Virgin Media Community

[jeyoung]

Where is the logic in that?

I got the price rise email and tried to downgrade my service from M350 MaxIt to M350 broadband-only.

The offer I'm given, as an existing customer, is £73 a month just for broadband. A new customer pays £38.99 a month for 18 months (the actual length of an existing customer contract), then £56 a month after that.

I don't get it.

[cje85]

Something isn't right there. Existing customers can have 500Mb or Gig1 for £62 (both the same price) so there's no way 350Mb should be £73. Was it the offshore call centre that gave you this price? 

[jeyoung]

That was from the retention team in the UK. The lady looked up deals and said that was the best she could find.

Needless to say that I am very very disappointed and will be looking at other service providers.

[newapollo · Accepted solution]

Hi @jeyoung 

It certainly looks like the agent has made a mistake, I suggest calling again.

M350 broadband on it's own (https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/broadband-only )

• £38.99 a month for 18 months (New customers)
• £56 a month thereafter. Prices may change.( Out of contract price before the new price rise)

You should have been able to negotiate something in between those two figures.

The M500 and 1Gig broadband are only priced at £62 per month.

[jeyoung]

What she said sounded very wrong to me. Although historically Virgin Media pricing favours new customers, I was shocked by what she was offering as the best deal.

I will call them again tomorrow and see if their position has changed. If not, they're forcing me to cancel my account.

[Lee_R]

Thanks for getting back to us @jeyoung

Please do let us know how things go.  Please remember, the best time to call is usually as close to 8:00am as conveniently possible.

Regards

Lee_R

[goslow]

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@jeyoung wrote:

What she said sounded very wrong to me. Although historically Virgin Media pricing favours new customers, I was shocked by what she was offering as the best deal.

I will call them again tomorrow and see if their position has changed. If not, they're forcing me to cancel my account.

---

Similar (daft) VM scenario was described last week here

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Why-can-t-I-change-to-a-Broadband-o...

OP resolved at #8 by repeatedly contacting VM until he got someone who knew what they were doing and was able to authorise an acceptable price change (seemingly quite a difficult task in the case of VM). Certainly looks like first line call handlers are limited in their abilities to make changes and offer suitable, or even sensible-sounding, pricing (presumably in the hope the customer gives up with trying to renew at a better price and just keeps paying the old price).

[jeyoung]

Hello again.

There is a positive outcome. Your colleague Nathalie helped me get a discount that allows me to keep the same bundle.

To be honest, I still don't 'get' the pricing of Virgin Media. According to Nathalie, the simple explanation is, the larger the bundle, the larger the potential discount. So in this case, had I chosen only Broadband, I would have received a reasonable discount for a limited time and thereafter would be charged the same price that I am paying now for Broadband, Phone, and TV. But because I decided to keep all services, she was able to apply a bigger discount. I suppose this logic will continue to confuse customers.

So, thanks to everyone who has offered advice and has encouraged me to get in touch with VM again. I must say that it is a good feeling to see loyalty being rewarded.

Cheers.

[Lee_R]

Thanks for getting back to us @jeyoung and thanks for confirming you achieved a resolution.

Remember if you ever need assistance in the future, our fantastic community and forum team are always willing to lend a hand.

Regards

Lee_R