[Closed] Getting a phone line so I can quit Virgin media, any experience?

Interested in this too. And also to add watch any installers closely, when we had Virgin installed they cut the BT line, of course they denied it but I subsequently got talking to one of their managers on a training course and when I mentioned it to it him he said "it's tit for tat, they cut ours"!

My virgin media bill still shows superfibre50 at £37 a month but they upgraded me free to 100meg a couple of years ago as they said they don't do 50meg anymore - 100meg was the lowest. Never cost me any extra.

Speed test confirms this.

Cheers all, Speedtest shows mine at 50 but it is super consistent & never wavers, I had 150 before I got them to price match BT & they throttled it but I think what I have now is more stable. The tit for tat story is interesting & I can well believe that kind of stuff goes on.

I was told I had to pay to have a line installed, iirc it was £250 if it was just running a cable from the pole to your wall and drilling a hole, but could get more expensive (if you want it buried or the pole is miles away etc).

Tbh unless you need 100Mb/s (kids, gaming, whatever) could you not just get a 4g router? We have one at work and with an external antenna on the roof you'd not notice for normal browsing , streaming and work stuff etc.

Do BT/ Openreach offer Fibre to the Property (FTTP)? If so you might be able to get a fibrous line installed as part of your new BT customer incentive thing... Perhaps?

Although I’d rather eat my own arms than have to deal with BT.

Thanks again, helpful 👍

My virgin media bill still shows superfibre50 at £37 a month but they upgraded me free to 100meg a couple of years ago as they said they don’t do 50meg anymore – 100meg was the lowest. Never cost me any extra.

I've been with Virgin for years, the 10 Mb/s original is now about 75 Mb/s I think, but the bill is £47 and going up to over £50 on 1 Sep. Pretty poor VFM, will probably have to go back to BT to get a sensible deal.

Virgin won't give a discount on broadband only. It is cheaper to take btoadband+mobile or broadband+TV+phone than broadband alone.
Call them up and ask about deals. They will definitely give you 100mb broadband, TV and phone for £32/month if you ask them. That's what we went on to after our 1st year deal ended. We just never bothered to plug in the phone or TV box.

You don't ask, you don't get.

You don’t ask, you don’t get.

I did, they said no as I’m not a new customer.

Cheers.

Order line and broadband from one of the BT competitors if your exchange is LLU. They get the pleasure of dealing with Openretch and things get done B2B rather than retail. Zen organised mine for me, the connection was a whole lot less than £250, plus you can ask the engineer nicely and they usually install the dual socket faceplate rather than using a filter.

I left Virgin about 18 months ago to move to BT. I paid about £60 for a guy to run a line from the pole in the street into my house. Price was offset by a great cashback deal at the time. Took him about an hour. Transfer was smooth. They price matched my 1 year new customer deal for another 18 months after a bit of light haggling.

Is there a need of a phone line, as I just use a three unlimited 4g plan for £17 month. I only notice difference if downloading file updates. But normal Web browsing its fine and some TV streaming. Did have virgin media, but kept on messing me about and hiking bills and wouldn't touch bt with a barge pole, going back to copper broadband at less speed than 4g and costs more, madness. Three do a 4g mobile router for around £20 or get a mobile sim only deal and use unlimited tethering through 3, they are launching 5g from sometime in August if in the catchment area

Openreach will fit the line, they are a shower of shite for private customers at times though. I deal with them regularly on the business side and our last couple of installs for lift lines have been a pain in the arse at times, however I have a dedicated new connections rep who is an ex poleman so he's brilliant to deal with personally.
Unless it's bt ducted (grey) they won't pull underground, how new is your house and does it have grey bt duct entering it? If there is no pole near then that can again poo poo the whole install.
If MJ Quinn are subbed out to do the install watch them like a hawk when on your property as some of them are rough as ****.

Thanks once more, it seems dealing with a 3rd party to install a new line will be a better bet, the house is 1970's so I doubt there is a grey duct anywhere but the BT manhole is only 50cm from the end of my drive so I assume they can run it from there.

Cheers.

No unfortunately not, it doesn't work like that. If there is no duct up to your property from the box then you are digging. Are there overhead cables anywhere nearby?

No poles in the vicinity.

Isn't usual process is to tell them you want to leave, they transfer you through to retention dept, you get a better deal, and that's it? I did it a few times when I was in the UK. As did my bro, and my folks. Keep pushing and if they don't seem keen to transfer you through, hang up and speak to a different operator who will TX you.

2unfit2ride

Subscriber
No Poles in the vicinity.

"Coming over here, taking our jobs..."

No poles in the vicinity

Fingers crossed that there will be an original duct up the drive then, it probably will be the case but finding the end might be fun. Is there no sign of an old bt service anywhere?

No signs although I know where it used to come in the property, it's just that next door has had an extension which means it's now underneath it 🙁

Isn’t usual process is to tell them you want to leave, they transfer you through to retention dept, you get a better deal

That's Sky, not Virgin.

That’s Sky, not Virgin.

Virgin do it too, or at least have done for us in the past.

Cable to house may have been damaged, while new drive layed,will more than likely have been an armoured cable laid direct in ground, so no duct usuall for the 70’s.Never come across Cable companys cutting cables nor same for O/R bt doing the same to theirs.If joint box at bottom in footpath, at bottom of your drive, a duct would need to be run , from box to your property.But there may be a chance cable is intact, maybe point in your house usually a flat socket with gpo script. Maybe in a cubard near electric/gas meters

I've just tried that with virgin. I already had a 13 pound a month discount with them so would be putting my package up anyway next month. Plus the 3.50 price increase.
Got Put though to the cancellation dept and was frankly underwhelmed. Said they could do Me broadband at 37 a month or 32 if I go for the lower speed. Think the cheapest broadband TV package they offered was 50 ISH which is crap imho

Well I tried, best for the basic package was £52 so I have cancelled, I did try & tell them I had not had any discount of note in the last year & would they give me the same offers as they do new customers but they weren't interested. I might give Now TV a go.

Cheers.

In the meantime, I'd recommend trying a 4G router. We moved house and Virgin had to install a line to our new one which was going to take a couple of months. In the meantime we got a Tp Link MR6400 router and a Smarty unlimited 4G sim and I didn't really notice the difference. That cost £25 a month.

I've just rang up virgin as my bill was going to rise to 55 was offered 8 discount so told them to cancel, got put though to someone else reduced it to 32.50

Virgin wouldn't for me. Just said you won't get as fast broadband any cheaper. They were right. I went to Sky and it's slow as shite. Not sure if the earchache from my son was worth the savings.

Similar story for me, Virgin are by far the best for broadband (IMO) and they kept writing to me telling me it was going up lots, I kept ringing saying I would leave, and we would be offered a reasonable price.
Then they got more difficult, you would have to cancel, and a week or so later, they would ring you and offer you the decent price to stay.

This didn't happen last Time, so I am now with plus net, the internet is slower, but its sill reasonable, and got a decent price.... will probably need to do the merry-go-round again soon.

doesn't answer op's question tho, sorry!

As I mentioned in my recent thread about the same subject , i too was unable to negotiate a cheaper deal having done so a few years ago . the chap at the other end was a right w anchor
and quite unhelpful despite me having been a customer for 10 plus years. I also mentioned i'd been told by a virgin engineer to just change the name /account to my wife and thereby be eligible for the new £19 deal for newbies. He said all his customers did it every year . I'm thinking of giving it a go as sick of the constant price rises. Interested in the 4g router idea but unsure if it would be enough for my usage and wifey's insatiable streaming usage on the TV.

I'm desperately hoping for 5g to be so amazing that I can tell Virgin to fornicate off.

Been with Virgin for the last 10 years

Every time my contract ends and the price goes up i ask for a discount and if they say sorry we cant do that then i say i would like to leave

You have to go through the leaving procedure then a few days later retention's call up and offer you a better deal, its no good just threatening to leave, you have to start the process, if for some reason they don't call back and offer you a better deal then carry on with the leaving process and then once your contract has been terminated simply get your wife/other half to sign up as a new customer, worked a few times for me

escrs...evidence of my suggestion, seems to work then! Out of interest how long a time interval is there normally between the line going off and being reinstated in the new name ...can it be done on the same day or in your experience is there a fair amount of time without connection ?

Why doesn’t your wife/husband/partner/son/daughter become a new virgin customer?

Think the last time we did it the wife started a new contract a few days before my contract ended

So on the day my contract ended all the Virgin equipment from her contract arrived so no service was lost

They tell you they will send you a box to return your used equipment and that it belongs to them and you have no right to keep/sell

Ive never had that fabled box arrive and a month or so after the new contract starts i take the old equipment to the tip

thanks for that ..think I will give it a try !

Ive never had that fabled box arrive and a month or so after the new contract starts i take the old equipment to the tip

When I left them it was a large plastic bag/envelope that I put it all in and took to the collection point.

They called me today & the bloke was very helpful & willing to do me a good deal so I have gone back to them, shame I had to cancel to be given a good deal but I suppose its the way of the world now.

Cheers.

I've cancelled and gone with ee for broadband and freeview. No sign of a call from them despite being a loyal customer for over ten years.