Is Virgin Media basically telling its old customers just P off?!

[IwantToRetire]

I am not surprised by this, and know it has been an issue for some time, but talk about telling your existing customers you aren't valued!

My current contract which is due to expire is around £70pm - it was a discounted deal and has had bits added to it for free over past 2 years.

So they tell me if I want to renew with same content, it will now be £170pm

Or then can do a stripped down package for £130pm

And then at the end of the email they tell me that the stripped down package of £130 offered to me, for a new customer would be £40.

Hardly a clever sales tactic!

Talk about letting you know they dont care about you!

Thanks for letting me rant.

It's the total cheek of being so blatant!

Thanks. In fact my legacy email is that, and as a PP has said, no one can spell my first name.

I had thought you knew about some conspiracy theory about how we are being tracked on line. I even set up a proton account who claim it means you cant be traced.

But you have to link it to a "standard" email address.

Yes, but Sky still own that domain.

I had been with Virgin Media for through all the name changes, starting with ntlworld in 2002. In 2024 I had reached the end of my patience with having to do the threatening to leave then being lured back pantomime every year.
I had a Fire stick, Netflix and Freeview, plus a PVR box for recording programmes. So I dumped them for a £25 per month broadband contract with Plusnet.
Nothing would have encouraged me to go back to VM.
Edit for typo

We got rid of Virgin about four years ago. I'd noticed the monthly bill creeping up and up over time but not done anything about it until one day I decided to call them to see if they would reduce it or I would leave. When I finally got through to an actual person and explained that I wanted them to lower my bill to retain my custom, they just kept offering me free or reduced-cost extras - Sky Movies and the like. At no point did they offer me anything that would reduce my monthly bill and didn't seem in the least bit bothered that I was leaving.

I cancelled there and then and have only streamed ever since. Haven't missed it one bit and saved about £80 a month.

We moved to Sky. Virgin rang and offered an equivalent deal but I said no. It’s the principle. I know that none of these companies values their customers but Virgin’s customer service is terrible, and it takes ages to speak to someone because of all the options that often lead to an automated service.

Thanks have now looked up PVR! and think that could fit in with jtyring to stop feeling I have to have a set top box.

And I like the idea of a digital video recorder!

It's not just the creeping bill, but the slow whittling of services.

The last straw was the incessant and artificial scrapping of the V6 Tivo for the new system. A system which is basically just a cloud front end. And if I wanted one of those, I would do it from a media server.

It's probably too late now, but a lot of people are going to have a surprise when that programme they "recorded" vanishes, or they realise that film they "bought" was only really rented.

Same situ here - I have about 5 reminders in the calendar to switch to a new supplier before the end of the contract, as it literally more than doubles pm going forward. I can see how people can forget (esp 24 month ones) and get completely shafted.

I think that as well as the ridiculous cost, is also a factor. I mean the whittling away of services.

And a while back without notice they stopped you logging in with the email address you have through them. Or something.

I never understood. The notes provided as to how to move to the new secure log in system was so bad nobody could understand it. Even the actual human at VM who tried to talk me through it.

That's why I (stupidly) thought having O2 would make their technical proficiency better.

So they actually feel a bit shaky of a competent business.

The thing with VM is they threaten to charge hundreds of £ if you move. Mine is a year off and admittedly I had it wrong, thinking it was a year contract only. Tried to switch to Sky and got an email immediately saying VM would be charging me over £400 for ending the contract early. So I am stuck for another 12 months, but you can bet I won't be using them ever again!

Our issue for a long time was we don't have a phone line (as in no physical line) so switching providers isn't quite so straightforward. I need to look into how full fibre works now. I've lived somewhere with a fibre connection since 1998 from the days of diamond cable through ntl to virgin.

I had no phone line when I switched to Plusnet. They had BT install a line free of charge.

Are you [email protected]?

Thanks for confirming my fears. They did get fined recently. Basically I live, what the IT companies call Rural; the rest of us look around and see mass housing developments, 30 min train commute to London and absolutely no local facilities. So my choices are limited, being Sky, BT or Virgin, or super expensive broadband that only a data centre could need!

With Virgin it's best to call the Scottish retentions team (thanks Reddit). I only have internet and mine went to £84pcm on renewal. Called them, cheerful UK based chap answered immediately and it was down to £29 within 2 minutes.

Number I called: 02037436970.

Last time I tried to renew they offered me either the same package for more money, or less package for even more money. Both of which were loads more than a brand new customer would pay. They actually said "but you wouldn't be a new customer" They also said I couldn't have a lower costing package because of some legacy deal I was on from years ago.

However Steve from the Retention team dropped the price to around a new customer price - I just had to play hardball and cancel first.

It really shouldn't be so hard.

Yes they do, and that concerns me. I love my email, relatively so simple!

No other company can touch them for broadband speed or stability in our area. We need the fast broadband more than we need TV. I only watch terrestrial channels so have their smallest TV package and the second fastest broadband for £30 per month. We've been with them since they started in the area way back in the early 2000s. I ring when my contract is coming to an end and just say I want the same deal as a new customer as my loyalty should be rewarded. They never argue, just give me the price. I guess I sound ferocious or something 😂

Please could you ring up and be me! I dread doing it based on past experiences.

In fact that is what I want. Can I quote you!

Assuming you are online and have a router, as I understand it you should get a router that will have a socket for a phone.

And according to AI you will get a better service that those who just get put on the phone call via internet VOIP!

What type of line is the phone line.

I thought all the older type phone lines will be discontinued by next year?

That’s interesting because that was the period I was trying to cancel in.

Fucking arseholes!

They kept you on hold phone forever, transferring you, and then when you wanted to cancel you had to do the most onerous security ever.

I think one of them I was on the phone for two hours. Finally about to cancel. And he wanted to ask a million other security questions. I got the third one wrong.. twice… some impossible question.

So he hung up on me.

Honestly after that never again will I ever be a customer.

I had an absolute nightmare when they introduced that thing to set up a new email to access your old email - it just kept taking me round in circles and I couldn’t log in to manage my account online. Until, that is, I dumped o2 and changed my mobile provider.

Thank you for the heads up re the email address thing. I haven’t heard from them yet but looked up that Junara and of course, it’s going to cost £65 per mailbox to have them if you want to keep your virgin email. Not for the first year - virgin customers will be able to port over for 99p, although I suspect that’s just for one mailbox.

At least it does allow time to try to move everything onto a new one. Sigh. What a ballache.

Virgin give you a terrible price, so you go through all the faff of calling them to cancel; and/or all the faff of researching a new deal with a new provider, sign up with them. Then wait for Virgin to call you back and go through all the faff of it again and then you have to go on and cancel the new offer as well?

Why the fuck would you bother with all that when you could just go with the new provider without any of the rest of it? Why reward Virgin with your money when you have had to do all the legwork just to stop them screwing you over?

(Same thing with insurance and people who call round, then get their current one to price match it - just go with the company who offered you the better quote to start with!)

I do, it is 😊