Trying to negotiate a new contract or leave

[moggyman]

If there are any UK-based VM people reading this, maybe you can help me - please!

My contract ends in mid-June. I currently have The Fun TV bundle (now called 'Bigger Bundle'?), a rather ropey Tivo box (the lights on the front stopped working 2 years or more ago), Sky Cinema added, M100 broadband, and Talk Weekends plus line rental. I pay £66pm for that even though I use a Virgin mobile for my calls. BTW - now that my landline phone is connected to the Hub, shouldn't that 'Telephone Line Rental' drop off my bill? What witchcraft is this?? I digress...

I've just spent a glorious hour of my busy afternoon sitting in a phone queue listening to George Ezra and trying to understand two different agents overseas on very poor connections. The aim being to see what would be VM's best offer to renew my contract, before I hit the Internet and shop around.

Agent #1, 'Julian', told me that he could offer me my current deal without Sky Movies for £60. That seems to be actually £3 more than the website offers new customers. I've been with VM (or the company I was with that they bought out) for about 25 years! So much for loyalty. If I wanted to keep Sky Movies, the offer went up to £75. A tenner more than I'm paying now. I explained that I'm on a single income and trying to cut costs like everyone else is at the moment - not raise them! After waiting 5 minutes whilst it sounded like he was running his headset under a hot tap, he offered me a discount on the latter package of £3. Well, hold me down. I wasn't impressed so asked if I could provisionally book a disconnection.

After another 5 minutes of bloody George Ezra, I got through to another overseas agent who apparently had nothing whatsoever to do with disconnections and she asked me the same set of questions as 'Julian' had, only this time on a worse line. The upshot of that garbled conversation was an offer of a new recording box (I didn't catch what she called it because of the line), an upgrade to my Internet speed (that I don't need and didn't ask for) but with no Sky Movies, for £64 PLUS an installation fee of £34 for the new recording box!! Oh and if I wanted Sky Movies then it would be even more. If I wanted to stay with the package and gear I have now, it would cost me £71. Still a fiver more than I'm paying now.

My apologies if I sound a bit sarky but look at it from my point of view. I've had cause to make a formal complaint about VM's poor service only a couple of weeks ago, I've spent the last hour being passed around like rubbish and been quoted deals which are more expensive than I already pay. It honestly feels like VM really don't want me anymore and I'm getting nothing for sticking with them for 25 years.

Please - is there a VM person out there who sees sense and is willing to negotiate fairly and honestly before I have no option but to take advantage of a 'new customers only' deal somewhere else?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to shut myself in a cupboard and scream for a while.

Thanks.

[Anankha]

I felt the same when trying to renegotiate our BB & telephone contract.
Spent 2 days on the WhatsApp, the first contact was within 2 hours from CS who only wanted to us to add the TV to our package to reduce the cost (£45) or take £3 off the full price (£54) cost, while for the rest of the 2 days I was waiting for retentions to reply. I gave up & decided to call but the best they could offer was to reduce speed to 50Mbps for £26 or keep our 100Mbps for £32 (from £39). Others here have had their cost cut to £28 &/or their speed increased.

We’ve been with VM since the cable & wireless days & I have noticed phoning CS has become a nightmare over the last 5+ years  with a very long waiting time & a lack of offers to keep customers. I know VM don’t have to offer the same deal given to one customer to another.

Sky offer the best retention deals imo.

[Andrew-G]

@moggyman Please - is there a VM person out there who sees sense and is willing to negotiate fairly and honestly before I have no option but to take advantage of a 'new customers only' deal somewhere else?

I'm afraid you will have to endure more hours of telephone hell (or the even more cack-handed Whatsapp service), arguing the toss with disinterested agents.  The staff here can't negotiate contracts, nor make outgoing calls.  And with VM's recent IDIOTIC decision to TUPE their own UK retentions staff to some mass market call centre farming corporation, I'm unsurprised by the sudden rise in complaints about trying to renegotiate or cancel.  It's all a mess, and VM's executives have worked long and hard to make it so.

As for screaming, you're not the first.

[moggyman]

So there is no UK-based retentions department now? Well, that just about seals it for me. What a ridiculous thing to do. the local company was called Eurobell when I joined and the service was tip-top. Then it went to Telewest and eventually VM. I wonder if Mr Branson ever reads the discontent in this forum. I've said it before and I'll say it again - maybe if he stopped dicking around with his vanity projects and spent some cash on his companies then the people who bought his private island et al would get a much better service. VM service has become chronic. I thought British Gas was the worst but I think I was wrong by some way!

[Andrew-G]

No, sorry if that wasn't clear - there is a UK based retention team at the moment.  But they're being pushed over to call centre operator Sitel.  Now, the only reason for outsourcing anything is because (a) somebody else has promised to do it much cheaper, and (b) the company who previously did it themselves no longer give a flying duck how well the activity is performed.  Experience shows this usually ends costing more to the company who chose to outsource, but reason b then becomes the sole rationale, along with reason c, which is "never, ever admit the company screwed up, no matter how blindingly obvious a previous decision was".  Also, not all retentions calls are dealt with by UK staff - an unknown proportion are dealt with by offshore staff - I have a suspicion that may have recently been "reshored" to South Africa, but from outside the company we can only guess on the facts.

Regarding Branson, he doesn't give a tinker's cuss.  VM is totally unrelated to the Virgin Group, other than through a brand rental agreement.  IIRC, Liberty Global who own VM pay Virgin Group 0.25% of all content revenues for the use of the Virgin brand, each year up to 2035.  That's not actually a huge amount (mid double-digit millions each year?), on the other hand there's no work involved, it's just pure profit to Virgin Group.

[Ayisha_B]

Hi @moggyman,

Welcome back to our Community Forums and thanks for your post.

I am sorry to hear you've not had the best experience with our Retentions team and they've not been able to offer you a suitable deal.

Sadly, we are unable to undertake package reviews via the Forums so if you do wish to negotiate a deal, I'd suggest sending sending a message to our WhatsApp team on +447305 327 112, if you'd rather not call again. 

Let us know how you get on. 

[moggyman]

When you select the "Press X if you're thinking of leaving us" option, is it just pot luck that you might get to speak to someone on a clear line in the UK? Trying to have what might be a lengthy detailed conversation with someone on a bad line who can't understand me can be quite troublesome. I'll try WhatsApp but on past performance, that is far too slow and you can't conduct a proper conversation on it.

[moggyman]

I've been on a WhatsApp chat for nearly 45 minutes and have only just been passed to Retentions. This message contained in that team's opening post doesn't fill me with confidence...

"Please be aware that replies to this service are not immediate allowing you to get on with your day."

It doesn't allow me to get on with my day because 30 seconds after they post something they pester you with "Are we still connected?" remarks, so I have to monitor the chat closely. Well, I guess I could respond "You told me to get on with my day so my bloody replies aren't going to be immediate are they!!?"

[moggyman]

I forgot I had the WhatsApp chat open! Absolute bloody disgrace Virgin Media. I've been waiting for the alleged transfer to the Retentions team for 2 hours and the chat is now 3 hours long in total - 3 HOURS!!! I would be ashamed to offer this kind of service to the clients I support in my job. Another long, frustrating phone call is beckoning and I'm not happy.

[Anankha]

I waited almost 2 days on WhatsApp for Retentions to reply before I gave up.