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Evening call from Virgin Media: is it genuine or scam?

UpsideKitten
Tuning in

So I just got a call from "Virgin Media" to confirm my name, in which I said yes, and then started to ask about making sure people are getting the best deals. I became anxious however and hung up, thinking it may be a scam number (I didn't know at the time of answering the call). Scam calls have been getting more common, especially a few months back, and I did receive one the other day as well.

I looked up the number to see if it was indeed Virgin Media, the number being 08001836408. After a quick search, I found a board to ask if this was genuine, and a Virgin Media staff member confirmed that it was. However, they then received a reply that scammers can disguise the number to appear the same, and it's the first time I've heard of this, so now I'm just quite worried, because how do you know what to believe?

I don't believe Virgin Media have ever called me for anything, so it seems odd... and in the evening as well (6:50pm), which to me, seems quite late to be making calls.

Has anyone else been getting these? What should I do? And have I got the best deal, because if it's a genuine ask, then I would like to know, because I don't own a TV to watch television, and only use Virgin Media for internet and phone, but it still costs me over £49 a month, even though I don't use a television service. Is that normal?

Thanks!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

goslow
Alessandro Volta

Simple answer is that if you want to renegotiate your package/price, make an outbound call yourself to VM (free on 150 from a VM landline). That is the only way to be sure who you are talking to.

The general advice on the forum is that the best time to call is early when the lines open for the best chance of getting through quickly.

The chances are your recent inbound call could well have been a real one but caller ID can be faked so you cannot make a judgement about who is calling from caller ID alone.

If you don't want to receive marketing calls from VM, then sign into 'My Virgin Media' and use the marketing opt out.

(Also worth pointing out that any calls you receive out of the blue claiming to be VM technical support are certain scams as VM do not make unsolicited tech support calls)

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

9 REPLIES 9

goslow
Alessandro Volta

Simple answer is that if you want to renegotiate your package/price, make an outbound call yourself to VM (free on 150 from a VM landline). That is the only way to be sure who you are talking to.

The general advice on the forum is that the best time to call is early when the lines open for the best chance of getting through quickly.

The chances are your recent inbound call could well have been a real one but caller ID can be faked so you cannot make a judgement about who is calling from caller ID alone.

If you don't want to receive marketing calls from VM, then sign into 'My Virgin Media' and use the marketing opt out.

(Also worth pointing out that any calls you receive out of the blue claiming to be VM technical support are certain scams as VM do not make unsolicited tech support calls)

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@UpsideKitten wrote:

I looked up the number to see if it was indeed Virgin Media, the number being 08001836408. After a quick search, I found a board to ask if this was genuine, and a Virgin Media staff member confirmed that it was. However, they then received a reply that scammers can disguise the number to appear the same, and it's the first time I've heard of this, so now I'm just quite worried, because how do you know what to believe?


Which forum was this? This is the Virgin Media community, the vast majority of responses you'll see on here are from fellow users/customers. The staff who post on here clearly identify as such - just below the username on the LHS, a rank is shown. VM staff are identified as "Forum Team" or "Moderator" - everyone else (including "VIP" users) are just other customers.

As regards your question about the package pricing, the best place to compare prices is the "Bundle builder" website - https://store.virginmedia.com/build-your-bundle - which internet & phone bundle do you have? Check on your contracy or monthly bill (which you can find on your "myVirginMedia" online account) if you want to make sure.

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

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Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

If price is important, research your other options before phoning to negotiate a new deal.  There's some ideas you can adapt to your circumstances in the post linked below.  The online bundle builder generally won't offer you the sort of deals that the customer retention staff can do, although sometimes there's attractive packages offered.  If VM play hardball on pricing and you can get an acceptable speed elsewhere at a better price, always be prepared to walk away.  

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

I don't own a landland, only mobile, and the number didn't seem to work anyway (perhaps it's only for landline). They rang again another 2 times today, so I think it's very likely that it is legit. I may just wait for another call.

I tried the number on my mobile, since I don't own a landland, and it didn't work. They rang another 2 times today, so perhaps I'll wait for another, since I think it's real if they keep calling.

It was this post here: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Security-matters/Unwanted-calls-from-08001836408/td-p/4153343

I have MB200 Broadband and that alone costs me just over £50 but I get a tiny discount so it's £49 something. I checked https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/packages/ and I'm basically paying more than a 330MB package. 😕

Oh I just found out that 200MB is for busy households with lots of devices. I live alone and only use my desktop. Though I do use internet a great deal. I think I should still downgrade though, right?


@UpsideKitten wrote:
Oh I just found out that 200MB is for busy households with lots of devices. I live alone and only use my desktop. Though I do use internet a great deal. I think I should still downgrade though, right?

Depends what you do.  General internet browsing uses very little.  Streaming HD videos uses about 5 Mbps.  Maybe 20 Mbps if you've got a big 4K TV and have sufficient 4K content to stream.  Online games use about 2.5 Mbps up and down.  Obviously if you're web developer, video editor, or programmer who downloads gigabytes of files regularly then the faster speeds may be well worth paying for.  Personally I'd have thought you wouldn't even notice changing to 100 Mbps, but some people want fast speeds regardless of what they actually do, and that's entirely reasonable, I'm not someone to tell people how they should spend their money.

I've got a 200 Mbps connection, and I don't believe our four person household ever comes anywhere close to using that.  


@UpsideKitten wrote:
I tried the number on my mobile, since I don't own a landland, and it didn't work. They rang another 2 times today, so perhaps I'll wait for another, since I think it's real if they keep calling.

I think that the VM forum staff will regularly confirm in topics that the number is a VM number, whether or not any individual call you receive showing that number is genuine is another matter (because of the fake caller ID possibility)! There have been past topics on the forum when customers have received calls (and the caller knew lots of info about the customer and their VM account) only to find later on that the call was fake. Sometimes the VM forum staff can check records and confirm a past call was genuine. Unfortunately VM's current sales methods seem to be that any offer by phone is only a one-off, so confirming a call was actually genuine and then ringing back isn't much use as the deal probably will be gone!

I'm a bit lost as to what services you are currently paying for as in #1 you mention internet and phone but later suggest you only have broadband. Anyway, if you are actually paying for a VM landline service at the moment (that you are not using) then it would be worth getting a cheap corded handset (available sub-£10 from the likes of Argos) which would allow you to talk to VM for free via landline when you need to. Useful if you end up waiting in a long queue.

If you are after VM broadband only, then the current pricing is below

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/broadband-only

(new customer pricing shown is the same as standard pricing, presumably to discourage anyone taking only the broadband option)

You may find that any pricing given on the phone to an existing customer may not be as good as that shown to avoid the customer downgrading their services. If you change your package, you would also enter a new 18-month contract period.

Take careful notes of exactly what you are being offered during any downgrade as there have been past examples on the forum of customers being offer a money-saving downgrade to (say) 100 Mbps and actually finding out they are later placed to 50 Mbps. These 'mistakes' do seem to happen more often with deals arranged via the inbound sales callers, based on my observations on here, which then take time to unravel and correct.

Follow the advice of @japitts and @Andrew-G and make sure you have all of the latest VM pricing info at your fingertips when discussing any package changes with VM to make sure you are actually getting a good deal!