Re-Negotiating Contract problems

[countyexile]

I am on the Ultimate Oomph package, including an unlimited Virgin Mobile sim. My 18 month discounted contract at £110 per month ended in August with the price increasing to £147.50 per month. As on previous contract end occasions and as suggested by the VM agent last time I phoned VM to see what options were available. Unfortunately I was connected to an overseas call centre and had some difficulty understanding what was being said. She spoke very fast and with an accent I had great difficulty understanding and had to repeatedly ask her to say it again. Surely when discussing important issues relating to terms and conditions and financial matters that will affect you for a lengthy period it is important that you can understand what is being said to you - you can only say "could you please repeat?" so many times.  She also seemed to be just working from a prepared script, saying the same thing over and over, no matter what I said. I must have said at least half a dozen times that I had no interest in packages linked to the Volt O2 sim and wanted to keep my Virgin Mobile sim. For me the whole point of a "package" means you only have to deal with one company, with one single monthly payment and not to have to deal with separate entities for different parts of the package. The number of issues others have reported on here regarding setting up and running the Volt packages have also put me off even considering one. Added to that why change an unlimited sim integral to the package  for one that costs  an additional £25 per month and will increase by inflation plus 3.9% every year?  After she finally appeared to accept I wouldn't be signing up to a Volt package she then said "If you make any changes at all to your package the Virgin Mobile sim will be de-activated within a month"!! The conversation ended with me saying I wanted to make it absolutely clear that I do not under any circumstances want a volt package and whilst I consider my options do not make any changes at all to my existing package.

What I want to know is

1) Is it true that any package changes at all (irrespective of whether or not they are volt packages) will mean the loss of the Virgin Mobile sim - or was she misleading me?

2) Is it no longer possible to discuss and re-negotiate the monthly cost of your existing package at the end of a discounted period?

I was extremely unhappy at the end of the conversation - I remained polite and calm throughout the conversation but underneath was fuming. Maybe after over 21 uninterrupted years with Telewest / Virgin Media the time has come for a change!

[Robert_P]

If you give the team a call on 150 from a Virgin landline or 0345 454 1111 from any other line and select option 1, option 4 then option 4 this will get you to the retentions team. 

We also have these contact methods available https://virg.in/contactvm or you can send your query to 07533016422 and we’ll text you back. We’re here 8am-11pm Monday to Friday, 8am-8pm on Saturday and Sunday. 

Let us know how you get on and enjoy your time away, please bring some sunshine back with you!

Rob

[countyexile]

Great thanks will try that when I get back

[Robert_P]

No problem, we're sure the team will do all they can help.

Rob

[countyexile]

Further to earlier posts been busy on other things and only just got round to contacting retentions for a second time to try and sort out a better deal following the package price increase in October. Unfortunately, however, no further forward and looks like I will need to try other options elsewhere. Rang retentions (think it might have been an overseas call centre again)  and explained again that following the £37.50 price increase to my Ultimate Oomph bundle I wanted to know if any better deals were available. I also made it clear I did not want a Volt / O2 package given the many posts on here and elsewhere regarding many problems with setting up and billing for the O2 SIM and the poor customer service from O2 when people tried to sort out those issues. I made it clear I was perfectly happy to have a Virgin Mobile SIM separate from the rest of the package. After initially still trying to push the Volt packages the agent eventually took on board that I didn’t want that and tried to find a suitably priced package for just TV, Landline and Broadband to provide the same levels as on the Ultimate Oomph bundle (ie Maxit TV with sky sports and cinema and 2 V6 boxes, Talk anytime landline and M600 broadband with 2 wifi extender pods). Apparently M600 is no longer available so she searched with M500 and 1 Gig options. However the best “deal” she could come up with was a package price of £137 per month, which, by the time a separate mobile sim contract is taken out (£12 per month for unlimited calls & texts plus 30gb data) would take the monthly cost to more than I am paying now.  So hardly a "deal"!

What I don’t understand is how they can offer an Ultimate Volt Bundle with Netflix and O2 sim for £85 per month increasing to £136 for the Virgin bundle element of it after 18 months yet they cannot offer a competitive price for the same level of package minus the O2 sim card and minus netflix! It seems they are trying to force people to take up the O2 sim by unfairly inflating the price or reducing the features of any package that doesn’t include an O2 sim.

Seems my only remaining option is to take up the £12 Virgin Mobile contract and look for a TV / Landline / Broadband deal elsewhere – after 21 years with Virgin / Telewest.

[Harley2017 · Accepted solution]

I had a similar conversation with an agent in September ( my ultimate Oomph was £105, it included sim). When trying to downgrade….take cinema, sky sports away, reduce home phone and sim to Baer minimum I was quoted £94 but the Ultimate Volt was £74 plus £25 for the O2 sim.

 I took this deal as Netflix was also included and I expected my BB speed to be increased too…..roll on 7 weeks….no Netflix and no increase in BB

IT tickets raised and complain registered. 
I was offered an increase in the BB but the only way to do that was by charging me an extra £12 and then getting it back in the way of a credit on my account for the duration of the contract!!!

[countyexile]

That's the problem, you see so many stories of issues setting up the O2 and Netflix side of things and ongoing issues with billing etc you end up thinking it's just not worth it.

Incidentally did you have to take a 360 box as part of the Volt deal or could you keep your existing (V6?) box?  I have 2 V6 boxes and, again due to various stories about the 360 boxes, would not want to swap them.

[newapollo]

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@countyexile wrote:

That's the problem, you see so many stories of issues setting up the O2 and Netflix side of things and ongoing issues with billing etc you end up thinking it's just not worth it.

Incidentally did you have to take a 360 box as part of the Volt deal or could you keep your existing (V6?) box?  I have 2 V6 boxes and, again due to various stories about the 360 boxes, would not want to swap them.

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Hi @countyexile 

Converting to 360 boxes is still voluntary. The agent may try a hard sell, but they cannot force you to take a 360.

[countyexile]

Following 2 attempts to renegotiate my contract over the phone, following the £37.50 per month price increase in October, only to be offered a “deal” which would actually cost more than I am paying now it seems all avenues have been exhausted trying to get a reasonable deal with Virgin Media.

As mentioned in an earlier post I just cannot understand why any non-Volt packages are so expensive compared to comparable (in terms of features) Volt ones. It is almost as if VM are trying to force customers to take up the O2 sim card, whether they want one or not, by heavily loading the price or vastly reducing the features of any packages that do not include the O2 sim.

Not everyone wants an O2 sim - either because they don’t need a mobile phone or are wary about the many issues customers who have signed up for it have found to their cost (setting up issues, billing issues, customer service issues for both the O2 sim and the related Netflix membership). I fall into the second category.

I have the Ultimate Oomph package with M600 broadband & 2 wifi pods, talk anytime landline and maxit TV with 2 V6 boxes, sky sports incl HD and Sky cinema plus a Virgin Mobile unlimited sim. In October the price increased to £147.50

The Ultimate Volt package offers all this (swapping the VM sim for an O2 one) plus Netflix for £85 per month (£60 to VM and £25 to O2), increasing to £136 per month after 18 months (for the Virgin Media part of the package with a separate £25 plus any interim price increases at Inflation plus 3.9% to O2!!)

Yet after 2 phone calls to VM the best non-Volt deal they can offer is £137 per month now for the Media part plus a separate Virgin Mobile sim at £12 per month (unlimited calls and texts plus 30gb data). I realise the Virgin Mobile sim is no longer part of the package and the £12 per month sim is fine for my purposes but what I can’t understand is why they will not offer a deal closer to the Ultimate Volt price for the media part of the package when it has no sim and no netflix, so surely should be a lot closer to the Volt price and certainly not currently even more than the Volt price will be after the 18 month offer period expires? As I say 2 phone calls already got me absolutely nowhere.

The ludicrous thing is I could take out the Virgin Mobile sim for £12 per month and retain my existing mobile number, then take out the Ultimate Volt package for £85 per month incl the O2 sim, registering a new number for the O2 sim but not actually using it and this would save me £50 per month for 18 months! The only trouble is in 18 months time I am then lumbered with a very pricey Volt / O2 package and no guarantee that alternative deals would be on offer at that stage. 

21 years with Virgin / Telewest but it seems these days loyalty counts for nothing and shopping around is the only option left.

[Andrew-G]

21 years with Virgin / Telewest but it seems these days loyalty counts for nothing and shopping around is the only option left.

Loyalty is a myth.  I've been a VM customer for 25+ years.  But that's not loyalty, its a hard nosed reflection that at each renewal point, I've looked to see what the alternative was, and VM was at that time my best option.  That won't be the case soon as they're laying Openreach FTTP in the area, and my point is that you and I have chosen to stick with VM because it suited us, and for no other reason.  We don't stay with VM for their customer service, we don't stay with VM because we love their brand, we don't stay with them because we feel sorry for Branson, and want to help him re-stock his Caribbean tax-dodgers wine cellar (although Branson has no operational involvement, his people simply licence the Virgin brand to a US company that operate the UK cable network).  If VM could make more money by ending your or my contract, they'd do it.  If we could get a genuinely better deal we'd take it and cancel VM.  So keep in mind that you are the customer, and the power sits with you, but only through a willingness to take your business elsewhere, not because they owe you anything, or because you owe them anything. 

VM are pushing the Volt deals because they want to wave the number of Volt customers to investors as "proof" of successful cross selling of the merger of VM and O2, and because they believe (probably rightly) that the more services a customer takes, the less likely they are to cancel meaning less customer churn, and higher average renewal prices.  

[Teebee]

Totally with Andrew on this, my association with Virgin goes right back to the original Cable Corporation, close to 30yrs and much as I hate renewal time I have always got a better deal either on price, BB speed or TV package. I renewed this year because a) I got an insane deal and b) FTTP is now outside my house but not live yet, yes technically i'm 'loyal' but in reality I always price an alternative package with the competition first.

I have a deep suspicion that this year could be my last, with all of the channels I find i'm recording much less on my 2 Tivos and watching more on stream. Once FTTP goes live the one hold they have over me disappears.