Being held hostage!
 

Just off the phone with VM cancellations, and I'm absolutely fuming.

Last year we signed up for a package and although we don't use TV/Phone, we were told to try it out for a year and cancel if we didn't use it anymore. It worked out cheaper than BB on its own, so fine. We haven't really used it at all, but the VIVID 200 Gamer is great.

Called today to cancel those services and save a bit of money. Told they no longer sell 200 Gamer and the only way to cancel those services would be to switch to the inferior VIVID 200. VIVID 350 isn't available in our area, or I'd gladly switch to that.

If they'd have matched the price of BB only and left me where I am I'd be happy, but the best he could do was about £3/mo off. I'd be happy to send them back the TiVo box - we just don't use it.

Has anyone else found themselves in this situation? We're in a new build development so if they didn't put in 350 at the time I can't imagine them doing it any time soon.

I find it impossible to believe that nobody at VM can make this happen. I'm not looking for any sort of discount. In fact I'd even be wiling to pay the £50/mo for the VIVID350 and continue to receive the 200 Gamer if necessary.

Re: Being held hostage!
 

You'd save money by cancelling the TV package and keeping the phone.

Attachment 27524

Re: Being held hostage!
 

The problem is, they can't make any changes to my package without downgrading me from VIVID 200 Gamer to the VIVID 200, which has all the traffic shaping and lower upload speed.

If the VIVID 350 was available in my area, I'd gladly pay for that, but it isn't.

EDIT: OK, so traffic shaping no longer on any package. But the real-term upload is almost halved, and 20Mb/s was hardly generous on a world stage to begin with.

Re: Being held hostage!
 

That's life, the gamer package no longer exists. Vivid 350 will get to you eventually, the whole of the network cannot be upgraded at the same time.

Re: Being held hostage!
 

Our whole area was only activated last year, so if they didn't bother to install 350Mb at that time, I can't see that it'll be a priority to install it soon.

I wish the sales staff hadn't sold me on the TV+Phone package on the basis that I could just remove them after 12 months.

Turns out that was a lie. I'm discussing options with VM business who can still offer 200/20. That might be a better option for us, even if it costs the same as the current package.

I find it incredible that you don't see VM's behaviour here as unsavoury. I hope that the manager who calls me back will be able to find the person who can push the button and sort it out.

Re: Being held hostage!
 

Do you have VIVID 300 as an option which becomes VIVID 350 when your area upgraded?

Re: Being held hostage!
 

Sadly not. I'd be happy to pay the £50/mo for VIVID 350 if it was available. The 'best' option in my area now for sale is the VIVID 200 with the 12Mb/s upload.

As far as I can tell they don't offer the VIVID 300 now. If they did (and the upload was 20Mb/s) I'd just switch to that happily.

Spoke to a manager and she wasn't able to help at all. I guess we need to decide whether we want to continue to pay for services we don't use, or take a massive cut in upload speed. Best they can do on the current package is £62.24/mo, or £43 for the VIVID 200 solus broadband.

VM Business can offer the 200/20 service but it comes in at £62.40 inc. VAT. Tempting to switch the TV and Phone for 24 hour fault fixing and dedicated support though. 🤷*♂️

Re: Being held hostage!
 

How much is it for vivid 200 + telephone? Did you ask?

Re: Being held hostage!
 

I didn't ask specifically for the price, but she said it was more expensive than the broadband on it's own. Seeing as we don't use it, no point paying for it.

Re: Being held hostage!
 

Broadband on its own has always been more expensive.

Re: Being held hostage!
 

Beware the 24 hour SLA. The service is provided over the residential infrastructure. Any noise fault, for example, will affect all the users on your optical node and that may well not get fixed in 24 hours. What the small print means is that they'll get an engineer/technician out to you within 24 hours; doesn't mean the fault gets fixed in that time. That said, area faults are rare.

The other caution is that if you take the business service, make sure that you will use Dynamic rather than Static IP addressing. The latter takes you through a very badly implemented VPN tunnel with considerable speed penalty.

Re: Being held hostage!
 

Oh, that is very good to know. Thanks for the heads up! I'm exploring a couple more avenues with VM before I make a decision.

---------- Post added at 13:30 ---------- Previous post was at 13:27 ----------

So did she lie to me then?

I can see online for new customers there's a deal with phone for £37/mo for 12 months, then £52/mo thereafter.

Standalone online is £45, and she offered me £43 (HUGE discount there).

Perhaps the £37/mo price is just not available even to retention managers?

Re: Being held hostage!
 

The £37/mo will be for new customers unless I’m mistaken.