Virgin Media - Retention Deals?

Virgin Media - Retention Deals?

Author
Discussion

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Wednesday 15th March 2023
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Now sitting with 270Mbps. Doesn't really make a difference. Was watching something on Amazon Prime last night while measuring the speed and it was 255Mbps. I'd have to download random st on all my devices to bring it below 100 I think!

Having a 100Gb O2 sim is handy as I don't have to worry about where I am for watching and uploading videos!

megaphone said:
NorthEast said:
Anyone been offered a free weekly sausage roll from Greggs as part of a new deal?
I use the O2 Priority App, a Virgin account qualifies for it, get a free cup of tea most days and a free roll at the weekend.
I get similar. Not that I go near a Greggs most days. Shall I spend £2 in petrol to get somewhere I can have a Greggs freebie? biggrin

Old Man Peabody

597 posts

206 months

Wednesday 15th March 2023
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Just had a letter through saying the price is increasing £15 from May, even though I'm contracted until October 23 on a discounted rate.

Another bloody phonecall to be had

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James6112

4,200 posts

27 months

Monday 20th March 2023
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My M250 @ £24.25 until Dec
Just got the dreaded letter, £7 increase
I called the number, hit the leaving option, increase reduced to £3.50 via the menu, so £27.75.

I can’t be arsed to actually cancel right now as no fixed completion here, Openreach line is woeful.

A few weeks before renewal/price hike I’ll trial 4g/5g (unless another fibre to the house rolls up)
If it works well i’ll just cancel when they inevitably take the P..

HTP99

22,443 posts

139 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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Old Man Peabody said:
Just had a letter through saying the price is increasing £15 from May, even though I'm contracted until October 23 on a discounted rate.

Another bloody phonecall to be had

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Interesting, I had an email last month regarding price increases, it stated there was one coming (can't remember when), however my contract wouldn't be affected.

Edited by HTP99 on Tuesday 21st March 08:52

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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Since I booked City Fibre three weeks ago, I've had twelve texts and seven emails confirming the appointment for 8am today. Bloody irritating, but assuming they get a lot of failed appointments, I sucked up the nagging.

At just before 8:45 this morning I get a text saying "I've got you down for an installation today. Is that correct?"

:grrr:

bigandclever

13,750 posts

237 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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City Fibre are in as we speak. Turned up and couldn't get up the telegraph pole because it's too tall; but that wouldn't matter because the ladder they have wouldn't reach high enough up my wall; but that wouldn't matter either because they'd prefer to put the hole in the wall on the opposite side of the house and drill through an internal wall for the cable, which isn't an option.

But we had a sensible conversation, and they made some calls, and 20 minutes later a Kelly Communication van turned up and got the wire from the pole to the house; the drilling has been done next to the VM install; and they're neaty pinning the cable to be as discrete as possible.

Guy told me they have 7 appointments a day and there'll typically be a couple that don't get done, usually because there's something preventing it .. like trees in the way, or bring unallowed to go over flat roofs, or neighbours refusing access, or or or. Seems weird to me that they do the inspection 8 seconds before the install, but there we go.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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They turned up at 10:20. It's now almost 11:00 and, bar the clearing up, they've finished.

They used the hole Virgin had already put in the external wall, which saved fifteen minutes. smile

James6112

4,200 posts

27 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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Is it true fibre to the house?
Or an openreach service?

Didn’t know that city fibre use the poles still.

In a different lifetime I worked for BT & up & down poles all day. Some were huge. When Openreach came to mine in the past they wouldn’t go up a small pole, needed a cherry picker!

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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Virgin Media, £56 per month (and only offered to reduce that by £3):



City Fibre (Vodafone), £29 per month (24 months):



Happy with that. smile

anonymoususer

5,719 posts

47 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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Doofus said:
Virgin Media, £56 per month (and only offered to reduce that by £3):



City Fibre (Vodafone), £29 per month (24 months):



Happy with that. smile
That upload speed is genuinely stunning
Virgins upload ratio has aways been poor

kingston12

5,473 posts

156 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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HTP99 said:
Old Man Peabody said:
Just had a letter through saying the price is increasing £15 from May, even though I'm contracted until October 23 on a discounted rate.

Another bloody phonecall to be had

censored
Interesting, I had an email last month regarding price increases, it stated there was one coming (can't remember when), however my contract wouldn't be affected.

Edited by HTP99 on Tuesday 21st March 08:52
I had the same email to confirm that the price increase was happening but would not affect me during the current contract term.

I can only think that it is something to do with the way that the retentions team put through the 'deal' when it is negotiated - some will cancel any price increase during the term and some won't. It does seem strange, though, especially considering they didn't mention it at the time..

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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anonymoususer said:
Doofus said:
Virgin Media, £56 per month (and only offered to reduce that by £3):



City Fibre (Vodafone), £29 per month (24 months):



Happy with that. smile
That upload speed is genuinely stunning
Virgins upload ratio has aways been poor
It's good, isn't it? biggrin

Full fibre. smile

deggles

614 posts

201 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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More fun and games to report. We fairly recently negotiated a deal at £20/month and all was well. Although the way they fudged the pricing it's apparently a £65 package 'discounted' by £45.

So along comes the ~14% across-the-board price rise and surprise, surprise they apply that to the 'undiscounted' rate so my price is going up by £9, an actual increase of 45%! I think not, Mr Virgin...

So on to the webchat/WhatsApp customer services I go:

customer service drone: First thing i can offer is a 80% reduction of the price rise, so the bill will only increase by £7.20. Is that something you might be interested in?
me: Lol no, that's not how maths works. That's not an 80% reduction. It's a 20% reduction. And it still means our bill is going up by 36%. Why is it so much when inflation is only 10%?
customer service drone: Sorry increase would be £1.80 the discount i can put on is for £7.20 reducing the price rise by 80%
me: ok

Not gonna quibble over an extra £1.80 a month. But it gets better. They must have to apply whatever discount they're fudging immediately which means...

customer service drone: your next bill will be £2.85, Then your next bill will be lower, then will settle at £21.80 for the remainder of your contract
me: umm, ok, whatevs [I'm paraphrasing, was genuinely LOLing at this point]


TL;DR: Virgin just did themselves out of about £30 by trying to put the price up. thumbup

Toolslinger

93 posts

97 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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deggles said:
More fun and games to report. We fairly recently negotiated a deal at £20/month and all was well. Although the way they fudged the pricing it's apparently a £65 package 'discounted' by £45.

So along comes the ~14% across-the-board price rise and surprise, surprise they apply that to the 'undiscounted' rate so my price is going up by £9, an actual increase of 45%! I think not, Mr Virgin...

So on to the webchat/WhatsApp customer services I go:

customer service drone: First thing i can offer is a 80% reduction of the price rise, so the bill will only increase by £7.20. Is that something you might be interested in?
me: Lol no, that's not how maths works. That's not an 80% reduction. It's a 20% reduction. And it still means our bill is going up by 36%. Why is it so much when inflation is only 10%?
customer service drone: Sorry increase would be £1.80 the discount i can put on is for £7.20 reducing the price rise by 80%
me: ok

Not gonna quibble over an extra £1.80 a month. But it gets better. They must have to apply whatever discount they're fudging immediately which means...

customer service drone: your next bill will be £2.85, Then your next bill will be lower, then will settle at £21.80 for the remainder of your contract
me: umm, ok, whatevs [I'm paraphrasing, was genuinely LOLing at this point]


TL;DR: Virgin just did themselves out of about £30 by trying to put the price up. thumbup
Can only echo deggles experience,price rise from £59 to £81 per month.
Immediate offer to keep the price the same till end of contract,plus next months bill reduced to £9.
Accepted this offer,asked for an email as proof,when I opened the email,the price for the remaining months was also reduced to £28.75 which the operator never mentioned during the call.
Unbelievable, but happy, entire process took 15 minutes.

ant1973

5,693 posts

204 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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We are on the top package for everything and have also received the ludicrous letter of their CPI + infinity price increase.

For years they have been able to say "our broadband is x50 better" than the competition in this area.

However, City Fibre have now moved in....

I am looking forward to the call telling them to either give me the top package at the new customer rate or they can come and take everything out.....

magpie215

4,370 posts

188 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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Just had the were putting your bill up £7 pm

Rang complained now only adding £1 pm.

So 18 pm for the 10 months remaining of contract.

Wh00sher

1,587 posts

217 months

Saturday 25th March 2023
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Had the email, 350BB was £33 PCM, going up to £40pcm, I`ve been with them for 25 years, since the ntlworld days. Whatsapp was useless. so I started the cancellation process.

Just had a phonecall from Retentions, offered £32 for the 350 for 18 months.

Explained new customers can get the moneysavingexpert deal of £23.95PM, then £100 cashback which is £18.40 per month with no price rise.

Was told they cant match that and the best is £26 per month for 250MB.

If they don`t call back, I`ll look at one of the SIM options instead, he was very much "take it or leave it", so at the moment, I left it.



shopper150

1,576 posts

193 months

Saturday 25th March 2023
quotequote all
ant1973 said:
We are on the top package for everything and have also received the ludicrous letter of their CPI + infinity price increase.

For years they have been able to say "our broadband is x50 better" than the competition in this area.

However, City Fibre have now moved in....

I am looking forward to the call telling them to either give me the top package at the new customer rate or they can come and take everything out.....
They know what’s available in your area and will negotiate accordingly. One thing Virgin should be given credit for, it that they do give you a good price if you negotiate and play the game.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Monday 27th March 2023
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After a mere two hour and forty five minute 'chat' today, I managed to get my account cancelled. Having previously offered me a £3 per month reduction, this time they came up with £39 per month (down from 54) for 18 months.

He was a bit nonplussed when my reply was "I just want to cancel my account".

Countdown

39,690 posts

195 months

Monday 27th March 2023
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Old Man Peabody said:
Just had a letter through saying the price is increasing £15 from May, even though I'm contracted until October 23 on a discounted rate.

Another bloody phonecall to be had

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I had a letter as well (Contract runs out in September). I assumed it was a mistake?

How did you get on?