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Can't afford Virgin broadband now.

pinkywoo
Dialled in

Many many years ago, I was with Comcast, which was bought by ntlworld, then by Virgin. Been with them for a lot of years. I had a 100 Mb broadband and phone line package for £25 up until the beginning of 2020, when I lost my job due to the pandemic. Virgin offered me 50 Mb for £20 (this was discounted apparently) which I accepted (but later found they had also disconnected my phone. Although I didn't expect that, I didn't use it much so not much of a problem.).

I retired just over a year ago but could still just about manage the £20 a month. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email to say I would now be charged £37 a month, and yesterday another one saying it would be £44. I checked the social tariff which is 15Mb for £12.50 or 54Mb for £20. Vodaphone offered me 38 Mb for £12. I have phoned Virgin twice now to see if they could give me a better deal to be told the best they could do is Volt 125 6 Gb for £32, despite telling them I can't afford that and what Vodaphone offered me. When I said I'd rather stay with Virgin, but if they couldn't do any better than that, I would have to leave. Both people I spoke to said "Well that's up to you." They didn't seem bothered if I stayed or left, or whether or not I could afford it. 

I phoned Vodaphone back and they tried to switch me over but Openreach are changing the cables ready for the telephone switching to VOIP (is that right?) so can't do it at the moment. They're ringing me back in a month to try again. I'm now considering switching broadband off altogether till Vodaphone can switch my broadband on with them. Feeling very let down by Virgin.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Adduxi
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Try retentions - try to speak to the UK call centre - dial 150 or 0345 454 1111 and follow the prompts to - 'thinking of leaving us' - dont worry about that they do much more - open 8am -10pm 7 days a week - should take you to a UK call centre. Theres a freephone number 0800 052 0422. You need option 4 to speak to retentions

Stress you want to be on the Social Tariff due to circumstances. 

Failing all this, have you tried pricing a 30 day 4G data SIM as a stopgap until you can get Vodaphone.?

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2 REPLIES 2

Adduxi
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Try retentions - try to speak to the UK call centre - dial 150 or 0345 454 1111 and follow the prompts to - 'thinking of leaving us' - dont worry about that they do much more - open 8am -10pm 7 days a week - should take you to a UK call centre. Theres a freephone number 0800 052 0422. You need option 4 to speak to retentions

Stress you want to be on the Social Tariff due to circumstances. 

Failing all this, have you tried pricing a 30 day 4G data SIM as a stopgap until you can get Vodaphone.?

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

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

pinkywoo
Dialled in

Thank you for your reply Adduxi. I did dial150 and chose 'thinking of leaving'. It was an English speaking person I spoke to both times. I have told them my circumstances and that Vodaphone had offered me their social tariff but they just said it was up to me if I wanted to leave but would need to give 30 days notice. Guess I didn't actually insist they offered me the social tariff, but surely, with the information I gave them, they should have at least asked me if I wanted it rather than just saying the least I can have is much more than I have ever had or need? Someone mentioned using mifi and a sim. I don't know anything about that but I'll look in to it. Might be worth phoning them back and pushing more for the social tariff for now. I think I can leave that any time.