Virgin Media 'Save Money on your current package' 'offer'

[MikeWM]

I received a mail from Virgin Media today (from whom I get TV, Broadband and landline (though in the latter case, presumably for not much longer)). It says:

'Your contract ended on <a specific date a few years ago>. If you renew today, we’ll give you an exclusive discount on your current package as a thanks for being with us.
Your package will stay the same, but for 25% less. What’s not to love?'

Sounds good, methinks, as I'm already paying too much and have been putting off the usual game of chicken about cancelling unless I get a better deal.

So I look at the offer - which turns out to be a monthly price of 25p *more* than I'm currently paying. Err, what?

Looking around, I see a number of other people have received similar mails with similar 'offers' that turn out to actually be a price *increase*.

Has anyone here with Virgin Media got a similar mail, and has anyone actually got the discount promised? And is it even legal to send out nonsense like this? Is there some official body I can complain to?

 

[Energy]

Virgin Media are one of the worst for having new customer pricing and existing customer pricing. If you are an existing customer its pretty normal to need to call them up to get a deal which gets close to a new customer.

From what I understand the 25% off they are referring to would be once your contract has ran out. Whether 25p extra per month is a good or bad deal would depend on how much you are currently paying.

 

[Trackman]

Something similar happened to me and I'll tell you what when I renewed and I had a right time of it.
These figures are not accurate btw but not far off....
I was on 500Mb paying £36.
Received renewal letters etc., waited until last minute then called the retentions line. The best deal for 500Mb was a whopping £48. I actually ended up with 250Mb for the same price my 500Mb, not happy.
Whilst I was in the cooling off period I did some research and found out in my area new Virgin Media customers can have 1gig broadband for £44 for 18 months, that's £4 less than my 500Mb offer! So I had a word with my neighbour (who I trust) and came to an agreement to use their wi-fi for a month whilst I sign up as a 'new customer'
I rung VM back and told them my plans and I wish to cancel.. well.. they have something in place for this trick. Basically if I cancel (there is a 14 days cancellation window) I would have to wait for the 30 days notice then another 3 months before I could apply and then a £80 installation fee or something! (all in the small print) and you can't just change names. Anyway I caved into them as I wasn't going through all that.
I found out from someone in the know what do and this is it ...
Basically call their bluff and give them the 30 days notice, you have then 2 weeks to cancel. In this period someone will contact you with a better deal.
There's a twist to this tale, about a month after they rung me up and offered to double my broadband speed for £5, which I did so I am now paying near enough what I did before !! Crazy!

 

[davews]

Not Virgin but BT, your experience sounds familiar. Upgrading from my current BT FTTC broadband to BT full fibre 100. 'free upgrade when available.' Yes, when the final price appeared I am paying £1 per month more because my existing introductory discount of £6 becomes one of £5 with the new package. They will try anything.

 

[yorksrob]

I've not had this email yet, but Virgin Media are only good at jacking up their prices.

Rubbish company that should be heavily regulated.

 

[172007]

Sometimes think Virgin Atlantic the airline should re-name itself. The Virign name is really damaged now. Failing rail franchises, failed satellite launching, Virgin media. The list goes on.

 

[MikeWM]

Virgin Media are one of the worst for having new customer pricing and existing customer pricing. If you are an existing customer its pretty normal to need to call them up to get a deal which gets close to a new customer.

Yeah, I know. I find that an incredibly tedious way to be treated as a loyal customer of almost 20 years.

From what I understand the 25% off they are referring to would be once your contract has ran out. Whether 25p extra per month is a good or bad deal would depend on how much you are currently paying.

My contract has ran out some years ago. The closest package I can see on their website to what I currently have is, at 'full price' (ie. after introductory offers) about £15 a month less than I'm currently paying. So what exactly they're offering me 25% off is anyone's guess. When they explicitly say 'Your package will stay the same, but for 25% less' (bold theirs) any reaonable person would assume that's 25% off what I'm paying now, not 25% off some arbitrary number they've made up out of thin air.

Very, very irritating. I'm going to have to seriously look at alternatives, I draw the line at being treated like an idiot.