Anyone on here work for Virgin?

I get at least 4 letters from you every week, half of them addressed to me and half addressed to 'The Householder". At least 2 of those are A4 size with a magazine thing inside advertising all your products. It must be costing you a fortune!

I've never been a Virgin customer and I never will be. I haven't got anything against the company, it's just that outside my licence fee I will never pay for TV. I don't watch enough of it to justify the cost and I get all I want with the channels I've got. I'll not take your broadband deals either as even the half price offers for 3 or 6 months are more expensive than the regular price I currently pay.

So, I've got a proposition. Pay me £5 in to my bank account every week and stop sending the letters. What's in it for you, you may ask? Well, it'll be cheaper for a start. Buying the paper, printing and posting all those letters must be severely eating in to your profits.
It'll save on energy and resources. I get half a forest worth of paper every year from you, not to mention the time, effort and energy used to process that paper and recycle it.
And finally, you'll be able to get some closure. You're obviously desperate to get me as a customer, so must be constantly in a state of disappointment when I fail to take up any of your thousands of offers. If we put an end to it now, you can get over it and move on. That's got to be worth a fiver a week.

 

Jay,

Very eloquently put. Oh & add me to thie list as I too am fed up with the umpteen letters a month, just because teh previous owner had Virgin Broadband.

 

No, I don't work for you.

 

Notice they have crafty with this lately sending them in unbranded envelopes, this means I now have to open them in the b1n file

 

BT started sending me mails addressed to "Mr N. Contact". I just ignored them. So they started sending me bills in that name too (on top of the ones in my real name). Cheeky f**kers.

 

My dad is 88 and had the full works from Virgin, costing nearly £50 per month. When he watched TV, he just watched Freeview but thought he was watching Virgin. He didn't even know how to turn the Virgin box on. He's got broadband but doesn't use his computer for anything other than listening to Barnsley Player. He got into that position because he was bombarded with sales calls from Virgin.

I've now cancelled everything and got him set up with a phone line and internet from Primus which costs £11.20 per month, including line rental. I cancelled his Virgin contract for him, but he had to give permission for me to deal with it. Since the cancellation he's been bombarded with calls and letters asking him to reconsider and re-instate his contract. As a result he nearly ended up with 2 contracts at the same time.

They must spend millions on promotional materials and calls to people who have no intention of ever becoming their customers. And those who ARE customers pay for it all. Baffling.

 

If they keep bombarding him still I'd write a strongly worded letter to them advising you'll report them if they don't stop. Explain he's 88 and vulnerable and already fallen for their sales pitches before and that you consider it harassment and trying to take advantage. That should make it stop.

 

Thanks, it's been sorted now and he's happily watching Freeview and he's £38 per month better off.

 

It won't.

The old boys numbers going to be flogged on everywhere.

 

He wasn't able to keep his old number, he had to have a new one. He didn't like it but he eventually agreed that was a good thing.

 

Jay - even if anyone on here is employed by Virgin they probably aren't in any position to come to the agreement you want. Perhaps a letter or email to Virgin might be a better idea!

 

Update

The b@stards at Virgin did not cancel his contract as they promised I've been away abroad and only just found out. The t***s rang him while I was away and asked him to reconsider, then rang him again and again and eventually they claim he agreed to withdraw the cancellation. He denies this. Since then he's been paying twice for Virgin and the new company Primus. I've sorted it today and cancelled the direct debit, but my dad got in a real state about it. Horrible company.

 

Re: Update

Stahlrost, just seen your post with regard to your dad and Virgin. Have you heard of the Telephone Preference List?, I cant do links yet but if you Google Telephone Preference List and have a look at their site (It is free) you can see if it is something that would help your dad, especially if he is on his own mate

 

Re: Update

Thanks for your tip and concern. He's already on that list but since he had a contract with Virgin at the time they were entitled to call him. He lives on his own, at 88, but my brother and I between handle most of his financial stuff as he would struggle.

My belief is that someone in "Retention" (or whatever the department is called) at Virgin gets a commission for "persuading" someone to withdraw a cancellation. Can't prove owt though and I'm not going to involve my dad in any sort of complaint, just want a quiet life for him.

Thanks again for your concern.

 

Re: Update

Don't plus net do a really basic package for about £5 a month with just broadband and phone? Im on my phone at the minute so cant really check up, but im sure they do a really cheap standard package that im sure would suit your fathers needs.

 

Re: Update

apologies, line rental with them is another £11

 

Re: Update

no probs mate, I know I had to set it up for my old mum some time ago, fortunately at the time she wasnt under contract to any of the persistent sods so it worked for her and stopped them completely, just a shame it isnt a more broadly advertised service especially for elderley people

 

Re: Update

I was on PlusNet which was a decent deal as I only need broadband and phone. As you say it was about £11 per month (at the time) line rental and about £5 for broadband. However, there was a 10GB monthly limit which was a pain if I watched any videos (ahem!), so I moved to Primus.

My Dad's now with Primus on this deal http://www.primussaver.co.uk/phone-and-broadband.html which works out at £11.20 per month with a 40GB limit. The limit is fine for him as he only uses the internet to listen to Barnsley Player!!! The line rental is £10 per month as he pays in advance.

The Virgin contract was costing him £48 per month for something he never actually watched.