Virgin Media Community

[Rededd255]

Hi Folks,

I'm due to re-contract but I'm having doubts as VM-02 have no interest in my business as I am an existing customer, they are only interested in attracting new customers thereby excluding me from the latest offers.

I wanted to upgrade to the ultimate ooomph bundle, but that would cost me £20 more than if I was a new customer, that is so unfair and is making me tempted to take my business elsewhere.

what's peoples thoughts on customer loyalty?

G

[newapollo]

Hi Rededd255,

Loyalty works both ways. You will have received a new customer offer when you first joined Virgin.

The out of contract price for the Ultimate Oomph package is £139, versus the new customer price of £79.

If you have been offered the package for £99 then that's still a substantial saving of £40 over the out of contract price.

I would say in this instance VM are rewarding you for your custom/loyalty.

[MrHalfAsleep]

I've done quite well with customer loyalty over the years with VM and I'm not too bothered about the odd price rise as the network and broken/damaged/vandalised boxes need fixing and/or upgrading, technicians and other staff members need paying after all.  After my mother died I found the staff extremely helpful in setting up a new account despite the difficult circumstances I found myself in. 

Upshot is that I'm paying new customer rates of half the original price of what was previously paid.  I am now finally beginning to move on after a really rough  6 months or so (not just me, the rest of the family as well) and I would have liked things to have gone differently rather than the way they did.  I can't big the forum staff up enough for their help and assistance during the most distressing and stressful period of time I've encountered so far in life.

[Goffa]

what loyalty? I've been with VM for 25+ years.

Today I received an email to thank me for upgrading. So I had to phone them because I hadn't asked for an upgrade.

Turns out it was automatic because i was on an old package.

Over the past years I have had increases to my broadband speed followed a few months later with a price increase.

The upshot was i could have higher broadband speed and a sports package with a £7 reduction a month in my bill.

I don't need higher BB speed and i don't watch sport and i certainly don't want another 18 Month contract.

That's not offered as loyalty as was suggested that was offered to tie me into another 18 months contract with VM.

Hence I declined the offer.

I have been happy with VM but have been watching the bills increase steadily. 

To me if they wanted to show me loyalty for 25+ years devotion to VM then offering me a new subscriber package would be the way to go.

The one thing that's been holding me back from leaving it the BT landline would need replacing and a new Arial as the old one leaked water.

Like I told the chap I'm retired and need to reduce my bills not increase them. 

All this has just made me more determined to sort out the Arial and the BT landline.

There is also the fact a lot of accounts are linked to my  blueyonder email but only a few that are important to me to get changed.

So for me personally I don't think there is customer loyalty of any real value.

[MrHalfAsleep]

Loyalty is an abstract concept which people don't seem to understand at least in this respect. Businesses don't sell loyalty, nor is it tradeable.   Loyalty is shown by you the customer by obtaining the services/goods from them over a period of time.  VM want you keep getting stuff off them. It is purely a one way street. VM took over NTL in 2007 so that's 14 years, not 25+.

If you go to any other provider, they'll do the same.  If you worked for VM as a technician or other member of staff, you'd want want paying.  For example: if Mr Schüler said at a staff meeting "right, we're not paying you any more, nor are we paying new staff..." VM would cease to exist (almost overnight) and it would be headline news.  People don't work for free unless they're volunteers.

Speaking from experience my bills are now quite considerably lower than my mother was paying, however, before she died she did say that VM provided good value for money and I'm happy with what they provide.  If you're unhappy you can always cancel your contract and try to to obtain services elsewhere.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-1604158/NTL-to-become-Virgin-Media.html 

[Goffa]

Why did you assume I was with NTL ?. I was originally a Blueyonder customer. My email is [MOD EDIT: Removed]

1/ The Son was 14 when I signed up to Blueyonder he is now 40.

2/ The guy I spoke to on the phone told me I  have been a customer for over 25 years.

If your going to make assumptions maybe you should ask the proper questions first ?.

As far as going to another service I know how it works. 

When they become to expensive then I will shop around again.

And I've no doubt when I do finally cancel VM they will offer me a better deal than the one they just tried to offer me.  

So as far as understanding Loyalty it is tradeable. They will want to keep me the moment I cancel. 

They will try to trade me a better package for a new contract.

However I wont want to stay once I've put the wheels in motion to change providers.

[Roger_Gooner]

When I'm nearing the end of my contract I call Retentions and always get a better deal, although it means a new contract (current one is for 18 months).

[MrHalfAsleep]

I haven't assumed anything.  I was speaking from personal experience regarding NTL (29 page contract) as they were my previous provider.  Nynex provided initial cabling up here in the North West of England at the time back in 1994. Then C&W took them over, who in turn were taken over by NTL. NTL et al were not VM.  It's a free market, you can get services from any other provider.  Folk should read the legal stuff as this is what you are saying yes to, but they don't.   

The Nynex contract was a no brainer, the install was £125 (that took 3/4 hour via a hole in the ground) and free line rental for a year and Telecom (a 2 week install via telegraph poles and £165 IIRC) couldn't compete.  You pays your money and you makes your choice.  As a consumer you can play the system to your advantage, depending on what gubbins you want in your house and how many holes in your walls, or go with 3/4/5G.  It depends how savvy you are, but I'm more than happy with what I've got.

[nodrogd]

The new customer contracts are offered at a loss. Give them to existing customers you soon go bust. Its that simple.

Even with the new regime now coming in with some providers offering new customer deals to existing customers, this is at the expence of the overall price of those deals rising for everyone.

Cheap new customer deals only ever had one real purpose. To get customers to switch provider. If OFCOM, who turned a blind eye to the practice for some time, want to enforce a rule that everyone is treated the same, then everyone pays the same, rarely switches provider & the competitive market disappears overnight. When you consider the Governments' remit to the regulators is to increase competition in the markets they are in charge of it seems somewhat contradictory to do a U-turn & start discouraging it.

[Roger_Gooner]

It's different industry but it's interesting that the Financial Conduct Authority has recently implemented a package of remedies to improve competition and protect home and motor insurance customers from loyalty penalties. This includes new rules so that renewal quotes for home and motor insurance consumers are not more expensive than they would be for new customers.