What happens at the end of the contract

[Anonymous]

Hi, just started an 18 month contract on the Ultimate Volt package and from the pricing I see at the end of the contract, I will be cancelling a month from the end.

Do Virgin come back with competitive pricing as Sky always do - I was with Sky for 32 years and they kept tempting me back or are VM fairly rigid?

When we cancelled Sky Q the main box switched to Freesat and we had Freesat boxes on the other TVs along with Amazon Firesticks, Netflix etc. Virgin cancelled their installation a few hours before it was due to start and deferred it for three weeks without an intelligent explanation, so a less than impressive start.

We didn't have the brightest engineer do our install and he cut through our Satellite cabling to make way for the Virgin cabling - is this an instruction from HO or a genuine error? Whichever way, they did not ask our permission to do this and bow they have to come back next week to replace the cabling at their own expense. When the VM contract ends we can use Freesat while we shop around for the best deal.

Thanks for any help.

Mike

  [MOD EDIT: Multiple accounts are not allowed  on our Forum.  mikesh account removed. Please use newer account]  

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[NetworkingPro]

Hey, I've had similar experiences to you and I'd love to give you an insight into my experience. 

I joined virgin 2018 and left 2019 to join Sky who's maximum speed here is 74mbps which is pretty low compared to Virgin's maximum 1gbps speeds available here, joining virgin again through the volt deal this year was a no brainer for me, they even made sure my bill was lower than what I was paying sky. So I'm essentially getting more but paying less, sky could not compete. My speeds are now 220mbps and I pay £17pm in total, £13 for my O2 SIM. I'm giving you this information because personally I believe you're on the best provider if we're comparing sky and virgin. Virgin's routers have double the range, are faster and come with in built automatic ddos and hack prevention. 

Sorry if any of that's irrelevant, on your question, from my own experience this can all depend on the advisor you get and how you approach it when your contract ends in 18 months. In my experience it's always good to give their sales team a ring and ask if they'd do you any deals to convince you to stay with virgin, as your contact is about to end, you can also call the cancellation team to do this too. If you've had a better quote from BT, Sky, TalkTalk etc just let the virgin advisor know about it and tell them you're interested in it. 

In general, most virgin advisors will check with you to see if there is anything they could do or you'd like to entice you to stick with virgin, as most providers would but I can't guarantee what your experience will be. 

I hope this helps In some way. 

[japitts]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Do Virgin come back with competitive pricing as Sky always do - I was with Sky for 32 years and they kept tempting me back or are VM fairly rigid?. 

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It depends on your individual circumstances. What package you have and how profitable you are versus what margin for discounting there is.. how likely VM think you are to disconnect versus just play bluff etc etc.

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@Anonymous wrote:

We didn't have the brightest engineer do our install and he cut through our Satellite cabling to make way for the Virgin cabling - is this an instruction from HO or a genuine error?

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I think your bit I've highlighted is the most likely explanation. There's no documented instruction from VM to wilfully or intentionally damage any equipment. If it was an instruction from VM, then I doubt they'd be returning to fix it.

[mikesh27]

Hi, thank you both.

For £85 a month I’m getting:

1. Virgin TV - Maxit TV (inc BT Sport), Virgin TV 360 box, additional Virgin TV 360 Mini box T TV, Netflix Standard, Kids Pick, Sky Sports and Cinema Collection, Sky Sports HD Pack, Sky Entertainment & Cinema Ultra HD
2. H Fibre Broadband Volt Gig1 Fibre Broadband
3. Virgin Phone Telephone Line Rental Talk More Anytime Voicemail Free
4. O2 unlimited calls and 5G data (£25 payable separately), 6 months free Disney+
5. 18 Month discount (until 12th October 2023) monthly service charge £60.00, then £136.00 from Friday 13th October 2022.

 This gives me a saving of £132 a month over Sky/BT/Vodafone, if we include £12 for the Netflix Standard package, so I do want Virgin to work.

The broadband wasn’t that fast at first but now getting around 420Mbps wifi on an ipad and 790Mbps on a wired laptop.

I am trying to explain the importance of a Samsung Neo tv to my wife to see the benefit of Virgin, but for some reason she thinks we should get some problems around the house and garden sorted first.

However, my main "potential" concern is the picture quality, which is why I want to keep the Freesat connections for the HD. However, I will have a fiddle with the settings.  

As you say, it can all depend on the advisor I get and how I approach it when the contract ends. Don’t worry, I’ve gone through a few, some good, some bad (but all better than Sky) and I will start hunting well in advance. 

[Roger_Gooner]

You should receive either a letter or email advising you that your contract is coming to an end. If you do nothing you will continue to be provided with your services at full prices after contract end. For example, my monthly bills will rise from £99 to £143 due to discounts no longer being applied to the bills. So, the best thing to do is to call Retentions before expiry date to get a new deal.

[Tudor]

Real answer is nobody know what the situation will be in 18 months.

[mikesh27]

So, if someone's old contract expired today and they'd cancelled it, they could take out Ultimate Volt at £85pm and still get 12 bottles of wine or £100 cashback?
We had to switch a few times over many years while with Sky between my wife being the account holder and me to get around this.

[Roger_Gooner]

That won't work as a new customer is someone who hasn't subscribed to VM services for at least 12 months.

[mikesh27]

This is why my wife and I switched around with Sky - would Virgin accept this or too obvious?