Pathetic new contract offer

[SMaster]

I’m a long standing, loyal customer of VM. My package is a good price, I admit but the offers I’m getting to renew are INSANE. £60 increases!! The intentional call centre staff don’t seem to understand why that isn’t ok! How the heck do I speak to a retentions colleague in the UK just like I always used to? 

[newapollo]

Hi SMaster 

There isn't a direct line to UK call centre staff.  All calls go through the same IVR system which directs the call to the first available agent.  You may have a better chance of speaking to a member from the UK teams if you try calling around 8am when lines first open.

[Cardiffman282]

Following through on a cancellation increases your chances. 

[SMaster]

Thanks both. Calling at 8am has worked in the past, I’ll try. And cancelling is the inevitable endpoint if I can’t get anywhere, so I’ll try that too. Sky is already saying they can do better. 

[roy247]

Even phoning at 8am seems to go offshore these days. 🤞

[Adduxi]

Won't be too long until the staff are all replaced by AI bots ..... <sigh>

[fizz]

it's stupid I'm up with my contract and to get less was nearly 100 quid more... If I wanted to stay the same was something like 120 quid more it was just ridiculous. I'm not paying 200 quid a month for internet which has taken 18 months to fix (which still is not perfect) and for a landline I don't need and for tv packages where I have to take a biggar package to watch a smattering of channels and now BT sport (TNT) is paid for it is just the nail in the coffin for me and on top of that a phone sim with O2 when I don't get an o2 data signal in my home as the mast has been faulty for over 2 years!!! I am actively finding alternative ways to be able to watch all the content I watch at a cheaper price! All this when a new customer can get what I am currently getting for less than I am currently paying.. I thought there was legislatation to stop this...

[unisoft]

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@SMaster wrote:

I’m a long standing, loyal customer of VM. My package is a good price, I admit but the offers I’m getting to renew are INSANE. £60 increases!! The intentional call centre staff don’t seem to understand why that isn’t ok! How the heck do I speak to a retentions colleague in the UK just like I always used to? 

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Phone and use the "Leaving Virgin" option and just be firm but polite with cancel of VM services. Reject any pricing that isn't acceptable, and wait for a callback which is usually from the UK. You must have had marketing enabled in My Virgin Media Portal online, else they won't call. You have 30 days to undo a cancel request from when it was asked for. Be realistic with prices though, look at competitors as the days of stupidly cheap package deals that sometimes get posted in the past are over. A decent fair price in comparison with competitors should be the aim if you want to stay with VM. 

But yes, I left this year after a long term customer as offshore retentions messed me around for an hour, randomly transferring my call and having to repeat security 3 times. It's like they just don't care about VM and are deliberately trashing customer base. Just my opinion and how they came across. Contrast with previous UK retentions and one particular Scottish guy who was always very chatty and did his best to work out a package and price. It was actually nice speaking to him as he was not a scripted chat bot!

My 90 days of leaving has well passed, in theory I could re-join as a new customer and whilst I miss my VM Stream box, the pricing and yearly price increase formula with no escape clause, keeps me away and with another ISP.

[unisoft]

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@fizz wrote:

it's stupid I'm up with my contract and to get less was nearly 100 quid more... If I wanted to stay the same was something like 120 quid more it was just ridiculous. I'm not paying 200 quid a month for internet which has taken 18 months to fix (which still is not perfect) and for a landline I don't need and for tv packages where I have to take a biggar package to watch a smattering of channels and now BT sport (TNT) is paid for it is just the nail in the coffin for me and on top of that a phone sim with O2 when I don't get an o2 data signal in my home as the mast has been faulty for over 2 years!!! I am actively finding alternative ways to be able to watch all the content I watch at a cheaper price! All this when a new customer can get what I am currently getting for less than I am currently paying.. I thought there was legislatation to stop this...

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At the current rate of pricing and yearly price increases, cockups with Customer renewals and other customer service issues as detailed widely on this forum, VM must be heading for decline. You can't charge over the odds for coax cable (Fibre to the cabinet) with its DocSIS lag when competition is now showing itself in majority of the UK with full fibre FTTP, low latency ad in many cases symmetric speeds for no additional add-on cost. Management should have revised pricing by now (£78 for GIG1 outside of new customer pricing is ridiculous!), trimmed down new customer offers to help with that and based retentions staff solely in UK. If your customer is irate and wanting to cancel, a language barrier and bad line quality does not help retain customers.

[unisoft]

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@roy247 wrote:

Even phoning at 8am seems to go offshore these days. 🤞

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Agreed, that is no longer the case, ringing at 8am or just after can still result in offshore.