Better offers for new customers than existing- Virgin Media

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rustbucket

Registered User
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Seems like its across the board with all phone/tv/broadband providers.

Currently paying 85 euro a month with VM for 1gb broadband only (with wifi mesh guarantee)- expensive I know.
Received my regulatory notice about contract coming to an end.
Perused the website and saw a much better offer 1gb broadband, tv streaming box, plus free xbox (know its not really free) for 65 pm 24 month contract or 60pm 12 month contract.

Thought id save myself a few quid, get a tv streaming box for the spare room and an xbox at the same time.

Phoned them up, told it was for new customers only. Best they could do was offer me 65pm for current service, no additional products or services.

Now I can cancel with 30 days notice. Resign up as a 'new' customer to avail of the better offer or get my wife to do it in her name instead.

The hassle involved! Its really stupid. Are they actively trying to encourage people to switch? Is there more value to them for a new contract versus a keeping an existing one?

I used to work in mobile services a long time ago and back then new contracts had higher commission than upgrades or renewals. We were encouraged to get people to run down their mobile contract or cancel it and sign up to a new one. Mad practice. It must still be goin on......
 
If you have a look back through @ClubMan's previous posts as far as I can recall he closed off his existing account and signed up again without much hassle. He does not appear to have been without service for a long time so might be worth the hassle.

This practice of penalising loyalty is disgraceful but the Regulator ComReg does not appear to be doing anything about it
 
Sue Ellen said:
This practice of penalising loyalty is disgraceful but the Regulator ComReg does not appear to be doing anything about it
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Same with the Central Bank. Whenever I raise issues about existing mortgage customers not being able to avail of deals on offer to new customers, the Central Bank says that it's the same in every other industry - insurance, phones, energy - as if that justifies it.
 
rustbucket said:
The hassle involved! Its really stupid. Are they actively trying to encourage people to switch? Is there more value to them for a new contract versus a keeping an existing one?
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They keep doing it because it pays them to do so. Very few people shop around each year and so the providers aren't being incentivised to reward loyalty.
 
Leo said:
They keep doing it because it pays them to do so. Very few people shop around each year and so the providers aren't being incentivised to reward loyalty.
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Granted but now they have to send me a box to return the current equipment. Then send me out new equipment once I sign up again. All at their cost. Simpler if they could just transplant my current details over to a new contract over the phone.
 
Thanks Sue Ellen. I did a quick search prior to posting but couldn’t find anything. I must have missed it. Yes there are no rewards for loyalty.

I thought I heard some murmurings about legislation being introduced to combat this type of stuff. No problem with shopping around but existing customers should be offered exactly the same deals upon expiry of their contract as new customers are.
 
It's a crazy situation, and not consumer friendly, but our "regulators" couldn't give a fiddlers....

While considering your next move, check to see if SIRO is available in your area - if it is, then you've more chouces for a decent broadband service than you first thought!
 

I don't really understand Comreg talking a back seat on so many issues.
 
AlbacoreA said:
I don't really understand Comreg talking a back seat on so many issues.
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Why bother, when you don't have to?

I seriously doubt that anyone keeps an eye on them, in terms of performance etc.

They are one of a number of Regulators in Ireland that are little more than a waste of space.

Very frustrating how we create these bodies and then make them virtually untouchable.
 
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I'm all for helping the consumer but there should be balance. People have a right to make their own choices. They should also be expected to take some responsibility for their own (in)actions.

Only if there are good reasons should the regulator intervene. Looking at the broadband/phone market:

Are these particularly complex products? No.
Do they attract large switching costs that limit a households capacity to move to a better rate? No. At worst of you get it wrong this year and you can switch in 12 months.

Can an adult of average intelligence be expected to work out the cost of their current and future providers? I think so.

Are there barriers to switching? No. Is it difficult? Definitely annoying and may take a phone call to cancel but not exactly arduous.

Can consumers easily compare products across a range of providers? Yes, various websites will do this for you based on your eircode.

What if there are no alternatives to my current provider? As noted previously, a little slight of hand and you can pretend to be a new customer reasonably easily.

Maybe I'm missing something but aside from nationalising providers and forcing them to charge a minimum price to all consumers - because most people are too lazy to do something themselves - we're doing okay.

Just look at the banking sector to see what too much interference brings.
 
So I’ve cancelled now. Gave 30 days notice. Service will cease on 28th June. Out of curiosity I tried signing up online but it says I have to wait until current order fulfilled. Presume that means I can’t sign up now until after 28th June?
 
rustbucket said:
So I’ve cancelled now. Gave 30 days notice. Service will cease on 28th June. Out of curiosity I tried signing up online but it says I have to wait until current order fulfilled. Presume that means I can’t sign up now until after 28th June?
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Anyone else in the bucket house to sign up? We re-signed under a different name a couple of days before the notice period expired. Meant no loss of service. Either way I'd suggest waiting 3 weeks
 
skrooge said:
Anyone else in the bucket house to sign up? We re-signed under a different name a couple of days before the notice period expired. Meant no loss of service. Either way I'd suggest waiting 3 weeks
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Yes il get the boss to sign up instead. Il wait a few weeks. That’s the main thing alright- don’t want a loss of service
 
rustbucket said:
Granted but now they have to send me a box to return the current equipment. Then send me out new equipment once I sign up again. All at their cost. Simpler if they could just transplant my current details over to a new contract over the phone.
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Agreed, it would be nice if they were penalised more heavily for such practices. Until such time as the maths tallies the other direction they'll keep doing it.
 
skrooge said:
People have a right to make their own choices. They should also be expected to take some responsibility for their own (in)actions.
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Perhaps there's a point there that the current system rewards those prepared to shop around with better deals than they would likely get if all providers were forced to offer the same deals to renewals? Without the competition for new customers we might all just end up paying more?
 
In equilibrium there are two types of industry structure:

1) everyone pays the same price, say €50
2) differential pricing where new customers pay a low price of €40, and loyal customers pay €55


I prefer the second equilibrium. For selfish reasons as I shop around. And I also think it’s better for the market as it keeps firms on their toes and more likely to offer new products.
 

It used to be.... VM made it very hard to cancel, often refusing cancellations as invalid. Then charging you for the extra month it took to cancel through a correct channel. You could sign up easily but the same channels were not valid for cancellations. Then there was the whole haggling with retentions. Then they wouldn't honour the deal struck and you'd find billing errors where they removed discounts. So you'd have to check it every month.

The only alternative to cable is a phone line. If you have a bad phone line you have no viable alternative. Errorcom often refusing to fix poor quality lines.

So I wouldn't agree Comreg has no role here

Comreg Notice - Virginmedia.ie

www.virginmedia.ie

I don't think the consumer having to lump it on a years fees is acceptable.

Cancelling and rejoined is a kludge it's a backdoor they could close anytime. It's ridiculous that every year you have to go through that farce.
 
rustbucket said:
So I’ve cancelled now. Gave 30 days notice. Service will cease on 28th June. Out of curiosity I tried signing up online but it says I have to wait until current order fulfilled. Presume that means I can’t sign up now until after 28th June?
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I presume that you found my previous posts on this issue thanks to @Sue Ellen's links etc.?

You have to wait until your current service finishes and your final bill is issued which should be on or about 28th June. Once that happens you are no longer a customer and should be able to sign up as a new customer online and avail of the preferential new customer deals. At least that's worked for me for the past few years and I'm hoping that it still works as I'll be trying it again myself in a couple of months in order to get a new customer deal for another 12 months.

I've seen some people on the links of Boards and Reddit talking about using different personal details (partner's/house sharer's details, different email address, different phone number etc.) but I never found that to be necessary. I just signed up again using my usual personal details.

Edit: just read @skrooge's post above and maybe signing up using someone else's details (e.g. partner) is a way to avoid any downtime altogether. That wasn't an option for me and, in any case, a few days on 4G didn't bother me unduly. But some users may not have that flexibility.

As mentioned elsewhere, for the few days that I was ever offline from proper broadband I used a spare 4G router and 48 SIM (€12.99/200GB per month) as a temporary stopgap.
 
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