Internet problems for Virgin Media customers

That's what I did, threatened to but was offered something acceptable on the phone. You might actually have to start the leaving process to get the best deal.

I left Virgin and joined as a new customer this time as it saved me £30 a month over what they were offering me when threatening to leave.

I'm going to be trying this soon. Mine ends at the end of the month and I want to go onto a monthly plan with broadband only, getting rid of the TV stuff. If they don't offer me the same or better than new customer price I'm probably going to try 4G

I call, go straight through to the "I want to leave" and generally ignore all the deals they offer as they are significantly more expensive.

I normally go with I'm leaving if it doesn't stay the same price/match what a new customer gets (they are pretty similar for me). Don't bother negotiating or getting involved in we could change your package to something cheaper, that just prolongs it.

Eventually they'll accept you're not accepting their offers and say they're starting the cancellation process. You want to get to that stage as quickly as possible.

That call normally takes 10-15 minutes.

Then someone calls you from retentions and in the past has just agreed what I'm asking for (normally stay the same price/match what a new customer gets so nothing too outrageous).

That call is 5 minutes normally and pretty straightforward and job's a good un for 18 months.

You may need to have Marketing Communications allowed in your preferences to get that call back.

Anybody?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/19/i-was-cut-off-four-times-virgin-media-customers-say-its-too-hard-to-cancel-costly-contracts

Haha my mate is literally trying to cancel at the moment.

I've still not got around to trying 4G so I'm still burning money

Speaking of burning money...

We wanted to let you know that, in line with your terms, the price of your Virgin Media main services will increase from April by the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation, plus an additional 3.9%. As RPI was announced at 4.9%, we can now confirm your monthly price will go up by 8.8% from your April bill.

Community Fibre...

Still not available.

Surprisingly not. Ended my contract last month after stupid increases and have been with Virgin almost exclusively for what, 20 years (with a couple of years of change). Inherited my Mum's contract when I was adult/responsible enough to.

Maybe because of timing or giving solid reasons for wanting to leave and telling tham that if anything, Virgin ought to pay me compensation for some major cockups, SLA breaches, and offer me much better for being such a loyal customer.

They have however been a bit annoying. After committing to my termination, they tried to win me back, so I gave the same reasons prior and they clearly weren't going to address my concerns. Weeks later, I got a call from them from their team somewhere abroad (Phillipines maybe?) offering a new deal, and they seemed unaware of my termination. Also got a bunch of calls, missed calls and texts trying to offer me much more reasonable prices. Way too late.

I'm still waiting for some compensation - might hold their equipment ransom until they listen to me lol. It worked before - annoying you have to take drastic measures for some basic fairness though.

I've had Virgin for almost 15 years and they've been pretty good. But I just don't want to pay £70 a month when I know there's decent competition out there for half that.

Yeah, generally I can't fault there service. Prices just weren't competetive though. My final bill was 85 - I would've been paying that monthly going forward, just for 1gbps, basic TV and a phone that I never had - the whole VOIP rollout thing was delayed and delayed.

Now paying 30 (originally 25) for Community Fibre.

We wanted to let you know that, in line with your terms, the price of your Virgin Media main services will increase from April by the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation, plus an additional 3.9%. As RPI was announced at 4.9%, we can now confirm your monthly price will go up by 8.8% from your April bill.

We are doing this so we can invest in our network because we don’t figure this into our normal pricing.

And as we are part of the retail price index this is really inflationary so we can do more next year

Yeah, my mate is on Hey! for 25/month for something like 400Mb while I've got 120Mb and a Tivo I want rid of for £68/month.

Can you get something with a rolling contract for a while to fully leave Virgin Media and join as a new customer?
I was paying £60 for 125Mbs and now pay £21 for 6 month and then £39 for 350Mbs.
The offers they gave me while I was leaving weren't nearly as good.

I'm paying £61 after a £26 discount til May-25 (started Sep-23) with Mega TV (Eurosport etc) 1 Gig volt broadband and Wifi Max MESH thingies thrown in.

Before that was £39 with 500mb and basic telly

I looked into their rolling contracts and they're shit, almost the same price, like £50something a month plus you have to pay some kind of joining fee which I think was about a month's worth. I just don't feel like humouring them any more. Last time I rang them they offered some loyalty discount of a pisstake £5 per month.

No, I mean use some other provider with a rolling contract to get away from Virgin completely and then join Virgin again as a new customer after a month or two.

Ah, well, yes, that is the plan. When I pull a finger out I'm going to grab a 4G/5G setup and Three SIM and see how that goes (keeping Virgin). If it goes ok, I'll ditch Virgin and then maybe I will renegotiate later, if, long term I'm not happy with the 4G/5G

Well, my ebay 5G Three router works (your loss for being dicks about my DOB, Three store) so I'm biting the bullet and cancelling Virgin (and then my TV license).

(and then my TV license).

There's very few cases where you are legitimately exempt from paying the licence fee. If you watch any thing on a streaming site you basically have to have one.

No cheeky cycling on eurosport?

I thought it was live TV broadcasting that requires a license?

"I will definitely not be watching any live TV, nor using BBC streaming services."

"You need a TV Licence to watch or record programmes on a TV, computer or other device as they're broadcast, and to watch on-demand BBC programmes on iPlayer"

"as they're broadcast" = so long as I don't watch live TV or anything on iPlayer, they can fuck off.

Live and anything on iplayer. It's just that 'live' covers a hell of a lot. Anything live streamed on YouTube, twitch etc.

It's obviously not impossible to be exempt but when you talk to people you usually find out that there's something they watch that falls under the licence fee.