New Customer Deals v Loyalty Customer Deals

[Marv95]

My Contract is finishing early August 2023. I have been with Virgin for 15 years.

There is a New Customer Deal (that offers the same package but better Broadband Speed) that I want to take out (which is significantly cheaper) but I am barred from taking it forcing me to leave Virgin for 1-3x months and re-join in the hope that I can get this New Customer deal.

As I understand it there is New Legislation coming out soon forcing Suppliers to offer deal to everyone not just enticing New Customers. So why if my Contract is ending why aren't I treated as a New Customer and have access to the better deals. It seems to me that it is ridiculous that I have to leave when I have all the equipment and I have the Service that I want.

Also, why does it always take 3hrs to get any where on a call with Virgin or in my case NOT get any where. I have requested a Manager contact me & they are never available. I am now waiting for the Retentions Team to contact me but it is highly likely they will not offer me the New Customer Deal so I will have to leave. I am looking at Toob at the moment. Virgin are infuriating!!!

[nexus1972]

sky stream offer monthly contracts (albeit slight higher than 18 month contract) might be worth a shot. Their multiroom is massively cheaper if you have more than 2 boxes. 

[nexus1972]

Just do the virgin media dance actually cancel and you get better offers immediately. turn those down and wait for retentions to call you. Better still move elsewhere if you can and get cashback for doing so same position as you been vm for a few years now and because ive already had faster broadband from my local provider im no longer tied to vm for remote work. sky stream are offering some great deals and you can get £100+ cashback depending on package

[nexus1972]

I've been with toob for over a year now and the speed and service is great. I suspect VM will be getting lots of cancellations in and around southampton.

[archercj]

My Ultimate Volt contract ends in September. Was around £90 but paying £63 for past few months due to a mistake on their part so they discounted. Was sent an email stating renewal would be £76 but I didnt think it wa slike for like so I made the big mistake of contactingthem. Agent 1 said the email was incorrect and it should be £144, they then put me through to Agent 2 who said actualy it should be £154. Then Agent 3 did me a 'like for like' deal for £93.99.

Except the like for like deal halved my speed, took out totally one of my two boxes and reduced channels on the other.

Agent 4 came back with a price of £80 for a match for my exisiting Ultimate Volt contract. Except they didint process it.

Agent 5 said they would sort it but it takes 72 hours and they would ring me back then to make sure it was sorted. It wasnt and they didint.

Agent 6 did try their best which ended up with diagnosis the set top box was jiggered now and they were sending me a new one. And they would honour the £80 contract. An hour later my new contract came through at £134 for the first month then £120. Chased it up and the contract went to £80 but NOT with everything promised (Sky UHD).

Priced up Sky - around £90 for two stream boxes BUT 'only' around 40-50mbps broadband speed. There isnt another true fibre supplier in our area so I am stuck as there can be three people in the household working from home and Teams calls do use up a lot of bandwidth.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey archercj, thank you for reaching out and I am so sorry to hear this.

I can see on another thread you are actually in contact with my colleague about this, please do reach out if you need anything else on that thread. Cheers 

[JohnJames95]

That is an unbelievably crass response. Inflating contract prices, when renewing, is a shocking practice, which unfortunately is common across many business sectors.

[archercj]

@Matthew_ML. Have a look at the dates and the lack of a response despite me reaching out.;

I am getting so frustrated with these cut and past answers by the Virgin CS team. To pay what we do in these times and to have to endure the total lack of any respect or empathy for us -THE CUSTOMER - is shameful.

Granted you are not alone - banks, energy companes are the same, but despite a few very bad experiences with them (including a spanish bank who decided to freeze my mothers assets when she was terminally ill because she was incapable of signing anything) I have yet to come across an organsiation with such bad customer services skills.

Hopefully the ombudsman will fine you but of course that will only lead to further contract price increases to pay for it.

At the moment I am trying to send you a formal complaint. The online procedure is text only (no attachments) so my 9 page dcument is useless. You do not have an email address to send it to but amazingly you do allow complaints by post.

I have wasted over 12 hours in the past week waiting on whatsapp to be told 'ooooh we are very busy at the moment blah blah blah'.

[archercj]

and while I am on my high horse what a stroke of genious. set up your online technical support as a cusromer form so we can do your job for us. Master stroke.

[TALON1973]

New customer pricing isn’t always the cheapest. It’s literally down to haggling and who you deal with.  And sometimes it’s worth downgrading a few months after your existing deal to get offers on your account online.

[vmrunreliable]

First off all,  just because the speed advertised is faster than the peckish you are currently on,  don't count on it being any faster. In reality it'll probably be far worse than your current package.

If you're dead set on upgrading anyway,  is there nobody else in l living in the house that can put the service in their name?

If there is, just cancel then get the lithe person to sign up.  If you time it right you'll be without service for a couple of days,  and let's be honest,  that's par for the course with this lot anyway.