Vodafone Broadband any good?

Thanks all. Had a call back from Virgin “Retention” dept. They offered me a reduction which still meant me paying more than a new customer for the same. They wouldnt or couldnt explain/justify why I should pay more than a new customer. “Really sorry, cant help the system wont let me”
Just shown Virgin the finger and signed up with Vodafone, already pleased with the customer care and no installation or set up fees, without asking they even knocked a bit more off the price for “Black Friday”.
Cushty!

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Thats a pity, I used IDNet for years when I was in the UK, with First Telecom handling voice calls. In general, the more the comercial the company, the ‘less good’ they seem to be.
For all our ‘best service possible’ clients, Id go for A&A and certainly the best BB providers Ive used.
That said, IDNet once called me on a Saturday morning and apologetically said the BB in my area would be off for about an hour after 15.00, around 15.45 it was back on and after 16.00 someone called and asked if it was all working OK.

I don’t think FT exist anymore but they were really very good.

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just a word of caution - if you are using your service for work/commercial activities you may find you are in breach of your contract for inclusive minutes etc. You may need, or typically if you are an employee your company, may need to purchase a small business package.
Of course you may well get away with it - and no one the wiser - but worth being mindful of.

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Well I’m glad you got sorted in the end.
After over 15 years with Sky, I left them for Virgin a couple of years ago because Sky refused to give me the same deal as new customers. I was subsequently contacted by Sky every week for 18 months offering me a much better deal than the one I originally asked for. Of course, it was too late. I even sent a letter to Sky’s CEO telling him how absurd their policy is, but I didn’t get a reply.
I guess there must be enough of these companies’ customers who blindly renew at high prices to offset those like me and you who are prepared to move.
I have just got used to having to perform the renewal “dance” each year with TV, broadband, phone, energy and insurance companies. Often, I end up with a deal to stay, but am always willing to move where appropriate.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Virgin try and tempt you back with.

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I personally know several people who have given up on Sky for precisely this reason… including my rather elderly neighbour … it must be impacting them somewhere whilst they have this policy, I can only assume it’s not impacting them enough.

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Interesting. I’ve been with Sky for 15 years. Their broadband was poor but when I left them O2 were bought by Sky and so back I came. Their broadband has been excellent ever since. They counted my time with O2 as time with them and so I’m part of their VIP scheme. Lots of people with longevity ignore the scheme. That’s a mistake. I can get through on the phone inside a very small number of minutes and recently moved to Sky Q from Plus by citing their deals for new sign ups. It was clear they were very prepared for this as they upgraded me for £20 installation and £3 off my existing bill per month.

Hmm… I was on the original VIP programme from the late 90s… that’s I believe discontinued now, or at least I am no longer an employee of theirs so I am no longer part of it, and their records did catch up with that eventually :kissing:. The ‘VIP’ is now a customer loyalty programme, ie a marketing name. Apparently I am now a Diamond Member VIP whatever that means.
But yes of course they are prepared and carefully plan and design all the customer retention packages, the aim is to keep customers signing up for new commitments to reduce churn.

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Yes, I’m a Diamond VIP too. The phone response time is very helpful. The offers are of little interest but the savings on data only mobile desks are tempting and the ability to negotiate them downwards rapidly is very helpful.

Although what I am about to write is about car insurance, it’s basically exactly the same issue. I had insurance from BMW for several years and no claims. One renewal quote was for about 20% more than before. I argued, but they were adamant. I easily found (and bought) cover from an online provider for about half the price quoted by BMW. The BMW agent told me that a lot of people were doing the same as me and that she would herself in my position. A year later I checked with BMW again and their quote was miraculously competitive again, as it was this year too.

So they learned no doubt the hard way that you can’t just sweat existing customers and expect to get away with it. Some of the telecom providers need the same lesson.

Best

David

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Something similar here.

When my Sky contract was up for renewal I got BT Sports and Netflix added to my existing Sky Q package free of charge with a reduction of £20 per month thrown in along with a free broadband upgrade from 35 to 75 Mbps.

Additionally, I was able to swap my mobile contract from Vodafone to Sky (i.e O2 network) and now have an unlimited calls (both mobile and land line) and texts contract for £5 per month.

It’s perhaps not what we are used to, but you really have to do some research and ask for what you believe you are entitled to. Exactly the same applies to home energy and car insurance. You very rarely get what you want (or what you deserve) without asking.

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Cheers Steve, seems to be the way of the world these days, similar to banking where you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball and keep switching accounts and moving money around often just to get a few crumbs off the table
:grin:

Reduced my energy bill by 50% in the past year by doing exactly that. Reduced my home insurance by around 90%.

Incidentally I had reason to ring Sky yesterday. The auto responder told me people were currently waiting more than an hour. As a VIP I was then connected inside 60 seconds.

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Just thought I’d add that my broadband was slower than the minimum. I’d been on a discount and then completely neglected it due to lockdown.

Last week, after this thread incidentally, I got in touch and they sent a BT Openreach chap who’s now sorted it out. I’m now reading 55MB/s so am a happy chappie :joy:

Hope the change works out for you.

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Interesting development. Just had a call from Virgins “Loyalty Dept” getting very Pythonesque.
Nice chap (this time) asking why we had cancelled, what we wasnt happy with etc. Told him too late the ships sailed and we’ve signed up with Vodafone. At which point he offered us our pre existing package at an almost want to rip he’s hand off price.
Very good, I replied, but if you are offering to put me back on the same package then does that mean my still paying for a Broadband speed you cant deliver. He offered to send an “engineer tomorrow to sort it out” no that’s not convenient it will have to be Saturday I insisted and that’s been agreed. So I’m still due to switch but have said I will consider the offer subject to the broadband being sorted on Saturday.
Very obliging so far, I should have asked them to come and bleed the brakes on my cab as well! :joy:

Oh! And just bagged 4months of Tidal for £1.99, very handy as my free trial to Qobuz expired yesterday.
Happy days! :joy:

I’m not letting virgin off the hook but the BT chap advised that home sockets often aren’t fitted properly. In my case the useless builders didn’t connect the master socket correctly (like a load of other stuff round the house!) so has been restricting the speed from day one.

It will be interesting to see what the ‘engineer’ will do…

No sockets here. The cable comes straight through a hole near window frame into a splitter device, one goes to Hub one to Tivo

I did ask the Virgin chap if there was any possibility that my speed was being throttled back/limited he claimed to not know what that meant.
Yes, will see what “engineer” does

Yes I think this so called throttling concept is an urban myth. It doesn’t really mean anything.
An ISP will have your access shaped for the bandwidth you are paying for along with physical conditions like length of line… but that is about it

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