Virgin Media - Retention Deals?

[sutoka]

Spent a good half hour on the phone today, best deal they would give was 213MB speed, Big Bundle with BT Sports for £63. Not interested in Sky Sports as it's only SD and I have other means of watching it in full HD.

Pushed hard and they wouldn't budge, even told him to go and ask a superior.

The difference in price people pay for Virgin Media is huge, they need to bring in some sort of law that makes them charge the same amount to new and existing customers.

[StevenB]

sutoka said:

Spent a good half hour on the phone today, best deal they would give was 213MB speed, Big Bundle with BT Sports for £63. Not interested in Sky Sports as it's only SD and I have other means of watching it in full HD.

Pushed hard and they wouldn't budge, even told him to go and ask a superior.

The difference in price people pay for Virgin Media is huge, they need to bring in some sort of law that makes them charge the same amount to new and existing customers.

You need to cancel to get a chance of the better deals

[plenty]

StevenB said:

You need to cancel to get a chance of the better deals

Exactly this. There is a defined process and a computer system that their retention agents have to abide by. Asking to speak to a superior won't work as this isn't the process and the agent can only offer what the system authorises.

To invoke the best deals you have to cancel first. They WILL ring you back, this time with new deals authorised by the system for "cancellation customers".

[Kudos]

How long does it normally take for a call back? I cancelled last week, no call yet

[giblet]

1-2 weeks for me from memory

[PRTVR]

Kudos said:

How long does it normally take for a call back? I cancelled last week, no call yet

Have you checked your contact preferences on the website ?

[Kudos]

Yes, and just double checked there to make sure I hadn’t disabled comms

[HarrySmash]

Now out of contract and currently pay £93pm (soon to be £97) for 100MB, Full House TV (XL) and Talk Weekends.
I called the retentions line number posted above last week and was offered 100MB, Maxit TV and Talk Weekends for £67pm, increasing fibre speed to 200MB was £70pm.
Both packages needed a new 18 month contract.
I didn't commit and said I would check Sky/ BT for a price comparison - was told that Sky/ BT aren't currently signing-up new customers!
From the good numbers some of you are getting, it looks like I'll need to go down the 'cancellation' route to secure a better deal?

Edited by HarrySmash on Monday 8th March 07:02

[CharlieH89]

Just cancel. Quote it is a bit too much to pay at the moment.

You have 30 to cancel the cancellation but they will call up within a couple of days and it’ll be less than the £93.

Not sure how much that package usually goes for via retentions.

[rfn]

HarrySmash said:

Now out of contract and currently pay £93pm (soon to be £97) for 100MB, Full House TV (XL) and Talk Weekends.
I called the retentions line number posted above last week and was offered 100MB, Maxit TV and Talk Weekends for £67pm, increasing fibre speed to 200MB was £70pm.
Both packages needed a new 18 month contract.
I didn't commit and said I would check Sky/ BT for a price comparison - was told that Sky/ BT aren't currently signing-up new customers!
From the good numbers some of you are getting, it looks like I'll need to go down the 'cancellation' route to secure a better deal?

Yep. You need to cancel or you won't get a good deal. I have 200Mb, Maxit TV and talk weekends. £44 :-)

[sutoka]

rfn said:

HarrySmash said:

Now out of contract and currently pay £93pm (soon to be £97) for 100MB, Full House TV (XL) and Talk Weekends.
I called the retentions line number posted above last week and was offered 100MB, Maxit TV and Talk Weekends for £67pm, increasing fibre speed to 200MB was £70pm.
Both packages needed a new 18 month contract.
I didn't commit and said I would check Sky/ BT for a price comparison - was told that Sky/ BT aren't currently signing-up new customers!
From the good numbers some of you are getting, it looks like I'll need to go down the 'cancellation' route to secure a better deal?

Yep. You need to cancel or you won't get a good deal. I have 200Mb, Maxit TV and talk weekends. £44 :-)

The problem I had was nobody called back despite me saying I was leaving two months ago. Left it until the week before and said I was leaving and could they match the new customer offer, they said no but made it £57 for Full House, BT, 200mb broadband and Talk Weekend, offered Sky Sports for another £7 but it's SD and practically unwatchable when you can get HD via other means so not interested.

I'm still working from home and couldn't do without the high speed internet so with two days left they had me over a barrel.

I think the best method is to have Sky and Virgin installed and just move between them every 12-18 months, a mate did that for years until they eventually twigged and gave him st deals.

[usn90]

Ive been a virgin customer several years now, each year the same routine of cancelling.

2 x V6’s
650gb fibre
Hd
Full house tv or whatever they call if
Full sky sports/movies/kids/entertain etc
Full phone
3 x internet boosters
Unlimited data/minutes sim

£89 a month which I don’t think is too bad

[Oakey]

Noticed the price has gone up again despite negotiating a new deal in Aug 2020. Call me old fashioned but usually when you negotiate a price for a contract, that's the price for the duration of the contract. How these shysters get away with ramping up the prices for people in contract is mind boggling.

If Joe Bloggs ran his business like that and just started taking money from peoples accounts that they weren't contractually obligated to their bank would go fking nuts.

[mmm-five]

Oakey said:

Noticed the price has gone up again despite negotiating a new deal in Aug 2020. Call me old fashioned but usually when you negotiate a price for a contract, that's the price for the duration of the contract. How these shysters get away with ramping up the prices for people in contract is mind boggling.

If Joe Bloggs ran his business like that and just started taking money from peoples accounts that they weren't contractually obligated to their bank would go fking nuts.

RTFM

[Oakey]

Read the fking manual? mail? morse code? what?

[mmm-five]

Oakey said:

Read the fking manual? mail? morse code? what?

Shortcode for "the annual price rise, in addition to the CPI/RPI increase, is probably detailed in your contract/T&Cs".

Most companies have been putting 'double-dip' increases into their contracts so that customers can no longer use this 'out of contract' price increase as a way to negotiate/cancel.

[HTP99]

Currently on a Web chat with them, I've 2m to go on my current contract, 2 boxes, max TV + Sky Movies HD, 200 Mb internet and 2 of these WiFi pods (I'm part of the trial).

They have offered an 18m contract of their "Oomph" bundle so adding Sky Sports HD (want the F1) and 600Mb internet and unlimited sim which tbh I would make use of if I could cancel my existing sim contract with Virgin, (mobile is in my name, TV and broadband is in the wife's name), so not overly convinced I could cancel.

Anyway £99 per month so far, I'm trying to get it down must admit I'd be happy with £99, I've pushed for £89, they aren't budging but have offered a £50 credit...........I've "pulled the trigger" lol!

[anonymous-user]

HTP99 said:

Currently on a Web chat with them, I've 2m to go on my current contract, 2 boxes, max TV + Sky Movies HD, 200 Mb internet and 2 of these WiFi pods (I'm part of the trial).

They have offered an 18m contract of their "Oomph" bundle so adding Sky Sports HD (want the F1) and 600Mb internet and unlimited sim which tbh I would make use of if I could cancel my existing sim contract with Virgin, (mobile is in my name, TV and broadband is in the wife's name), so not overly convinced I could cancel.

Anyway £99 per month so far, I'm trying to get it down must admit I'd be happy with £99, I've pushed for £89, they aren't budging but have offered a £50 credit...........I've "pulled the trigger" lol!

Snap....all singing and dancing package (no mobile)........renewals offered £120..........straight through to cancel and retentions offered £98 which I took.

[HTP99]

catweasle said:

HTP99 said:

Currently on a Web chat with them, I've 2m to go on my current contract, 2 boxes, max TV + Sky Movies HD, 200 Mb internet and 2 of these WiFi pods (I'm part of the trial).

They have offered an 18m contract of their "Oomph" bundle so adding Sky Sports HD (want the F1) and 600Mb internet and unlimited sim which tbh I would make use of if I could cancel my existing sim contract with Virgin, (mobile is in my name, TV and broadband is in the wife's name), so not overly convinced I could cancel.

Anyway £99 per month so far, I'm trying to get it down must admit I'd be happy with £99, I've pushed for £89, they aren't budging but have offered a £50 credit...........I've "pulled the trigger" lol!

Snap....all singing and dancing package (no mobile)........renewals offered £120..........straight through to cancel and retentions offered £98 which I took.

It's odd, in the past I've always had to really fight with them to get a decent renewal, however in May they offered a more than decent renewal straightaway over the phone (their online "upgrades" and renewals were embarrassingly bad), today I did it via the web chat and TBH I'm happy.

I just need to see if I can cancel my existing sim deal which is with Virgin and in my name, the TV and broadband is in the wife's so I don't hold out much hope, if not the MiL's contract is up in a few months so she can have it, we pay for her phone anyway.

[anonymous-user]

HTP99 said:

catweasle said:

HTP99 said:

Currently on a Web chat with them, I've 2m to go on my current contract, 2 boxes, max TV + Sky Movies HD, 200 Mb internet and 2 of these WiFi pods (I'm part of the trial).

They have offered an 18m contract of their "Oomph" bundle so adding Sky Sports HD (want the F1) and 600Mb internet and unlimited sim which tbh I would make use of if I could cancel my existing sim contract with Virgin, (mobile is in my name, TV and broadband is in the wife's name), so not overly convinced I could cancel.

Anyway £99 per month so far, I'm trying to get it down must admit I'd be happy with £99, I've pushed for £89, they aren't budging but have offered a £50 credit...........I've "pulled the trigger" lol!

Snap....all singing and dancing package (no mobile)........renewals offered £120..........straight through to cancel and retentions offered £98 which I took.

It's odd, in the past I've always had to really fight with them to get a decent renewal, however in May they offered a more than decent renewal straightaway over the phone (their online "upgrades" and renewals were embarrassingly bad), today I did it via the web chat and TBH I'm happy.

I just need to see if I can cancel my existing sim deal which is with Virgin and in my name, the TV and broadband is in the wife's so I don't hold out much hope, if not the MiL's contract is up in a few months so she can have it, we pay for her phone anyway.

To be fair I was blunt from the outset and said.."you get 1 shot so give me your best deal and no haggling or phoning back like my car insurers etc do once I've cancelled"..........he seemed to appreciate that approach.