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VM turning down custom?
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[Deleted User]
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I've just come off a rather ridiculous call with retentions.
To explain, I moved house twice last year and each time had to extend my contract with VM, something which I didnt have a problem with. My current contract runs out in May 2014. Moving house has extended my contract by around 18 months from my original expiry date, and during that time have never claimed any retention discounts.
I called retentions to ask about upgrading my Premier Collection and taking out a 4th STB, effectively increasing my current subscription form around £65 to £117, not far off doubling the amount, and also agreeing to extend my contract by 12 months. Bearing this in mind I was somewhat in shock to be told that there would be a £99 charge for the tivo box.
Seeing in mind I will never own this box, I feel this somewhat unfair, especially as I wanted to pay twice as much for at least 12 months.
Im also with Sky at present and am now in two minds whether to stick with them and try and get a new deal or go to freesat. All VM have done today is give me a negative attitude towards them and have now got me thinking about removing my TV altogether in May.
I find this a really strange way to go about their business, especially after the BT sport issue and no doubt losing customers during that period.
To explain, I moved house twice last year and each time had to extend my contract with VM, something which I didnt have a problem with. My current contract runs out in May 2014. Moving house has extended my contract by around 18 months from my original expiry date, and during that time have never claimed any retention discounts.
I called retentions to ask about upgrading my Premier Collection and taking out a 4th STB, effectively increasing my current subscription form around £65 to £117, not far off doubling the amount, and also agreeing to extend my contract by 12 months. Bearing this in mind I was somewhat in shock to be told that there would be a £99 charge for the tivo box.
Seeing in mind I will never own this box, I feel this somewhat unfair, especially as I wanted to pay twice as much for at least 12 months.
Im also with Sky at present and am now in two minds whether to stick with them and try and get a new deal or go to freesat. All VM have done today is give me a negative attitude towards them and have now got me thinking about removing my TV altogether in May.
I find this a really strange way to go about their business, especially after the BT sport issue and no doubt losing customers during that period.
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I do agree with your point though. They could have at least discounted the cost of the box even if they couldn't waive the fee altogether.
You never said which type of box you wanted, there are currently three types of boxes you can get for Multiroom - here are the REAL Prices, Retentions where just ripping you off
The V HD box is free if you only order one of the, the Installation fee still stands at £49 though, unless you can get it waived
The 500GB TiVo box is £49 plus another £49 for the Installation
The 1TB TiVo box is also £49 for the first box you order plus another £49 for the Installation - the same as above
If you order 2 1TB TiVo boxes the first one will be £49 and the second one will be £99 plus of course you have to pay another £49 for the Installation
Further Details and Terms and Conditions can be found here http://store.virginmedia.com/digital-tv/set-top-boxes/multiroom.html
not that hard to work out, try doing the maths yourself, for any retail item, and you will soon realise you cant keep giving away the box!
But the box is rented, so why the additional charge? It's not as if I can use my own box to view the channels? It's not fair and unjustified, a small install charge to run a cable from my existing splitter would be fair enough but I'm not entertaining the idea of committing an EXTRA £720 over the next year as well as £99 for another tivo
Well Virgins charge for running a cable would be £99
There's already a box on the wall though, just no cable running from it. Anyway, I've decided my money is better spent elsewhere, I'm calling up to pay off the TV and just keep my bb/phone. Virgins ARPU can drop for all I care, all for the sake of £99 for a rented box!
this is so about 2 weeks before cancelation you will get a call - seemingly to confirm disconection, but the call is to try and keep you, and you will get a better deal,
They will proabley wanna charge you for the box, but may offer a discount in service prices, this could save you more overall, but please try and push for s re-occuring discount (more than just 12 months) i was told these discounts run from 1 month to 8 years on the system, so if you where considering staying with them,
99 quid payout for a box, but a saving of 150 per year may work out better,
I have also herd that the prices are going up, in october, well anounesed so if your in contract this could be a get out cluase, to terminate services without penalty, which you can do as i have done this in the passed
i dont think you applied the maths i asked you to.
yes the boxes are rented, but you want more boxes than is actually paid for in the money you spend!
the real cost of the boxes, connection and channels are not in the "bolt on costs" you have used, but unpublished and built in to the mix of the total bill their scale and "encouragement" tariff matrix is made to combine to. so the cost of the extra box isnt really the £5 or whatever they ask for to go from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3, its just an encouragement to go up from one price matrix position to another. when you break the "matrix" like you want the costs change completely. same with the tv packs, they are designed to encourage you to go xl, and not the in between bit or to stick with m+ etc.. m+ is just something to get people through the door, adding packs is what they want you to do, and then the bundle soon makes sense to go xl. the same "false pricing" is done with line rental and the tv service, to get you to connect, then add the other services, and pass the hidden break even cost... but all the combos are calculated to the costs and the hope to sell more. you want to go outside that cost matrix, and that means the costs are not the same so none of the prices you see relate anymore to the real cost and profit they need to make.
I don't understand your point, the £99 I have an issue with is to merely install a box, I don't have an issue with the extra £11.50 per month the box would cost me.
My issue is with the cost of the supply of the hardware not the additional subs, which I don't have an issue with
At the moment I am on the premiere collection already with a 3rd box (VHd) I want to add sports and movies etc and another TiVo thus doubling my monthly spend.
Ultimately what you're saying is virgin media won't make a profit from me despite me being willing to pay them a minimum of £1440 a year?
Lol, better go and break my super hub then!!!
Then you will get a new Superhub 2 for FREE, as they have to replace the equipment
I doubt that will work as when he is phoning/on the phone they will charge you the Install fee of £99, that is what happened with me when I tried it a while back
I had a genuine fault, not something I had done just to have an engineer out to repair something
Why do you not swap the V HD box for a TiVo box then - a 1TB one and move the V HD box elsewhere if needed if not then ask nicely for another TiVo box making 2 new ones in total via retentions?
If you go to this website it will ask you which TiVo box you want to add and the costs - go to this webpage first though then to go the Set Top Boxes table
Upgrade your box - you need to sign in first though to get to the webpage https://my.virginmedia.com/my-offers/index
Once on that webpage click on the Grey Bar at the Top and click on TV or TiVo, then scroll down the page and it will say this "How much does the TiVo box cost?"
You can gain all the information you need from that
Then have a look at this webpage http://store.virginmedia.com/digital-tv/set-top-boxes/multiroom.html
No they don't. Retentions gave me my 1 Tb TiVo at no charge, I was out of contract, just had to extend for 2 years. That's nearly up, or is in November just after the price rise and they want to remove my loyalty discount. Not going to happen. I will cancel and go to Talk Talk.