loyalty bonus

[Alan Peach]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

I haven't a clue - what it should be called is a 'Price Match' bundle because that is what it is designed to do. Price Match against a competitors specific set of services

thats why its wrong being called a Loyalty bonus.Which is basically fooling existing customers into thinking there getting something there not.

As soon as you here or see the words Loyalty you feel valued as a customer,thats why i think its a marketing con.Yes it isnt advertised but its used on your bill and spoke about if you ring up about issues with bills.Basically its used as calming influence and when you sit down and examine it a loyalty bonus should mean you as a customer of long standing are getting something others are not .This is simply not the case therefore its a con!!.

You can look at it however you want to - and if there was another alternative without having to have an ugly dish on the side of my house i would be gone as Virgin,ntl etc etc have not given me anything for being with them for years.

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by Alan Peach

have not given me anything for being with them for years.

Name me a company that does reward loyalty.

I've been with all my utility companies for years, and the only thing they ever give me is over estimated bills that I have to phone up to correct nearly every quarter.

The whole "I've been with you for years so you must reward me" thing is rubbish, like you're somehow doing them a favour by taking their services and are getting nothing out of it.

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

The Loyalty discounts do not run out after 12 months so yes it should continue

Ben correct me if I'm wrong, it has been known but shouldn't the OP's standard V box be priced at £9.75pm not £14.95pm.
I say this because up until a year ago I too was paying £14.95pm for a second stb until I found out VM had it posted as £9.75pm on their website.?

[Alan Peach]

Originally Posted by TheDon

Name me a company that does reward loyalty.

I've been with all my utility companies for years, and the only thing they ever give me is over estimated bills that I have to phone up to correct nearly every quarter.

The whole "I've been with you for years so you must reward me" thing is rubbish, like you're somehow doing them a favour by taking their services and are getting nothing out of it.

Name me a company that gives you a LOYALTY BONUS !!.

Touche my friend

---------- Post added at 08:38 ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 ----------

You seem to be missing the point because your either employed by them in some way i would think.

There making that type of thing happen where you expect something back for years of service.

By the very FACT there calling it a LOYALTY BONUS !!

Dont you get it ggrrrrrrrr.

Its not us expecting anything or at least i dont.But when you get a daft company calling it a loyalty bonus and your actually when you examine it are getting nothing its nothing but a CON !!.

Do you see what we mean now or do you have your virgin blinkers on ?.

I don't care what they call it, I'm just happy my bill is reduced (silly old pragmatist me.... )

[Alan Peach]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

I don't care what they call it, I'm just happy my bill is reduced (silly old pragmatist me.... )

Dohhh

But your bill isnt reduced is it .

Its all a big marketing ploy to make newbies think there getting a discount and oldies a special discount for loyalty.itsall a load of rubbish.They might as well put one price up and stick to it -all its doing is confusing folk and getting them angry by false claims of loyalty bonus.

Its a bit like these carpet/furniture stores that have hurry hurry last day of sale adverts.And you find they shuffled the prices round on stuff so they can call it a new sale the very next day.

If my bill isn't reduced, how come I am paying less than before?

I was paying one amount (the standard at the time for my package); I informed VM a competitor could provide similar services for less than I was paying; VM reduced my bill to less than it was before -ergo, my bill was reduced.

Doohhhh! right backatcha.

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by Alan Peach

Name me a company that gives you a LOYALTY BONUS !!.

Touche my friend

---------- Post added at 08:38 ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 ----------

You seem to be missing the point because your either employed by them in some way i would think.

There making that type of thing happen where you expect something back for years of service.

By the very FACT there calling it a LOYALTY BONUS !!

Dont you get it ggrrrrrrrr.

Its not us expecting anything or at least i dont.But when you get a daft company calling it a loyalty bonus and your actually when you examine it are getting nothing its nothing but a CON !!.

Do you see what we mean now or do you have your virgin blinkers on ?.

No, I'm not employed by them.

Loyalty discounts, as have been mentioned, are different to bundle pricing because they price match competitors. That by definition is a loyalty discount, it's a discount to encourage loyalty by price matching an offer that they could have got elsewhere, essentially they're not rewarding your loyalty, they are buying it by price matching so the incentive to switch providers is no longer there.

Now currently that doesn't mean much, as VM's standard pricing is on par with their competitors (and in some cases below) so any loyalty price matching deals will essentially be the same as new customer deals, because VM have oddly enough worked out that to get new customers they have to at least match their competitors pricing.

That you expect a loyalty discount to be them giving you cut price services doesn't change the fact that the loyalty discounts ARE there to encourage loyalty.

I'm also not missing the point at all, your point was quite clear:

if there was another alternative without having to have an ugly dish on the side of my house i would be gone as Virgin,ntl etc etc have not given me anything for being with them for years.

You'd switch providers because they haven't given you any special discounts, that has nothing to do with them calling something a loyalty discount that you don't think is, and everything to do with you thinking they should somehow reward you for long service by discounting your bills.

Have you seen anyone try to get a discount from Sky? It's a case of pay the advertised price or do one, they won't even price match competitors.

[bonzoe]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Why should you? If anything the people who are on the Loyalty deals are exactly the people who have no Loyalty and are the first ones to go 'Well if you won't give me free X,Y,Z I'm off to Sky'

Not quite correct, I get a loyalty bonus, NOT because I threatened to leave, but because I was told by someone in CS that new prices were coming the following month and to ring and enquire. That is what I did, no threats from any side.

Just shows that if you speak to CS politely, it does pay!

[Arthurgray50@blu]

Lets put it this way, and once again, l am not prasing VM in any way BUT VM will help you out, Don't forget VM want you as a customer, if l contacted Sky and said l was having difficulty in paying the bill due to illness or left job, and l pay them £80.00 per month and l am on multiroom, they wouldn't give a damn, they would tell you to reduce the package. To ease your burden. With VM, they would arrange a way for you to keep your package on a reduce rate to help you out, that is what l call a loyalty discount and they kept there word, l do have VM on all counts, and that is what a good company they are (did l say that, l need an anadin).

[musicbravo]

Name me a company that does reward loyalty

Orange reward me for my loyalty, i get an extra 5% off my service charges year on year. currently up to 30% monthly discount. Do not know what the maximum discount is but i'm sure the increase in discounts probably only ofsets the annual price increases anyway. Although Orange don't seem as expensive as they used to be.

[BenMcr]

To be honest I would rather Virgin get everyone onto the same price for the services they already do before they start thinking about Loyalty bonuses - but then that's just my view

[musicbravo]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

To be honest I would rather Virgin get everyone onto the same price for the services they already do before they start thinking about Loyalty bonuses - but then that's just my view

Defintely, there is far too much disparity between what people are paying. For instance my household, my parent's household and my partner's mum's household all pay different amounts for the same services. We get a retentions discount, which i didnt ask for and only got when i enquired why girlfriend's mum was getting more for the same money. My parent's then did the same but they have since lost the discounts.

I do not think loyalty discounts are the be all and end all as long as the quality of service is high including both customer services and BB/TV/telephone combos. IMHO I still believe that the out sourcing of customer services to India should stop (This after another 20 min ordeal of CS telling me an email address my Mum had been using for 10 years didnt exist, when we wanted the password resetting as my mum had forgotten it and somehow VM have deleted the master email address so we couldnt check the password through My virgin Media)

[frogstamper]

While I'm normally more than happy to put the verbal boot into any of Murdoch's companies, in the case of Sky the prices on their website for their TV, BB and Tel are far simpler than VM's convoluted offering.

[oliver1948uk]

As Arthur said a few posts back, you can negotiate prices with VM. As a long standing customer, I have often felt hard done by when I have seen offers for new customers. However, a calm, polite but persistant phone call has often led to me being put on a better deal than I thought possible, though you sometimes have to ring several times to get a sympathetic person on the other end. (That is the worse part about it.)

Perhaps my records reveal I have always paid on time and only ring in with reasonable cause. (Could an employee confirm whether such information is kept?)

I am making full use of the Virgin Mobile perks for customers for many members of my family, including a 5 pound dongle which I did not think I would be entitled to.

I find Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile far easier to deal with than firms such as Orange and O2 who will not even listen to me, even when the case is reasonable (in my opinion!)