Forum Discussion

Shoal's avatar
Shoal
On our wavelength
5 months ago

contract renewal blues

Sorry in advance for this long ramble.
Ive just spent a very frustrating hour on the phone to VM to try and renew my contract,

I've had several emails over past weeks saying recontract now and I would get an exclusive deal, with links. The 18 mth contract runs out end of Nov so wasn't in great rush, but I followed link and it took me to page which listed my services and where it is £81 currently, the renewal offer was £86. When I renewed 18 moth ago there was a promotional offer and a discount totalling £36 so this offer of £86 appeared to continue this discount and didn't seem unreasonable although it conflicted with a statement on the bill which said cost would go up to £111 in Dec 24. 

Today I logged onto My-VM, looking to upgrade to volt package. The basket showed my current services as £81, but that it would increase to £111 in December in addition to the extra costs of the O2 sim etc on the volt package.

I rang VM to query this and was told yes, the discount has ended, the cost to renew current package is £111. I said I was happy to renew at around the old price but a near 50% increase seems very unreasonable, Eventually I was transferred to someone in retentions, who said that he was as high as it was possible to go and after a fairly long discussion he offered a renewal of £91, for my existing service..saying that the package was actually "worth" over £140 I pointed out that the emails I received had offered an exclusive deal and that all he was offering was the standard web offering. I indicated that I could get much faster broadband,  all the same TV plus a better phone service from Sky for less than £80 but he adamant that he was offering the best deal.

What has made me come and ramble on this forum is that, looking on the main VM website just now,  there is a deal for a "Mega Volt Bundle", which includes the tv package I currently have, plus an unlimited O2 sim, plus a free Xbox, plus an anytime phone package (I only have Evening & weekend) and the cost of this is just £84.99. It doesnt say new customers only but if you currently have a VM service the link just leads you to My-VM, and the package isnt there. To replicate this package, including the value of the xbox would cost me and EXTRA £43/mth. so as a VM customer of 15yrs, I am  going to be charged far far more than a new customer which I feel is pretty unfair & disgraceful.  

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    5 months ago

    The price you mention for the 'Mega Volt Bundle' is for new customers (mentioned in 'The legal stuff' at the bottom of the page https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/packages)

    Your story of a high and inflexible initial renewal offer has been mentioned on here many times recently.

    If you have your alternative Sky package already sized up, you should put in your cancellation to VM.

    Some have reported on here that cancelling did prompt VM to make an acceptable renewal offer but others said no further contact was received from VM and they left. Having marketing options on in 'My VM' is necessary to receive renewal calls from VM)

  • Zach_R's avatar
    Zach_R
    Forum Team
    5 months ago

    Hi Shoal,

    Thank you for your post and welcome back to our community forums. We're here to help.

    I'm very sorry to hear that you've not had a great experience when speaking with the team regarding a package change. Our offers are subject to change, meaning a deal available one day may no longer be available the next and vice versa, so it's possible that a deal discussed or offered in the past is no longer available.
     

    You mentioned getting an email with an exclusive offer/price. If you still have that email, have you tried following the instructions there to take that out?

    Thanks,
     

  • mmj's avatar
    mmj
    Superfast
    5 months ago
    Shoal wrote:

    To replicate this package, including the value of the xbox would cost me and EXTRA £43/mth. so as a VM customer of 15yrs, I am  going to be charged far far more than a new customer which I feel is pretty unfair & disgraceful.  

    I made a similar post about this a couple of years ago. I too remember a time when Virgin Media would contact its long term customers to ensure they were getting good value, unfortunately times have changed and about 10 years ago we realised that we were being charged top tier prices for a mid-tier package until we contacted them for a free upgrade after presumably years of being overcharged. Their business strategy in recent years is seemingly to try to rip off as many long term customers as possible to subsidise new customers and also those who happily exploit this system. They no longer reward your loyalty but instead try to take advantage of it. That's just the way of the world these days.