Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Just a bit of advice please?

I'm going to give notice on boxing day to terminate my TV and fixed line services. I aim to keep just the broadband service and don't need to be on the highest tier any longer so 50MB will be fine.

I haven't used the fixed line for over 2 years and we have already signed up and have Sky installed with the Box Sets package and have been rewarded with a FREE Xbox One S with a FIFA 17.

Got fed up with the price rises over the last year and stopped feeling like we were getting value for any longer.

Will I be able to sign up for the next year with the 50MB service for £18 per month?

Will I have to pay any activation fees?

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

That's what I did a few months back when they announced the latest price rise.

I asume you will be outside of your minimum term? There won't be any activation fees to pay, but you won't be eligible for the £18 broadband as that offer is for new customers only. You'll need to negotiate with them against the standard 50mb price of £32.25 per month.

If you can't agree a price you're happy with, a good strategy might be to give 30 days notice for all services and wait for a call back from the outbound retentions team as you'll likely be able to get a bigger discount from them. Just make sure your landline is plugged in though!

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I'm out of contract as of 26th January 2017 hence the reason for giving notice on Boxing Day. Really sad that there were 3 price rises within a year.

I'm hoping as a long term customer of around 11 years they might wish to give me the basic broadband service for around £25 to keep me happy.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Loyalty counts for nothing, I'm afraid. It's the luck of the draw on the day - it depends who answers your call and how many credits they have left to offer customers.
Having said that, I managed to get that price. But if they know you want to keep the broadband, there's less of an incentive for them to offer discounts ;)

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I'll try and be nice and polite on the phone and keep my fingers tightly crossed.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Why expect loyalty? Why pays less just because you are a customers of,say a few years?

It's cost to run, to upgrade and to bring new Tech in so there is a cost we must pay.

Why is there an expectation of paying less or constantly getting deals. If you can get a better deal then go for it, if you can't then leave and get the same from another provider, I.E price rises and paying more than new customers, it's all the same.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I think we're on the same page here... that's exactly what I did when I switched my TV and landline away, because Virgin couldn't compete on price. But I'm also of the opinion that I shouldn't pay £32 for something I know Virgin are happy to sell me for £25 per month. I'd much rather that extra £7 was in my pocket, rather than Mr Malone's.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

What about this deal then, no line rental required!!!!! Up to 50Mb!!!



Fibre broadband only £231 for 1yr*
£18/MTH, £14.99 UPFRONT, NO LINE RENT NEEDED and this is from Virgin, saw it on the Martin Lewis site.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Thats a new customer offer. Only way this could work if he closes the lot down and get anyone else in the household to sign up for it.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Yeah i know that mate, but here we go again eh, loyal customers paying through the friggin nose as usual, this nonsense about having to take a landline is one big CON...............:mad:

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I agree with you mate. But every customer goes through the process of paying the cheaper rate to full price. I personally love my VM service and think its worth every penny. Fair enough the Tivos a pile a ***** but my broadband is perfect and the service I receive is fantastic.

Virgin medias stayed loyal to me by providing a great service.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Well, the V6 sorts out the problem with the Tivos, so one problem less!

Just a bit of work on the content now and we have a pretty good service, I would say.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Yes having a landline is a big con MM as that l can agree with you but sadly or shall l say wisely l have to have one in our home at all times because it can be a matter of life or death for some.:)

---------- Post added at 09:24 ---------- Previous post was at 09:22 ----------

Good grief can you please say that again OB :D as its unusually a rather different tone then what we have been hearing from you of late.:D

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I'll keep you all updated next week and hope to avoid paying £32.25 for 50MB.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I think what people are objecting to, Den, is the compulsory payment for a land line that some don't want to use at all.

I don't think I have said anything different with regard to the Tivo. My beefs have always been:

1. Slow performance of the Tivo - sorted with the V6

2. No Sky Atlantic - this could get sorted before much longer, one way or another.

3. Lack of streaming services - which may be sorted before long with the V6.

One down, two to go!

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

People don't have to use the line or pay for it unless they want broadband or telephone services down it. But as VM's biggest selling points is its broadband I suspect they want at least one of these services. As they say, a dog's not just for Christmas and line rental is not just for phone calls.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

What do you mean exactly? I don't need a landline, like probably thousands of others like me, all I need is the BB and TV, but they force you to take the landline and tell you this will make your package cheaper, I just don't get that bit at all!

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I've seen it where broadband can work out cheaper with a landline (even if you never use it).

Could be useful for the free weekend landline & Virgin Mobile calls though.

Now I've found out what VM are like these days, there will no longer be any loyalty from me and I will be repeatedly asking for cut price deals instead of just accepting things like I used to.

If they don't give me what I want, they'll be swiftly dumped for both personal and commercial services.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I think you should have moved to Sky so you could see that the grass is not greener on the other side, Richard.

Did you see the Watchdog report on Sky Q this week? Maybe not such a good idea, then. Still, there's always Talk Talk :erm:

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

OK, so I made the call yesterday and managed to get the following offer after terminating just the TiVo service.

70MB broadband and kept the telephone line as VM say it's cheaper that way and agreed to pay £29 per month on a 12 month contract.

This was effective immediately.

Can't complain as Sky Fibre Max is £35 so I feel I'm getting good value for money and no interruptions in the house with our broadband connection.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

BEWARE As you have re-contracted, you won't get 70Mb broadband. You need to clarify which speed you'll be getting, likely 50Mb.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I'd be interested to know what speed he'll get.

I was on 70 but had 18 months of over utilisation and was paying about £13.

When they sorted the issue they wanted to charge me about £28, i said no and then got 50 for £23.25 a month.

This is without a phoneline although when i had an engineer visit recently he said the phone line is still working.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I've done a few speed tests earlier this morning although I can't post the result on here at this time as I'm at work and have achieved 70MB down and 5MB up.

Just check the email from Virgin and it's says Bundle Charges

Talk Weekends
SuperFibre 70

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Yes, I made a thread about it in the Sky forum to find out more.

You can't make out that the appalling VM CS is better than it is by comparing it to any services that are even worse. If it's crap, it's crap.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Appalling? Well, that hasn't been my experience over all the years I have had cable tv.

I can only wonder why your experience has been so different but I will avoid the temptation to second guess! :p:

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Indeed we have been with cable for yonks now and the customer service has always been very good.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Do you think its possible that VM CS staff don't like speaking to obnoxious individuals and therefore come across different than they do to those people who are not obnoxious?

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I don't know, but personally, if it was left to me and I wasn't bound otherwise to company policy, I wouldn't do any favours to such people who try to bully their way to getting what they want.

If it didn't pay, maybe they wouldn't be so rude or demanding.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Up until three and a half years ago I used to get terrible service from VM despite always being polite with them (maybe I should have been obnoxious!).

One or more of my services was going down every 3 or 4 months and I was made to jump through several hoops to get them fixed.
Things came to a head for me when my mum was terminally ill in hospital, a time I needed to be in contact with family, friends and doctors and my broadband and landline went down.
I had explained my situation to VM and three times over the course of four weeks they cancelled my tech visit each time saying they had fixed a network fault and the visit was no longer required and each time my services hadn't been restored.
Not having the time, patience or inclination to deal with them anymore at that stressful period I just cancelled all my services with them on the third occasion it happened (still being polite while I did so)

I don't know what that action triggered or if my account has been marked for special attention since then but two weeks later I got a call asking what they could do to keep me as a customer, I said nothing and explained what happened, they then promised to fix everything inside 48 hours and offered me a great deal to stay.
Everything was fixed in that timescale, I had a tech call me several times over the next couple of months to make sure all was still ok and I have had nothing but exceptional service from them ever since.

I guess if there's a moral to my story its that there are some great CS staff working at VM and some very bad ones too and its pot luck who you get whatever your attitude is when dealing with them.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

We kept the BB on the phone. And l remember when we told a VM Rep in Hunslow that we went over to Sky.

He said did they offer you a deal. We told him what it was. His answer was 'we cant beat that' typical.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I am growing tired of these poorly veiled insults from you. A further screenshot has been taken should I need to take matters further.

I didn't bully anybody, I merely drew the attention of the indifferent attitude of frontline employees towards customer retention to the attention of a senior manager.

Besides, good customer service should not depend on the whim of any particular call centre employee. It should be consistent across the board, regardless of how any caller expresses themselves.

To not do so is likely to be a breach of the Equalities Act.

A young lady with severe learning and communication difficulties who was learning to try and live independently in the community walked into a shop, pointed to an item and simply said "milk" .

This met with the displeasure of the shopkeeper who was rude, stroppy and unhelpful in return. The poor girl was subject to such comments as "what's the magic word", "were you dragged up" etc and was left in a confused and frightened state- all because this shopkeeper was ignorant and egotistical.

In this instance, an out of court settlement of compensation, an apology and an undertaking to undergo disability awareness training was agreed as an alternative to prosecution.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

WOW

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Why the "wow"?

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Had a look at the config file on the Super Hub 3 and noticed the down stream was 80500000.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

I have to say, I've been a customer of Virgin, NTL, and C&W before that, and always been delighted with the CS. I was on the trial for one of the new superhubs, and several times had engineers round to fix problems I was unaware of. I've called to report faults and had engineers the next day.

I recently called to discuss the installation of the new V6 box which I was swapping for the old V+ box, and ended up with a reduction in monthly costs.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Were you polite and courteous to the agents?

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

That counts for a lot going by my own experiences.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Indeed, but as I said above, treating people less favourably because of the way that they express themselves can be unlawful.

Also, it should not be down to how an individual employee is feeling when someone contacts a company that they work for.

Fair, clear and open policies are essential.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

It's only unlawful if it can be shown to be directly related to a disability or one of the defined characteristics listed in the Equality Act.

If you are disabled but the obnoxious behaviour was not directly related to the disability, then this is not grounds for alleging discrimination on grounds of disability.

Re: Leaving Virgin Media's TV and fixed line services
 

Are you telling me if someone came screaming at you and threatening you with XYZ you would not treat them differently?

From previous experience working in CS for a mobile provider I have came to the conclusion that the majority of people are ********* when they have a phone in their hand. Whats that? You want your service restriction lifted because your aunties dug has autism and not being able to play the tablets apps harms his development? Naw hen, pay you bills on time. If the tablet data is so important to your dug then why not pay on time.