What's the best way to upgrade?

[J@ffa]

Hi all! I'm bowing to the superior knowledge of the members here with regards to Virgin Media's services.

At the moment I get my broadband, and just my broadband, from Virgin. I've been a member for many years and pay £37.99 a month for 20MB. Given that Be offer 24mb ADSL for less than £20, I'd like to change this. What I really fancy is the XL tv package with whatever I need for the HDness (the box? more money?). The key is that:

a) I don't really want to pay more than I already am (and ideally I'd end up paying less!), and

b) I don't want or need telephone service from VM. I'll take it if it makes things cheaper or I have to, but I'll just end up sticking the phone stuff to gather dust in a cupboard.

I'd be happy to drop down to 10mb if it made things easier/cheaper/etc. So: what's the best way to go about all this? Any promotions, tricks, etc? I'd appreciate any advice.

[MovedGoalPosts]

The point to remember is that although you may not need phone services from VM, you are going to be paying somebody for a phone line rental if you go down the ADSL route. Remember too that with ADSL the speed you get is likely to be much less than the 24 meg maximum due to the line distance / quality so all things might not be as cheap as it seems. With the way VM's pricing works you don't save much by not having the VM phone line.

For HD you need at least VM's new V HD box, or V+ if you want the PVR functions. YOu should already be entitled to the basic Virgin "M" TV with your current packages, but that won't include any of the HD stuff.

[J@ffa]

That makes sense. Still, the 10MB + the XL TV package is £35.50 a month plus £11.99 a month for a phone line I don't want. How do I work out what it would be without the phone line, or alternatively, can I negotiate a better deal somehow?

Add at least £6 onto the bundles as XL TV alone is £6 more without a Virgin phone line.

[RobboEdin]

Originally Posted by J@ffa

That makes sense. Still, the 10MB + the XL TV package is £35.50 a month plus £11.99 a month for a phone line I don't want. How do I work out what it would be without the phone line, or alternatively, can I negotiate a better deal somehow?

I think BB L and TV XL without any phoneline is £42.50, assuming ebilling and DD.

BB L and TV L is £30.50 and I think TV XL is £12 more than TV L.

Based on this webpage:

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/webs...ct.do?id=11025

[J@ffa]

Am I likely to get anywhere negotiating a lower monthly rate with the retentions people? What sort of movement are they able to offer in terms of lowering the standard rate? I think I've read in the past of people having some success with this approach…