Better late than never. I've done this a few times i.e. cancelled and signed up as a new customer to get a better deal. Every time so far I was able to sign up as a new customer as soon as the old account was closed and the final bill issued at the end of the contract period or 30 day notice period. At most I had a few days downtime during which I used alternative arrangements (usually a 4G router and 48 SIM). I'll probably be doing it again in a few months given that fibre services are STILL not available in my area (c. 3km from the Spire!) so Virgin is still the only realistic option.
Which broadband provider?
- Thread starter Salvadore
- Start date
It's not. You can sign up as a new customer the day after your account has been closed and the final bill issued.
Maybe more people are doing it these days or you just got a picky agent but I've never experienced such hesitancy on their part before. In fact it was a customer agent who clarified to me that I could sign up as a new customer the day after closing my previous account. Another option is to alternate between your name in English and Irish and tell them you don't know who the other guy/gal is if they try to play silly games.
Last edited:
I'm surprised that this worked. It did in the past but then, a few years ago, they changed their terms and conditions to insist that the only way to cancel was to call them or write a physical letter to them. Maybe they've revived the email option or were forced to by ComReg although I'd be very surprised if ComReg actually did anything useful in this context. Although they did rap them on the knuckles a few years ago over their cancellation procedures although the ComReg notice doesn't really clarify the details of the transgression or the remedy as far as I can see...
Terms | Terms And Conditions | Virgin Media Ireland
Read a summary of the Virgin Media Ireland terms and conditions here. Find out all you need to know about contract lengths, equipment, cancellation and more
www.virginmedia.ie
I wouldn't depend on the email cancellation option unless they confirm that it's still a valid option.
Last edited:
VM is the only high speed option for me at the moment. I've never tried resigning as a new customer but this year -after no offer of a discount - I cancelled and signed up under other halfs name four days before service was due to expire.
New hardware (same as the old stuff) arrived the next day which meant when my original service stopped working (it didn't appear to stop but they definitely slowed it to a crawl) all I had to do was plug out the old router and plug in the new one and I was back up and running in minutes.
Looking across on boards it seems your phone number is the unique identifier so if you had a second number it might be very easy to jump back and forth every year.
The other trick I read - too late for me this time but I'll try next year - is to change the WiFi name and password on the new router to the same as the old router. Could save a lot of time rather than updating the connections on the every increasing number of connected items there seems to be.
New hardware (same as the old stuff) arrived the next day which meant when my original service stopped working (it didn't appear to stop but they definitely slowed it to a crawl) all I had to do was plug out the old router and plug in the new one and I was back up and running in minutes.
Looking across on boards it seems your phone number is the unique identifier so if you had a second number it might be very easy to jump back and forth every year.
The other trick I read - too late for me this time but I'll try next year - is to change the WiFi name and password on the new router to the same as the old router. Could save a lot of time rather than updating the connections on the every increasing number of connected items there seems to be.
Last edited:
I don't have a landline at all so they wouldn't have been able to check that in my case. Or do you mean the (possibly mobile) contact number on your VM account? I never had any problem using the same one every time.
It looks like Vodafone have finally copped on and stopped trying to disadvantage existing customers and penalising their loyalty.
We have Vodafone 1Gb for the last few years (on eir fibre). Service has been very good throughout. Invoice price is €70 with €15 discount so net is €55 per month. Contract expires end of Feb 24.
Spoke to them last week and best they could do was €50 per month, still on 1Gb. Decided to move to eir who were offering €45 per month for 24 months. Checked the Vodafone website before calling today to cancel and Vodafone new business offer is €40 for 1Gb for 6 months and then €50 for six months. Spoke to the Vodafone loyalty team about renewal and no issue giving me the new business price, but offered to do better and offered €40 per month for 12 months when renewing my contract. So I’m staying with them at this price, and no requirement to cancel and start again. And also avoiding the hassle of moving provider, reconfiguring routers etc. and coordinating the different changeover activities.
The impression I got was it's whatever phone number was given upon sign up.
It would be interesting to see if you could sign up again say 25 days after the cancellation process started. Save you the hassle of a days disconnection. But I appreciate that can't make it too easy.
If the discounted price wasn't good enough the €100 one-4-all voucher for being a new customers arrived a couple of days ago was the icing on the cake.
Ok, that makes sense but it didn't cause me any problems last year. The only small complication was getting access to my new account online because only the old one was showing until I called them. The person that I dealt with was a bit confused until I explained that I had cancelled one service and then taken a brand new one out more or less immediately. Then they understood are made my new one available via the online portal. A couple of old ones remain accessible to see old bills etc.
I don't think that would work as you would then have two VM service packages at the same address and I don't think that they allow that?
Hope they're still doing it in July when I'll be ready to go again unless fibre services become available in the meantime.
Well they delivered our new router before my old service stopped (ordered about 25 days after starting the cancellation process). Admittedly I didn't try the new router before my old account expired.
I was interested to see if it would be a seamless switchover with the old router but it wasn't. I tried both routers consecutively and concurrently after the first account expired and they were definitely restricting any service through the old router while the new one worked fine. I hadn't given it much thought but if the service is linked to the router it may mean there is some scope for some kind of overlap in services to the one address. I must check the bill to see the effective start date.
I wouldn't hold my breath on the fibre anyway. There is another discussion to be had on how long it takes to rollout fibre. There is fibre on my street now - they put it in just before Christmas - but no word on when it will be usable from my perspective.Hope they're still doing it in July when I'll be ready to go again unless fibre services become available in the meantime.
It varies enormously, depending on the fibre provider (eir, SIRO or NBI), the delivery method (ducted or overhead strung cable etc), the competition in the area, the availability of installation crews and a lot of other intervening variables. When the fibre was pulled near our place in Cork, the service was available for order from the retailers within a matter of 3/4 weeks, and delivered very soon after that. From the time the rodders and ropers pulled the fibre through the ducts to the manhole outside our front door in Limerick it took over 15 months before the service was available to order from eir, Vodafone etc. The sales staff can give little information about forthcoming availability, but if you can get talking to someone in the background they will often have a better understanding of what’s involved and the likely timeline.
Fibre was installed by Circet in the ducts about two years ago in my area but still no sign of retail service availability. And, as I've said before, I'm about 3km from Dublin city centre.
Cheers gents, like many things the answer to how long will it be before i have a choice ..
The proverbial how long is a piece of fibre!
On the plus side it sounds like I'll have the opportunity to work on my song and dance routine with VM for some time to come.
Flybytheseat
Registered User
- Messages
- 378
They eventually came back with an offer by text which I accepted. 50% off for 12 month contract so €30 per month for 250MB down fibre broadband.
mugsymugsy
Registered User
- Messages
- 111
Just had the yearly dance with internet providers with sky. The price went to 60 euros a month. I eventually got through to them and they offered me 50 a month. I said look you offer new customers 30 a month let me have that deal they said no. They then said you want to go through the hassle of changing and I said not really but you are not giving me much choice.
Gone with pure telecom for 30 euros a month saving 240 euros a year. Fingers crossed no major hassle and thanks for the tip about changing internet to old details.
Gone with pure telecom for 30 euros a month saving 240 euros a year. Fingers crossed no major hassle and thanks for the tip about changing internet to old details.
Far be it from me to stop you lashing out on high speed FFTTH broadband if your household has need of it and you can afford it.
But I ditched Virgin TV cable delivered broadband 2-3 years ago after seeing my monthly payments rise from €32 to €60 over 2014 - 2018.
My broadband for the last couple of years is via 3 Mobile. I use my phone as a hotspot and have my PC tuned into it. It's not as fast as Virgin. But at €20 or €30 a month (according to phone minutes and call range) my decision was a no brainer.
I use the PC for work but the upload and download speed is adequate for web development, testing and so on. I can see movies on YouTube or online channels. Only thing is surfing speeds drop when I am on a mobile call.
If you have kids gaming as you Zoom someone, my solution won't work for you. But if you have a monthly plan with any mobile provider (and they all offer a similar service as 3 does), I would try seeing how much mobile broadband will do for you.
But I ditched Virgin TV cable delivered broadband 2-3 years ago after seeing my monthly payments rise from €32 to €60 over 2014 - 2018.
My broadband for the last couple of years is via 3 Mobile. I use my phone as a hotspot and have my PC tuned into it. It's not as fast as Virgin. But at €20 or €30 a month (according to phone minutes and call range) my decision was a no brainer.
I use the PC for work but the upload and download speed is adequate for web development, testing and so on. I can see movies on YouTube or online channels. Only thing is surfing speeds drop when I am on a mobile call.
If you have kids gaming as you Zoom someone, my solution won't work for you. But if you have a monthly plan with any mobile provider (and they all offer a similar service as 3 does), I would try seeing how much mobile broadband will do for you.
Just moved over to Pure myself yesterday, been with Vodafone for the last three years paying €30pm except for a €5pm increase during year two
This year Vodafone wouldn't offer below €35pm so we switched to Pure
Speed with Pure is down slightly from 90 down to 72 but sofar I've not noticed any difference but I only had one day of usage
Pure say they can up the speed from 80 to 100 if need be but it might affect the stability of the service
So far happy enough except for that if I have a technical issue with service their only open office hours Monday to Saturday
but having said that I can't remember last when I've had an issue with my broadband!!
Tried that yesterday morning as I was waiting for Pure to switch on my service and it didn't work for me
While watching RTE news on the computer in 1080p and 720p it kept stopping to buffer but ran okay on 520p
But had no problem watching a movie in 4k on a streaming service or YouTube in 1080p,
Didn't try gaming as I know it won't work, I only get a down speed of 10Mbps in my house with my GoMo sim only package
mugsymugsy
Registered User
- Messages
- 111
I have seen it mentioned and commented on another thread about utilities before but I really don't understand why companies don't have a policy of that you price jumps up to x price but if you renew online then you can get the good deal.
Customer doesn't have to waste time ringing up and they don't have to employ sales / loyalty team. The turnover of modems and equipment would be lower and their customer retention numbers would be higher.
I look forward to the merry go round / dance next year. I'm currently vodafone-sky-pure journey
Blackrock1
Registered User
- Messages
- 1,680
i use my own router with our FTTH service so the ISPs device goes into the attic to be sent back to them when i switch at the end of the year, no downtime when switching and no change to any of my networks, much more straightforward once set up.