O2 from Virgin

[Vicariously]

A friend has had his mobile changed from Virgin to O2. This occurred after he phoned 150 to change his TV, WiFi and landlines contract.
Are Virgin forcing mobile customers onto O2 or can customers remain with Virgin mobile?

[Kath_F]

Hi Vicariously, 

Thanks for your post and question regarding moving over to O2. 

Virgin Mobile are slowly migrating all customers to run from the O2 network however you are not obliged to move to O2 itself. You can continue with Virgin Mobile if you would prefer. 

If your friend has taken a new TV, Broadband and phone package then chances are they have agreed to a new Volt plan which does come with an O2 SIM. If this is indeed what he's done, there would be a discount added to the price to reduce this and he would need to end the Virgin Mobile SIM and take a new O2 SIM. 

If he prefers, he can stay with Virgin Mobile however would lost the discount for taking the O2 SIM so would see an increase in his price. 
Let us know if you have any further queries or questions. 

Thanks, 

[Vicariously]

Thank you. I've spoken with him and he was told his contract would be £100+ and that the lowest they could get it with the loyal customer blah, blah was £84. It seems that he got the contract for £52 with an o2 SIM. Personally I'd prefer to drop the TV and landline from the contract rather than be forced via pretend figures to accept such a deal.

[Kath_F]

Hi Vicariously, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one. 

We appreciate the feedback however the teams wouldn't make pretend figures up. We have our bundle offers at heavily discounted rates. If you come out of those bundles then the price can change drastically. You will always get better value for money the more services you have with us and the O2 SIM deals usually work out better again as you qualify for Volt so the speed is doubled for free or the speed can be kept the same but the price goes down so again it works out better value.

If your friend is unhappy with the offers, get him to contact the team on 150 / 0345 454 1111 to see if there is another offer available instead. 

Many thanks, 

[Vicariously]

Thanks for this.

Company mantras are defeated by offering customers the best price available in the first place.

In what way would contact from my friend make this better, as you have previously written if he exits a bundle he's immediately penalised by higher prices.

On a personal note a few years ago I was sent a mail advising of my price increase, I made contact to see if there was a way to reduce it, the contract went up by £2. I recontacted to ask for the figure from the mail to be reinstated and the price again increased. I was p a ying £40ish more for the year, I considered leaving but the exit fee was around £40. I waited and complained at the next increase in price, received a much cheaper 18 month contract. I recently read of Virgin being very high on the list of unsatisfied customers

Regards

[Kath_F]

Hi Vicariously, 

Thanks once again for coming back to us in the Community. 

Our offers and promotions do change all the time so what's available previously may not be available now however it also works the other way in terms of what wasn't available before may now be available. 

The value for money is always better when taking more services as mentioned previously. 

We're sorry you had issues a few years ago. Due to the time that's passed, there isn't much we can do about that now but if you do have any issues in future, do let us know. 

Thanks, 

[Vicariously]

Thanks again for your replies...excuse tardy response.

I wasn't asking for my previous issue to be taken-up but just advising how such issues are not terribly good for the perceived integrity of a company. The issue that I had was addressed, however the fact that it occurred will never sit well with me.

Regards

Tony