Alternative to Virgin Media

BexTech

dazco wrote: »

I am not argueing here, I am asking for help really.

I have been with virgin for ages, and want my bill to go down. I have phoned about 8 times and talked to different people, they will simply not give me a deal on a tv xl, v+, extra box, 20 meg BB and land line.

They will not go below 80 quid. I have cancelled, they know they cannot get in touch with me to try and get me back on and they still let me go. Problem is, Sky are giving me no joy either.

Strange, you sure you went straight through to retentions / cancellations department from the menu and not through to Customer Services?

I got my deal this way, friends and relatives got their deals this way, only 3 days ago did my other friend get her deal this way, she got a good deal for what she wanted, unlimited phone, large broadband and large TV for £19,she had to agree to have phone with Virgin as she was with BT for line rental, but calls through Primus & 18185, Virgin are even fitting the phone line for free (which they did for me too and free extension - though I got free phone line rental, free calls package, free caller display discounted broadband and TV).


Wonder if the persons you spoke to were having a bad day, maybe too many people had called in for deals and they didn't want to give any more out that day? I honestly don't know. All I know is others are still getting these deals.

BexTech

amaseal wrote: »

My Virgin bill went up - they have offered me a £35.50 deal but as I don't use the TV channels I have arranged for a BT connection. I got reconnected at half price.
I need a good BB deal. My son does lots of gaming tho I would rather he didn't. I'm wary of signing a deal that lands me a big bill if we use too many Gb.
BT has an unlimited Option but it is expensive. How can I tell what we use now?

Most unlimited broadband offerings are far from unlimited, they have a Fair Usage Policy, on ADSL this is usually around 40 or 50GB per month, often lower.

On cable broadband there is no limit on the amount you download, you can download hundreds of GBs per month, the only restriction is during the hours of 16:00 - 21:00 where if you download over a set limit you speed is slowed down for the next five hours - this can only happen once per day and only triggered during those hours.

With ADSL (broadband over a BT line) you do have to pay decent money to get a decent broadband service, paying a low price does just give you an often sluggish service or a low download limit.

Maybe look at O2 broadband or BE Broadband.

opportunity_cost

amaseal wrote: »

How can I tell what we use now?

Sticky: How to check your Internet usage (bandwidth)

RGP

dazco wrote: »

I am not argueing here, I am asking for help really.

I have been with virgin for ages, and want my bill to go down. I have phoned about 8 times and talked to different people, they will simply not give me a deal on a tv xl, v+, extra box, 20 meg BB and land line.

They will not go below 80 quid. I have cancelled, they know they cannot get in touch with me to try and get me back on and they still let me go. Problem is, Sky are giving me no joy either.

We had the same problem Dazco. It can come back and shoot you in the foot when you try to cancel and they simply wont offer you anything. Anyway I'm still shopping around, and in the meantime I can't fault the broadband connection I get from Virgin. It never cuts out, and has remained trouble free for as long as I can remember... just a shame it's such a rip-off.

bordercars

tonyhague wrote: »

sky put their own LLU kit in some exchanges (70-80% of them) this allows them to run the service much cheaper, supposedly subsidided by the tv subs.

I pay sky £21 beause the tv signal is so poor cant get freeview , tried for this all in package not available so i am subsidising the cheap sky deal, soon as i can get a decent and reliable tv signal sky are gone

BexTech

bordercars wrote: »

I pay sky £21 because the TVsignal is so poor cant get Freeview , tried for this all in package not available so I am subsidising the cheap sky deal, soon as I can get a decent and reliable TV signal sky are gone

You do realise there are around 200 FREE TV channels and over 80 FREE radio stations on satellite. So you can cancel your Sky subscription and you'll still have access to these 200 channels that are free to air (requires no card - obviously therefore no subscription) or the handful that are free to view (requires the viewing card - no subscription - just the card).

BBC, ITV, Ch4, Film4 (shortly More4 and E4) Zone TV, True Movies, News Channels and more are free channels.

RGP

BexTech wrote: »

You do realise there are around 200 FREE TV channels and over 80 FREE radio stations on satellite. So you can cancel your Sky subscription and you'll still have access to these 200 channels that are free to air (requires no card - obviously therefore no subscription) or the handful that are free to view (requires the viewing card - no subscription - just the card).

BBC, ITV, Ch4, Film4 (shortly More4 and E4) Zone TV, True Movies, News Channels and more are free channels.

BexTech is correct. Although at present I'm still with Virgin, a relative has the Sky Package. He found he didn't view all the channels so dropped down to the freeview through the sky box. I was surpirsed how many channels were still available. I'm looking at the BT broadband offer that comes with the free TV deal, as I can't have Sky where I am without a ridiculously large aerial to reach over the roof of our neighbours house.

Sue1234

I have the same problem. I live in a new property with cable and no BT line. I am currently with Virgin Media but would like to know if there is an alternative. I pay £45 per month for Broadband and telephone - I only make a few land line calls. I do not use the TV package. Is this a monopoly or is there an alternative?

steveE2

A new thread would have been better than one 3 years old where the information may well be out of date.
Anyway it's not a monopoly as there are plenty of other providers available.
Check on http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search to see who are at your exchange.
Currently BT are offering line installation free when taken with phone and broadband subject to 18mth minimum contract.

macman

There is no other cable provider than VM. if you don't want to use them, then installing a BT line to get ADSL broadband is the only alternative.