way, Byeee. Got put through to the one who can and they did. Exact same as me, router, £9.99 for life, best 8mb speed, no download limits. Stuff arrived in 10 days and set it up in under a hour. I should be getting a referal fee (£50 I think) as well. Done and dusted. I know there's home phone offers etc with other providers but we are tied in with BT for that and we didn't want to change email addresses. I Now need to call them and blag the 8mb speed for me!

DutchGirl

Two years running I have phoned the AA to cancel my Breakdown cover. Two years running they have come back to me with an offer of approx 30% off the original price they offered to renew.

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lynnexxxo

I phoned to cancel my MBNA sonycard (taken out to get a free mp3 player- thanks Martin) and they enticed me you stay by offering me a balance transfer 0% for ten months for 1% fee.

Makes stoozing worthwhile.

PS also have good credit rating.

goingtothedogs

I wanted to leave D&A contact lenses and they offered to let me have my contact lenses for free for 1 month - worth about £30. I've actually done this a couple of times and both times they let me have a free month.

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TCJYork

My Dad recently phoned AOL and asked to cancel the contract as new customers seemed to be getting much better deals. They're sending out a free laptop!?!!