I did mine on live chat. Get back on and tell them you've changed your mind. This is my package. Probably just check incase what you get is actually more and I'm being an idiot.
Yeah Virgin retentions aren't anywhere near as generous as they used to be and getting a good deal out of them is like getting blood out of a stone. It's also increasingly difficult to talk to a British person and trying to communicate what you want, and understand what they're saying back to you, is increasingly difficult. In the past you'd just go to the I'm thinking of leaving option and you'd get someone British but even that seems to go to India or wherever it is now. My contract is up in March and I'm currently paying £92 a month which I consider to be too much. I think I'm going to ditch the TV package to be honest. I currently have two recordable V6 boxes, one in the living room and one in the bedroom and while I do use them all the time, so many of the things I watch on there I can get for free either with Freeview or catch up services. So I'm thinking of replacing the TV channels with Freeview and use the catch up services in place of recording my favourite shows. That's not perfect, non BBC catch up services have annoying non-skippable are but I think it might be worth it for the money I'll save. And obviously keep using the TV things I currently watch using the internet like Netflix, Disney plus and my totally legal completely above board fire stick for the premium sports channels. One extreme tactic I've used before with Virgin which can save a fortune but is a faff to do is to 'churn' them. They offer significantly better deals to new customers than they do existing ones and the deals they offer you over the phone don't get close to what's available to new customers. So you could have a look at Virgin's new customer deals and if you see one that offers what you want for a significantly cheaper price, here's what you can do. Ring Virgin and tell them you're leaving. Don't take no for an answer and get them to finalise your disconnection and provide you with your disconnection date which is usually in a few weeks time. Then sign up as a new customer with a different name, for example your wife's name if it's currently your name on the contract and set the installation day to be on the same day as your disconnection day. Then when the day arrives pack everything up in the boxes they provide to send back to Virgin, and on the same day an engineer will arrive to reinstall all the same stuff but for a much cheaper price . It is a faff I won't lie. There's no guarantee you'll be able to arrange installation on the same day as disconnection (although if that happens, or you simply bottle it, you can ring Virgin back and cancel your disconnection at any point). You'll lose recorded shows already saved on your box and you'll have to reconnect all your devices to the new WiFi, re-set up all your series links again etc. But you can save literally £50 or £60 a month doing it if there's a good deal available so it's definitely worth looking into if you really like the service Virgin provide and want to stay with them but just don't want to pay the rip off price. That's a much shorter way of saying what I've just said
My account hasn't been updated with the new package yet, but they've sent me this contract. Mine includes TNT but then again my broadband is only 250mbs.
I'm on Sky Stream. My Sky Q deal was up for renewal back in February so I was going to lose the offers I had on the package. From what I recall it was due to go up by about £30 a month. They wouldn't budge on the renegotiation so I simply told them to f**k themselves and that I was leaving. A few days before my disconnect date they called me and offered Stream with no money to pay for the puck and for less money a month for the same package I'd been on previously. Like previously, the only thing I don't have is Sport which I'm not arsed about anyway as games I want to watch I source from elsewhere like using my brother's account on Sky Go. The good thing about Sky Stream is that you can pay a little extra and start on a rolling 30 day contract, so no 18 month bollocks. I could leave tomorrow if I wanted to. But I'm not even paying that additional fee as they wrote it off, presumably to avoid us leaving. I was half expecting them to call, but it helps that I was genuinely going to leave as companies like Sky won't always call to try and keep you these days. Overall, there are some things I miss in comparison to Sky Q. Stream is basically Sky Glass without that mediocre, stupidly overpriced television so everything is catch-up rather than local recordings. But there are advantages. The interface is better, there is no satellite dish, the puck is tiny (mine is stuck to the back of the TV so isn't visible), and it works surprisngly well when combined with the DNS deny lists I've set so channels like ITV X, More 4 and My 5 show no adverts. I've never been on Virgin. My parents say they're terrible and I've heard other horror stories about them through friends and family. Plus, I've never lived in an area they cover anyway. For my broadband I've got 1gb FTTP with City Fibre for £27 a month through Vodafone.
After my pathetic negotiating with Virgin I've had my car insurance renewal from Admiral, and they want £585. That's not happening, but it's another bleeding phone call to argue with people looking to rip me off.
Didn't get anywhere with Admiral, they got my renewal down to £497 so I've binned them and taken out a new policy with Budget for £454. These days I seem to change car and home insurance providers pretty much every year.
I find I flip flopped back and forth between Admiral and Direct Line every year when I had to insure a car myself before the Motability one but I'd always try to stay with the one I was with if they could get close to the best (Direct Line were always my preference though as they don't resell other organisations sh1tty policies)
Direct Line are just one of the Direct Line Group, alongside NIG, Churchill and a few others. Tesco Insurance used to be part of it as well - if they're not still there. I think most motor insurers all come under an umbrella of about 5 or 6 main insurers. Admiral has Bell and Elephant for example. Quote Me Happy is Aviva. And so on.
I've had a bad experience with Direct Line, and my sister had an even worse experience with them so I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, though as @Si Robin points out sometimes you aren't sure who you're actually signed up with. The cheapest quote I got was from a company called Geoffrey, but I'd never heard of them so opted for one about £30 more expensive.
Promise you the rainbow did he? I've just had fibre optic installed and strangely my internet bill has gone down by $18 a month. I've questioned it to make sure I'm not going to get a surprise bill in a few months when someone realises their mistake but apparently it's a thing here.
Just had my phone nicked on the way home. Hard to be too annoyed because it was pretty old and shit but all the same - tits.
Not really an annoyance, more a curiosity. People who try to sell used items on eBay for a fraction less than you can buy it new on Amazon. A Smeg kettle the missus is trying to persuade me to buy as part of the new kitchen refit we've just had. £161 on Amazon down from £180 (I know, for a f*****g kettle). Seen someone on eBay selling the same one used for £150 when I was trying to get it cheaper new. Don't these idiots do any research? Or are they hoping the potential buyers don't? On a side note, I found it for £129 new on eBay, which makes the £150 one even more hilarious.
Find some people are super cheeky with reselling now. I was trying to buy a new bin for the kitchen and someone near me had one on Gumtree and I double checked the new price on IKEA and it was the same price. Piss off. On same issue the prices people try to sell on things like DVD, CD, or VHS players will sometimes be a joke. It's out of date technology.
You've not met my wife. You seriously don't want to f*****g know what I've just spent on a new kitchen.
