Contract renewal..... same old battle....

VM does like its silly renewal games. More people should take the plunge IMO, if they can, and simply ditch VM instead of going through the daft renewal ritual every two years.

I left VM nearly 4 years ago and moved to a BT FTTP connection which was rolled out at the time. It was/is a night-and-day difference in terms of reliability and continuity of service from the old VM connection on 20+ year old coax cable compared to a new fibre optic connection.

Since that time, many more providers have gained access to the telephone poles in the street and VM has tanked as far as number of connections goes in the street.

Same here. When OR brought their fibre into our road it was reported on local media and many people have celebrated their new deals on Sky, EE, Vodafone etc. VM must be taking quite a hit. 

Ditto.  I've been moving ISP's to suit costs.  I've been back with VM twice on new customer deals, and with Openreach ISP's in-between times.  I only have broadband and no ISP tied email services, so moving around is easy, especially with some of the 12 month contracts.

What annoys me is their new customer deals are not available to renewal contracts - it is not a good way to retain business.

I've been a VM customer for over 20 years (VM will only see 10 though, as they give you a new account if you move house).

Currently they have lost my business.    Another ISP is offering me 2gig download and 2gig upload, and I'm looking at going to them instead.