Virgin Media Community

[MonkeyDucky]

Hi,

My existing Virgin contract was due to run out at the end of October 2020, so when I received a cold sales call from Virgin Media in the middle of October, it was an opportune time to discuss options.  I had been on the XL TV package and 200MB broadband so was happy when I was offered 350MB broadband and the addition of Sky Movies for essentially the same price as I was already paying (MAXIT TV package).  The sales team member advised me that I would be receiving Sky Movies now but was not told of any other changes to the TV package.

However, soon it became clear that I had lost the few Kids TV channels that my daughter watches most of the time (mainly Nickelodeon).  I had not been made aware during the sales call that this was going to happen.

Hunting around online, I then land on a Virgin Media web page that advises MAXIT TV customers will receive 4-5 Kids TV channels for the month of November at no extra charge.  Running through my channel listing and attempting to watch Nickelodeon (as an example), I am presented with a subscribe screen and a message to say that this channel can be added as part of an additional pack at £5 per month.

So, I have two questions:

1)  Why am I not able to watch Nickelodeon and other kids channels currently, given MAXIT customers are supposed to have these channels FoC for the month of November?

2) More importantly, I was not advised of the loss of kids channels during the sales call where I agreed to accept the new contract with addition of Sky Movies.  Therefore, what can VM do for me in this regard?  This is a loss of service that I was not made aware of during the sales call.

Thanks.

[japitts · Accepted solution]

Hi,

What's happened here is there are actually 2 versions of the XL/Full-House bundle. Legacy versions do indeed include the kids channels, but current equivalents don't, and kids channels (Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon+1, Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network+1, Cartoonito, Boomerang, Boomerang+1, Zoomoo HD, Nick Junior, Nicktoons, Nick Jr Too, Nick HD, Nick+1) are now a chargeable add-on at £5 per month.

There does look to be another freeview period - https://www.virginmedia.com/virgin-tv-edit/tv/kids-tv-open-window covering some of these channels - Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and Boomerang.

So far as the 4 specific channels go, I'd recommend following Home > Help & Settings > Help > TV Care > I'm missing some channels, if you are on an eligible package and not receiving these.

As regards your package not including them, you will need to call C/S back and discuss this. The kids channels are now a chargeable add-on which VM can certainly add to your package, but whether they can/willl include them in your offer price is for C/S to decide. With any package re-grade you have 14days cooling off, so if worst comes to worst you can cancel all the changes you've made, revert to your previous package and then decide what you want to do - either renegotiate from scratch or stay as you "were". Unfortunately in your case it sounds like you'll have gone beyond that, so you might have to speak very nicely to C/S and see what they can do. I'd certainly be inclined to follow the "thinking of leaving us" route through the C/S menu, in the hope you get a more amenable agent.

There's always the complaints route if you feel mis-sold, but I'd suggest going the "play nice, ask nice" avenue first, and then keep the complaint up your sleeve incase it's required later on.

[MonkeyDucky]

Thank you, japitts.  Appreciate your feedback.