Virgin Media Haggling, not getting anywhere.

Posted 7th Aug 2022

Hi there,

I've been a customer with Virgin Media for 27 years and I'm paying almost £70 for my 250MB contract, I tried going the cancelled route but they only offer me a £50 deal for the same internet speed. I can't change broadband providers we don't get BT or Sky (strange I know) so Virgin must know I can't afford to leave.

Any tips on what to do? I can't seem to build up the courage to cancel as they know I can't go anywhere else and keep mentioning I'll lose my 27 years of loyalty if I cancel, but if they came back to me with another offer in the 30 days of cancelling, the 27 years would stay wouldn't it?.

Anything please!

Edit: Just cancelled been given a final bill and told to return equipment, should be expecting a call for a new offer right?

Update 8/8/2022 Got offered £31 for the same package, £33 for 350MB and £37 for 500MB. Just took the £31 200MB offer big saving compared to what I was paying

50 Comments

sorted by

7th Aug 2022
Cancel , you’ll receive a call from retentions after a week or so, worst case they send you an email offer 7 days before disconnection date, and more even worse case you can retract the cancellation 24 hours before disconnection date. The new customer offers on the virgin website are your minimum target, do not pay any more than that honestly.. if they call your bluff and say you can’t receive any other providers say your getting a 4G router.
7th Aug 2022
cancel and say you're going to 5g router i pay £23 for EE broadband. Told them I was going to Now TV for £20. Appreciate you cannot move to BT...a firestick for your tvs. They will tell you signal is crap etc. Tell them you tried it out / one of the neighbours had it. It's a war of negotiation...
7th Aug 2022
Three are doing an unlimited MiFi router for £10/m for the first 6 months
7th Aug 2022
If you got a partner , cancel your deal (best when it expires then it's free , do NOT EXTEND IT) then after they take router tell your parnter to go on any compare type website for internet deals , find yourself a deal for a NEW CUSTOMER. Take internet on your partner name as a "New Customer" , you will get a great deal and possible voucher to amazon etc. Do it each time your contract comes to expire (normally they send you a letter 2-3 months before) telling your deal finishes and what you want to do :).
7th Aug 2022
Replying to
Don't accept no offers!! They gave us crap offers telling deals U see on Internet ARE ONLY FOR NEW CUSTOMERS . Said that's fine , I'm right now on that 1GB fast as hell Internet paying 36£ a month
7th Aug 2022
I posted a similar discussion about this - worth noting there is no such thing as a loyal customer as far as they are concerned - you get a "loyalty bonus" after a year contract. Also you can't have a 27 year loyalty bonus as Virgin Media only came into existence 16 years ago. They bought NTL, who had previously bought Telewest - loyalty is not "TUP'd" across!
Also you do have choices - Three are doing a MiFi device for £10/m for the first 6 months and a 30 day money back guarantee - give it a try! You can also go down the satelitte route if you are desperate!
7th Aug 2022
Replying to
I'm with them 24 years and I tried playing the loyalty card to get a discount and the agent informed me that they don't provide that (despite the reduction on my bill marked loyalty!) I was told that I should ring up every year to broker a better deal. SIMs are usually free - why not get a few from different providers and test the signal strength? MiFi is an option these days - sometimes you can get better speeds on 4G/5G than from a land line!
7th Aug 2022
just cancel,make sure you get marketings ticked, get a offer, if you got phone signal always go down route of mifi, don't tell them how good there are, tell them about the bad stuff, your not that happy and seen a deal online and that's where your happy to go, get crap offer, go ahead cancel, in week time should get phone call
7th Aug 2022
Contacted them on whatsapp recently as my £36 broadband deal was up around 500mb now I'm on £38 for 1gig
8th Aug 2022
Did you tell them you leaving or asked for better deal?
7th Aug 2022
They have been having you for 27 years! You can get that for sub £30 month, issue cancellation notice and wait for a call back.

Dont tell them you cant get anything else, random CS reps dont know that.

Look at deals on here and tell them you can get X for Y, eg. Vodafone 900Mb for £30 (edited)
7th Aug 2022
Haven't read much, but if you are in your 4 week cancelation period and haven't had a call, give us a DM.
Should be around £25 for 200mb. Another £6 off if you have anyone at your address on O2.
7th Aug 2022
Replying to
ok thank you. Just out of curiosity if my contract expires on 1st of November then I would contact Virgin end of September that I'm not interested to extend my contract and want to cancel it, is that right?
Author
8th Aug 2022
Update 8/8/2022 Got offered £31 for the same package, £33 for 350MB and £37 for 500MB. Just took the £31 200MB offer big saving compared to what I was paying
8th Aug 2022
That's great but still I think you can get even better as a "NEW CUSTOMER" added a link (you get 100£ voucher to Amazon on top of that !!)
moneysupermarket.com/bro…ons (edited)
9th Aug 2022
When exactly do you cancel? During the last 30 days or do u give them notice before you head into the last 30 days?
Author
9th Aug 2022
Cancelled and entered the 30 days notice, they sent an email about returning equipment etc. Next day got a call!
7th Aug 2022
What are they giving you for your 27 years of loyalty?
£50 looks like it's around what they're offering New sign up on their website.

Do you need the speed they're offering?

If it would help you to think about leaving more seriously, could you try using the internet on a mobile phone, then if that's good enough you could get a router that works over mobile and an unlimited data plan eg from three. I very much doubt it would be even a quarter as fast as what you currently have though.
Author
7th Aug 2022
£50 for 250MB, Basic TV and Pay as you go phone. Really awful offer compared to people getting my deal for £30.

Currently on Three get 1 bar of 4G at home I’ll consider if there’s a 5G option by any providers? Is there a way to check?
7th Aug 2022
They wouldn't offer us anything decent either recently. Customer since 1999 I believe, back when it was Telewest. The absolute best they came back with, after the retentions team got in touch, was £37 a month for the 100Mb package. "Loyalty" doesn't mean anything to them. They just see you as a sucker who'll never leave. We cancelled and today's our last day actually.

You could always buy a 4G/5G router if you really can't get anything else. The ZTE MC801A can be had from CeX, Three-branded but unlocked for under £150 and is a great 5G router. 4G ones are even cheaper.
Author
7th Aug 2022
Funny enough i got the 100MB for £37 also, given up sick of paying £70, they must know i can’t move to another provider but the waiting game will tell .

I’ll look into the router! Any sim can work in it right? Got a Three sim at the moment but don’t get 5G (or even 4G) at the house.
7th Aug 2022
27 years of loyalty means absolutely nothing tbh. Tell them to stick their deal and look elsewhere.
7th Aug 2022
I don't understand why people think being a customer for x amount of years makes any difference. If anything you should know how to bag a deal by now.

Any way cancel and ignore any offers from retentions team and wait for a call back during your cancellation period.

You should be able to get half decent deal. I'm currently on 1gig with weekend calls for under £40
7th Aug 2022
I don’t understand that either.

They can’t be that bad if the customer has stuck with them for 27 years.

Have virgin media been around for 27 years. That’s another question altogether.
7th Aug 2022
It was Bargainz999 who managed to blag a 1Gig connection for £20 - here's the post
7th Aug 2022
As a former sky worker the “deal” is computer driven it will literally say offer this, and the next person calling in may get a better or worse offer. Makes no sense but realistically, it is a monopoly between BT, Sky and virgin so you stay or leaving makes little difference if I’m honest. As others have said go where the deal is if not get another name to use as a new customer, partner, sibling o friend makes no difference to them.
7th Aug 2022
Just wondering doesn't V.M take 1 month advance payment...so the last month should be paid for when you give them notice...and no payment should be taken out.
7th Aug 2022
Leave and sign up with you partner or pal.
8th Aug 2022
I had a random sales call earlier on. Offered me 200mb Fibre with Anytime calls and a 100gb o2 sim for £34 a month total for 18 months.

I'm currently paying NOW TV £21 for 73mb fibre with anytime calls and Plusnet £10 a month for a 30 day, 30gb sim only so £31 a month in total - £3 less than Virgin.

I said no, but I'm wondering if I could "work" the offer though ?

He asked me what I was paying per month, which I told him, and this offer appeared to be based on that so I'm wondering if I cooked up another phonecall and told him I was paying something like £5 a month less if the computer would generate an appropriate offer ? (edited)
8th Aug 2022
If you live with your partner just cancel the contract and sign up as a new customer under their details.

use their referral scheme to get £100, Cashback sites too and enjoy
8th Aug 2022
We've just had Virgin Broadband installed in our area, so was looking to move for the faster internet (previously a 38mb limit as Vodafone was the cheapest to provide that at 21 quid a month).

They posted an ad to me which has the volt(?) package for £85 a month, 1150mb internet, full TV package with sports etc., sim only and extra TV box.

Was tempted by their £65 a month offer of TV package with sports, 500mb internet etc.

How bad are they for racking up the price on renewing? As we've got SkyQ with box sets and sport (not BT sport) for £32 a month, so works out about a tenner dearer to move to Virgin but get almost 12-13 times faster internet.
9th Aug 2022
I engineered another callback from them today which I've just finished and talk about drastic change.

All they offered was 100mb fibre with talk weekends and a 10gb o2 sim for £29 a month. When I mentioned the offer I'd had yesterday, I was given short shrift and a very firm "No, we can't do that" so there you go.
9th Aug 2022
Well there's a turn up for the books.

Rang back one more time this afternoon and I've come away with 200mb broadband, anytime calls and a 100gb o2 sim only for £32 a month

It's a £1 increase on what I'm paying NOW and Plusnet at the moment, but my NOW deal ends in October anyway and I can't imagine I'd have been able to carry that on with such a small increase.
11th Aug 2022
Did you ring them or did they ring you? Mines going from £30 to £63.50 for just Internet & sim, best they can do is £40 moving me to O2 but online you can get M350 for 18 months for £33 with a £100 amazon voucher! Last year I rang the department that usually rings you but I don't have the number anymore!
17th Aug 2022
lol I just msg them thro Whatsapp first they offered me £52 for 1 gig, said no, cancel, cancelation offered 1 gig at £62, I was like no, then they keep giving me crap offers, just cancelled, how long do I need to wait for a phone call?
5th Sep 2022
I just got 512mb for £26pm.
I will apply my volt benefits with O2 to get free upgrade to 1gb.

Can't argue with that.

Cancel your virgin.. push through with cancellation, say no to all offers from CS rep as they have no retention power.

Wait a few days and get a text/phone call from retentions department. Decline first offers, tell them your max budget and they will give you the best offer the can.

Ask for free intelligence WiFi as an extra if you sign up or WiFi pods. Etc.