Cancelled Virgin
 

I've had a VM staff deal for near on 10 years, I quit VM back end of last year. I was paying £45 per month I had Sky Sports in my package. Anyhow since I quit my bill went up to £102 per month, so I renegotiated and got it down to £57.99. Not bad, I just rung Sky and they've offered me everything I want, including sports, and I get Sky Atlantic for £39.75 per month, which is less than what I was paying when I was staff at VM!!!!!!!! (PS not interested in BT sport....its rubbish)

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Kool Story Bro ..... :bsmack:

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Not entirely sure this is news but have seen those deals. Sky are feeling the churn-burn and are appreciating how crap their broadband seems to the public compared to the competition. :)

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Less than my dad pays which is £44 for everything - however they put his price up half way through so he is kicking them to the kerb too.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Joe bloggs doesnt consider sky broadband crap, only techies like yourself who have an addiction to high access speeds and the ability to pretend VM doesnt have congestion issues.

Indeed my sister was on 50mb VM, and got sick of her netflix buffering every night, and now has moved to "up to" 36meg sky bb and she is happy netflix works again. They just care about "things working".

Now you talking as if your 60-70mbit synced pulse8 line is some kind of junk :) and when you get VM it will be the second coming. But what will this 200mb VM connection do for your working from home that the pulse8 doesnt?

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

This is rather harsh. He has never once portrayed to me that VM are angelic, he tells things as they are which is refreshing in this day and age. I guess you are as well but there are ways to get your point across dude.

I believe Carl is saying that he will be glad to have a resilient backup, which makes more than perfect sense when working from home. He's always (to me anyway) had a bee in his bonnet about people who torrent and use USENET and consume junkies in general so I highly doubt he would turn into one.

However, if he has to download something large (like I sometimes do - up to 1TB at a time) then it will deliver it faster and help to do more - something that Pulse8 won't. But it's all down to subjective opinion.

You'll tell me to sod off for butting in I am sure - but then again I don't care. I also know he doesn't need anyone to stick up for him, but once again. I don't care.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

I think you're confusing Joe Bloggs with people like us, not to mention that I said 'the competition' not VM.

BT offer 52Mb as the base product now. Plusnet charge as much for 76Mb as Sky do for 38Mb. Joe Bloggs may see the high numbers VM offer and think 'Ooooh shiny', they aren't likely to know that in all honestly 38Mb will be fine for them for right now - why do you think VM and even BT use speeds as a selling point?

Joe Bloggs isn't going to have much idea of what contention or congestion are. They care about the shiny numbers and the price.

This ignoring that the vast majority of Sky Broadband customers are still on their old LLU equipment on ADSL which isn't surprising given they quite literally give it away for the entire length of contracts. I didn't specify the package.

You seem awfully sensitive about criticism of your ISP. Relax.

As far as what the VM service will allow me to do when it arrives goes, as one example download 10GB+ crash files, then upload parts of the archives to our data centre in San Jose for review by our development team more rapidly. The SLAs on our support can be strict and our customers very demanding. A few minutes not spent waiting for downloads and uploads are minutes that can be spent analysing the data.

Hope that helps.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

We have been with Virgin Media for many years. The main reason we have a TV package is for the live football. We purchase a Sky Sports deal every August, keeping it on until the end of the football season in May, but entering into a new 12 month contract each time. No problem, same process every year.

Upon calling Virgin Media to turn Sky Sports off today, Monday 16th May, I found a completely new attitude from Virgin Media. Firstly they tried to tell me I had entered into an 18 month contract last August, something we have never done at any point, for the reasons explained above. Secondly, they also said we would have to pay for Sky Sports for the next 30 days, again, something which has never happened in the past. Usually Sky Sports is turned off, we are charged for the days we have used it that month and, if necessary, our account is credited with the difference.

The slightly arrogant customer service advisor, with our full annual account history in front of him detailing the rolling 12 month contract, also told us if we turned any other channels off, it would mean a new 12 month contract.

I called Virgin Media today with the sole purpose of turning Sky Sports off, an annual task each May, potentially turning it back on in August and entering into a new 12 month deal, which costs us about £100 a month. By the time I got off the phone I had decided to leave Virgin Media, a company I have been with for twenty years, because they are openly and arrogantly trying to con me.

I would never have agreed to an 18 month contract. I asked the customer service advisor to contact the person I spoke to when making the deal and he said he could not do that because that person was in another department. I asked him to look at our annual history of 12 month contracts, that mad no difference, by the end of the call I was asking for further services to be reduced and I was being 'threatened' with a new 12 month contract if I reduced the package.

Something has gone wrong at Virgin Media, the dweeb I spoke to was merely carrying out instructions, I understand that. I am now waiting for a call back off a manager, something which I have been told will take between 24 and 48 hours.

If you thinking of signing up to Virgin Media, whether it is broadband, TV or phone, my advice would be don't do it. If you do sign up, make sure you receive your contract in writing and make sure you return it signed, a process they do not require and now we know why.

As I say, we have been with Virgin Media a long time, even suffering the awfully slow Tivo equipment, try using BBC IPlayer on it as an example of how slow it can be. The customer service has changed, the service is no longer transparent and the company are out to con their customers into longer contracts they never agreed to and extra payments where possible.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Haha - You get my written Kudos. just because it's been 20 years since I heard someone call someone else a "dweeb" and it's made my day :D

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

I had no idea that changing your TV package incurred a new contract, I thought the package tiers could be moved up and down freely during a contract period as long as you kept the base service at least.

Shows what I know.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

VM do state on your bill if you change your package, you will lose any discounts on your account. A very difficult company to deal with, especially these days. Still on a countdown to cancel, 30 days notice isn't it?

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

I'm in the same boat was on an old premier package which is now called the Big Khauna.

Virgin offered me a deal because the wife explained to them the £87 was too much a month so was going to drop down the BB to lowest tier and at least move onto the BK price which was about £15 a month cheaper than on the same old package price we were paying.

So VM did a deal £56 a month with sky movies and moved us onto 200mb. I then noticed they had entered into an 18month contract with our deal due to run out in OCT 16 moving us to £97 a month.

They did say call in 9 months and they can do a deal but I certainly won't be paying £97 a month

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Get a cheap course off Groupon, get a NUS extra card - get a 9 month contract with a stupidly low price

I'm considering it!

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Some of what I'm reading here seems like very shady practice indeed.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Not really shady, totally legal actually. Sorry if you feel otherwise.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

There now seems to be an arrogance towards long time customers that did not exist previously I too was advised last year to call back when deal run out to be told that the price quoted was the only price available take it or leave now on the last 30 days as VM customer

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Is refusing to offer discounts having had some people not pay full price for a decade or more and asking them to pay the list price arrogant or just business? Seems a little odd to claim that VM asking people to pay the price per the price list is more arrogant than a customer expecting to never pay the list price.

EDIT: This is assuming it was list price offered. Can't say that for sure could've just been that they refused to negotiate as is their absolute right.

Could be a few reasons why they seemed to have changed policy. One possibility is that they look back on past pricing and how many discounts people have had in the past.

If people were promised deals if they called later the person who messed up was the one who gave a promise they had no way of keeping. If people were just told to call back when the current discount period ran out they were promised nothing.

I wonder if it has ended up with so many people on so many discounts it's actually become more viable to take the churn hit for now. Perhaps Ben can advise.

I believe the churn figures have dropped a bit anyway and VM are getting great uptake from the Project Lightning programme. While the new customers obviously need installing they are, at least, actually paying full price for the last 6 months of their 18 month contract, and even with the introductory discounts seem to be paying considerably more during the discount period and more still over the 18 month period than people under constant 'loyalty' discounts as reported here do.

If it calms anyone though VM have a long history of going through these spells, then they are soon back to the normal process of VM people claiming that retentions staff are limited as to the deals they can offer, then people reporting on here and elsewhere that they have had that limited deal applied to their bundle, plus free line rental, plus an ongoing loyalty discount, plus free cookies when they hit the right member of retentions.

This is likely a response to Sky and TalkTalk easing up on their special deals, too. Those kicking back in with a vengeance will see things change.

Normal service will be resumed shortly I'm sure. I wonder how much better VM's tech support would be if they had fewer people on the discounts line and more on UK tech support?

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Having re-negotiated my price recently, it would seem that retention deals typically come with a new minimum contract period of 12 months and the discount lasting a further 6 months, 18 months in total.
This was all well documented on an electronic copy of a contract I was asked to e-sign.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

The e-contract I've been sent, doesn't specify the promotional period although I verbally agreed 6months (Sky Sports & Movies are involved, I don't know whether there's less leeway here). The contract says that the promotional period should be specified, but it isn't.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

VM should stop implying that discounts would continue after the initial term, by calling back, that would help. In fact I would consider that customers could cancel their contracts if the implied rates agreed were broken. Everyone here can see that people get different rates for the same package and VM and ex-VM staff shouldn't be surprised that others ask about getting similar discounts - all you have to do is ask. It's obvious that VM want to extract as much as possible from each customer these days, and they should expect much higher churn rates with all the alternatives now. Do we have to record every conversation with VM?

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

It would be nice to be in a position to have choice.

I've considered leaving VM but I am too used to solid 200Mb bb speeds.

BT can offer up to 8Mb and guarantee 2MB! ....erm no thanks. $ky, talk talk and t'others use BT lines

We use netflix, youtube and prime video far more than TV so VM is the only option.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

If I'd meant 'illegal' I'd have said it actually. It's clearly not illegal and I used the term 'shady' to describe a practice which I don't think is fair or indicative of good customer service. Sorry if you feel otherwise.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Thought I might give you all an update.

I rang back last week, I was in my 30 day cancellation notice period. I wanted a price for just BB, and ditch land line and take free view for TV. The girl in retentions said it would be £31 per month. I said I could go to Talk Talk and get fibre for free for a year, and just pay line rental. The girl immediately went off on one, abruptly telling me that VM were the only true fibre network blah blah blah. To which I replied that actually VM network is fibre to the DP, copper to the mux cab, and in my case Doscis 2 to my property. She then went on about my TiVo at which point I told her I was ex staff.......she then started calling me sir, and become somewhat more polite lol. I just wanted the best deal, and I was offered didiley squat so the call was ended and I was generally very disappointed.

Anyhow 3 hours later I got a call from VM outbound retentions, who offered me BB and telco for £19.99 per month, so I took it.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

:tu:

So you have to argue not to be ripped off. Right now I'd be quite happy to ditch VM entirely and stick to Freeview for TV and someone.else for BB. I'll be working on Mrs Osem to get her to see sense too.

Re: Cancelled Virgin
 

Initially there was no arguing involved, I was told that I needed the fast BB and I would have to pay a premium rate for it!!!