Virgin made a big effort to reach out to me and save me £17 a month, that I didnt ask for

TheyCallMeTJ

Distinguished Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
4,700
Reaction score
3,096
Points
1,251
Location
London
I have had my few quibbles with virginmedia over the years (I think I've been with them for about fifteen years now), especially when my bills suddenly go up without any courtesy warning, or the odd few downtimes, or the suspect "super" hub performance and limitations...but I never had any real huge major frustrations with them. And I always talk to them politely - after all, they are all just doing their job and likely working hard for their commissions . Overall, they are a good provider methinks with unquestionable fast broadband speed ranges and even though I feel I might be paying more than I should, I appreciate what I am getting...especially in this lockdown, its a bloody saviour!

But today, they unexpectedly gave me a huge lift in spirits. A few days ago, I rang them up to remove my landline. I was paying £46.50 for a 100mbs fibre plus landline (I used to have the highest speed for many years but realise it was overkill for me, 100mbs is more than enough). So that dropped my bill to £38 which will rise to £42 in August when the new tariff is introduced, from what I have been told is the standard rate for the 100mbs broadband. They didn't try to make me any offers or put me through to retentions (which I thought would be the norm for this sort of thing) so I just accepted the new billing (perhaps foolishly). Maybe because of the limited scope of the call centres during lockdown, they didn't have retentions staff!

But then this morning a strange mobile number called my phone and didnt leave any message. I never answer calls that I cannot identify. After searching the "who called me" website, it was an O2 number and somewhere in Leeds whom I have no connection to. So I left it at that. The same number persisted through the day though, and I kept ignoring it and I was even thinking about barring it...but then finally, a voicemail was left...and of course as you can guess, it was a virgin rep from retentions (you probably guessing this whole story but let me roll with it, lol). So this guy left a message that he heard I was dropping my landline and can do a deal that will be a lot cheaper than what I am currently paying without a landline. Naturally I called back, interest piqued.

And yes as I am sure you expected, he offered me landline with m100 broadband package for a much lower rate of £29 per month. And naturally, I said...Let me sleep on...no i didnt, I said YEAH OK!! like an excited puppy about to be given a doggy biscuit. But there had to be a catch. Why the hell would they make so much effort to reach me and get me to pay less and add back my landline to boot. Well he actually told me why, although I didn't quite get it as the details washed over my head but the company somehow profits more by the units sold in a package than what the actual package cost. So my reducing one unit (ie the landline), raised alarm bells and they rather have their customer pay a lot less for two units than what they pay for one unit. Perhaps one of you, who knows how this business works can enlighten me because as I said, that just went over my head when he explained it.

So, that just really made my day...lucky I didn't bar the number! Oh and btw, this person was calling from his own home and using his own mobile which ironically was not a Virgin, it was an O2 mobile which the website did reveal. Because of the lockdown, call centre staff are calling from their own mobiles. As he did not ask me for any security information or payment info (which I would not have offered), I felt safe enough he was genuine. But one has to be on alert with this sort of thing. I also recorded the whole conversation as I always do with my calls.

He never actually told me how long the contract will roll for. I will get an email within 48 hours giving more details so I will see and update here if any of you interested...but even if it is just for a year, that's a heck of a saving that I didn't even pursue.

So, did I get a good deal? You guys, paying less or more? Do you value your landline? It is actually recommended to always keep your landline connected as it is the most reliable phone connection for a home, especially for emergency calls and just having a landline number serves a purpose in some cases, such as a self employment business for instance. I just don't ever use it and don't feel the price I was paying worth it. I have 5 devices in the home that has calling features, two payg on different networks, two skype using the virgin wifi, and my own contract mobile phone. I never need the landline...but who knows, maybe a certain kind of emergency, that landline might prove a saviour.
 
My last call with a Virgin media salesman was when they called me with an offer to reduce my monthly payments, PLUS give me a SIM with Virgin mobile with included mins and data at no extra charge!
Went through everything, direct debit dates yada yada.
15 mins later towards the end he tells me that after 3 months the 50% monthly payment discount would cease!
I was like "you could have mentioned that right at the BEGINNING!"
What a waste of time.
 
I pay £40 a month for 350mb and landline with weekends only calls free. Just renewed a couple of months ago to get that deal so that £38 deal is not that great unless your getting more calls free in which case its good.
 
I pay £40 a month for 350mb and landline with weekends only calls free. Just renewed a couple of months ago to get that deal so that £38 deal is not that great unless your getting more calls free in which case its good.

£29 not £38....my post is long and rambling so I guess you didnt read past the first couple of paragraphs which is understandable! I am boring to read.

In fact my main point of the post was how Virgin seeked me out when I wasn't bothered about what I was currently paying and the interesting motive for why they want me pay considerably less and for more services.

So I wonder if someone who knows how their business works can explain why they rather have me pay £13 less for 2 units (which I never pursued) than what I would have been prepared to pay (£42) for just one unit (the m100 broadband)!
 
Last edited:
TO Moderator...sorry, I just realised there is a dedicated Virgin sub thread, I should have posted in there, sorry about that, do move it in there if worthwhile. Thanks
 
My last call with a Virgin media salesman was when they called me with an offer to reduce my monthly payments, PLUS give me a SIM with Virgin mobile with included mins and data at no extra charge!
Went through everything, direct debit dates yada yada.
15 mins later towards the end he tells me that after 3 months the 50% monthly payment discount would cease!
I was like "you could have mentioned that right at the BEGINNING!"
What a waste of time.

yeah, I had that sort sort of thing in the past...really annoying. But I stay away from Virgin mobile deals because as attractive as they seem to be, the big catch is their 3 year contract...no way, making it actually the worst deals you can have anywhere!
 
TO Moderator...sorry, I just realised there is a dedicated Virgin sub thread, I should have posted in there, sorry about that, do move it in there if worthwhile. Thanks
No problem, thread moved as requested :smashin:

Mark.
 
yeah sorry that was a fast post by me, what I meant was the deal you started on was a bit high £38 a month as I am only £2 more and on a much faster speed (unless there is more phone time included on your deal in which case things may be different ) so I was thinking around £32 is more like it really for 100mb and phone - so £28 is good but you shouldnt have been on £38 to start with. I think that price make it look like a better deal.

NOTE - I don't have any mobile stuff with virgin
 
Is the £29 including the line rental please?


Hey, John, yes indeed it does! If you paying more, give them a shout.


@Fe_man2000 For clarity fibre optic don't need landline but all ISP still tries to bundle landline.
yeah sorry that was a fast post by me, what I meant was the deal you started on was a bit high £38 a month as I am only £2 more and on a much faster speed (unless there is more phone time included on your deal in which case things may be different ) so I was thinking around £32 is more like it really for 100mb and phone - so £28 is good but you shouldnt have been on £38 to start with. I think that price make it look like a better deal.

NOTE - I don't have any mobile stuff with virgin

No worries, but you still kinda miss my point, I know £38 was their standard official price and I should have tried to get a lower price for the sake of being a long term customer... but I just didn't make any effort. The point was that virgin made the effort to get me on a sigbificantly better deal, not me! And for a interesting motive that I hope someone who knows their business can explain.
 
I pay £54 p/n for 380 Meg broadband only with no phone line, I called them up a while ago and asked if they’d reduce it if I re-contracted. They only offered to reduce it to £52, which I declined so still paying £54!
 
I pay £54 p/n for 380 Meg broadband only with no phone line, I called them up a while ago and asked if they’d reduce it if I re-contracted. They only offered to reduce it to £52, which I declined so still paying £54!

Well done for the effort! And I think you did the right thing declining to keep the door open for another attempt to getting a deal.
But yeah see, seems to be all about the number of unit items. As you are just having the one single unit they have no motive to give you any sunstantial deal. Add in a phone line however, then perhaps they might give you a package of 380mb plus landline that will cost less than the £52 you were offered for bb only.

Maybe give that a go? Have you been with them long? If so use that as a leverage. Just politely tell them you want to feel valued as a long term customer and be nice to be rewarded for paying for having maximum bb speeds.
 
I had the same, I was downgrading from a TV package to broadband only, from £62 to £36.

Then I had a call to keep the basic TV channels + weekend calls + same 100mb broadband for £33.

They were super helpful.
 
That's a nice, deal, @ostewart ...and there is the pattern, its the dropping of one service unit that is more important to them to such an extent that they would have you paying less without you even asking for it. Remember to renegotiate a new deal when approaching end of the loyalty discount period and not let the sudden increase to standard rate bite you in the whatsisname as has happen to me in the past!

I got my confirmation email this morning as they promised. It shows that the loyalty discount runs for 18 months. Which is even better, so that is effectively £360 back in my pocket over that period. I thought this sort of thing runs for a year like they do with new customer deals. So after that it will go up from £29 to £49. That's a sharp £20 increase so I have marked in my diary to call them a month and a bit before the end of the discount period to make another deal with them...politely dropping the landline to save a few pounds, will see what they do then. My landline looks to be my major leverage as I quite honestly don't need it.
 
Last edited:
That's a nice, deal, @ostewart ...and there is the pattern, its the dropping of one service unit that is more important to them to such an extent that they would have you paying less without you even asking for it. Remember to renegotiate a new deal when approaching end of the loyalty discount period and not let the sudden increase to standard rate bite you in the whatsisname as has happen to me in the past!

I got my confirmation email this morning as they promised. It shows that the loyalty discount runs for 18 months. Which is even better, so that is effectively £360 back in my pocket over that period. I thought this sort of thing runs for a year like they do with new customer deals. So after that it will go up from £29 to £49. That's a sharp £20 increase so I have marked in my diary to call them a month and a bit before the end of the discount period to make another deal with them...politely dropping the landline to save a few pounds, will see what they do then. My landline looks to be my major leverage as I quite honestly don't need it.

Yeah I stupidly let mine go to normal price for about 6 months, then phoned to get it changed. As a bonus, next months bill is only £5 due to a £27 credit, which is about 3 months worth of extra payment I gave them so not bad really.
 
Well done for the effort! And I think you did the right thing declining to keep the door open for another attempt to getting a deal.
But yeah see, seems to be all about the number of unit items. As you are just having the one single unit they have no motive to give you any sunstantial deal. Add in a phone line however, then perhaps they might give you a package of 380mb plus landline that will cost less than the £52 you were offered for bb only.

Maybe give that a go? Have you been with them long? If so use that as a leverage. Just politely tell them you want to feel valued as a long term customer and be nice to be rewarded for paying for having maximum bb speeds.
I don’t need phone or tv so will ride it out. I’m hanging on for the rollout of Gigabit fibre or more competitive offerings from other providers. I’ve been with them for approx 3 years. I vowed never to use Virgin ever again after being a customer with them many years ago, but I reluctantly went back as I can only get 30-40Mbps on the Openreach network.
 
I don’t need phone or tv so will ride it out. I’m hanging on for the rollout of Gigabit fibre or more competitive offerings from other providers. I’ve been with them for approx 3 years. I vowed never to use Virgin ever again after being a customer with them many years ago, but I reluctantly went back as I can only get 30-40Mbps on the Openreach network.

It's nice to actually get the speed I pay for in my area, every speed test I do I get 108mbps roughly.
 
I know i'm not on the very best deal, but as a comparison to others i pay £45 for 350mb and a landline.
I didn't even need to haggle. Just asked for a better deal as i was paying £60.50, even though it should have only been £59 for some reason.
 
I am with virgin media I have max it tv including BT sports but don’t have sky sports, 200mb broadband and telephone line I pay £61 a month
 
I'm very happy with Virgin media...had the service since (2003 when it was NTL) I'm on the upto 350 meg service,on a wired connection im getting nearly 385 meg...wifi for the phones and tablets in the house getting about 300 meg(overkill for Web browsing) I phoned them last Sunday as my current "Deal" was about to expire...apparently you get a discount for the amount of time you've been with them,I get a £20 discount per month...so I'm happy with that £32.50 for the 350 meg service...even when I compare other providers nothing comes close for speeds and cost...
 
I am paying £61 a month for 200mb broadband, tv and landline which include quite few channels and the main one is bt sports so I can watch football but no sky sports virgin media wanted me to pay £70 a month for this package when I renew my contract this was a quite a while back I agree to the package and still in contract with virgin media which will expires soon so yeah I said not willing to pay that much and cancel my tv and reduced my package price to £57 a month with 200mb broadband and landline only. So next day I got call out the blue claiming they from virgin media and asked me why I cancel my tv package and I explain to the guy on phone I am not willing to pay £70 a month for tv, broadband and landline then he said well let me see what I can offer you they checked and said if you want you can keep the tv package you was on with broadband and tv for £61 a month and I agreed. Also recently I renewed my sister virgin media package not that long ago and I called them and they was offering my sister 100mb broadband and telephone line for £45 a month and I said no and called the thinking of leaving us department told them wanted to cancel the package they asked why told them the reason and she offered my sister 18 month contract for 100mb broadband and telephone line for £25 a month and I agreed on my sister behalf and she was chuffed I saved her money as she needed broadband at home to work from home as she was working for nhs she wanted to switch to sky broadband for the same price she paying virgin media right now, lastly gotta admit virgin media does not like to offer great package deals to existing customers you have to go through a great length jumping through hoops going pillar to pillar just to get a great deal but in the end it pays off so don’t always accept the first offer they give you play the long game then see if you can get a good offer.
 
So am I getting mugged off by paying £59 a month for M200 and talk weekends? They only ever offer me £2 off my current bill if I re enter an 18 month contract. I have been with them since they were called Telewest so it’s been a few years!
 
I've got the following with VM:

Maxit TV + , BT Sports - Inc UHD (which is free with Maxit), Sky Cinema, (UHD) Skysports (HD)

2x V6 Boxes
1Gig Broadband - free upgrade as I have an O2 mobile contract, so they upgraded me via their "VMO2 Volt" program. Since they merged with 02
Talk Anytime Landline.
ultimate Oopmh Virgin Sim - Which I only use as a back up to my O2 sim in areas where I get poor 02 reception.

All for £110 p/m. I then use my necessary & nephews Amazon Prime & Netflix! 😄..

Quite happy with that and it serves my family well on the whole!

Edit: with them (at different addresses) since the Telewest days too
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom