Last night I had a call from a Virgin call centre, probably in the Philippines. We’ve been on cable since forever, at this address for 18 years. He said that we could get the higher TV package, and double our broadband speed to 200mb, for only 50p a month more than we would be paying once the Virgin price increase takes effect in March. I said OK, but then I thought about it. There’s only 2 of us here and we don’t subscribe to any streaming services – what am I going to use 200mb for? And we couldn’t remember the last time we watched anything on TV that we couldn’t get on Freeview.
So today I’ve cancelled the new Virgin contract and ordered Plusnet fibre broadband and phone. I’ll save £450 a year. Will I regret dropping from 100mb to 50?

Yep, I’ve downgraded our BB with them. 50mb is more than far enough for what I need.

I didn’t notice any difference coming down to 50mb.
Their forever creeping upward prices are a pain in the rear.😒

If they’d just left us alone instead of trying to lock us into another 18 month contract they’d still have a customer. When I said we only used Freeview channels they did try a BB only price, which was barely cheaper, then a slightly cheaper price for 50mb, but it was still a fair bit more than Plusnet. To be fair, the guys in the retention team were very good and as helpful as the system allowed them to be. If they’d offered me BT Sport for the MotoGP at anything approaching a sensible price they could have kept me.

I was on £33 for 100MB BB and they said the price was going up to £35. That’s good because it means I can leave the contract early.

So I phoned to cancel and after an hour of “sorry all our operators are busy” (in reality it is customer service speak for we don’t want you to cancel so we will make it difficult) I refused their special offer of a reduced price and agreed a cancel date.

Two days later I got a call asking why I was leaving, told them £23 is the going rate for new customers with other providers so they put me on £25, which is ok to avoid the hassle of a change – and to be fair their BB itself is very good.

If you are really prepared to walk away you can make big savings, which is a bit unfair on the average punter who doesn’t want to threaten to change.

I’ve been doing the cancel and wait for the call trick for a few years now with VM. Currently paying £16 for 100mb. I actually enjoy doing it now. It’s like a game.

I ended up leaving Virgin after years of being with them due to the appalling service, rubbish TV box and dire customer service. Now with Sky and I get a good enough broadband (45mb) to watch 4k films and so many TV things it’s unreal.

You will probably regret the broadband change. Anything that comes through a bt phone line is weak compared to virgin.
I’ve just left virgin for sky. The tv package and set up is much better but the broadband is a downgrade.

If you’ve ever seen Fargo, Virgin is William H Macy and we are the couple going “but we didn’t WANT the undercoat!”.

One day we’ll be Francis Mcdormand. Or Peter Stormare.

They will call you back in a 2-5 days with a cheaper price.

It’s deeply irritating that they don’t do this as part of the first ‘negotiation’ but I’m sure they’ve run the numbers and it works in their favour.

Expect them to be irritated when you refuse the new offer.

Christ I had this last night, I sort of feel sorry for the woman on the end of the line trying to up-sell stuff, it’s a shit job. But the way Virgin do it is just terrible; it’s like they’ve taken all the worst aspects of telemarketing and made that their training manual for staff…set unrealistic time expectations, use really cheesy and obvious techniques, ask repetitive questions that you already have the answers to, bombard customers with data and numbers…just awful

Will I regret dropping from 100mb to 50?

Probably not.

If you just use it for web browsing then 50 is more them ample. You can also stream video in 4k on that no problem.

You only really need to go higher than that with multiple users (kids mostly) or if you want to download big chunky game files, but even then, you can’t often download faster than 50Mbps due to bottle necks elsewhere.

My 12 month promo came to an end with Virgin during lockdown two and was going to double in price. Told them I was leaving and they gave me a price for £1 more than the original promo for another 12 months, increased the speed and added more TV packages (I don’t watch them either). All done via their online chat.

I think the speed does make a difference – I live in a city and on lower speeds previously you seemed to notice it more at peak times.

And don’t forget the incessant junk mail about their mobile phone offerings that go straight in the recycling.

I had been a VM customer for 14 years, we had their basic TV package but cancelled that as it was basically freeview and moved to BB only. The price kept going up without fail so eventually I told them I was leaving and how much I was going to pay with EE. They said they couldn’t match it. Then I got a phone call 2 days later saying they could undercut EE by £5. Too late.

It’s same with pretty much every single utility supplier. You have to search around to find the best deal, then after you’re up for renewal they bump your price up and you have to spend an inordinately large amount of time haggling with someone just to get the same price you’ve been paying for the past 12/18/24 months. Nationalise the lot of them.

I had been with Virgin Media since it was NTL. 100mb/TV/phone. Prices gradually going up. Calling them got a few quid off here and there but the trend was up. Last year it was going to be £72 per month. Wouldn’t budge. So I cancelled. No phone call from them during the cancellation period. Probably assumed I had been there so long I wouldn’t leave.

Switched to Vodaphone at £28 per month including free landline calls at £5. £23 without. Just checked just now getting 57mb download 16mb upload.

As we were the basic Virgin TV package we get most of what we were getting on Freeview. Better TV on Netflix anyway without adverts.

Don’t miss Virgin Media at all. The only difference is it takes a few seconds longer downloading films onto my phone.

So also around £500 a year better off for no loss.

We have BB only. Price was going up and up over the years. Looked at cancelling last month. Called up and got auto message of we will give you 3.50 off (the price rise they were proposing), held on call for about 20 mins. Told them I was cancelling and got 16 quid a month knocked off no questions. I’m now paying less then I was when I signed up in 2014! £26 quid for 200mb

pricing and discounts etc really does make no sense. But Im happy with what I pay and have reliable uninterrupted service.

You will probably regret the broadband change. Anything that comes through a bt phone line is weak compared to virgin.
I’ve just left virgin for sky. The tv package and set up is much better but the broadband is a downgrade.

It’s really not as simple as that. In same locations Virgin seems to be total crap (and likewise there are areas where ADSL/VDSL is crap). In my town the local Facebook group probably has about 5-10 messages a week asking “is everyone else’s Virgin down?”. Even when it is working there seems to be all manner of contention at peak times. My fibre on the other hand has probably dropped less than 10 times in the last 7 years and has never shown any slowdown at peak times. Give me rock-solid 65Mbps over flaky 300Mbps anyday.

Getting rinsed for nearly £100 a month by Virgin, keep meaning to do something about it. Just been onto Plusnet, £43 for the 66Mb BB with UK and international call options. Is it worth looking elsewhere for a cheap TV package or just go with Freeview and maybe BT Sport (that I don’t even watch that much) for £15 a month via Plusnet?

Also need to pay £50 for a new BT line as Virgin cut ours when they did the installation…..

when I moved to Plusnet from Virgin last year my BB speeds increased by about 10%. Binned the TV went to Freeview and I’m paying less than 20/month compared to over 55.

Worth looking at the Martin Lewis broadband comparison for deals. Depends on area. Vodaphone is £20 a month for 66Mb in my area. Unlimited UK calls are around £5 a month on top.

When I switched to vodaphone the engineer had to come out to install a BT socket which he put in the exact spot we wanted it.

So today I’ve cancelled the new Virgin contract and ordered Plusnet fibre broadband and phone. I’ll save £450 a year. Will I regret dropping from 100mb to 50?

We did that last month – don’t notice the difference at all.

If they’d offered me BT Sport for the MotoGP at anything approaching a sensible price they could have kept me.

dont you get cheap BT sport with PlusNet as they’re a BT subsidiary? I’m with them but BT Sport has nothing i really want to watch

dont you get cheap BT sport with PlusNet

Yeah, you can get the BT Sport App – £15 a month. It’s a monthly rolling contract too, so I’d only need to pay during the MotoGP season. Might try it.

I went from 200mb on Virgin to 18mb with Sky.

Honestly, I don’t really notice the difference much. Netflix/Prime stream without any buffering problems and website images/videos play instantly. Uploading images or video is where it hits me hardest.

Unless I plan on downloading super mega gigabytes (I don’t), then I don’t see the need for me to be paying for that capability

Interestingly the upload speed on Openreach fibre is double what Virgin offer. Which will help my cloud backups.

Interestingly the upload speed on Openreach fibre is double what Virgin offer. Which will help my cloud backups.

Yep I noticed that, we get 70 Down and about 30 Up. Virgin was 110/15.

50mb is enough if you are just watching youtube or surfing the net.

This is getting really annoying. Prompted by Virgin’s upselling effort, on the 25th February I tried to sign up with Plusnet. Today I received a message containing these gems –

We have checked the address and found that there are no working or stopped lines at the property hence we are unable to place the order.

Notes- checked and found that the order got rejected, checked that its a new provide Cable line, checked in QLA and wasn’t able to find any line in the property hence sent coms to cx asking to contact COTS regarding the line

So am I trapped with Virgin? I’m currently on hold to Plusnet to see what they say.

Do you have a BT landline and they are just failing to find it on the system?

If you have a landline phone, then enter the number here to get all the details on your line; https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Re. BT Sport. I pay £10 a month to Plusnet for the “BT Sport App” (it used to be £5 a month but they put it up to £10 but at the same time knocked £5 off the BB price). It’s worth noting that there is an Apple TV app, so you can still get it straight to a TV attached device if you happen to have an Apple TV, or are prepared to get one, rather than being restricted to phone/tablet or casting to a TV.

No, there hasn’t been a live BT line into the house since 2003. But they knew that when they took the order in the first place.

When I left Virgin our BT line hadn’t been live for about 20 years. No problem going to Vodaphone. Engineer visit for about 30 mins to re-activate line.

It’s fun & games every time the contract runs out. I’d be happy paying £45 for 100mb and TV which includes Eurosport and some sky channels. We’ve had £45, £41 briefly up to £53 then refunded the difference and down to £39 now.

As said they must run the call centre sums and it’s worthwhile, but it’s a pain.

Can’t go to BT as their speed estimate is something like 3-8mb.

Almost there. Plusnet resurrected the order that they’d unilaterally cancelled, and the service was installed yesterday. It took two Openreach people most of the day. Plusnet didn’t exactly cover themselves in customer service glory, communication was non-existent, website contained inconsistent information none of which matched what actually happens, even the printed instructions that came with the router were incorrect. On the other hand they were reasonably competent when I phoned to try and find out what was going on. The actual service seems good, seeing a max of 70mb down, 20mb up and the router manages a stronger wi-fi signal throughout the house.
Virgin were predictably annoying when it came to arranging cancellation of their service, just reinforcing my decision really. Also looks like I can save a small amount by transferring our mobiles from Virgin to Plusnet too. So their stupid sales techniques have lost them a reasonable amount of business.