Virgin Media - Retention Deals?

[breamster]

Hi,

My Virgin contract is coming up for renewal and to be fair I have been quite happy with their service.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to get a good renewal deal?

I have been offered a reduction of £54 a month to £48 a month. For this I retain the existing Tivo box and not get the shiny new V6 box although I am not that bothered about it to be honest.

Thanks.

[rainmakerraw]

If you're not happy, cancel your service instead of renewing. They'll give you a disconnection date 30 days in the future, then call you back within a couple of days to say that they've suddenly realised they can offer you a better deal. We have Full House TV (XL / top package), Vivid 200 gamer internet, M phone, Homeworks and an upgrade to 2x V6 boxes. We now pay £41 a month.

[anonymous-user]

Hi
Mr Rainmaker can I ask what broadband speed do you get and does the phone include pretty much free calls anytimne to landlines and mobiles if you stop at 59 minutes then redial. I mean the home phone part ? I have just re read and think you say you get 200 meg bb

[rainmakerraw]

techiedave said:

Hi
Mr Rainmaker can I ask what broadband speed do you get and does the phone include pretty much free calls anytimne to landlines and mobiles if you stop at 59 minutes then redial. I mean the home phone part ? I have just re read and think you say you get 200 meg bb

Yes Dave it's the 200 megs down / 20 megs up broadband. The phone we have is evenings and weekends iirc (we don't use it), but we could have upgraded to unlimited for a few extra pounds. Virgin don't include mobiles unless you pay for an add-on, as far as I know, but again we have unlimited mobile contracts and the house phone is just something that makes our broadband cheaper. We don't actually have a phone plugged into it.

[anonymous-user]

rainmakerraw said:

techiedave said:

Hi
Mr Rainmaker can I ask what broadband speed do you get and does the phone include pretty much free calls anytimne to landlines and mobiles if you stop at 59 minutes then redial. I mean the home phone part ? I have just re read and think you say you get 200 meg bb

Yes Dave it's the 200 megs down / 20 megs up broadband. The phone we have is evenings and weekends iirc (we don't use it), but we could have upgraded to unlimited for a few extra pounds. Virgin don't include mobiles unless you pay for an add-on, as far as I know, but again we have unlimited mobile contracts and the house phone is just something that makes our broadband cheaper. We don't actually have a phone plugged into it. [/quote

Great thanks for that much appreciated. Ive just had an issue with them and started looking elsewhere but the reality is they are actually quite reasonable. I think your right on the phone thing and its just landlines
Thanks again something to hit them with.

[Nigel_O]

rainmakerraw said:

If you're not happy, cancel your service instead of renewing. They'll give you a disconnection date 30 days in the future, then call you back within a couple of days to say that they've suddenly realised they can offer you a better deal. We have Full House TV (XL / top package), Vivid 200 gamer internet, M phone, Homeworks and an upgrade to 2x V6 boxes. We now pay £41 a month.

Is that a temporary deal - e.g. It will go up to say £82 in six months?

I'm paying more that that for basic TV, home phone and 75mB BB - been with them for years, so probably time to benefit from a retention deal

[tight fart]

I was paying £58 ish for 150meg BB and landline (no tv)
Called to cancel they gave me a TiVo box inc BT sport (MotoGP) 200 meg and landline for £35.

[rainmakerraw]

Nigel_O said:

Is that a temporary deal - e.g. It will go up to say £82 in six months?

I'm paying more that that for basic TV, home phone and 75mB BB - been with them for years, so probably time to benefit from a retention deal

No it's for the duration of the contract. I did haggle hard though and ended up escalating through the CEO's office due to an ongoing issue with capacity (which has now been resolved).

[megaphone]

rainmakerraw said:

If you're not happy, cancel your service instead of renewing. They'll give you a disconnection date 30 days in the future, then call you back within a couple of days to say that they've suddenly realised they can offer you a better deal. We have Full House TV (XL / top package), Vivid 200 gamer internet, M phone, Homeworks and an upgrade to 2x V6 boxes. We now pay £41 a month.

Does that include the line rental?

[PF62]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

That will get you a better deal than the headline price, but not the best deal.

rainmakerraw said:

If you're not happy, cancel your service instead of renewing. They'll give you a disconnection date 30 days in the future, then call you back within a couple of days to say that they've suddenly realised they can offer you a better deal.

That is the way to get the best deal. And if they don't call, you can call and cancel the disconnection all the way up until day 30.

After I received the Virgin Media price increase letter in October I contacted them to cancel (50MB broadband and phone line). Best the retention team could offer was about £22 a month on a 12 month contract.

I cancelled as Sky were doing a better deal, albeit with slower 40MB broadband at about £16. When the Virgin Media cancellation team called they were more than happy to match that price (I still went with Sky for other reasons).

[rainmakerraw]

megaphone said:

Does that include the line rental?

Yup, all in. It was £38/month but I asked them to upgrade our second box to V6 TiVO as well as the living room so they said OK if you pay a couple of extra quid a month.

[anonymous-user]

Well my internet was fixed on Friday which was nice after they had announced various previous dates. In the meantime I did some research about pricing elsewhere. In the meantime I rang VM last Wednesday. Told them I would cancel the due DD payment on Friday, ring fence the amount in my account and pay them it from a debit card when service was working correctly. By coincidence (genuine) they did fix the fault on Friday and its been fine over weekend. I rang them today to make the payment and discussed disconnection. Very nice girl but they do like to try and bamboozle you. My loyalty credit could be extended (big deal) I could get unlimited (59) minute mobile calls anytime included as well as land lines (big deal. They would charge me at the 50 meg broadband rate but still keep it at 75 (big deal). Oh and she could apply a £30 one off credit which was then upped to £50 (err well £50 is £50 divide it by 12 its £4.16p). Changing to BT was dissed as I wouldn't get blah blah even though the cabinet is literally just outside the house and my neighbours get the required speeds ( I went in my laptop and speedchecked ones on BT the others Talk Talk).
All in all not really much of an offer or incentive to stay.The issue is that on the face of it their pricings good but I don't use their TV service it's there but I rarely access the box. and its looking simply that I will save around £20 a month on BT. It doesn't matter about BT's hub or Virgins hub its used in Modem Mode and I would simply use an open reach modem instead with BT as I buy and sell routers and have a dozen of these in stock. I would continue to use my own routers and WAPs.
I'll see if they do ring up and find a magic deal

[cobra kid]

techiedave said:

Well my internet was fixed on Friday which was nice after they had announced various previous dates. In the meantime I did some research about pricing elsewhere. In the meantime I rang VM last Wednesday. Told them I would cancel the due DD payment on Friday, ring fence the amount in my account and pay them it from a debit card when service was working correctly. By coincidence (genuine) they did fix the fault on Friday and its been fine over weekend. I rang them today to make the payment and discussed disconnection. Very nice girl but they do like to try and bamboozle you. My loyalty credit could be extended (big deal) I could get unlimited (59) minute mobile calls anytime included as well as land lines (big deal. They would charge me at the 50 meg broadband rate but still keep it at 75 (big deal). Oh and she could apply a £30 one off credit which was then upped to £50 (err well £50 is £50 divide it by 12 its £4.16p). Changing to BT was dissed as I wouldn't get blah blah even though the cabinet is literally just outside the house and my neighbours get the required speeds ( I went in my laptop and speedchecked ones on BT the others Talk Talk).
All in all not really much of an offer or incentive to stay.The issue is that on the face of it their pricings good but I don't use their TV service it's there but I rarely access the box. and its looking simply that I will save around £20 a month on BT. It doesn't matter about BT's hub or Virgins hub its used in Modem Mode and I would simply use an open reach modem instead with BT as I buy and sell routers and have a dozen of these in stock. I would continue to use my own routers and WAPs.
I'll see if they do ring up and find a magic deal

You lost me at "ringfence"

[megaphone]

rainmakerraw said:

megaphone said:

Does that include the line rental?

Yup, all in. It was £38/month but I asked them to upgrade our second box to V6 TiVO as well as the living room so they said OK if you pay a couple of extra quid a month.

That's a good price. I'm paying £46.00 for same service but two standard Tivos, although only one is ever used. They gave me a years free line rental which finishes soon. I'm going to get on to them again . I just had a letter through asking me if I wanted to pay for another years line rental up front, I thought they where stopping the separate charge, but it appears not.

Time to haggle another deal.

[jonwm]

I have been with VM for 10 years plus with just internet, this year I actually decided to leave, fed up with a couple of ££ discount every time so went whole hog, 1 week later got a call offering me £10 credit every month for 12 months, decided to stay deal is for 150meg and phone £26.35

Interestingly though I did a recommend a friend as a family member has moved to a new build estate with virgin only, he got full package with sky cinema pack, 2 V6 boxes and 200meg broadband inc phone for £44 a month for 18 months, crazy deal

[Jimbo666]

I've cancelled my VM contract after 6 years with them today. I was paying £76pm for 200meg BB, Full House TV and the basic phone package. The call handler did not seem interested at all. The lowest he offered for the same package was £61pm with a £30 account credit. Let's see if I get a call before the 30 days is up.

[tight fart]

I called sky to cancel after virgin offered the TiVo box, they came down to £5 a month for
a basic package and sky plus facility (why is all we use on channels 1-4)

[HTP99]

Keeping an eye on this thread as I currently pay about £80 per month for 200 meg broadband, 2 boxes (1 is a TiVo the other is a normal one) medium phone (we never use it) and all TV bar Sky Sports and Films.

I've been a customer since NTL days and no matter how hard I try I just get nothing out of them, haven't tried cancelling yet though, may give that a shot.

I want 2 of the new boxes and to lower what I'm paying now, I hate it that if I'm a new customer I can get it half price for 6m and yet being a loyal customer for a good decade they won't give me squat.

[rasto]

HTP99 said:

Keeping an eye on this thread as I currently pay about £80 per month for 200 meg broadband, 2 boxes (1 is a TiVo the other is a normal one) medium phone (we never use it) and all TV bar Sky Sports and Films.

I've been a customer since NTL days and no matter how hard I try I just get nothing out of them, haven't tried cancelling yet though, may give that a shot.

I want 2 of the new boxes and to lower what I'm paying now, I hate it that if I'm a new customer I can get it half price for 6m and yet being a loyal customer for a good decade they won't give me squat.

New customers get half price for 12months now. I've been with them for the same amount of time as you and have had the same success (none) in getting any meaningful loyalty deals. I'm currently on hold with them trying to get a cancellation deal.

Edit: best they could offer was a £50 credit (1 months free rental). I've said no and pushed forward with the cancellation, fingers crossed they call and offer something better in the next 30 days.

Edited by rasto on Thursday 26th January 18:24

[HTP99]

rasto said:

HTP99 said:

Keeping an eye on this thread as I currently pay about £80 per month for 200 meg broadband, 2 boxes (1 is a TiVo the other is a normal one) medium phone (we never use it) and all TV bar Sky Sports and Films.

I've been a customer since NTL days and no matter how hard I try I just get nothing out of them, haven't tried cancelling yet though, may give that a shot.

I want 2 of the new boxes and to lower what I'm paying now, I hate it that if I'm a new customer I can get it half price for 6m and yet being a loyal customer for a good decade they won't give me squat.

New customers get half price for 12months now. I've been with them for the same amount of time as you and have had the same success (none) in getting any meaningful loyalty deals. I'm currently on hold with them trying to get a cancellation deal.
K
Edit: best they could offer was a £50 credit (1 months free rental). I've said no and pushed forward with the cancellation, fingers crossed they call and offer something better in the next 30 days.

Edited by rasto on Thursday 26th January 18:24

A colleague of mine is with Sky and has been for years, every year he goes though the same routine to get a better deal, it is a pfaff for him but he does always get a decent deal.

I don't want to switch to Sky as I've got my NTL email address which I want to keep, Virgin Internet craps all over Sky, plus I'm extremely happy with Virgin.