@DavieGrant Pity Virgin can't make it more simple for long standing existing customers instead of upselling when we don't require these additional services.
Even at full price, VM make a net loss on fixed connections, so it's hardly surprising that they are in no hurry to offer discounts. If you push at the correct time and in the right way then you can get a discounts, but it is a balance for VM between retaining customers and becoming a pushover. If you try and renegotiate before the current discount has expired they'll not be very interested - the signal you're giving them is that you're too keen to stay to justify a keen offer.
The critical elements of getting a discount are timing and knowledge of what you could get elsewhere (as per @newapollo's advice), and staying away from "loyal customer, it's not fair" arguments. You might care about loyalty, nobody at VM does, and at a personal level neither does a retention agent. All that matters for a retention agent is retaining your business at the lowest discount they have to give away, and the maximum will be set by management based on commercial performance across the business. Always use competitor deals as the basis of discussions, and multiply these up to the 18 month total when speaking with the agent. If Sky offer a £35 a month package, and VM are asking £44, the difference isn't "just £9, and you get out fast faster internet", it is £9 for 18 months, so £162. If the agent thinks you're unlikely to leave they won't offer a good price - and they do this job day in, day out, they go on training courses on how to read customer's language, they are paid incentives for keeping customers at minimum discounts, and they'll probably work in offices where there's personal performance charts all over the wall, and where the less successful agents are regularly culled. So you need to know what's available elsewhere, and phone up with a mindset that assumes you will be cancelling and taking the competitor offer unless the agent can offer you something very competitive.
Often the best deal from an inbound call to retentions won't be the best offer, which would be from an outbound retentions agent during the final days of your notice period, but you can't rely on that, so if you issue 30 days notice (obviously when the current fixed term is up, or in the last 30 days) make sure that you have a new provider setup.
