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

[jeffs]

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.

[Superblade7]

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.

[Gary L]

Sky.

[johnathome]

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.

[Kabaal]

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.

[greeninferno]

Originally Posted by jeffs

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.

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

[jeffs]

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.

[jeffs]

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.

[geordiechris]

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.

[vincerooney]

Originally Posted by jeffs

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.

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!

[Taf]

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.

[geordiechris]

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

[montehampster]

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!

[johnathome]

Originally Posted by montehampster

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


Saved me an absolute fortune!

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

[Mad Max]

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!