Thinking of leaving VM

[daveydear]

Hello  after 20+ years  with VM  due to financial reasons and upcoming price increases I have decided to leave VM. I realise people with VM pay different amounts for very  similar packages. Anyway I am getting phone weekends only, broadband 132 and TV XL for £85 per month, soon to rise 13%

I have decided to get a freeview recorder and switch to another broadband supplier,  I don't need the phone line. Plusnet do full fibre 145 for approx £30  a month, a bit less if you take the reward card into account.

I have now seen VM are doing broadband only for £15 for 6 months for new customers  then £30 .

My question is rather than switch to Plusnet is it safe to assume VM would give me broadband only for £30 a month

I loathe to ring VM , I've had bad experiences before, where they've said one thing and done something differently, thanks for your opinions 

[Andrew-G]

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@omeron wrote:

Why can't they just list the available packages and pricing on their website so I can pick what downgrade I want?

Now I feel I need to haggle for a better deal like I am buying broadband and TV at a bazaar.

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Now there's an easy question.  You can't do it online because there's too much chance for VM that punters would downgrade or cancel online if it was that easy.  In terms of haggling at the bazaar, that's exactly how VM want it to be - only the best prepared and more assertive customers are a match for VM's well trained, experienced and bonus driven retentions staff.  And those retentions staff have a job to do, of minimising discounts, maximising cross selling, yet still keeping customers.  

If you want a good deal and to stay with VM, play the game.  Or if you don't want to play that game, you do what I did, and get yourself a different ISP. 

[Tom_W1]

Hi @omeron thanks for your reply.

I'm afraid we don't have a method in place to look through specific packages via your online account, there are sometimes offers available through there so do keep an eye out there.

However, if not please do give us a call on 150 / 0345 454 1111 and we have agents in place who can help further and get you the most suitable package.

Many thanks

[omeron]

"I'm afraid we don't have a method in place to look through specific packages via your online account"

VM must be the only company unable to list their available products on their website. The only reason people have any online accounts is that they can easily keep track of billing and make changes to the services they are paying for. But somehow we're back now to only being able to do business over the phone. Imagine your bank suddenly removing entire pages and functionality from their websites just to make life harder for their customers. There has always been a link to allow a customer to change their package, until a few days ago when VM removed it and replaced it with online chat. Probably because their entire customer base is reconsidering their dealings with VM and VM wants to make that as difficult as possible.

What I will do is completely reconsider what I actually need. Don't really need that landline anymore, I watch only a fraction of the TV channels on offer and what I do watch I can often get via online services. Once it was convenient to just get everything in one big package for a reasonably stable price but those days are gone. So I'll get on the chat some point soon and see what I can cut. As if I don't have better things to do with my time.

Longer term I need to find an alternative for my VM e-mail address that I have been using for 23 years, that's probably the hardest bit as it is used as a username for many other services. But it has to be done because nobody wants to pay yearly inflation-beating price rises that by their very introduction increase inflation, for any service. 

[Andrew-G]

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@omeron wrote:

Longer term I need to find an alternative for my VM e-mail address that I have been using for 23 years, that's probably the hardest bit as it is used as a username for many other services. But it has to be done because nobody wants to pay yearly inflation-beating price rises that by their very introduction increase inflation, for any service. 

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Time to read this.

[japitts]

Also some of the latter points in this are highly relevant.

Relying on ISP-provided mail is a really bad idea these days.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @omeron thanks for your reply.

I appreciate this is frustrating for you and it is something we will feed back internally for future review.

As mentioned, it's only specific offers that can appear via your online account rather than a whole package review.

We do hope however, we're able to find you a suitable deal when you do decide to speak to us further.

Many thanks

[mbozaritchie]

This is precisely what I encountered when I called VM to tell them I was ditching the TV & home phone packages.

The operative at the other end of the phone was astonished that I was also ditching broadband when the new provider (YouFibre) in my area activated my street with a synchronous 1Gb connection.  Her exact words were "I mean, do you really NEED 1Gb upstream?" and "I've never heard of anyone providing 1Gb upstream".

Just because VM don't provide it.... doesn't mean people don't need it.