Forum Discussion

ngreatorex's avatar
ngreatorex
Joining in
11 months ago

Renewal offer by email

Hi,

I am receiving regular emails (4 so far) that state:

"You (sic) Virgin Media contract’s ending soon, which means it’s time to think about renewing. To make it easier, we’re giving you the chance to bag a new 18-month package for an exclusive price. And the best part? Your new offer price will stay fixed until 31 March 2025. No nasty surprises here. Monthly price will increase each April from April 2025 by RPI +3.9%. "

There follows a button to press. When I click it I get:

"Oops! Looks like something's gone wrong. We couldn't find the page you're looking for."

When I visit the change package page in Virgin Media it takes me to a URL that ends with customer-exclusion and tells me to chat. When I chat, the only offer they came back with was at the exact same price as not renewing, so it's not worth doing.

If it was 1 email I'd shrug it off, but having received 4 that lead to the same error it's getting annoying.

I'd honestly like to know what the offer is - at present I'm planning on leaving when the contract does end but if it's a reasonable offer I will stay. Any ideas on how I can find out what the offer is?

Thanks,
Neil

4 Replies

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  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    11 months ago

    Wish I had a pound for each of these 'exclusive offer' email topics!

    Have a read through this forum and you will find a very long list of similar topics on the subject of an 'exclusive' offer email resulting in the 'Opps missing page' outcome.

    General pattern of VM's activity seems to be the customer tries to contact VM directly (phone, WhatsApp etc.) only to discover that the agent has no knowledge of the exclusive offer and/or cannot access it but can, however, offer you a bigger/better package than the one you are on for a greater price, or your same package at a higher price etc. etc. You get the gist!

    • ngreatorex's avatar
      ngreatorex
      Joining in
      11 months ago

      I understand that it might be annoying to regular users, but if we don't speak up it will never change. Of course, posting here is unlikely to change anything either, but it's the best way (only way?) I can think of to at least try and effect change...

      • David_Bn's avatar
        David_Bn
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
        11 months ago

        Thanks for your post on our Community Forums ngreatorex, and a very warm welcome to you!

        Sorry to hear of the difficulty faced when trying to obtain the details of an offer available online.

        There is no guarantee we would be able to reveal the exact offering, but we can see what's available to you, and help you decide if renewing or cancelling our service is the best option for you.

        Check out the envelope in the top right hand corner, for a private message from me

        Thanks,

        David_Bn

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    11 months ago

    No criticism implied towards you in making your post. Apologies if you took it that way. That was not my intention.

    Plenty of criticism was intended and implied towards VM though, as the issue has gone on for a very long time, and continues, with VM doing nothing to correct the problem. You are right to complain about it.

    Unfortunately, as you say, VM will do nothing about it until challenged. Past suggestions on here have been that this could fall foul of some advertising rules and reg's (essentially VM keeps advertising something that customers cannot access and are then only offered something more expensive)

    You could read through the ASA code on misleading advertising and the section on availability 3.27 to 3.32

    https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html

    item 3.30 seems to fit the recent pattern of topics reported on here

    If VM fails to resolve you could log a complaint with ASA

    https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html

    I am not aware of anyone trying this approach on here so have no idea if there is merit in giving it a go. Doubtless it won't be a quick process to go through the ASA procedure

    On past topics the VM forum team has offered to step in and assist. You should get a reply from them here usually within a few days.