Virgin Media Cancellation Dance

Tried to end my virgin media account last night, via WhatsApp chat. Approximately 75 days before end of contract. They can’t do it as it’s more than 30 days before end date and their system doesn’t allow that. They’ll cancel it now so it ends 30 days from now (end of January) but then penalties are involved for early termination. Upshot is I have to dance again 30 days before my contract end date!

I think they are at it. But don’t think I have any options!

Cost doubles at end of contract, hence I’m moving.

Apologies for rant.

Phone nearer end and they will halve it.I think that is what they expect you to do. That was upshot of my last ‘negotiation’ with them. I could have got it cheaper elsewhere but was concerned about the promises of internet speed

We call them every year and say we’re leaving, they halve the amount and we stay.

I just used the Virgin app. My bill was going to go from £24 to £64, on the app there’s an option to renew or upgrade or something like that. I’m now paying £32 but with 100mbps increase.

I just moved to Plusnet, every 18months they say your contract is ending and the price doubles or you can just sign up for another 18 months at £25.99…

It’s just so much more pleasant that dealing with Virgin….

Got this coming up with Sky, having moved to them from Virgin (never again).

Anyone know if they’re likely to make me a reasonable offer to stay?

I just moved to Plusnet, every 18months they say your contract is ending and the price doubles or you can just sign up for another 18 months at £25.99…

I recently did this with plusnet.. I was going to go with a different provider as my (up to 40mb?) connection was going to double in price, and it was fast enough for me really… but on shopping around I just renewed with plusnet, a quid more per month but now its up to 80?mb which is pretty much the same price as the competition.

Vodaphone were doing it slightly cheaper but heard some horror stories about the service/support, and Ofcom ranked them worst ISP in 2023, so it was a fairly easy decision just to stay with plusnet albiet on a faster connection than I strictly need.

but on shopping around I just renewed with plusnet, a quid more per month but now its up to 80?mb which is pretty much the same price as the competition.

We just get the max line rate that DSL can deliver to us, which seems fast enough – just tested it: 56 Mb/s Down and 13 Mb/s Up.
I also got a fixed IP address for a one off £5 which seemed like a bargain!

But the main thing is they just come across as perfectly pleasant to deal with, whereas Virgin seems to go out of their way to try and screw you over.

I’m currently on 1.13G with Virgin. But even if it was free, I’d still be moving. Just don’t want to deal with them anymore.

Virgin Media are one of the worst companies I have had to deal with. Even worse than Vodafone.

I’m the same as catfood, every time it is up for renewal I give them a ring (having done my research about comparative prices) and speak to someone in India then tell them I’m cancelling, get put through to someone in the UK and they halve the price. It’s all relatively painless.

It does stick in my throat that you need to do that to get a sensible price and that I’m on a cheap deal while ‘Aunty Doris’ is paying £90 a month for broadband, TV, and a phone which isn’t plugged in, and it’ll just keep going up for her.

It does seem to get easier to do every year. I’m not sure if I’m getting more confident or if they just tick a box that flags you as a haggler and offer you a better deal straight away.

Yeah, I’ve done this twice. First time was a bit of a faff but it halved in cost. The second time was much easier. They notified me of a price increase and I got it halved through the chat saying I was leaving.

FWIW I’ve stayed for convenience but I’d probably move to BT or someone that uses their network next. That way the dance can be done online. No physical change just who you pay, more like gas and elec.  BT near us is mega fast, comparable to virgin and neighbours have no issue.

I went through this about 2 weeks ago. My 18 months was up, quoted double the price so spoke to the customer service and it was reduced to a few pounds over what I was paying. I was happy so signed up for another stint with Virgin.

Going through it myself now. Had a great deal of internet and TV with sports including bt sorry for c£45.

Due to go up to £110!!! I’ve threatened to cancel and got it down to £56. I’ve kept the cancellation for now but will phone again in couple weeks to try and get cheaper or will take the £56

although do get a bit worried they’ll call my bluff and then I’m in big trouble!!

Are there any companies which don’t do the price hikes mid term? BT helped themselves to an extra 14% and it is  not behavior I want to encourage.

They’ll cancel it now so it ends 30 days from now (end of January) but then penalties are involved for early termination.

That’s how contracts work? 🤷‍♂️

Who are you planning on replacing it with?

They are all at it, direct line wanted to stiff me for an extra 200 on the car. I told them it was too much, can you reduce it hard times etc, and they said where can you get it cheaper? I replied absolutely everywhere!

Chancers

They are preying on old folk who sign up for auto renewal and can’t do the meerkat

I can’t believe this really works for Virgin. Those who do the cancellation dance every 18 months hate them because it’s a (minor) hassle. Those who don’t do it hate them because they know they’re paying over the odds. I’m looking forward to there being other high speed internet providers where I live so I can sack Virgin off for good – when there’s actually been no problem with them apart from this stupid rigmarole.

VM are due a wakeup call. They had a unique product (well, almost) with Cable Internet. With FTTP becoming more widespread their monopoly is slipping.

Are there any companies which don’t do the price hikes mid term?

Think most/all of them do, its in the small print… ‘in line with CPI’ (consumer price index).

I argued the toss with plusnet as as my circa 40mb connection went up to basically the same as an 80mb connection for new customers.

“can’t you just put me on the new faster deal?” says I…

“nope, unless you want to pay a £90 early termination fee and sign up again” Says they.

This was about 3 months before contract renewal so I just put up with it… kinda irked me though, and thought about switching out of spite on renewal, but it turned out it was still competetive, so I just ‘upgraded’ to the faster package and stayed with plusnet.

Ofcom are apparently looking to do something about it, but I suspect ISPs will just ‘front load’ the contract price anyway, to get around it.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/ban-on-inflation-linked-mid-contract-price-rise

With FTTP becoming more widespread their monopoly is slipping.

Yeah I went from FTTC to FTTP, quite lucky timing as my street got done a few weeks before contract renewal.

Very frustrating that there are so many 18 and 24 month contracts, they seem to outnumber the 12 month contracts. Why is this permitted?

Had the joy of not renewing a VM contract as a small scale FTTP provider has wired up our street. I did it with their online chat, and basically wrote ‘I wish to end my contract on this particular date’, copied it, then pasted it in response to every single ‘please don’t leave’ type question of which there were many.

I now get more reliable bandwidth for the same money, and no mid contract price hikes.

small scale FTTP provider has wired up our street

Im not fully sure how it works but I don’t think they can lock you in, in my case brsk.co.uk were hounding me to sign up via a doorstep canvasser & text messages, as it was the canvasser who actually notified me the street was being done a few weeks before it was fibred up…, but I just stayed with plusnet, switching from FTTC to FTTP.

On checking the brsk webite if I try to look at prices, it just says

Hmmm… seems this address already has an active brsk subscription.
Try searching for your address again.

But I’m with plusnet? whatevs…lol

EDIT…dammit, it seems brsk are doing 100mb for £22 per month, and im signed up with plusnet for 80mb for £26 per month.  Epic fail.. I should have checked before hand.