shameful business practice

[Lkitson]

I had a call from VM on Friday 'claiming' they wanted to discuss my package as it effectively expires at the beginning of July.  I was thrilled as i have tried, and failed, repeatedly to speak to an actual human re wanting to reduce my bill or i am going to switch provider (I have TV, Internet etc).  After a long chat we agreed that 'Cassy' would call me back this morning.  She did and after asking numerous frankly irrelevant questions said the 'best' she could do was offer me a package costing double my current bill but obviously as a 'gesture' would give me a discount.  Apparently i should  thrilled that i was getting an 02 sim card and 3x as many tv channel - two things i specifically said i wasn't interested in.  The final, frankly gobsmacking statement, was 'sorry but i was never going to be able to help you reduce your bill'!!!!! The one thing i told her was important to me. As i said shameful business practice

[jem101]

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@Lkitson wrote:

Snip....

As i said shameful business practice

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Oh I don't know, sounds like a degree of refreshing honesty to me!

Look, lets be honest here, I assume that you are coming up to the end of your minimum contract terms and hence will be losing the new customer pricing and going onto the full-price. VM make next to no, if indeed any money at all on the new customer pricing, it exists to get you signed up and, what they hope is, to stay, paying the full price and that's where they make their profit. Fine, it's called 'business'.

So firstly, you will never, ever be able to stay on the same discounted cost, let alone go cheaper - VM would absolutely rather you leave than do that! At best you might be able to negotiate something between the new customer price and the full normal cost, at the expense of being tied into another minimum 18 month contract, with a few extra things thrown in as sweeteners.

It does sound like this is exactly what you were offered, and 'Cassy' was being honest, VM will never let you pay less than the new customer price for the same package. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid your only alternative is to cancel and sign up with another supplier - who, incidentally, will probably be running a similar scheme, so rinse and repeat every two years or so

[Lkitson]

Thank you for you, condescension.  

I understand how the system works and have 4 separate contracts, have been a customer for years and have never paid less 'year-on-year'.  My 'point' was the false claims and time wasting.

As an aside 1 hour after my disappointing call with 'Cassy' another VM 'salesperson' called to offer me the opportunity to review my account. Would appear to be the only department actually employing people.

[japitts]

I agree completely with @jem101 here, it sounds like the VM agent you spoke to was being honest.

In any negotiation with VM (or any) retentions agent, the best outcome is likely to be obtained when you approach from a position of research. That you have looked at alternative suppliers for your choice of services, that may include new-customer discounts. If you are prepared to cancel your VM account and move to an alternative provider, make sure the agent knows that, and that you can get new services installed and working before the disconnection date.

If you're not prepared to disconnect and are just seeking a better price, then don't volunteer such info - otherwise a retentions agent will (justifiably) think "they're not going to leave, so why offer a big discount".

[Andrew-G]

@Lkitson I'm afraid it's a "me too" response here as well.  A search of my posts will show that I'm more than happy to dish it out to VM (and there's no favouritism, any company in my sights), but in this case it's how commerce works.  If I were running VM, many many things would be different, but the practice of deep discounting for new customers and combative retentions negotiations would stay, because otherwise VM would be bust in about 20 months.

You do have 14 days cooling off period to reject a new contract if you're not happy, and then you have a cleanish slate to start again with Retentions.  However, they'll see the contact history, and any threat to leave will be assumed to be hollow.