# Virgin Media- are they offering any discounts



## thedaddyman (21 Dec 2015)

I got a good discount last year for 12 months when I rang UPC and threatened to move to Sky. Now that UPC have been taken over by Virgin I'm wondering if people have any experience of negotiating similar discounts with Virgin?


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## Delboy (21 Dec 2015)

The only offer they are running on their TV ads is for mobile phones, 3 months or so after the takeover. So I wouldn't hold out too much hope of getting much from them, especially considering what I've seen users over on Boards saying.
Your greatest achievement will be to get through to their new Call Centre in the Philippines !!!


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## Leo (21 Dec 2015)

It's still the same company (just rebranded), still the same people in charge, so whatever worked last year will likely work again this year.


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## DMcL1971 (21 Dec 2015)

They are still offering discounts. I re-negotiated last week. The offered to let me stay on the old package that I was on and still maintain the old 12 month discount that I had. Or move to a new package and get half price for four months. I said I would think about it and rang back the next day at which point they offered me half price for six months on the new package.


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## Lightning (21 Dec 2015)

My 12 month contract was up with Virgin Media recently as well. 

Virgin Media offered me a new 12 month contract, with a 20 EUR discount for the first 4 months and then 55 EUR a month for unlimited broadband and the basic digital TV package.


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## thedaddyman (21 Jan 2016)

Finally got round to ringing Virgin yesterday, got through to their call centre fine and spoke to a very polite person. Despite pointing out that I was happy with my package and didn't want to reduce it, just get a reduction in price she tried to convince me to take faster broadband for an additional fiver a month. When I wasn't budging on that, she then offered to connect me to their disconnection team before pointing out that their disconnection team was also their customer loyalty team.

She transferred me to an agent on that team, he was a little bit difficult to understand, was talking about a "loyalty bonus" but in effect told me that he couldn't do anything for me until my existing contract expired next month and to call back then. I've diarised to do so.

they are definitely making it more difficult to get anything out of them this year and I think they are  banking on customer inertia not to call them back.


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## peteb (21 Jan 2016)

You're wrong.  When you call them outside of your contract they are very easy to get discounts.  However why would they negotiate when you are within your contracted period??!


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## thedaddyman (21 Jan 2016)

peteb said:


> You're wrong.  When you call them outside of your contract they are very easy to get discounts.  However why would they negotiate when you are within your contracted period??!



because my contract is up in 2 weeks time and I'm only looking for a reduction on the new contract, not the existing one.


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## Delboy (21 Jan 2016)

Well, my contract ends in less than 4 weeks and so I'm on a notice period. 
They refused point blank to give me any offers except to downgrade my services. I think it's to do with the fact I was on an offer for 6 months in the current contract.

So Sky are offering a deal at €49 per month for 12 months. I'm off...


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## Páid (21 Jan 2016)

Are there any connection/installation charges with Sky?


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## Delboy (21 Jan 2016)

They told me they'd waive the installation fees.
Now to get some sort of offer from them on Sky Sports and they have me!


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## DMcL1971 (21 Jan 2016)

thedaddyman said:


> because my contract is up in 2 weeks time and I'm only looking for a reduction on the new contract, not the existing one.



Virgin are very reluctant to discuss new deals with a customer while the customer is still under contact. The reason for this is that they regularly change what kinds of offers the can give in order to retain their customers. That means that any offer they might propose to you while you are still in contract may not be available in two weeks when you ring back.

When I recently renegotiated while out of contract, the representative I spoke to told me the best offer she could give me that day but with a nod and a wink advised me that I would do well to have a think about it overnight and ring her back the next day. When I rang her back the next day she informed me that there was a new loyalty offer available from that day and it was better than what she offered me the day before.


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## Frank (22 Jan 2016)

Just got a mail from virgin to say they are upping the price a fiver a month, cheeky gits.

I feel a phone call coming on.


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## Purple (25 Jan 2016)

Delboy said:


> Your greatest achievement will be to get through to their new Call Centre in the Philippines !!!


Nothing, and I mean nothing, is worth the stress and hassle of trying to deal with their customer service. I moved to Sky Broadband for that reason alone. I have never spent less than 25 minutes on hold with them and often spent over 45 minutes before I got through to someone who barely spoke English and knew almost nothing about how to fix their broadband. 
If they offered me all of their products for free for the rest of my life I would still (politely) say no.

It must be very stressful for the call center staff who are under-staffed, under-trained and have minimal english language skills.

Sky customer support is based in the UK and Ireland. They answer the phone when you call them and they call you back when they say they will. Bliss!


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## Branz (25 Jan 2016)

Cant speak for sky but Purple is on the money re Virgin's customer service: brutal as we say on De Nord Side


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## Jumpstartdublin (25 Jan 2016)

Guy in office brought former provider to court and got refund of all fees paid over two years. - was over 1500 euro. Their legal department is in ireland and knew they couldn't defend the poor service in open court.


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## trasneoir (27 Jan 2016)

Frank said:


> Just got a mail from virgin to say they are upping the price a fiver a month, cheeky gits.
> 
> I feel a phone call coming on.


Worth your while. Sean in the Limerick call centre got me €10 off for the next 6 months.


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## Páid (4 Feb 2016)

I currently pay €96 for broadband, tv and phone. This is going up by €5 in March to €101 per month.

A few days ago I spent about 30 minutes talking to an online rep on the VM website and eventually he offered me 9 months at half price (€50.50) on a 12 month contract. I told him that I needed to talk to the wife before I could accept it. He noted it on the account and said I could ring back to accept it. I have the chat transcript. 

I rang back last night to accept the offer and they wouldn't honour it! I'm not at all happy and sent my cancellation email in straight away.


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## thedaddyman (17 Feb 2016)

To update on my original post. Having spend 34 minutes and 18 seconds on the phone to Virgin last night, most of it listening to their God awful ads I got offered a discount totaling €90 for a year. On refusing that it was put up to €160. I am currently considering my options but am likely to go with Eir as I can get a similar package for around €320 less then Virgin are offering even allowing for their discounts. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with Eir. Their contact centre was good to deal with


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## Páid (17 Feb 2016)

We got a substantial discount of about €450 for the year. I negotiated with them while the Sky €49 offer was still being sold and kept quoting the yearly difference to them.


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## thedaddyman (7 Mar 2016)

Finally signed a 12 month extension with Virgin, got some upgrades but more importantly, got 9 months at half price with the last 3 at full price. Like the previous poster, I kept quoting that I could get the same services for €400 cheaper elsewhere. Actually got through to an Irish call centre on my 3rd call with them. Overall, saving around €350 pa. I only got this final discount when I told them to close off the service- the agent looked "one last time" to see if there was anything they could do for me

I couldn't get a straight price out of Eir, 3 times I contacted them and 3 times got quoted different prices for the same package.


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## pinkie123 (7 Mar 2016)

I got a phone call yesterday from Virgin saying I was a "special" customer that got selected to receive a new Virgin box & router. I suspect it is just for collecting all their old boxes. I have an old upc box (not horizon) as horizon was not available in my area until recently.
I'm not sure I want the new one, as I have heard horror stories about Horizon?
Also with the new broadband speeds my bill will be going up by €20 after 4 months, contract 18 months. I am currently out of contract. I tried to bargain but was told to ring customer service.
I agreed to a 14 day trial - which sounded like he was doing me a favour but I know you have a 14 day cooling off  period anyway!
I don't watch a whole lot of tv really I mainly stream these days if watching anything - so the new broadband speeds sound good. Just not sure about the new horizon box. Also made sure I got a separate modem included rather than use the horizon box as the modem.


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## Leo (7 Mar 2016)

pinkie123 said:


> I am currently out of contract. I tried to bargain but was told to ring customer service.



Be sure to read the small print here, they will likely tie you into a new contract period on receipt of the new hardware.


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