Cancelling after almost 25 years, a shame.

[wjk45]

Quite sad that I have had to give notice for cancellation after almost 25 years a customer. I was out of contract a few months ago but my loyalty discounts run out next month, I have been on WhatsApp chat this morning happy to sign up on similar terms to my last contract. After a painful one hour chat where I had to keep repeating myself I was offered a deal if it included what I have now which is more or less everything for £93 I was offered a 'deal' which would take my monthy bill over £150 like for like. Needless to say I didn't sign up and proceeded to give notice for cancellation on 27th August.

First time in over 20+ years I've not been able to negotiate a deal, so the search is on for a new provider. I've generally been very happy during my time with VM, but a rise of over 60% is a poor way to treat a long standing customer.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey wjk45, thank you for reaching out and we are so sorry to see you are leaving us.

With the reweals we have no control over the pricing we just put it into a system this spits a price out for us, we cannot change this.

We understand its frustrating we are sorry for this.

Prices are only very time sensitive, meaning they change by going up / down by the day.

[unisoft]

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@wjk45 wrote:

Quite sad that I have had to give notice for cancellation after almost 25 years a customer. I was out of contract a few months ago but my loyalty discounts run out next month, I have been on WhatsApp chat this morning happy to sign up on similar terms to my last contract. After a painful one hour chat where I had to keep repeating myself I was offered a deal if it included what I have now which is more or less everything for £93 I was offered a 'deal' which would take my monthy bill over £150 like for like. Needless to say I didn't sign up and proceeded to give notice for cancellation on 27th August.

First time in over 20+ years I've not been able to negotiate a deal, so the search is on for a new provider. I've generally been very happy during my time with VM, but a rise of over 60% is a poor way to treat a long standing customer.

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If you can't find a new long term provider, see if you can use a 4G/5G dongle in back of PC, or a suitable router that can is either a 4G/5G one or something like an Asus that offers 4G backup capability. That will get you by after disconnection for 90 days then return as a new customer with new customer offers. Unfortunately, NOW TV decided to stop selling monthly contracts for FTTC.

Alternatively, lookup Altnets that maybe in your area offering full fttp - many are far cheaper than VM, and many (not all but vast majority) offer symmetric upload and download speeds. With those you no longer have to subscribe to a more expensive package with high downstream capacity just to get a higher upload speed capability as both are same speed for the package you subscribe to, unlike VM (HFC and RFoG areas).

[jpeg1]

As a long term customer you may well get a phone call from them in a week or two with a better offer. But the offer price will depend whether you have an alternative service by Openreach or altnet. They will check your postcode to see what other options you have.

[rngorman]

Exactly the same here. 25 years with VM, never before have I had a credible alternative, however I always managed to negotiate an acceptable renewal at around the price of new customer deal, now that I have Toob available to me (900mb for £29) VM seem quite happy to let me go without offering a sensible renewal price. Sad, but hey ho. Have to say the O2 and Virgin two separate contract debacle is something I won't miss. 

[wjk45]

I too have lots of High Speed Broadband available from other providers as our whole area has had a massive upgrade, so it won't be a problem moving, Deals from EE & Sky with 900mb Broadband, all the sports & TV channels I need are around £90, I'll ditch home phone & Cinema channels as I don't use either.

I'll wait around 7-10 days to see if a better deal is offered but I'm not anxious about leaving now as at least there a viable alternatives now.

[cylinder]

I'm afraid at best they don't care and at worst this is all quite deliberate - my recent and similar experience - https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/33-a-month-difference-in-renewal-of....

[wjk45]

A week has now pass since I invoked my cancellation and already received some totally inadequate packaging to return my hardware after my 27th August end of service. By the end of this week I'm going to have to place an order with EE or Sky so that I don't end up without Broadband and TV. 

Disappointed VM haven't made an approach to try and agree a reasonable contract renewal price but the clock is running down,is it worth me contacting VM again before I place my business elsewhere to attempt a better price or am I wasting my time? If I do contact them what's the best way?

I don't really want go after 25 years, is anyone at VM listening?

[jpeg1]

The retentions department seems to be as disorganised as the rest of VM (with the obvious exception of the accounts department).

Some people get a call after cancellation, others don't. I actually got two calls. One factor that clearly affects it is whether you have the local option of another fast provider, or only the old copper wires. They can check this with a simple postcode query.

There's no VM person on here with any authority to discuss contracts, so if you really want to stay you will have to call retentions again and say you have changed your mind. But be aware that once they know you are committed they won't offer a good deal.

The other dodge if available to you is for an adult in the household with a different surname to apply as a new customer with an introductory deal. That has worked in some cases.

Don't worry about the inadequate return packaging. VM are only collecting the equipment for recycling because they have been forced to by government regulations, so they are not bothered about potential damage. 

Good luck! 

[Alex_RM]

Hi wjk45,

Thanks for posting, we can't guarantee at what point you'd receive a phone call from the outbound retentions team. But if you have a disconnection booked they would contact you at some point. 

Alex_Rm