£33 a month difference in renewal offers

[cylinder]

My current contract is due to expire in about two weeks. When I renegotiated it down 18 months ago, I was advised to get in touch in advance to ensure the contract didn't go back to full price. I currently pay about £58 a month for a low-end, basic broadband, TV, phone package.

This time last week I spoke to two representatives via chat and was offered £71 a month and then £75 a month, both including an upgrade to M350 broadband. Given this is roughly £250 extra over the full contract I wanted to think about it. I have just tried again today with a view to ordering and have been offered my existing M250 broadband for £104 a month. The operator tried to tell me that the previous prices were for new customers only (it is obvious they weren't from the records of the conversations I took).

Not only does it take 30+ minutes to speak to someone, at best one could say they offer inconsistent offers, at worst one could say they lie to you.

What kind of service is this?

[Stanl]

Mine was initially way worse than that and even then there were errors in the typed transcript.

Conveniently the SAR wasn’t recorded so I wasn’t happy. We did get there in the end but what should be a simple standard procedure is complicated, messy and controversial to say the least.

Hope OFCOM do something about it because the whole experience is frustrating.

First timers get treated better than long standing customers unless you fight like hell for the best deal.

[goslow · Accepted solution]

Rightly or wrongly, it has always been the case that any VM offers you get, when attempting to renegotiate, only last for as long as that individual communication exchange. Ask to think about it, and phone back later, and it is pretty certain the offer will no longer be there.

Different matter if you agree on a price/package, and accept, and VM then tries to go back on the deal but there have even been a lot of those topics too on here recently.

VM ideally wants each customer to have to negotiate each renewal with a sales agent who will try to upsell the maximum package they think they can get away with on each occasion that the customer phones in.

[cylinder]

Wow. Incredible.

I tried again this evening (and yes it has taken this long) and managed to get to £74. £71 was unachievable - I asked specifically whether prices had risen in the last week and the answer was that the discounts vary.

I'm temped to name and shame the individual who only wanted (and was quite pushy) to renew the contract at £104.

[spell]

They would probably get an employee of the month award

[unisoft]

---

@cylinder wrote:

Wow. Incredible.

I tried again this evening (and yes it has taken this long) and managed to get to £74. £71 was unachievable - I asked specifically whether prices had risen in the last week and the answer was that the discounts vary.

I'm temped to name and shame the individual who only wanted (and was quite pushy) to renew the contract at £104.

---

You have to actually cancel by giving 30 days notice and make sure marketing is enabled well before doing this in My Virgin Media Portal. Then, you will get the much better offers as outbound retentions will try to ring or text you. Of late they have been known to text a good offer 2 days before disconnection, so not always within 72 hours, though, if this is your first cancel then you are more likely to get a quicker ring back from them. You can cancel the cancel within 30 days too. Your package seems overpriced to me, based on knowing retention type deals for a number of packages. You have to use the Leaving Virgin option on the phone (don't bother with whatsapp merry go round) and go straight in with a confident voice of placing a cancellation. Only when they hear you are serious will they offer any form of decent reduction on the first point of contact. The best prices are always when you actually cancel. For the record, I walked after many years with VM due to being messed around during renegotiation and the price increase at inflation + 3.9% every year, with the penalty free escape clause now removed. It's a legally binding contract but you have no idea what the amount of increase is per year and would be held to it with no escape.

[Vikki_M]

Hi cylinder,

Thanks for your post and welcome back to our community.

We're very sorry to hear you're unhappy with the prices offered to re contract with us. 

The discounts do vary, if a deal isn't accepted at the time its offered, we can't guarantee this will be available at a later date.

What was the outcome of the call please? Did you accept the £74 offer?

Please pop back to us when you can. 

[cylinder]

This made me chuckle. "And the best lie to the customer saying there are no discounts available award goes to..."

I'm sure OFCOM would be interested in the records of the different chats I had, some almost in parallel.

[cylinder]

Thanks - good to know. I suppose I have a cooling off period for the contract I've now agreed to (not that I've actually demonstrably agreed to anything) but I'm not sure I have the energy or the hours to spend on the phone (including waiting times). As you say - all part of their strategy - make it all as difficult as possible.

I appreciate there has to be a business model, but one of consistency and transparency rather than trying to make every penny possible out of each individual customer seems one that belongs in the past to me.

[cylinder]

Thanks for getting back to me, @Vikki_M. I accepted the offer given the very inconsistent offers being made to me, but have a cooling off period if you'd like to make a better one, bearing in mind @unisoft's comments about my basic package being overpriced.