Virgin Media haggling

Alzi

Alzi

Well-known member
Like pulling teeth!

My contact ends next month and they were looking to bump my package up by £40. Via Whatapp and the initial phone call they best possible price they could offer me was £12 more pcm than i'm already paying plus an increase in April in line with inflation!

I've requested to leave in 30 days when my contract ends. Most people tend to get calls from their retentions team after this so fingers crossed as to be honest where I live there isn't really any competition as Virgin are currently the only provider offering Fibre Broadband which I need for work.

Anyone had any success recently? If they don't come back with a better offer is there anything to stop my partner signing up in her own right and getting the introductory deal?
 
Theres been a few threads on here so have a quick search and you will find loads of info which will help. Briefly from me though, I was in the same boat. Just happened to see a Virgin stall in a town centre so had a quick chat with the lad. He said he used to work in retentions and told me to cancel and they had to ring you back within 3 days offering a better deal (which you could still haggle with). They rang me back within 24 hours and my deal went from around £150 to £52 (I think its at now). The issue I had was the broadband. A lot of the companies, Sky included, mentioned on here, don't offer fibre optic BB in my area so I was pretty stuck. I think Virgin wanted around £50 a month just for the broadband on its own so the deal offered made sense for me.

Good luck though.
 
Alzi said:
Like pulling teeth!

My contact ends next month and they were looking to bump my package up by £40. Via Whatapp and the initial phone call they best possible price they could offer me was £12 more pcm than i'm already paying plus an increase in April in line with inflation!

I've requested to leave in 30 days when my contract ends. Most people tend to get calls from their retentions team after this so fingers crossed as to be honest where I live there isn't really any competition as Virgin are currently the only provider offering Fibre Broadband which I need for work.

Anyone had any success recently? If they don't come back with a better offer is there anything to stop my partner signing up in her own right and getting the introductory deal?
Click to expand...

Mine comes out on Saturday, I've had one contact from the retention team and it was still more than what I am paying now.

The trouble is, I was with Volt and they are willing to let you have it for Vault prices but the O2 is extra and mine is presently £29.32. So in truth, I would be paying £30 more for the same package.

I don't think I will get another contact from Virgin now but I will get the wife to ring up on Saturday as a new customer. I will have to send all their equipment back and they will have to send the wife some brand new equipment, it just seems mad.

I've cancelled O2 and can get 60GB from Tesco for £13 plus they give you a £20 gift voucher and the Tesco points on each monthly payment. The beauty of it is, O2 host Tesco.

We are also considering not renewing the TV at all. I went through the cinema last night and there is nothing I would watch and can honestly say in the 18 months I have been with them you count on one hand the number of movies I've watched. I don't do box sets.

Edit: I am presently paying £45 for the TV and broadband Volt package and £29.32 for my O2 phone.
 
Alzi said:
Like pulling teeth!

My contact ends next month and they were looking to bump my package up by £40. Via Whatapp and the initial phone call they best possible price they could offer me was £12 more pcm than i'm already paying plus an increase in April in line with inflation!

I've requested to leave in 30 days when my contract ends. Most people tend to get calls from their retentions team after this so fingers crossed as to be honest where I live there isn't really any competition as Virgin are currently the only provider offering Fibre Broadband which I need for work.

Anyone had any success recently? If they don't come back with a better offer is there anything to stop my partner signing up in her own right and getting the introductory deal?
Click to expand...
They will get back to you in the next few days. Just be patient with it. I got a cracking deal from the outbound team when they called me back.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Mine comes out on Saturday, I've had one contact from the retention team and it was still more than what I am paying now.

The trouble is, I was with Volt and they are willing to let you have it for Vault prices but the O2 is extra and mine is presently £29.32. So in truth, I would be paying £30 more for the same package.

I don't think I will get another contact from Virgin now but I will get the wife to ring up on Saturday as a new customer. I will have to send all their equipment back and they will have to send the wife some brand new equipment, it just seems mad.

I've cancelled O2 and can get 60GB from Tesco for £13 plus they give you a £20 gift voucher and the Tesco points on each monthly payment. The beauty of it is, O2 host Tesco.

We are also considering not renewing the TV at all. I went through the cinema last night and there is nothing I would watch and can honestly say in the 18 months I have been with them you count on one hand the number of movies I've watched. I don't do box sets.
Click to expand...
Make sure to go via TopCashback or Quidco, usually a big boost via them especially bigger packages
 
Alzi said:
Like pulling teeth!

My contact ends next month and they were looking to bump my package up by £40. Via Whatapp and the initial phone call they best possible price they could offer me was £12 more pcm than i'm already paying plus an increase in April in line with inflation!

I've requested to leave in 30 days when my contract ends. Most people tend to get calls from their retentions team after this so fingers crossed as to be honest where I live there isn't really any competition as Virgin are currently the only provider offering Fibre Broadband which I need for work.

Anyone had any success recently? If they don't come back with a better offer is there anything to stop my partner signing up in her own right and getting the introductory deal?
Click to expand...
Where do you live? There are a number of fibre networks being installed around Teesside to compete with Virgin which are both faster and cheaper. £50 per month for 2.3Gbps is available where I live now. Virgin won't touch that speed for a while and certainly not at that price. It's worth checking the cityfibre and youfibre websites to see if or when they're installing in your area if they're not already there.
 
SilentProf said:
Where do you live? There are a number of fibre networks being installed around Teesside to compete with Virgin which are both faster and cheaper. £50 per month for 2.3Gbps is available where I live now. Virgin won't touch that speed for a while and certainly not at that price. It's worth checking the cityfibre and youfibre websites to see if or when they're installing in your area if they're not already there.
Click to expand...
South Shields. No other options here yet sadly. City Fibre by end of next year I think.
 
Cancel it and place an order elswhere. From past experience they normally get their act together when they see a port request to move your home tele number (assuming you have one).
I do this religiously playing off Sky and Virgin. Taking full advantage of the contract cooling off period. Its a bit like 'Fergy time' for a late winner.
I lao give them poor customer service reviews in response to email feedback requests. Seems to motivate them even more.
 
We got an upgrade on our package from 600mb to 1gb internet for £2.50 extra a month for 18 month when we tried to cancel our contract
 
Alzi said:
Like pulling teeth!

My contact ends next month and they were looking to bump my package up by £40. Via Whatapp and the initial phone call they best possible price they could offer me was £12 more pcm than i'm already paying plus an increase in April in line with inflation!

I've requested to leave in 30 days when my contract ends. Most people tend to get calls from their retentions team after this so fingers crossed as to be honest where I live there isn't really any competition as Virgin are currently the only provider offering Fibre Broadband which I need for work.

Anyone had any success recently? If they don't come back with a better offer is there anything to stop my partner signing up in her own right and getting the introductory deal?
Click to expand...
We were paying £36/month with Virgin, after a long long long wait on phone to them they reduced bill to £32/month, told em we were cancelling and going with youfibre for a better speed at £28/month. On the day youfibre were doing installation, we got a call off Virgin saying they would reduce bill to £26. Told them they were too late and why not just offer us a good price in first place instead, annoys me when firms do this ploy, feels like thy're trying to rip you off. My advice is to say you're cancelling and hold tight until they come crawling back with a cheaper offer.
 
breakthewallsdown said:
We got an upgrade on our package from 600mb to 1gb internet for £2.50 extra a month for 18 month when we tried to cancel our contract
Click to expand...
Expect an increase of RPI + 3.9% in April. At the current RPI that’s 11.8%. It’s built in to all new contracts so there’s no get out clause these days.

Annual Price Change | Virgin Media

We adjust our prices based on the UK government’s Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation. RPI measures the rate of inflation using representative sample of goods and services purchased by typical UK households.
www.virginmedia.com www.virginmedia.com
 
Borodave62 said:
We were paying £36/month with Virgin, after a long long long wait on phone to them they reduced bill to £32/month, told em we were cancelling and going with youfibre for a better speed at £28/month. On the day youfibre were doing installation, we got a call off Virgin saying they would reduce bill to £26. Told them they were too late and why not just offer us a good price in first place instead, annoys me when firms do this ploy, feels like thy're trying to rip you off. My advice is to say you're cancelling and hold tight until they come crawling back with a cheaper offer.
Click to expand...
They'll be different teams and they'll all have targets

They will have data from hundreds of thousands of cancellation calls

Some will be told by CS the bill is the bill and they'll grumble and just go away. Some will want to speak to retentions and cancel - if your account isn't worth anything to them cs may just cancel

If put through to retentions then depending on the value of your account they can offer you so much but they're rated on what they get you to accept so they don't steam in with the best deal, and even better if they can save money for you by reducing content rather than offering you more or the same for less.

If they can't get you to agree then they'll cancel but if you're opted into marketing there is a second like outbound retentions that rings you, again data will show that lot of people are bluffing and will either cancel the cancellation themselves by this point or take a knock down deal so it's an annoying dance to dance to but you have to do it, as otherwise might as well just give everyone the cheapest deal when they ring up, which would cost a fortune.

SilentProf said:
Expect an increase of RPI + 3.9% in April. At the current RPI that’s 11.8%. It’s built in to all new contracts so there’s no get out clause these days.

Annual Price Change | Virgin Media

We adjust our prices based on the UK government’s Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation. RPI measures the rate of inflation using representative sample of goods and services purchased by typical UK households.
www.virginmedia.com www.virginmedia.com
Click to expand...
Yep, virgin used to be great because you could end your contract any time they increased the price which was great for bargaining but now that's all built in and it's rpi plus the 3.9% as you say which is going to lead to big increases for those on higher packages
 
The retention team called me today and offered me £20 less pcm than their “very best” offer yesterday.

I imagine I could have played hard ball a bit more but was happy enough with that deal and couldn’t face wasting more time on it!

Hopefully we will have more options in our area in 18 months otherwise we will have the same performance I imagine.
 
Our contract runs out in April. Desperate to leave, but currently the only option for fibre BB (need at least 300mb WFH).

Brsk are constantly contacting me asking me to sign up...... except they can't give me a date when our street will be connected......🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

Pretty sure BT will be up and running by then......but not sure about them. Anyone got any comments on how good/bad they are?
 
h_m_boro said:
Our contract runs out in April. Desperate to leave, but currently the only option for fibre BB (need at least 300mb WFH).

Brsk are constantly contacting me asking me to sign up...... except they can't give me a date when our street will be connected......🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

Pretty sure BT will be up and running by then......but not sure about them. Anyone got any comments on how good/bad they are?
Click to expand...


This is the problem I faced. Unfortunately Virgin are also well aware when they are the only realistic option so it turns into a bit of a Mexican standoff. The initial "offers" will take the pee so just give your months notice and they'll soon be on with the better offers (less than 24 hours in my case)

Hopefully you have some other realistic options then as then i'm sure they'd at least try and match them and if not you can just leave.
 
I went onto the live chat 2 months ago after they were going to increase me by I think £30, standard packages no sky/movies etc. They asked me what do I watch, not much. How often do I use the phone, never. Etc etc I was polite and chatty. Got my original bill reduced to £58. They even gave me all channels like the kids ones, I don't have kids.bonkers. I have been with them for well over 20 years since Comcast days. Not sure if that helps.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Mine comes out on Saturday, I've had one contact from the retention team and it was still more than what I am paying now.

The trouble is, I was with Volt and they are willing to let you have it for Vault prices but the O2 is extra and mine is presently £29.32. So in truth, I would be paying £30 more for the same package.

I don't think I will get another contact from Virgin now but I will get the wife to ring up on Saturday as a new customer. I will have to send all their equipment back and they will have to send the wife some brand new equipment, it just seems mad.

I've cancelled O2 and can get 60GB from Tesco for £13 plus they give you a £20 gift voucher and the Tesco points on each monthly payment. The beauty of it is, O2 host Tesco.

We are also considering not renewing the TV at all. I went through the cinema last night and there is nothing I would watch and can honestly say in the 18 months I have been with them you count on one hand the number of movies I've watched. I don't do box sets.

Edit: I am presently paying £45 for the TV and broadband Volt package and £29.32 for my O2 phone.
Click to expand...
How did you get on with cancelling and putting the account into your wife’s name? I’ve done this in the past but they are now saying the address can not have a new account for 60/90 days, basically trying to have you over a barrel.
 
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