Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

Just did a "thinking od leaving" routing on the phone and a woman answered, I asked her where is the call centre and she said she is in the Philippines. Still no UK, so I will wait for the CEO to reply my email.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

I've just had a dispute with VM and despite emailing the CEO a week ago have heard nothing from my complaint.

Currently on BB only 100mb my bill shot up from £30 to £35 then to £41 I was told my loyalty discount was expired and they could not give me loyalty discount on the same product.

After an hour on the phone to India I agreed to Full House TV phone and 100mb for £43. I asked about installation charges and was told he would have to talk to a supervisor. Next thing I know I'm in a queue for 10 mins and ended up talking to the Scotland call centre who disputed the deal I was just offered. Saying if I wanted that £59 was the cheapest. I got so riled I told them to just cancel the broadband.

Within 2 days had a call from customer relations offering me broadband only for £29.

VM would rather waste over an hour of my time, lie to me and give me the run around than just give me a deal without canceling first. Ironic I would have happily kept paying the £35 but am now paying £6 a month less because they put my bill up.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

Sounds about right. Ask 10 different people at VM you'll get 10 different prices. Just keep going till you get a price you like. A farce but that's the way it is.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

You wasted your own time. Up until the point you said you wanted to cancel you weren't within the remit of 'retentions'.

If you phone up every single provider of every single service you have and ask nicely for a discount I can guarantee almost every time they will say no.

By making you jump through hoops, and actually give your notice period, they knew you were more serious instead of the thousands of chancers who phone up week in week out because the Martin Lewis website told them to.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

That's very annoying for you. If they really have got rid of the customers ability to contact "retentions" directly then i think i'll be signing up to gigafast when it arrives, really can't be bothered playing VM poker when they hike the bill up. :mad:

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

I don't see the drama. Give notice period. Wait for call back.

It's not rocket science.

It's not an effective strategy to let people phone up and say:

"oh well, I've had the service for 15 years now and every 18 months or so I phone up pretending I want to cancel and you've always given me a discount so it's that time again, any chance?"

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

I went through the phone maze with only one thought in mind I want to cancel. I must have said this to the Indian call centre 30 times in the hour, so no I wasn't wasting my own time I was just trying to get cancelled. This is why in my complaint I have asked VM to listen to the call and have asked them if they are happy with that kind of pressure selling only to be then told o should not have been offered that.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

they could not give me loyalty discount on the same product.

After an hour on the phone to India I agreed to Full House TV phone and 100mb for £43.

These bits threw me. To the casual observer you look more like “I want to pay less” than I want to cancel. Did you find an alternate supplier/offer to say you were going to leave for?

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

I take a TV package from another provider. I think that was my mistake really as it was the first thing the guy asked and what I was paying. I said Now TV and £3 a month for entertainment. So canceling my other TV package and getting a recordable box BT sport and some channels I don't get would be of interest if the price was right. It was not my intention to even discuss TV when I cancelled but the guy on the Indian call centre would not drop it as I thought that was a good deal was willing to entertain it.

When I got the call back I gave a brief explanation to the guy and he said do you want TV I said no and he said right we will find you a broadband only deal. No other mention of TV was made.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

Fair enough. Best to keep it simple with outsourced call centres. Often misleading statements get made and/or misunderstandings.

I’ve had the best offers on the 2 day call back for a few years now. Too many chancers has companies filtering “threats to cancel”. It’s the same with Sky - during your 30 day cancellation period the my account section of the box/website offers better incentives to stay than the initial call.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

I've never pretended to cancel, I just say i'm looking to pay a bit less and what can they do for me, I don't get the best deals, because I don't bluff, but enough to keep me happy. I've always done it out of contract or after a price increase but i've never been knocked back.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

Now i know why i finally joined Sky after being with VM since Nynex days. About 18 years. The company is doing a massive infrastructure upgrade where I live. Pity they don't care about loyalty anymore. Bye everyone.

PS Sky deal was every channel (Except separate subscription channels). All in HD and UHD. Where broadcast.
65 meg broadband. Landline (Missus Insisted) 2Tb Q box. 2 mini boxes. Netflix UHD. for £85 for 18 months. Deal agreed end of March so may no longer be available. Only Negative have had to pay £25 for BT sport for 3 months. (Then 31 i think). But that's BT ripping me off not Sky.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

This is what I've always done after a very helpful VM man in Retentions suggested I ring them every so often a few years back. I usually manage to get some kind of deal or reduction and, up to date, have never had a problem or been given the runaround. Sounds like I've been lucky.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

So that's £110, then, compared with VM's V VIP special deals for less than £100.

Re: Retention Dept gone?
 

Or normal price of over £120pm