What happens now I've cancelled O2?

[juliepeez]

I've already had a torrid time with virgin since I upgraded a little over a week ago.

On top of this, after several days of trying the O2, I've had a bad time with that also.

My area seems to be a blackspot with O2.

Signal shows 4G+ symbol but signal is weak - calls are crackly, I lose service and some calls to me go to answerphone etc. My dad is I'll and I go to check on him but I can barely get a signal there (about a mile away).

I use mobile internet a lot but I'm getting speeds of 1-2mbps. Sometimes it jumps up to as much as 30 but drops straight down again and it is really noticeable when web browsing.

I've come from EE and never had any issues and get an average of 60mbps.

So I've cancelled because I'm not being stuck with such a downgrade for the next 18 months.

So what happens with virgin? The O2 lady says I will lose any volt benefits but that's all.

Trouble is I'm not sure what the benefits are. I told the guy when he was pushing the upgrade (I was trying to cancel) that I didn't want the pods as they won't work with my setup (I need to be able to connect to 5G directly so split bands) but he sent one anyway. I phoned to cancel the intelligent WiFi and arranged to send the pod back.

I can't figure out whether I get a speed boost or not.

The guy said it's gig1 plus volt and mentioned a speed boost for O2 but not virgin.

My account shows gig1 plus volt benefits but doesn't list a speed boost anywhere.

So will I lose my gig1 speed?

Virgin have been a nightmare throughout so I don't want to talk to them again. I was lied to during the upgrade, offered £43 per month several times and asked him to confirm twice which he did but the contract came through showing £46. Eventually virgin have added a £3 discount to bring it to £43. This was after 3 phonecalls because the first two people said they had dealt with it but didn't.

I was told twice I would be getting a new hub but then told I wouldn't be getting one because I already had hub4 from previous package. This after I've been complaining the router is faulty and keeps disconnecting. 

I had to phone several times because 3 days after I was told the upgrade was live, it still wasn't 

I was supposed to have had an engineer out but then got an email saying thankyou for calling and resolving the issue when I never did call. So then they put a 24 hour test on the line and said call back in 24 hours. Called back and was told no test had been done.

So now everything seems to be up and running ok (albeit I had to buy my own router because of the hub disconnecting).

And now I've had a letter saying my price is going up in March.

Sorry for ranting on but virgin are doing my head in and I think if they are going to drop me down to 500gig I may as well just cancel as I can get better price for that than I'm paying now.

I'm still in my 14 day cooling off period according to the contract (though a guy on phone said I'm not because I upgraded so existing customer) and even if not I can cancel anyway due to the price hike.

Is there any point trying to deal with virgin anymore?

[Andrew-G]

Even as an existing customer upgrading you have a 14 day cooling off period (VM: I know your call centre staff are poor, but do you even train them?), but if you've got the email or letter saying your going to get a price hike then you've got thirty days from that notification to cancel.  Given the mess you describe I'd use that price rise to cancel (assuming you've got an acceptable alternative ISP speed/price, and noting other ISPs are hiking prices by around 9%).  Because so many people are phoning to renegotiate or cancel, the lines are VERY busy at the moment so getting through is difficult and service may be as poor as you've already received.

If downgrading under the 14 day cooling off rights, that would be effective almost immediately, and you'd revert to your previous VM contract and get the incoming price rise.  If cancelling you have up to thirty days to cancel, when you cancel that then starts a thirty days notice period and your price won't change but the service will cease at the end of it.  So if you phoned up in 14 days from today and cancelled under the price increase, then you start 30 days notice, and service ends 44 days from today.

If you do decide to cancel, you can choose to be persuaded to stay by the retentions agent with a new offer (this may of course start a new round of confusion and delay) or be very clear and tell them that you're phoning to cancel and you're not interested in discussing other deals.  Know what outcome you want, stick to your guns.  

[juliepeez]

Sadly I'm not in a great position as the only other options are fibre to box and the highest speed available is 30mbps but in reality I was only getting 17mbps on that with BT.

Cityfibre has built in my area but it's not live yet and they can't give me date.

[Andrew-G]

If Cityfibre's been built, but not active, you might want to stomach the VM price rise and revert to either your previous fixed term discounted contract or 30 days rolling at standard price if that had already.  If you negotiate a discount (or change speed or bundle), then you'll be locked in with VM for a further 18 months. If Cityfibre isn't active in say the next three months and they still can't give you a date, you'd still be able to negotiate a deal in on 30 days rolling terms, or as soon as any prior fixed term contract ends.  An extra £5-10 a month from the price increase might not be welcome, but should be bearable for a few months (and that'll be NOTHING as and when you see your next energy tariff).   

Some thoughts below on haggling if you want to go down that route.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/can-you-downgrade-package-without-using-the...

[Martin_N]

Hi juliepeez,

Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry to hear about the frustration you've had with your services. 

I would like to look into this for you. What I will do is private message you to confirm some details. 

^Martin

[juliepeez]

I know last time I looked at rolling plans it was pretty expensive. 

It may be better to just go with another provider on a cheaper rolling plan and put up with slower speeds until cityfibre is up 

[juliepeez]

Unfortunately there are a lot of devices being used in the house for things like streaming so we wanted to go higher but I think anything would be better than having to deal with virgins god awful customer service.

"Untrained" is definitely a word that springs to mind. Along with "incompetent".

I've worked in a call centre so try to go easy on them but even I was starting to lose my blob with my last call.

[juliepeez]

So after speaking to some from VM in private message, they say I will be reverted back to M200 that I was on before the upgrade.

The minimum term was due to end in February when the price jumps up to £50 and since I now have to give a month's notice to cancel again so I will be paying into that £50.

I should have just cancelled in the first place. The past week has been a nightmare and now I have to start again.

I have no intention of paying nearly £54 a month come March when I can cancel and get it on a compare site for £30. Which means going through all the hassle of getting connected again which I know would not go smoothly.

God I hate this company.

[juliepeez]

My god, how the hell am I supposed to speak to anyone from virgin?

Getting no response at all from chat now.

Cannot get through to anyone on phone and today they are having technical issues so not taking calls at all!

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @juliepeez,

Thank you for coming back to us and for updating our public thread. 

I'm very sorry that you've had some issues getting through to our team. We have received a high volume or customers contacting us today and we're doing all we can to get through to all customers. I'm very sorry that you have been impacted by this rush, but I can assure you that our team will be able to assist you further once you're able to speak to a member of the team. 

You can reach out to us on 150/ 03454541111 between 8am-10am when our call queues are at their lowest.

Please keep us updated on this and let us know if there's anything else we can do to help. 

Thank you.