Contract renewal, and misleading statements

Question

Hi all - I currently have Gig1 Volt and Mega TV, and it's time for the 18-monthly haggle, and as I haven't received any email or online offers I had a live chat session yesterday. The deal offered isn't too bad, and offers a good start for negotiation (currently it's still a 25% increase), but what worried me was some of the statements that the rep made, which as many other threads show, aren't always reflected in the final paperwork. To that end, what are people's thoughts/experiences on the following:

I asked if I could drop the O2 SIM, as it is poor value and the signal is rubbish where I live. He said that this was just a case of going on to the O2 website and doing that, and that it wouldn't affect my VM deal, but I thought the two were linked?
As many others here have found he 'forgot' to mention the Netflix downgrade to the ad-supported version, saying that my package would remain the same, but did at least do that when asked directly.
To try and close the deal he 'insisted' that I take this 'great offer', and when I said I wanted time to think about it, dropped in that my next bill was much higher. I'm fine with that, due to the nature of billing in advance and adjusting later once a new deal is agreed, but he stated that I was now 'committed' to paying the higher amount regardless. Some serious staff training needed there.

If anybody would like to comment on their experiences of dropping the Volt SIM in particular, or managing to retain Netflix Standard, that would be helpful. Next step will be a call to retentions to see if they can improve on the proposed offer, as at least we now have alternative FTTP providers in my area, and maybe using the 14-day cooling-off period if needed.

Thanks - Chris

Robert_P · Answer

Hi Chris,&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Thanks for posting in regards to your recent experience speaking to the team in regards to your package and renewal, it certain seems quite bizarre some of the information given and we'll be sure to feed this back to the team.
&nbsp;
To address the points raised, you aren't committing to pay the higher bill as this is based off of your current package and cost. If you renew it would impact this unless the change was set for 30 days time in which the higher amount would be requested. This would be due to the new package not being in place and no pro rata to be applied.
&nbsp;
You can cancel the O2 SIM at anytime, this wouldn't impact your current deal but would limit what deals were available when you come to renew in the future.

cje72 · Answer

Hi Robert&nbsp;Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, and the helpful reply.&nbsp; I'll get on to retentions to see if we can meet in the middle somewhere between the old deal and the new one - as the alternative providers are new to my area they have some really good new customer deals, which I can couple with Sky Stream or Now TV, but it's easier to continue with VM if we can get the price right.Thanks - Chris&nbsp;

Robert_P · Answer

Happy to help cje72, let us know how you get on 👍

unisoft · Answer

You can dump the O2 SIM AFTER you have re-contracted the VM side - as long as the O2 SIM is out of contract that is. Under the T&amp;C's you get to keep your volted speed on VM. I'd leave it 21 days to make sure any VOLT has been applied if not done instantly after contract renewal.To be honest, if you have an ALTNET, particularly Netomnia/You Fibre; they are great, and re-contracting is new customer deals with them and no in contract price increases and symmetric speed and much lower latency. A lot of ALTNETS now have no in contract price increases. You can always add Sky Stream to them and many offer static IPv4 addresses if required for a few quid, and many support ipv6 (unlike VM). See how you get on with retentions, my experience was awful last time and I left till Black Friday when a good deal came up for GIG1.

cje72 · Answer

A quick update on this, after speaking to retentions yesterday. The lady was very helpful, and offered me the same package at £5 a month more than I am paying now, which I thought was acceptable given that everything has to increase at some point.

I specifically asked whether Netflix was with or without ads, and she said without, so I will be checking that during my cooling-off period.

Interestingly, she was very specific about emailing me the pre-contract docs and asking me to read them whilst on the call, then state verbally that I had, presumably for the purpose of the recording (the same principle I used for the Netflix question, I guess). I don't recall having to do that on these calls before now.

My contract hasn't been updated in My Account yet, but fingers crossed everything pans out 🤞

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Contract renewal, and misleading statements

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