Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Just looking for a wee bit of advice re my VM package. I'm currently paying £132/mth on my VM package - a result of services being added ages ago while my brother was in the house. My own fault for never changing it.

Anyway. I'm currently out of contract. I've been looking at Sky's 50% TV offer and can pretty much get the full shebang for £70/mth for 12 months on a similar length contract - Full TV, Sports, Movies, HD, BB & phone. That's pretty much the same as I have now, with added HD, and an albeit slower BB.

I spoke to a 'thinking of leaving us' advisor who offered 200MB BB, TV XL, Sky Movies & Sport and Evening & Weekend phone, with a 500Gb TIVO (and keeping my V+ box), for £68/mth for 6 months, then £105/mth after that. That's a 12 month contract.

If I take the VM deal I'm still saving a stack of cash over the 12 months. Just not as much as I would with SKY - at the cost of the slower BB. Anyone with experience of this stuff offer any advice? Am I likely to be offered a better deal than the one on the table from VM if I give my 30 days notice? Any advice greatfully received. Thanks.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Hi jeffs

If you give your 30 days notice then it's likely you'll be contacted by one of the outbound retentions teams who do tend to have the very best deals in a last ditch attempt to keep your business. However this is not guaranteed so you have to hold your nerve and risk that potentially you may not get a call.

Have you looked at splitting your services? I used to have everything with VM but got fed up with the numerous price rises and lack of certain content I wanted so ditched VM TV and got a great deal with Sky but kept BB and phone with VM. I'm really happy with this split of services as I get the best of both worlds whilst paying less than I was having everything with VM.

There are plenty of deals out there at present, ultimately it just depends on what services you want and what your budget is.

Best of luck.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Sky.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

TBH if i was in your position i'd take the 50% off Sky, but i'd also go online and chat to Sky CS because i think you could probably get better then the 50% if you talk with someone.

At the end of your Sky contract you could always go back to VM and take advantage of their new customer deals.

All IMO of course.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

If you can get a hold of a friends and family code they have a deal going for the complete TV pack at £25 per month for 12 months, 12 month contract. That includes everything, sports, movies, F1 etc. New customers only.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Do you watch BT Sport? as that is included in the VM price don't forget

I think Sky do a pricematch though with BTSports/Braodband so that might be worth looking into.

There is also the possibility of taking Sky TV and keeping Virgin BB/Phone

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.

I called VM again tonight to discuss further, and get the details again of the offer made. The woman I spoke to had absolutely no interest in discussing it with me, or keeping me with VM. She basically contradicted everything I said had been discussed on the previous call, denying the offer I put in my original post had been made, or that I had been told I had until the 23rd November before the offer was lost. She only wanted to talk about a second 18 month contract offer that had been made in the first call, but that I had already said I wasn't interested in.

Long story short, I was really disappointed in her attitude and gave my 30 days notice. If they phone back they phone back. If not I'll go somewhere else.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Anyone know what the hours retentions might call back between? Is it 9-5pm, or do they call out up until 8pm? And do they make calls at the weekend, or leave a message if they miss you?

Just wondering, as my home time will be limited over the next week or so.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

If I were you i'd move to Sky. I moved three years ago now and haven't regretted moving one bit. First two years I received a 50% discount for 12 months from Sky and this year I've managed to beat that and get a 60% discount. I currently pay £30.30 for my Sky package (Family Bundle PLUS Sky Sports, Sky Movies and the HD pack). I moved my broadband over to BT so get BT Sport Lite for free (only watch the football which is currently only being shown on BT Sport 1 so that's all I need). In total for the BT Broadband package and Sky I pay about £58 per month.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

I've had this problem too. You can speak to some really friendly and helpful advisors and then sometimes you get the attitude

"oh youre thinking of leaving"
"yes its too expensive unless there are any offers"
"no offers"
"sky have offered me this...can you counter?"
"no"

We have 3 virgin media boxes. it does seem it would be cheaper to go to sky tv and broadband but the costs for extra sky boxes is astonishing! sky broadband seems okay but i'd need sky broadband fibre which would need to be unlimited...this is what i got anyway.

One off cost items
Total one off cost £89
Sky HD box £49
Installation Visit
£10 Sky+HD Install
£10
Fibre Activation Fee £30
Your selection
Sky Movies
Family
12 Months 50% Off DTV
HD Pack
Sky Sports
Sky+HD
You've added
Sky Talk Pay As You Talk
Sky Fibre Unlimited
12 Months 50% off Fibre Unlimited
Sky Line Rental
Sky HD box
Sky HD box
Yours at no extra cost
Sky WiFi
Sky Go
New Phone Line Installation
Free NLP
Reward of your choice
Monthly cost with offers
£89.40 then £134.65
One off costWhat's this?
£89


89 quid for everything seems lovely. but then 134?? thats probably more than my virgin media bill now!

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

The above inflation price increases have me teetering on the edge as to whether I stay or not. The increase to cover BT Sports, which no-one would ever watch in this household, really stuck in my throat. Especially when they said that it was what most people wanted! Plus the ongoing fault which they don't seem to want to fix is really aggravating now, as is the slowness of the TIVO.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Meant to state that I have BT infinity not just their standard broadband and that is unlimited

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

For me the best result was to go broadband only with Virgin, TV with Sky and phone with Voiphone.

For the latter I took a new number and which because it is not geographically based means I've never received a single junk call or paid a line rental. I put £20 credit on it 6 months ago and am still over £17 in credit as like most people these days my main phone usage is via the mobile. I did pay £60 for a box that allows me to use my two DECT phones but you can save that by just using a headset if you want.

Saved me an absolute fortune!

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

I've done the first two and thinking about the 3rd, which VOIP provider did you use?

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Why anyone nowadays needs a landline is beyond me, don't get me wrong I have it because it came with the Virgin package that I am on, but with almost everyone (it seems) having a mobile, the days of the landline are surely numbered!

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Only if you're in a cabled area. Lots of us need one to get our internet connection.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

I use the landline for tradesmen etc..that way I avoid them cluttering up my mobile..I will however say this.The VM landline is reliable in a way that BT and other Telcos are not..It very seldom that it fails plus if you have a fault with your BB or TV service you can phone for FREE to get help.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

My mobile is on Pay & Go (I don't make lots of calls) and I have Talk Unlimited with VM so I use the landline for calls when I'm at home.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

There's also no audio delay to other landlines. I use VoIP for business calls and on a bad day with the wrong people it's can be like making international calls even when they're a couple of miles away.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

There are many reasons some have to have a landline MM.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

I use Viophone (http://www.voipfone.co.uk/).

As I said I took the free number they offered since one of the reasons for abandoning a landline (in addition to the high standing charge and few calls made) was the number of junk calls I was getting and have had none since the change.

This is the unit I purchased to be able to use my existing DECT phones - http://www.voipfone.co.uk/shop.php?method=view&pid=12

One thing I especially like is that any voicemail left is emailed to me so as an .mp3 file so I can pick it up and listed on my mobile, tablet or any PC even whilst abroad.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Thought I should update this.

I received a phone call on Monday from the outbound team while I was at work. They were told I wouldn't be home until 6pm, and were asked to call back then, which they said they would.

They repeated this Monday to Thursday, calling each day while I was at work. And each day they were told I wouldn't be home until 6pm. And each day they said they would call back when I was home. Which they didn't.

I called them Thursday evening to ask that someone call back when I was home. I spoke to a nice friendly chap who said he would put me down for someone to call me today, between 12 and 2pm. I was quite happy with that, thinking something was getting done.

Friday afternoon? You guess it. They called again while I was at work. They were told about my call the night before, and that I had a callback arranged. The person who called yesterday said there was no record of that on my account, but that he would arrange it.

Today? Still waiting. No call as agreed between 12-2pm. Living the Virgin Media dream.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

I have semi cut the cord, dropped all 3 multiroom boxes, dropped broadband speed but kept downstairs box, was tempted by black friday deals from another provider but decided to stay with vm.
couldnt carry on with price rises much more so decided to cut my package down, got to the point where enough was enough ! see how next 12 months go !

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Out of contract - phoned up retentions and they offered me a £2.50 saving, no joke.

My "free" broadband upgrade was November then December now March.

I think I am out. Off to Sky.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Good luck with that, daz. One step too far for me, though.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Gone as well, these price hikes just gone too far. Don't count too much on your BB upgrade, had mine upgraded to 70Mbps did a speed test and was actually 9Mbps.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Personally I'd leave in a drop of a hat

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

We stayed in Tenby at Christmas and had sky in the house. I see they still cant display the program guide and a TV channel at the same time. It was very annoying to say the least.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Surely, they must have had an old box? Sky introduced the 'pip' update a couple of years ago or so, but old boxes I think may be unable to display this.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

That makes sense as it wasn't a very big box and didn't do recordings.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

As Old Boy has already said, the current Sky+HD boxes do give you PIP. I switched from VM TV to Sky in June and have got to say I haven't looked back since and much prefer the current Sky box/channel selection over VM.

Re: Should I Stay....Or Should I Go?
 

Well I have gone to Sky half price family pack for 12 months virgin wouldn't match so I dumped the TiVo.