Getting your contract negotiated to a competitive price has become impossible. Im off

[BaronVonStrudel]

I've been on this infrastructure and network since it was CablTel/NTL way back in the 90's. Next week im leaving VM for good as its become impossible to negotiate a competitive contract. I can no longer be bothered going through the annual process of negotiating ,when your prices should just be competitive for everyone all the time.  In the last week ive been hung up on,  given the run around and called a liar by your staff.  So yesterday as my contract is up next month,  i cancelled.  Next week my new fibre connection will be fitted and its costing me way less. The irony is , your retentions team called today with an offer which i would accepted two days ago. But yesterday was somehow impossible to offer me after repeated calls over the phone and abuse during a live chat on twitter/X. Im rather miffed i will lose our old email addresses all because you continue to have a system in place to gouge your existing customers rather than a competitive and fair pricing system,  but Ohh well..Im ranting 🙂   To all the great staff and forum members. Thank you,  you all have been amazing with help when we needed it.  Im very sad to leave but was left no alternative . Maybe one day we will return. 🙂  Wishing you all the best!

[daveeb]

All fair points BaronVS, I too have had cable services forever (94-95 ish) and was fully expecting to leave recently but very unexpectedly got a decent offer from offshore retentions to renew so I'm stuck for at least another 18 months. As you accurately describe the communication process is sketchy and unreliable to say the least and good luck getting to speak to a UK based advisor. In addition as you also note this forum is the one decent access point left to get anything sorted. I wouldn't worry about losing the e-mail facility, I suspect it will be gone before too long for everyone and no great loss really, especially after the debacle of a year or so ago. Good luck with the shiny new connection.

[Mr_K]

They are losing customers, 13k in the last quarter. The policy of trying to screw existing customers, and only offering decent deals to new is back firing. 

Good luck with your new provider, you're probably better off. Plus you'll qualify as a new customer with VM, if you can be bothered...

[unisoft]

The Q3 financial details should be out soon, that's why there has been of flurry of £150/£200 bill credits or Eufy camera package or free LG TV for NEW customers and GIG1 Broadband only suddenly went down from £41 to £39 for new customers after being around £41 for months and best prices ever on bundles with Sky Sports and/or Sky Movies.

On the VM Business side, they have revamped their speed tiers, reduced the price and offering up to 3 months free.

I think management know a bad quarter is coming on the reporting side, and they are hurrying the offers out to try and make up the loss. The forums have been rife since about March this year with contract renewal shambles and long serving customers like myself leaving. It's easier to keep existing customers that pay without issue, than entice new ones that have no history. Lack of Project Mustang upgrades being available for customers on HFC network areas is also not helping as they lose some customers to Altnets or BT based full fibre providers. My understanding is its ready to go live in many areas, but the backend VM systems can't handle migration, so customers can move from HFC to XGS-PON network.

[BaronVonStrudel]

Thought id post a quick update.  City Fibre connected me today,  Took them a couple of hours.  Everything that used to drop out on wifi works perfectly now. Latency is way down. Im getting symettrical speeds of 1000mbits up and down for £36 a month including a mesh wifi extender. Im very happy, Thanks guys

[codenstuff]

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"The irony is , your retentions team called today with an offer which i would accepted two days ago"

This happened to me. I spent 2-3 days contacting Virgin back and forth trying to get a good renewal price but the prices I was quoted were way too high and I was constantly told, "There's no way we can get it any lower." so I cancelled my contract and signed up with BRSK (which has been extremely fast and reliable by the way) then a few days later got a call from Virgin offering me a new renewal price which like you I probably would have accepted if they'd offered me that price in the first place.

After days of contacting them and constantly being told by numerous agents that there was no way the price would get lower, for them to then lower it after I'd cancelled is just ridiculous. Feels like Virgin just try stalling in the hope you will re-contract and pay a higher price even though they know they can give you a lower price but won't offer it until the very last minute.

To be honest I'm glad I left, I'm so much happier with BRSK now, it's very fast 1GB connection, hasn't let me down once in the month since I had it installed, my bills are even less than what I was paying Virgin in the first place. If Virgin just offered us (existing loyal customers) a good deal in the first place maybe they wouldn't be losing so many customers.

[Anonymous]

my advice to anyone, no matter who their service provider, is do not ever use the ISP's (or mobile phone networks) email service. You will be locked-in and have to pay extra or risk losing your email once you leave and switch to another provider in the future.
Instead get a free Outlook (hotmail) or Gmail address, or another email provider, that is not linked to your network

[daveeb]

In particular VM's e-mail service which they are rumored to be in the process of winding down. New customers don't get the option of a VM e-mail addy which in my opinion is a bullet dodged.

[Off_switch]

Well said! I would,reluctantly, leave VM but I have a wee problem. ANY ADVICE out there?

Contracts up end of Nov. I have the full tv (x2) bb tel pack. Already been offered 5% off so goes up £3 to £83 pm. I dont need the tel but its in the package😡

I could get a sky deal but like for like, its a dish and ffttp via a BT line from a post out the back. Similar price to my current VM one. (But BT have had historical tree issues out back) Is a dangly cable more or less reliable than underground? I dunno but favour underground.

We now have City Fibre dug into the street but they would only do bb so I would need someone else to provide tv. EE have deals but they would use the BT line out back.

Its tricky because my wife likes the option to record and I would prefer to deal with ONE provider so it looks like VM v Sky but Sky then have to install dish etc.

Am I missing something? 

many thanks community. Always helpful!

[Cardiffman282]

You might be missing a third way.