Forum Discussion

samchayward's avatar
samchayward
Tuning in
16 days ago

Refusing to honour promo speed Boost & Price

I’m at my wits’ end and feel like giving up on Customer Services, so I’m hoping for some advice.

At the start of October, I renewed my contract through the Web Portal. The offer seemed reasonable — £63 per month for basic channels, all the football, and 250MB broadband — so I went ahead with it. However, my bills were immediately confusing, showing three different amounts depending on where I checked (Email, App, or Web Portal). I was assured it would settle soon, so I left it at that.

A couple of weeks later, I received a promotional text offering a speed boost to 350MB for £2 less per month. It seemed like a no-brainer, so I clicked “Place Order” and received a confirmation email with an order number.

After waiting a few days with no change, I called Customer Services. They said they couldn’t see any offers or updates made through the web and advised me to wait a little longer. I did — but nothing happened, and the new order still doesn’t appear on the App or Web Portal.

I then tried webchat to check on the order, but that was no help either. Even after forwarding the confirmation email, I was told the order “didn’t exist” and was instead asked if I wanted to start new contract. I explained that I just wanted my existing order processed. They couldn’t help, but offered to escalate a complaint and said someone would call me back within 4–24 hours. Nobody ever called.

From what I understand, the only department that actually listens is Retentions — but I don’t want to leave; I just want the deal I was offered to be honoured. It doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request, but it’s proving far more difficult than it should be.

Where do I go from here just to get someone to listen and resolve this? Thanks for reading.

6 Replies

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    16 days ago

    This is reported so often on here, VM offers you a good deal and then replaces it with something more expensive.

    Take it to Trading Standards. It's time they took this up. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch

  • Sabrina_B's avatar
    Sabrina_B
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    16 days ago

    Hi samchayward 👋.

    Thanks for reaching out to us, sorry to hear of the issues you have been facing with an order. So that we can assist you we would need to bring you in for a private message, please look out for the envelope on the top right of your web browser or if you are using a mobile device, it will be located under your profile icon.

     

    Thanks.

     

    Sabrina

     

  • samchayward's avatar
    samchayward
    Tuning in
    13 days ago

    Update for those interested (Also The offer attached below)

     

    I will keep this brief, as it’s quite exhausting to revisit. Over the weekend, I spoke with three different customer service agents — a total of around five hours. Despite providing all relevant reference numbers and forwarding copies of the original email confirming my order, each agent claimed they were unable to locate the offer.

    The bottom line is that I have been unable to receive the promotional deal that they themselves offered.

    I pursued this matter out of principle, but it has consumed an unreasonable amount of time and energy. Unfortunately, I’ve reached the point where it’s simply not worth the continued frustration as it sucked the life out of me.

    I would also like to highlight a concerning practice. One of the agents advised that my case had been escalated to the complaints department, and another confirmed that a formal complaint had been logged. However, the following day I received an email stating that the complaint had been “successfully resolved” after I was supposedly offered a package — a claim that is completely inaccurate. The issue remains unresolved, but it appears this is how they have chosen to close the matter.

     

    • Sabrina_B's avatar
      Sabrina_B
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
      13 days ago

      Hi samchayward.

      We are still in a private conversation with each other, this does not reflect the final outcome of the issue that you have. Please can you refer to our private conversation in order to complete what is required to get this resolved. 

      Sabrina

    • newapollo's avatar
      newapollo
      Very Insightful Person
      13 days ago

      It takes up to 14 days for the back office teams to process online offers, however those made over the phone can usually be actioned immediately.

      The online offers shown within My Virgin Media, and those sent by email aren't available to the frontline agents. They have no account access to see, or even order any of those promotional offers.

      VM's actual prices can vary on a day to day basis, and agent to agent/department to department  basis. The best offers are generally made by the Retentions (cancellations) team. The retentions agents are given a set amount of allowances to offer at varying price points. If they have used up their quota of lowest prices for the day or week, then they couldn't offer say the Mega Volt bundle for £100, but if the next agent hadn't reached their quota then they would be able to offer that price point.  It's also possible that one of the retention teams may be "trialling" a price point not available to other teams.

      The OP states

      At the start of October, I renewed my contract through the Web Portal. The offer seemed reasonable — £63 per month for basic channels, all the football, and 250MB broadband — so I went ahead with it.

      They also state

      A couple of weeks later, I received a promotional text offering a speed boost to 350MB for £2 less per month. It seemed like a no-brainer, so I clicked “Place Order” and received a confirmation email with an order number.

      The screenshot of a promotional deal (which isn't dated) for a monthly total of £61.98 shows an annual increase of £3.50 per month commencing April 2026. However, on October 2nd VM had  announced that the annual mid contract price hikes would increase to £4 per month commencing April 2026.

      That second offer would have been on at least 15th October (a couple of weeks later from the beginning of October) so the annual price hike shown was incorrect as it should have indicated the newer annual price increase of £4 per month. That may be the reason why that deal hasn't been accepted/actioned.

      I'm pretty sure that if retentions are looking into the deal offered (price point and services) then they will do their best to manoeuvre the various systems and discounts available (a sort of mix and match exercise) to obtain the desired price point for a new contract.