Contract renewal expensive?

[rsk19]

Hi everyone,

I just called 150 1->1->4->4 and spoke with the "retention" team to renew my contract as usual, and they offered me the 250Mbps bundle for £52 which is very expensive, and a downgrade for me since I am currently on 350.

I saw that new customers get the 500 Big Volt bundle for £38, but the guy on the phone said that's only for new customers and I would have to wait 90 days if I were to resign up.

I only use broadband and mobile (don't need tv/phone). Quite frustrated that existing customers are treated horribly. Any help or suggestions?

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

That is the way it works - VM offer discounted prices to new customers, and when the discount end it's a mix of luck and possibly skill at the retentions game as to what you get offered as a deal.  If you cancel then there's a good chance you'll get a decent offer from an outbound retentions call during the 30 day notice period, but there's no guarantee that call will come, or that you'll be able to receive it.   

There's more thoughts on the matter in this post.

[newapollo]

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@rsk19 wrote:

I only use broadband and mobile (don't need tv/phone). Quite frustrated that existing customers are treated horribly. Any help or suggestions?

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You are already aware of the current VM prices for new customer prices   but speak to them again and ask to cancel.

However before you do speak to them again do a little of homework. See what prices other providers offer, and have those figures handy to use as a negotiating weapon.

Who is your current sim deal with?  Are you out of contract with the sim?

If might be worthwhile  to look at taking out a  mobile sim via O2. Link that in with your VM broadband bundle on yuor current M350 to get a Volt speed increase up to M500.

See https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Digital-life/Your-ultimate-guide-to-Volt 

[Chris_W1]

Hi rsk19 thanks for the message and welcome to the forums. 

I am sorry to hear that the retentions team were not able to offer you the deal which you wanted and they will always aim to provide the best possible deal. 

If you wish to take anything which was offered please give them a call as we don't do package changes here.

Kind regards, Chris. 

[rsk19]

Thanks everyone for the reply.

I managed to speak with someone over Whatsapp and managed to get my contract renewed although £4 more expensive than now. Not the most ideal, maybe I could've haggled more but who knows. I only use broadband and mobile, but according to Virgin taking out TV and landline phone is more expensive. Maybe it's better for me to cancel all together and re-sign up as a new customer with broadband only? 😁

It definitely was frustrating to spend so much time getting this sorted out. Why must we do this at the end of our contracts? 😞

[Andrew-G]

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@rsk19 wrote:

Thanks everyone for the reply.

I managed to speak with someone over Whatsapp and managed to get my contract renewed although £4 more expensive than now. Not the most ideal, maybe I could've haggled more but who knows. I only use broadband and mobile, but according to Virgin taking out TV and landline phone is more expensive. Maybe it's better for me to cancel all together and re-sign up as a new customer with broadband only? 😁

It definitely was frustrating to spend so much time getting this sorted out. Why must we do this at the end of our contracts? 😞

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If you've agreed a new contract then you've got 14 days cooing off rights for the new contract in which to make that call on cancelling.  After that there's huge penalties for ending a fixed term agreement early.  If you do cancel under cooling off rights, then you need to be aware that the cooling off rights apply to the new contract, but that reverts to whatever you had before - 30 days notice or the last few days of a previous fixed term usually applies.  You can offer 30 days notice for the contract you'd revert to at the same time as exercising cooling off rights, but expect that to be a level of complexity beyond the wit of any offshore agent, so may require two calls.