Broadband + Stream - best prices

[davorg]

I've spent far too much of the morning speaking to VM on both Twitter and WhatsApp, trying to do the annual contract renegotiation dance.

Honestly, it gets harder each year. And the prices are creeping up. So I think we might have passed the point at which I can justify paying for the full TV/Broadband/Phone package. Currently, I'm on MaxIt TV, 350M broadband and some phone package that I don't use. I'm paying £65/month and when the discount expires, that'll go up to £92. Which is simply too much.

I've ended up booking a disconnection for the date when my contract ends. But I'm going to have one last go at speaking to customer retentions and seeing what they can do for me.

I'm thinking that I can drop to just broadband + Virgin Stream. I know I can get Three internet + Freely for about £25/month. So I'm hoping that VM will be able to offer a similar price. But I'm just asking to see what sort of prices people here have been able to haggle for a similar package.

Cheers,

Dave...

[goslow]

If you have already booked a disconnection, turn on marketing options in 'My VM' and wait to see if you get a retentions call back. No guarantee that you will but it seems increasingly the best offers only come in once you have put your notice in to leave.

You have your alternative supplier already priced and in mind so you can compare with whatever VM offers if they do phone you back.

There is little/no point trying to compare prices with what anyone else managed to achieve in so far as VM tries to carve out an individual subscription with each customer and prices vary through the day and depending on the agent you might be speaking to.

Your best bargaining tool is a competitor's price and being ready/willing to move elsewhere if needs be.

[unisoft]

---

@davorg wrote:

I've spent far too much of the morning speaking to VM on both Twitter and WhatsApp, trying to do the annual contract renegotiation dance.

Honestly, it gets harder each year. And the prices are creeping up. So I think we might have passed the point at which I can justify paying for the full TV/Broadband/Phone package. Currently, I'm on MaxIt TV, 350M broadband and some phone package that I don't use. I'm paying £65/month and when the discount expires, that'll go up to £92. Which is simply too much.

I've ended up booking a disconnection for the date when my contract ends. But I'm going to have one last go at speaking to customer retentions and seeing what they can do for me.

I'm thinking that I can drop to just broadband + Virgin Stream. I know I can get Three internet + Freely for about £25/month. So I'm hoping that VM will be able to offer a similar price. But I'm just asking to see what sort of prices people here have been able to haggle for a similar package.

Cheers,

Dave...

---

I agree, their prices are totally out of control compared to other operators. The TV packages can be competitive if you take a 360 box that is, and "new" customer pricing. If you can leave VM for 90 days after disconnection has happened (3 months), then you will be classed as a new customer if you return and can benefit from new customer deals. At this point, your old account number normally resurfaces if in same name, and a suffix added to it. If you have good 4G or 5G operators in your area perhaps a USB dongle in back of own router that offers 4G switchover/failover, or the USB dongle in your PC/laptop directly may help during this time (as NOW monthly FTTC subscriptions have ended!!). You can get pre-pay SIMS for this like 1pmobile (on EE) or SPUSU (EE) using full frequency bands, without a contract for 12 months. If you have an ALTNET at your address, perhaps now is a good time to try them for full FTTP. Many are far cheaper than VM and offer symmetric upload and download speeds, and most have support based in the UK. Some ALTNETS like CityFibre offer wholesale access to ISPs meaning you deal with brands you know.

Retentions can see in the future that you do leave when threatening cancellation (if if you did go back a while later) so usually helps with renegotiation as it costs VM to process returned kit and refurbish for others for example. Now, if you have marketing enabled in My Virgin media and not just enabled it (as takes a while for it to be effective), then you may get a call back with better offers. I do know that M125 is usually offered last minute as cheap as £17, but this is like 2 days before disconnection happens. So if earlier in the 30 days notice, somewhere between £21-£25 would be most likely for M125 BB only (stream is free unless you subscribe to extra non-freeview channels). Again, depends on quotas, the agent, how well you talk it through with each other all applies.