VM Negotiation Tips

[Smudger]

Hi,

I'm coming to the end of my discounted period with VM, and the cost is about to go up by quite a bit. My package is as follows:

200mb BB
Maxit TV
ANytime calls

All for £78 a month, rising to £91 at the end of the month.

The same package is £58 for new customers, but obviously i'm not a new customer. My quandary is that I would just threaten to leave and move to Sky, but there's no Fibre provision from Openreach in my area, so moving to another service would mean a drop of BB speed to 11mbps. Should I bluff? The fact I've been with them for 15 years appears to mean nothing - the best offer I've received is £80 a month for a slight reduction in services. (calls)

[Jonatron]

According to https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first , Openreach are building their fibre network in St Albans (if your profile location is correct). Maybe worth waiting for that...

[Smudger]

According to https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first , Openreach are building their fibre network in St Albans (if your profile location is correct). Maybe worth waiting for that...

Unfortunately, I'm in a village just outside, which doesn't seem to be covered by the latest push...

[ik9000]

I have the same problem. I asked why i was paying more than other customers and the very rude person in their far flung call centre jsut said "leave if you don't like it. I don't care. I'm not going to do anything for you." I think they know who has genuine choice and who doesn't, and each year they ratchet the price and I'm permanently stuck.

[kalniel]

Pay for a month of something else then switch (no reason to wait for the end of the month, sounds like the saving will pay for the wasted month.)

[Jonj1611]

This is what I did only a few weeks ago, ring them tell them you want to terminate your contract. They will ask you why, tell them anything you like and thats all you have to do.

The very next day I had retentions on the phone offering me a great deal. I was paying £54 a month for all the channels including kids (not movies or sports), home phone line, 200MB broadband and something else. Retentions offered me the exact same package for £38 per month

Don't worry if they don't ring the next day they WILL keep on phoning you!

[Smudger]

Pay for a month of something else then switch (no reason to wait for the end of the month, sounds like the saving will pay for the wasted month.)

THe issue with that is rubbish broadband for the duration, not ideal when I'm trying to work from home and the boy's watching Disney+...

[kalniel]

THe issue with that is rubbish broadband for the duration, not ideal when I'm trying to work from home and the boy's watching Disney+...

I'm not suggesting you go without VM for a month, just that you buy/switch to a pay monthly from someone else then immediately switch back to VM, so perhaps 12 hours without VM? You might even be able to change your mind without charge from the new one, but if not, you've only paid for a cheap month.

[Smudger]

I'm not suggesting you go without VM for a month, just that you buy/switch to a pay monthly from someone else then immediately switch back to VM, so perhaps 12 hours without VM? You might even be able to change your mind without charge from the new one, but if not, you've only paid for a cheap month.

Ah, I see... I didn't realise other ISPs did rolling monthlies, I'll take a look, thanks

Well, I've taken the jump and cancelled VM, let's see what happens now...

[Saracen999]

Good luck Smudger.

I'm about to do similar so will be watching with interest.

[Smudger]

Well, that worked out very well...

[Jonj1611]

Do tell

[Smudger]

Got everything I've already got for £57... Quite pleased...

[Jonj1611]

Very nice

[Lanky123]

Got everything I've already got for £57... Quite pleased...

How many hours after cancelling did it take for their "very sorry, please stay" department to call back?

[Smudger]

How many hours after cancelling did it take for their "very sorry, please stay" department to call back?

I cancelled on Friday afternoon and got a call from them this afternoon. They don't work weekends in retentions, apparently so not bad...