Had Enough

[strickersuk]

We've been with VM in its various iterations for probably 20 years plus, why do they treat existing customers so poorly? Every other time, about a month before contract end we've managed to negotiate a reasonable renewal, often though with add ons we don't need and won't use. This time, they want to charge us £20 a month more than a new customer! A couple of questions and appreciate I'm going round the houses, will we be better off cancelling and seeing what happens? Also, rehashing the cancel and sign up question with a slightly different slant, the current contract is in my wife's maiden name. If we cancel what's to stop me signing up as a new customer with a different surname? Thanks all.

[Cardiffman282]

Why use a different surname? Just use your normal surname if it's currently in your wife's name (albeit, a bit weirdly, in her maiden name). You will lose any TV recordings, VM email accounts, have to return all kit, and may have a service interruption mind. Let us know how it goes. 

[strickersuk]

We've tried multiple times to get them to change it after we got married, even sent copies of the marriage certificate. The account still has her maiden name, so what I meant is I will use our married name which is different from the name on the account. It's the possible service interruption that concerns me.

[unisoft]

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@strickersuk wrote:

We've tried multiple times to get them to change it after we got married, even sent copies of the marriage certificate. The account still has her maiden name, so what I meant is I will use our married name which is different from the name on the account. It's the possible service interruption that concerns me.

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Cancel or as Martin Lewis says "haggle" if you feel like you aren't getting a fair price compared to competitors. You may get a decent offer from outbound retentions ringing you if you have marketing enabled in your "My Virgin Media" online portal. If you don't get a call or SMS, do a sign-up in a different name at the address for install/activation after termination date and proceed with incentives like new customer pricing, topcashback or quidco cashback (usually like £85 or more!) or any free gifts VM may be offering at the time or Bill credits. You may even get newer kit sent than what you have today. Things to be aware are billing continues until termination then recalculated for final bill, and the new service if taken may have a months advance charges. Return of kit is free but if you don't receive the returns packaging within 2 weeks of termination, be on their case as they will try and slap non-return equipment charge unless you kit is really old (i.e. older than HUB3 like HUB2ac as example, and older than v6 Tivo box).

[strickersuk]

Thanks all, any idea how long it takes for Volt to be added back? We both have O2 sim contracts so meet the criteria. Also, if I sign up for M500 does that get increased to gig?

[unisoft]

up to 14 days, but they generally do around 8 days I found in the past when I was a customer.

If the package is labelled as VOLT M500 then no as you already were volted and you can only be volted once. Typically it would have a SIM offered with it.

If it's standard M500 package then yes. This option may give you a HUB4 or HUB5 as you'd need that for the GIG1 service.

I am assuming you are in a VM area with coaxial cable that goes into the back of your current hub due to the fact you said you are a customer of 20 years. The HUB5 is a much better hub for lines that have lower SNR as the tuners in the hub are more sensitive than HUB4. The HUB5 also has Wifi 6 AX capability, the HUB4 doesn't. The HUB5 also has a 2.5gbps port to connect to your own router in modem mode to get the full 1300mbps odd speed out of it, but would depend on your kit having 2.5gbps or faster LAN ports and your actual devices having 2.5gbps or better ports for wired devices, but WIFI bandwidth would be better shared as more bandwidth to devices and faster AX standard as long as your WiFi devices are AX capable too. The HUB4 only has gigabit ports meaning it tops out around 940mbps because of TCP/IP overheads, and has older WiFi 5 AC standard. Some customers reported the HUB4 as noisy with the fan, but when I briefly had one, mine was quiet. Some customers using HUB5 as a router (and not just as a modem) have had WiFi connectivity compatibility issues with some devices and reverted to HUB4 but not many.

If you went to order a GIG1 package directly, most of the time, unless a stock issue, you get sent a HUB5 anyway. VM cover themselves as there is a disclaimer on the sales pages saying hardware indicative only, so you can;t argue a picture of the HUB5 was on there (but there are other things you could argue instead like why should other customer get a better HUB5 for that tier and you do not).

[strickersuk]

SNR is 38-40 and I have WiFi 6 so in theory 1.3Gb.