General Virgin staff giving out duff info to upsell broadband.

RichardCoulter · 07-02-2023, 16:57

I received a phone call yesterday offering me faster broadband for an extra £7 per month. He went on to say that, if I took this offer, I would escape the forthcoming price rise in May.

After being given duff information from these people before (they said that if I took Sky Movies again, they would throw in Sky Movies On Demand, which is usually chargeable. I knew this was complete BS as this is included anyway), so I no longer trust them.

I spoke to retentions earlier this afternoon and she confirmed that:

- My price increase had not yet been calculated.

- That it would be about £5 at the most.

- That if I had of accepted the offer made yesterday, I would still have had to pay a price increase, in fact it would be more as there would have been an extra increase for the upgraded broadband speed.

She did helpfully say that if people rang them after receiving the price rise email to comlain about it, that they would get £2 or £3 knocked off the price increase.

Forewarned is forearmed!

jfman · 07-02-2023, 17:41

I can’t believe that one guy is this unlucky.

Itshim · 07-02-2023, 18:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

I can’t believe that one guy is this unlucky.

He's on a list , give him a call , have fun , bonus if you can get rid of him

RichardCoulter · 07-02-2023, 20:15

It's not just me that this has been/will be being done to. A quick search of the internet shows this.

Be prepared to check everything out if that offshore call centre calls you with an 'amazing' offer. I suspect that they purposely lie to generate sales because they are on commission. If I had of accepted this offer yesterday I would have ended up paying more and be locked into an 18 month contract.

jfman · 07-02-2023, 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

It's not just me that this has been/will be being done to. A quick search of the internet shows this.

Be prepared to check everything out if that offshore call centre calls you with an 'amazing' offer. I suspect that they purposely lie to generate sales because they are on commission. If I had of accepted this offer yesterday I would have ended up paying more and be locked into an 18 month contract.

Who are “these people” and “them”, in particular what makes retentions (also Virgin employees) and more trustworthy?

Mr K · 07-02-2023, 20:45

Opt out of marketing Richard. Silence is golden

Never buy anything from someone that approaches you out of the blue, be it on the doorstep or phone...
I ring VM with the deal I have mind, not them ringing me with the one they've got....

RichardCoulter · 07-02-2023, 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr K

Opt out of marketing Richard. Silence is golden

Never buy anything from someone that approaches you out of the blue, be it on the doorstep or phone...
I ring VM with the deal I have mind, not them ringing me with the one they've got....

Good idea. The problem with this is that you can lose out on useful promotions. I've had free Sky Cinema and free phone calls in the past. Admittedly this was before Malone & O2 became involved, so I may reconsider.

Going forward I will now definitely check out that anything is actually as described for anything that i''m interested in that they offer me

---------- Post added at 21:56 ---------- Previous post was at 21:50 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

Who are “these people” and “them”, in particular what makes retentions (also Virgin employees) and more trustworthy?

They are the outward bound sales team.

Fair point Re: Retentions. If they too are on commission, they too may be tempted to lie to get a sale.

jfman · 07-02-2023, 22:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

They are the outward bound sales team.

Fair point Re: Retentions. If they too are on commission, they too may be tempted to lie to get a sale.

I fail to see why they would. The calls are recorded. It’s easily evidenced what was (or wasn’t) offered during the call.

RichardCoulter · 08-02-2023, 12:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

I fail to see why they would. The calls are recorded. It’s easily evidenced what was (or wasn’t) offered during the call.

Not as simple as that. I think you'll find that, when the call is in the customers favour, it will be 'unavailable'

I was told that I could stay on Full House, and we agreed on a price. When it came to it, i'd been moved over to Maxit at £23 a month more!

I called to complain and was told that Maxit had the same channels as Full House (it doesn't as it has lots missing) and they wouldn't budge on price.

I invited them to listen to the call but, surprise, surprise, it "wasn't available'".

I then cancelled my account and was told that I could have Mixit and the Entertainment pick along with the Drama Pick for virtually nothing. Now why would they do that if they hadn't listened to the call?

I accepted this as this had all the channels I wanted and was even cheaper than the bogus offer i'd agreed to. Even better now thst more channels have been moved down to Mixit, including a load of HD channels the other week. By attempting to scam me, they are receiving even less money!

There are lots of similar incidents on the internet should you wish to verify this.

If you still think it's not true you are perfectly entitled not to heed my warning. Some deals offered are correct, but many are not, so it's pot luck as to whether you get lied to or not.

punkrock101 · 11-02-2023, 14:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Not as simple as that. I think you'll find that, when the call is in the customers favour, it will be 'unavailable'

I was told that I could stay on Full House, and we agreed on a price. When it came to it, i'd been moved over to Maxit at £23 a month more!

I called to complain and was told that Maxit had the same channels as Full House (it doesn't as it has lots missing) and they wouldn't budge on price.

I invited them to listen to the call but, surprise, surprise, it "wasn't available'".

I then cancelled my account and was told that I could have Mixit and the Entertainment pick along with the Drama Pick for virtually nothing. Now why would they do that if they hadn't listened to the call?

I accepted this as this had all the channels I wanted and was even cheaper than the bogus offer i'd agreed to. Even better now thst more channels have been moved down to Mixit, including a load of HD channels the other week. By attempting to scam me, they are receiving even less money!

There are lots of similar incidents on the internet should you wish to verify this.

If you still think it's not true you are perfectly entitled not to heed my warning. Some deals offered are correct, but many are not, so it's pot luck as to whether you get lied to or not.

Why do you punish yourself staying with this joke of a company?

jfman · 11-02-2023, 15:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Not as simple as that. I think you'll find that, when the call is in the customers favour, it will be 'unavailable'

I was told that I could stay on Full House, and we agreed on a price. When it came to it, i'd been moved over to Maxit at £23 a month more!

I called to complain and was told that Maxit had the same channels as Full House (it doesn't as it has lots missing) and they wouldn't budge on price.

I invited them to listen to the call but, surprise, surprise, it "wasn't available'".

I then cancelled my account and was told that I could have Mixit and the Entertainment pick along with the Drama Pick for virtually nothing. Now why would they do that if they hadn't listened to the call?

I accepted this as this had all the channels I wanted and was even cheaper than the bogus offer i'd agreed to. Even better now thst more channels have been moved down to Mixit, including a load of HD channels the other week. By attempting to scam me, they are receiving even less money!

There are lots of similar incidents on the internet should you wish to verify this.

If you still think it's not true you are perfectly entitled not to heed my warning. Some deals offered are correct, but many are not, so it's pot luck as to whether you get lied to or not.

You won’t even heed your own warning, so why should I?

I’ve had Virgin on and off for years, and dealt with my parents account since the days of Telewest negotiating deals at every renewal point. Never once have I encountered anything reflective of the experience you have at seemingly every interaction with them.

RobboEdin · 11-02-2023, 17:19

Walter Mitty?

RichardCoulter · 11-02-2023, 17:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by punkrock101

Why do you punish yourself staying with this joke of a company?

Can't wait for City Fibre et al to expand .

---------- Post added at 17:38 ---------- Previous post was at 17:33 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

You won’t even heed your own warning, so why should I?

I’ve had Virgin on and off for years, and dealt with my parents account since the days of Telewest negotiating deals at every renewal point. Never once have I encountered anything reflective of the experience you have at seemingly every interaction with them.

As previously stated, this is not retentions, but the outbound sales team. I've only ever had an issue with retentions once (this last renewal time).

If you want to accept everything they say as gospel without checking things out before accepting a new contract etc, you are perfectly free to do so, especially if you personally haven't experienced this.

jfman · 11-02-2023, 17:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Can't wait for City Fibre et al to expand .

Why so you can phone Virgin, threaten to leave for CityFibre, accept Virgin’s retentions offer, dispute the details of said offer, threaten to cancel again, get an even better offer to stay with Virgin (of course, confirmed by a British call centre) then come here and tell us all about it?

You could do that anyway right now. The fact you can’t go to CityFibre is likely to be a negligible additional fiction to an already incredible story.

RichardCoulter · 11-02-2023, 17:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

Why so you can phone Virgin, threaten to leave for CityFibre, accept Virgin’s retentions offer, dispute the details of said offer, threaten to cancel again, get an even better offer to stay with Virgin (of course, confirmed by a British call centre) then come here and tell us all about it?

You could do that anyway right now. The fact you can’t go to CityFibre is likely to be a negligible additional fiction to an already incredible story.

I'm perfectly happy for you to believe that if it makes you happy. I have more important things to worry about right now.

I am now partially sighted, so posting is much more difficult. I can assure you that I don't waste my time posting things that are fictional.

I only wanted to warn other people of what's going on.