Sticking with Virgin Media or switch to sky

Hey Everyone, I need you guys advice please.

I'm currently with virgin media and have

broadband: 10mb
TV: XL
Phone: M

for 45.75 (including grand triple discount 14)

My mate is paying for same at 36.50, however my neighbour is paying for same package with the added V+ box for 46.

I already phoned virgin rention department and I had a fairley rude agent, and I said i was going to cancel and she didnt hesitate.

In your guys oppinion, should I try to haggle again or switch my TV services only to SKY TV.

thanks

Originally posted by simplydannywan
Hey Everyone, I need you guys advice please.

I'm currently with virgin media and have

broadband: 10mb
TV: XL
Phone: M

for £45.75 (including grand triple discount £14)

My mate is paying for same at £36.50, however my neighbour is paying for same package with the added V+ box for £46.

I already phoned virgin rention department and I had a fairley rude agent, and I said i was going to cancel and she didnt hesitate.

In your guys oppinion, should I try to haggle again or switch my TV services only to SKY TV.

thanks

I have my service supplied by Sky and find them very good, sometimes they try my patience, but I expect Virgin would as well?
There are better choices on Sky according to several friends experience's, the down side is if it rains really heavy you lose the signal and if it gets foggy it can go as well.
From what I have seen of my Parents Virgin service and my Sky, it's Sky hands down.
If you do join Sky, P.M me and we both get £50 M&S vouchers[}:)][}:)]
Ian

i would say virgin. i got Brodband L, phone M and T XL for £37 a month but only got that rate after upgrading the TV and broadband from basic and when it was too much telling them to put it back to basic unless they gave it to me for less. it worked. now that virgin show skynews, sky 1 and 2 its way better than sky. and cable broandband is the way forward.

the only negative to virgin in my opinion is that u dont get the interactive skysports channels so if they showing a game via the red button i cant seem to get it on virgin. Very irritting.

so i would try haggle again if i were u.

[mitchja]

Just be wary of the broadband prices with Sky as from March 2009 they are increasing their broadband charges for most packages (see here)

Regards

Should I phone and haggle again? I dunno wat to do, I some how feel bad im haggling.


or second choice is to say to virgin, i will downgrade everything and cancel tv only and switch tv to sky? however keeeping broadband and phone. Do you think Virgin cares?

Does the retention department open on Saturdays?
thanks

Depending on how important the stability and reliability of the broadband connection is to you... from personal experience the cable broadband of Virgin is far superior to the Sky (over BT) ADSL.

All IMHO of course

Cheers

Mark [:)]

[Pete]

I had Sky before switching to Virgin, and from my experience the picture quality on Virgin is far superior to Sky. The broadband is also faster regardless of your distance from the telephone exchange (since it doesn't use ADSL).

My criticisms of Virgin's service is they have only one HD channel (BBC), and their user interface is occasionally very dumb (like near full-screen dialog boxes popping up saying 'Attention: The V+ is busy. Press OK'. The guy who wrote that bit of code should be shot.

However, I hear through those in the know, following a shareholders meeting in New York in the last couple of weeks, apparently both the HD channels and user interface problems are going to be addressed (as early as Christmas, if some reports are to be believed)

Pete

[fozzyo]

I'd say hassle Virgin again for the prices. As Pete says some of the interface stuff on the Virgin box are a bit annoying, but overall it works very well. And don't forget you get all the on-demand stuff with Virgin, BBC iPlayer etc. And the Broadband is very good.

The other thing I've found is that its all one company - so they can't blame BT or someone else if the Broadband dies etc.

I switched from Virgin to Sky as my new place doesn't have the connectivity - what a downgrade. When I move again I'll do my damdest to get cable again. ADSL just doesn't cut it.

I get my internet from Virgin and my TV from Sky.
Horses for courses! you don't have to get them all together?
[:w]

I would ring back and ask then to match your neighbours V+ package. You may get a more cooperative call centre person.

The V+ box is great. Although there is not much HD content on Virgin yet, the upscaling provided on the V+ box is very good and gives excellent picture quality on our LCD.

I forgot to mention, I phoned customer relations (refered to the retentions) I had quite an arrogant agent, at first she was pleasant. Though after 5 minutes into the conversation she said 'im not going to argue over these silly points.' Am I just sensitive but isn't that simply trying to call me silly?

Then she quite often telling me to 'hold on a minute.' I wasn't being abusive nor nasty but then I said i'm going to cancel my service.


When I said sky was the cheaper alternative, she said 'do you think that sky is better' also she said she has sky and says they are rubbish.

She didn't hesitate and she said 'she can do it straight away'

Im going to phone again tomorow, what things shall I say to them?

Or am I just being to sensitive.

also 5 months ago i phoned before about their price difference between me and my friends and they offered a £14 discount. Do you think this time they won't care about me cancelling.
Thanks for reading this thread.

Push as hard as you want to, you have a back up with Sky.

But if you don't ask you will not be offered a cheaper package? Good Luck.

[mitchja]

All VM staff are going to say other competitors products are not as good as there own. If they said anything else to customers, they wouldn't have a job for very long.

The problem is these days, when trying to negotiate with companies, is that most of them are very clued up on the competition so VM will know exactly what Sky can and can't offer and how much they charge for everything.

Bear in mind, whoever you end up with; you going to be in at minimum, a 12 month contract, so make sure what you get from either company is exactly what you want before you sign up to anything.

Regards

Thank everyone for the advice,

Should I also mention the fact that when I asked the address on how to cancel she said go to virgin site, also then i said sky has a premade letter. She said 'go to sky website', could that be count as her promoting me to cancel virgin.

Do virgin record their calls?

If I switch everything to sky, my phone is with virgin so to install BT I will have to pay £124.99

I heard rumors that virgin can only give a certain amount of discounts per customer?

Hi everyone, thanks for the comments, today I phoned virgin,

The customer relations team, I said to them is the disconnecting department closed because I have to wait a long time, because I want to cancel. Then the agent asked why and I explained. She phoned me back and explained they will investigate into the staff's attitude (which i doubt they will investigate.)

I suppose its not much but brought the bill down from £44.75 to £41.50. I suppose makes me a bit happier after explaining the bad customer service.