Virgin Media retention deals (post your haggling successes)

I just called Virgin to tell them I was moving after the price increase
[£30p/m, 50mb, Unlimited, No line rental]
The price increase would've taken us up to £33p/m.

The guy was so quick to give Offer #1
"Ok, we’ll take you down to £25.25 a month - including the price increase.

I said, That’s still £300 for the year and I’m looking at £219 for the year. He came back with

Pushback #1 "Ok, but BT won’t guarantee you their speed, ask them, it's only 17mb" I said that’s fine, I don’t need the speed you guys guarantee, what BT guarantee us would be enough for our needs.

Offer #2
He says "OK - final (read: penultimate) thing I could offer is £21.25 for the first 6 months, then £25.25 for the following 6 months (that’s £276 for the year)"
I said that’s still not enough of a decrease for me with the £219 offer on the table.

Offer #3
He then says "I'll give you a month free too, actually a £30 credit on the account"
So final offer is £21.25*6 + £25.25*6 - 30 = £127.50 + £151.50 -30 = £249.50 for the year.

I say - "yeah, that’ll do".

So from That piece of paper coming through the door saying it’ll be £33 a month it's now down to an average of £249.50/12 = £20.80 per month.

The icing on the cake is that the £25.25 only ends 18 months from now, saving an additional 6 months of the regular (pre price increase) £30p/m. So that's an extra £25.50 saved.

Total cost over 12 months is £249.50
Total cost over 18 months is £401
Total cost over 18 months at £33p/m would have been £594.

Well worth a phone call!

I hope this helps someone to save a few pounds too.

note: I didn't go for BT even though it's cheaper because it is a little slower, you don't get wifi at tube stations with BT and because I didn't want the hassle of changing ISP.

thebananapimp wrote: »

I just called Virgin to tell them I was moving after the price increase
[£30p/m, 50mb, Unlimited, No line rental]
The price increase would've taken us up to £33p/m.

The guy was so quick to give Offer #1
"Ok, we’ll take you down to £25.25 a month - including the price increase.

I said, That’s still £300 for the year and I’m looking at £219 for the year. He came back with

Pushback #1 "Ok, but BT won’t guarantee you their speed, ask them, it's only 17mb" I said that’s fine, I don’t need the speed you guys guarantee, what BT guarantee us would be enough for our needs.

Offer #2
He says "OK - final (read: penultimate) thing I could offer is £21.25 for the first 6 months, then £25.25 for the following 6 months (that’s £276 for the year)"
I said that’s still not enough of a decrease for me with the £219 offer on the table.

Offer #3
He then says "I'll give you a month free too, actually a £30 credit on the account"
So final offer is £21.25*6 + £25.25*6 - 30 = £127.50 + £151.50 -30 = £249.50 for the year.

I say - "yeah, that’ll do".

So from That piece of paper coming through the door saying it’ll be £33 a month it's now down to an average of £249.50/12 = £20.80 per month.

The icing on the cake is that the £25.25 only ends 18 months from now, saving an additional 6 months of the regular (pre price increase) £30p/m. So that's an extra £25.50 saved.

Total cost over 12 months is £249.50
Total cost over 18 months is £401
Total cost over 18 months at £33p/m would have been £594.

Well worth a phone call!

I hope this helps someone to save a few pounds too.

note: I didn't go for BT even though it's cheaper because it is a little slower, you don't get wifi at tube stations with BT and because I didn't want the hassle of changing ISP.

That's strange, got offered that when I rang them up, in other words they didn't ring me so was I talking to retentions? If I was that's that then and no call will come my way

I recently contacted Virgin Media and explained I was going to leave them because of a price hike. Their CS representative offered me a new 12 month contract for the same services at a substantially reduced cost. I accepted this immediately, thus making an enforceable verbal contract.

Virgin are now saying that the price offered is applicable for nine months only and after this it rises to almost the amount of the previous contract. That is not what was agreed. Virgin say all they can do is cancel the contract I agreed and offer me the revised one. I have told Virgin Media that I expect the terms of the contract I agreed to be honoured. The fact that the CS representative may have made an error in the offer is not relevant as it is not an error which I knew or ought to have known about.

Despite promises that a manger would call me, I received no further communication. In light of this I emailed the CEO of Virgin and received a response from Virgin explaining that the CEO was unable to deal with this personally and that it had been passed to a member of his team. Someone would be in touch with me shortly to discuss matters.

Of course, I have received no further contact.

I have advised Virgin and the CEO that I will readily make a small claim against Virgin to which I cannot see what defence they will have. Virgin cannot unilaterally vary the terms of the contract, nor can they cancel it.

I am surprised that Virgin have not realised that they have no defence and can only conclude that this is brinkmanship on their part; perhaps they want to see how serious I am or are hoping I will roll over and accept their attempt to vary the contract. If so, they will get a rude awakening.

Has anyone else had experience of Virgin not honouring what they are legally obliged to honour or of involving the CEO's department?

Thanks for your response, den169.

den169 wrote: »

.Iv'e even had a deal emailed to me that it would be that price till i leave them and that lasted 12 months they just said the she had no authority to do that.

May I ask, did you simply accept what Virgin Media said?

In those circumstances I would have held Virgin Media to that term. If they say "she had no authority to do that" it changes nothing. Virgin are vicariously liable through their agent and you made a contract with her which is enforceable.

I don't believe I am wasting my time as I fully intend to force Virgin Media to honour what they have agreed to; the law does not permit them to cancel or vary the contract unilaterally.

Aristotle67 wrote: »

I recently contacted Virgin Media and explained I was going to leave them because of a price hike. Their CS representative offered me a new 12 month contract for the same services at a substantially reduced cost. I accepted this immediately, thus making an enforceable verbal contract.

Virgin are now saying that the price offered is applicable for nine months only and after this it rises to almost the amount of the previous contract. That is not what was agreed. Virgin say all they can do is cancel the contract I agreed and offer me the revised one. I have told Virgin Media that I expect the terms of the contract I agreed to be honoured. The fact that the CS representative may have made an error in the offer is not relevant as it is not an error which I knew or ought to have known about.

Despite promises that a manger would call me, I received no further communication. In light of this I emailed the CEO of Virgin and received a response from Virgin explaining that the CEO was unable to deal with this personally and that it had been passed to a member of his team. Someone would be in touch with me shortly to discuss matters.

Of course, I have received no further contact.

I have advised Virgin and the CEO that I will readily make a small claim against Virgin to which I cannot see what defence they will have. Virgin cannot unilaterally vary the terms of the contract, nor can they cancel it.

I am surprised that Virgin have not realised that they have no defence and can only conclude that this is brinkmanship on their part; perhaps they want to see how serious I am or are hoping I will roll over and accept their attempt to vary the contract. If so, they will get a rude awakening.

Has anyone else had experience of Virgin not honouring what they are legally obliged to honour or of involving the CEO's department?

I see this happening all the time and going to a small claims court is just a complete waste of your time and money.

The law allows for mistakes and CISAS can't do anything either to enforce Virgin to give you the contract for 12 months.

Virgin will just apologise and offer to revert you back to your old deal free of charge, meaning your financially not out of pocket or restricted to a contract.