Virgin Media Community

[SouthernGeordie]

Hi All,

So we moved in to our property about 16 months ago and took out VM when we moved.

Although we only wanted Broadband, we picked a bundle as at the time it worked out more cost effective.

We've had outages on average monthly to our service, most of the time only a few hours, but as we both work from home, it's not really helpful. Most of the time it's "Engineering work" in the area and other times, it's an outage in the area. Never an explanation.

We're coming to the end of our "deal" (April 1st) and got notification of the price rise. As we are able to cancel free of charge, I decided to take the time to see what else was about and what Virgin could offer for a comparable price. Cost of living crisis has hit everyone, us included so we need to reconsider our bill.

Rung them after deciding on a maximum price we can pay for Broadband and spent almost half an hour on the phone, going round in circles. Despite explaining multiple times the money we could afford (and knowing what deals are available from other providers and VM themselves). In the end she managed to fob Me off by saying I needed to call back next month due to contract length etc...

I'm now going to have to go through the same process again. I'm hesitant to stay with VM as although the speed is good, the poor customer service and frequent drops in service are atrocious. I'm not sure how VM can get away with it!?

All I wanted was for them to tell Me the best package I could get for my budget and either decide to stay on the new deal, or leave for another provider. Instead I've wasted half an hour and got to go through it all again!

[SouthernGeordie]

(Can't find the edit option)

Just realised I didn't summarise our current situation:

£42/Month (Going up to £80/Month roughly soon) 

Package is: M350 Internet, Basic Phone and Basic TV

Deal ends 1st April

We can't afford the current amount and wanted to downgrade to £30, we only need internet, TV was a nice to have, but we don't need it.

[Andrew-G]

You could write to them (recorded delivery) and give VM notice of cancellation now to take effect as soon as your contract ends on 1 April.  Address at section N of the online T&Cs.  You'll find as the 1 April gets close there will be increasingly frenetic phone calls from VM offering more and more enticing deals to stay.  If you want to stay, tell them you'll happily stay on whatever deal you choose that they're offering new customers.  The first few calls will usually insist they can't do that and offer discounts that fall short of that, but as the day gets close they'll invariably cave in (although have a Plan B in case those calls aren't made, or you aren't around to take them). 

Be aware that VM are also changing the T&Cs so that in April 2024 they'll increase prices again, if you renegotiate now then by that time you'll still have around six months fixed term contract to run, but you won't be able to cancel or renegotiate because the increase is baked into the new T&Cs.  As a reasoned guess, assume that April 2024's price rise will be around 20%.  The maths to arrive at that are here. 

[Akua_A]

Hi @SouthernGeordie,

Welcome to our community forums and thank you for your first post.

Sorry to hear you are unhappy with both your service and the package price. We can understand the frustration caused and want to help. Have you ever been in contact with our team on  0345 454 1111 regarding the service? If so, what was discussed? Also, have you checked here for our existing customer deals?

Thanks,

[SouthernGeordie]

Hi @Akua_A,

Yes, as per my original post I called in and the agent completely ignored what I was explaining.

"We can no longer afford the existing package and wish to cancel, or if you can offer something for under/around the £30 mark, we would consider it".

The agent then tried to sell Me the same package we're on for MORE money. Re-explained... Same again but this time for the same price as currently.

Said, No, and explained AGAIN and said we'd like to cancel. She then explained, she could do Internet only for more than the package deal she had just offered us. It was ridiculous.

I can not find any deals for "existing customers" anywhere. Where is "Here"?

@Andrew-G, Thank you for your response, I'll look into that if I don't make any headway soon.

Thanks,

Matt

[Akua_A]

Apologises @SouthernGeordie  as the link did not send. We further apologise on behalf of our phone team for your experience. Please check here to see if you can find a better-suited deal https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/packages Our team on WhatsApp at +447305 327 112  can also advise with package deals and discounts,

Thanks,

[SouthernGeordie]

Hi Akua,

When I follow through that link it first tells Me that Virgin Media isn't available at my address, but if I go through to my account and click "Change Package" it won't let Me remove or downgrade items, only add services.

It doesn't give Me any offers.

This is ridiculous. I'll try the Whatsapp option, but I'll be honest I'm fed up with the run around VM are doing (To everyone it seems)

[Andrew-G]

The online offers are always expensive and upgrade only.  If you don't care about value and you want to upgrade that's fine.  This is intentional - people taking those offers are signing up to deals that have fat profit margins for VM, and they don't even have to pay any sales commission to a call centre agent.  Everybody else can take pot luck by using VM's 1990's style telephone contact arrangements, and that's precisely how VM senior leaders like things.

More recently they've played around with Whatsapp, and that has worked just fine for some customers, others report massive delays, poor service and errors via Whatsapp.  I think the sole intention of VM's contact arrangements is to put customers off calling them.

[SouthernGeordie]

I would tend to agree based on the service I've had over the duration of the contract.

Trying to report an outage, or change a direct debit etc... all a nightmare, difficult to find anyone to talk to etc...

I've attempted the Whatsapp route this morning and the customer service rep has been slightly more helpful, but still fails to grasp we have a limit to our funds (£30).

We don't want to go for a slower service, but unfortunately money is the dictating factor. It's a shame as there is a suitable deal offered to new customers, but I can't get it apparently. so we'll have to cancel. Waiting for the agent to respond and hopefully proceed with that.

[Andrew-G]

This post may be of interest.

Although also check out whether you can get Openreach or Altnet FTTP that'd give you similar speeds, and more choice of provider?  Openreach have been doing impressive work to roll out FTTP, with around 30% of the country now having an FTTP option.  I suspect Sky's cheapest TV package will beat VM's cheapest for content, their customer service is pretty crap but still measurably better than VM's.