Leaving after more than 25 years

[telbea]

After more than 25 years with Virgin I have decided to leave after very bad treatment, too long to going into details but I had to involve the ombudsman who was unable to resolve the problems, so I am leaving, ending all virgin services including my O2/virgin mobile which I've had for well over 30 years, I am having absolutely nothing to do with virgin at all and will never return.

I posted my 30 day notice letter last week, 1st class recorded signed for service, Virgin received it on Tuesday last week (13th Aug). In my letter I requested a letter to confirm my services are ending with the end date and amendment of my bill. A week on, I have not received anything from Virgin, which I'm not too suprised about but does anyone think I should chase for confirmation or just leave it because I have the proof virgin received my letter? I have already booked my install with my new broadband supplier.

[Geoff_H]

@unisoft: I did ignore it. I'd already opened an account supplying more for less with another provider.

The fundamental problem is that for many years VM had a virtual monopoly if you wanted anything above 100Mbps so they could - and did - charge almost what they liked.

In my almost 25 years with them (and their predecessors) I went from a package with phone, all the TV channels bar the premium ones and broadband internet all the way down, in steps, to nothing. Gradually I got rid of the phone (in favour of a SIP VOIP model that uses the broadband directly), then the TV (too many channels to possibly watch) and now finally the broadband. The broadband was the last to go because until recently there were no competitors in my area that could offer better speeds. Now there are. For example I can now get 1Gbps for £26 with Community Fibre, against my last VM contract at £40 for 350Mbps (achieved only after much haggling and threatening to leave) and an out of contract price of more than £60! I've had CF since mid July and it's not hiccupped once. So this month my journey with VM comes to an end. It was a no-brainer really. I got fed up with having to threaten to leave every 18 months to get a halfway decent price. A business that treats its customers as gullible fools unless they regularly complain about the cost and threaten to leave is borderline unethical. It doesn't deserve my business and now I have an opportunity to vote with my wallet, it hasn't.

[unisoft]

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@Geoff_H wrote:

@unisoft: I did ignore it. I'd already opened an account supplying more for less with another provider.

The fundamental problem is that for many years VM had a virtual monopoly if you wanted anything above 100Mbps so they could - and did - charge almost what they liked.

In my almost 25 years with them (and their predecessors) I went from a package with phone, all the TV channels bar the premium ones and broadband internet all the way down, in steps, to nothing. Gradually I got rid of the phone (in favour of a SIP VOIP model that uses the broadband directly), then the TV (too many channels to possibly watch) and now finally the broadband. The broadband was the last to go because until recently there were no competitors in my area that could offer better speeds. Now there are. For example I can now get 1Gbps for £26 with Community Fibre, against my last VM contract at £40 for 350Mbps (achieved only after much haggling and threatening to leave) and an out of contract price of more than £60! I've had CF since mid July and it's not hiccupped once. So this month my journey with VM comes to an end. It was a no-brainer really. I got fed up with having to threaten to leave every 18 months to get a halfway decent price. A business that treats its customers as gullible fools unless they regularly complain about the cost and threaten to leave is borderline unethical. It doesn't deserve my business and now I have an opportunity to vote with my wallet, it hasn't.

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Yip, I had similar as my 500mbps (Volt to GIG1) went up from £32 to MORE money than the list price for out of contract. So if left, I would have been paying more than what it was supposed to be out of a discounted contract period price - something like £76 at the time. Now, I had GIG1 but the upgrade from 500mbps to GIG1 is supposed to be free if an O2 customer as well, and the price was given for 500mbs.

I also ditched the VM landline ages ago in favour of SIPGate and never looked back. The TV went to VM Stream which I actually liked and subscribed to the £8 Sky Entertainment pack which is now £15 with 10% off (they did add a lot of extra channels for the increase to be fair and still cheaper than Sky Stream which I have tried and was pants).

The price increase at RPI + 3.9% per year with no escape clause penalty free was the nail in the coffin this year. They had no kit to give me that cost, they could have waived the 18 month lock-in contract as chances are I still would have been a customer after 18 months anyway, but the script says XXX and I wasn't prepared to enter a legally standing 18 month contract with no escape clause if the price increase was horrendous one year. So I walked into the distance with another provider after being a customer since 2007. It's been impossible for retentions this year and people been walking as a result. Really can't wait for the Q3 financial results from VM. Last Q2 was 13K customer loss, and they've just done new offers with Eufy cameras and best ever pricing on Sports packages and large bill credits to try and make up the numbers. No coincidence its for the reporting figures 😉