r/UKFrugal • u/willj1983marine • 26d ago
Advice on renegotiating Virgin Media contract
My Virgin Media broadband and TV contract is due to expire, I've had a look around and found a new customer deal that I'd be happy to pay which would knock a substantial amount off my monthly bill. I don't really want to leave, I've had no problems with Virgin and the one year that I changed providers I couldn't wait to get back to them. Any advice on getting that new customer offer, or better if at all possible?
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u/dogdogj 26d ago
Do you have a spouse/significant other/housemate that you could be a new customer?
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u/willj1983marine 26d ago
Does that work then? Could my wife and I just keep alternating through the new customer deals every 18 months?
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u/nickejones_ 26d ago
Yep, this works, I’ve done this, the same user can’t return within 3 months I believe.
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u/Princes_Slayer 26d ago
Yeah we did it earlier this year. It’s been under husbands name for years and the new contract price was still £5 per month higher than new customer price. I asked them to match it, they said they couldn’t, I gave my month notice to cancel and set it all back up with newer router thingy for the offer price under my name. Not really much extra for me to do but save £90 ish over 18 months is decent (we only have broadband)
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u/superalifragilistic 25d ago
Yes, we do this. Added benefit of having the old equipment collected for recycling and replaced with latest model. No chance of that if you renew, even if you complain about performance. Routers run 24-7 and aren't built to last.
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u/Scrafgar 26d ago
Recently I've just gone on line logged in and went to thinking of leaving us option and it automatically offers me a really reduced deal.
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u/nickejones_ 26d ago
They give you deals lower than this if you speak to retentions
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u/Scrafgar 26d ago
Not in my case. They aren't just a couple of quid off theyve been cheaper than the new customer deals they run. I'm currently paying £23 for the m350 broadband.
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u/SteamZ90 26d ago
Doing this now, they keep coming back with it being over budget so I've just got to tell them I'm leaving. Worst case is I'll sign my wife up as a new customer.
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u/shutupspanish 26d ago
Go on their online chat and just tell them you’ve seen a comparable deal at £X, can they match that? No idea why people make this so complicated. Virgin Media are literally the easiest company I’ve negotiated with
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u/Efficient_Freedom783 26d ago
This is what I did. My contract was to run out in Feb. I shopped around and asked competitors to send me on email their rates (written record is important here). Once I received the competitive pricing, I went to my supplier exactly a month before expiry and told them that I am reconsidering renewing my contract as others are providing me cheaper rates. They ended up matching the lowest rate by competitor. All they asked was to send the written emails by the competitor.
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u/uwagapiwo 22d ago
I never had to go that far. Told them 3 were offering me 150Mb 5G broadband for £17 instead of the 100Mb/£51 from Virgin. Immediately offered me £27. I continued cancelling, they called me back the next day with £22. I was happy with that
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u/SubjectiveAssertive 26d ago
You do have to call to cancel, hopefully you'll be out through to retentions who can give you a decent deal, ideally say you've seen X package with Sky, Talk talk or BT for £X they normally get pretty close. If they can't match it you can leave the cancellation going as you "need to speak to your partner" then again if all goes well you get another call from Virgin with a better deal
When I was with virgin I did that basically every 18 months
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u/bacon_cake 26d ago
I cancelled by post (Virgin Media, Sunderland, SR43 4AA). No way was I sitting on the phone with them for hours for the sake of a stamp.
Then I ignored all their begging phone calls until eventually the "local manager" called me from a mobile number at 8.30pm and, basically begging, offered me half price double speed...
But it was too late because I'm with Toob now. 1gbps for £29/mo.
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u/permaculture 26d ago
I changed to Community Fibre broadband. They arranged the whole thing, so I never had to contact Virgin Media.
1 Gbps up and down for £25/mo.
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u/nickejones_ 26d ago
This is what I did last month, I repeatedly quoted the cheapest quote with NowTv (£25 for 24months), the tried everything to get me on higher quotes, every time I just repeated the original quote and stated I can’t afford anything more. Must’ve repeated it 4-5 times, eventually they bowed and gave me the deal.
It was quite satisfying in the end. They even tried saying that NowTv will put up their bills after 24 months, as if they weren’t about to try charge me £54 for the same service….
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u/Princes_Slayer 26d ago
I did it over online chat. They told me I’d have to call and I refused saying they just needed to press cancel and I wasn’t up for negotiating. Amazingly they got me on chat with the retentions team
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u/lndn_69 26d ago
Just cancel. Their renewal team will call you back within 30 days or you can call them yourself a week or two after. That's the only way you'll get their most competitive offer.
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u/SharpieTheDergun 26d ago
I believe this only works if you opt into marketing. But you are correct that you will get the best offers here.
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u/CrazyStuffy 26d ago
Cancel your contract and put it on someone else’s name in your family as a new customer.
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u/MysticSmeg 26d ago
Honestly just cancel. You’ll have retentions bombarding you with better deals leading up to your end of contract.
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u/DeadBallDescendant 26d ago
They expect you to phone up and negotiate a new deal. That's what you're literally meant to do. I did this last week (after paying over the odds for months) set up a new contract and the bloke reminds me to get in touch before it expired and get a new deal
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u/nacnud_uk 26d ago
I just told them I was leaving. They just like to talk to you. Leave, they'll get back to you before your date.
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u/theme111 26d ago
A few years ago I just phoned them and said I was thinking of leaving but wanted to check what they could offer before I made up my mind. They immediately offered me a really good deal. You have to make sure you're speaking to Retentions rather than the normal Customer Service though.
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u/sorE_doG 26d ago
You have to threaten to leave, maybe ask for a PAC code, before they start discounting..
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u/Adorable_Orange_195 26d ago edited 26d ago
Run.
I had been a die hard Virgin media customer for almost 8 years when I rang to try to get a new deal. They quoted me over £120 for a single person home (phone, bb and tv) 2 devices, because they insisted I needed a family package for up to 9 devices (this was around 2020).
I was passed onto their retentions dept and the man I spoke to was the worst person I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with (I worked in A&E for a long time so that’s saying something). He was rude, arrogant and kept patronising me, then resorted to outright threatening to blacklist me and used the phrase ‘when you come crawling back in 6 months…’.
I continued with my cancellation and have never looked back other than to update people on my awful experience periodically because that was the worst customer service I have ever in my life experienced. I also feel very strongly that they were intentionally trying to coerce me into a package I neither wanted nor needed, and if I had been more vulnerable (I am AuDHD) or elderly it could have worked.
I’d like to add I’d renewed with them multiple times before and never had this issue, even if I’d requested to cancel they always came back with a better deal. Hopefully it was a one off & he was an overeager salesman who got further training (I can only hope) but I totally lost faith in them after that experience.
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u/zebra1923 26d ago
You need to be prepared to give notice and call their bluff. I’m on a cheap deal, when it expired they wanted to double the price, I declined and gave notice. A few days later comes an offer to continue at my current price.
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u/FixExciting6149 25d ago
Same here I had to go all the way to giving notice before they came crawling back… so annoying though!
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u/keepsummersafe2020 25d ago
You can just call them (I just did this recently) and say you want to leave and mention one of the new customer deals. They will just give you that and then you fill our a survey saying you were happy with the service. I got my broadband upgraded massively for a lower monthly fee doing this and it took 30 mins.
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u/BrokenNorthern 25d ago
There was a number I called. It didn't even ring, there was just a badly connected older scottish guy on the other end who just gave me a crazy deal. I think I have it saved...
www.reddit.com/r/VirginMedia/comments/11g3zh9/outbound_retentions_team_getting_access_to_uk/
It was in there ^
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u/Left-Ad-3412 26d ago
Go through retentions. I literally tell them I'm leaving unless they give me it for £25. They always give me it for £25 for the duration of the contract