you might be stuck Sproooty, change your package and they can tie you in again  have a look see if there is a cooling off period, most contracts have a 7 day cooling off period.

I think you're only tied for a year even if you change packages but I might be wrong. I'd suggest looking at what's in that XL package. Most of it is utter pap.

Yeah thanks Dame, he did mention a cooling off period and I'd be getting paperwork in the post. I haven't had any yet though 

Yeah, that's what I mean Prom. I only need a few channels.    If I say to them cancel the lot...could I? and then go to Sky, or would it cost?

Pam if it is a new contract - tell Virgin you have had a better offer from Sky & see what Virgin offer you - in my experience they will try to match it !

I switched to Sky cos I thought I'd get a better deal, I'm now paying about £110 a month :blink: For that I get phone, net, HD and Sky+ boxes and all the channels (including sports and movies). The problem with these packages is if you try to take off the channels you never watch it only reduces it by a fiver or so a month, their tv packages are very cleverly done. Swines. I've just got a new tele with Freeview built in, so I'm gonna have a look at it again. I wanna keep the movies though, not bothered about the sports.

I rang Virgin the other night for the same reason - they advised me to ring back to speak to their cancellation folks and to tell them I was thinking of going to another provider , so I did - they've chopped my TV package a bit and given me a discount too, working out about £25 a month less - worth another call to them sprout!

Karma my tele has freeview built in - that's enuff crap for me

Look out for a company called 'Nova' as apparently they will soon be matching SKY at a fraction of the cost

If you only need a few channels there's probably no need to move to Sky. You can change your package at any time. Just get the basic package it's quite cheap. We got rid of XL because we never watch anything on it. We've kept Sky sports and Sky sports HD. When we changed the package the girl from Virgin listed the channels we lose and I swear to God we've never watched a single one of them.

I can't see the original post but IME if you tell Virgin that A friend of yours was offered a free box to stay with Virgin then they will give you one, as it were. As with mobiles it's a competitive negotiated world out there.

Bugger all on freeview these days only repeats and old films. Does anyone know how many chanels are on Freesat?
To the OP. The contracts run consec from year to year so when you sign up you are liable from the date you sign yearly. They never ask you if you are satisfied with what you have when they phone- just try to get you to sign up for more expense. They would sign you up to a HD contract even if you dont have a HD ready TV.

They do give a cooling off period ..

TBH there is owt on any of the packages that offers new stuff that you won't pay extra for!

I'm pretty sure that you have 7 days from when you get the letter Pam

Thanks everyone for your input, I've got my costs down from £84 a month to £46 but as I say I've had to drop the sports and BB. There are channels on my package that I could do without if I could have the sports back. I don't know whether to give Virgin a ring again or get my MAC code and tell them to cancel the whole thing as I could get a better deal elsewhere 

Thanks Muffy, I haven't had anything yet, but it should come in the next few days I would think

Ah! Yes! this is about cooling off periods then?

 
The only good thing about Sky is that after you drop them, you still have a better than freeview package, I think Virgin just cut you off completely don't they?

Ohhhh! *bookmarks*

Me too 

Right everyone, I have to go, but I'll check back in tomorrow  for any new replies.   Night all 

Virgin leave you with the terrestrial channels.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about fulfilling your contract with them, if there's only a small amount owing (like a month or so) they normally won't bother chasing you for it. If you find a better deal elsewhere and want to change then I'd go for it.

Tis a Bulgarian company - court happenings as we speak

Eeeek, there are some high prices flying around here.    We pay just £58 for our package.... including the phone with unlimited landline calls, (the actual quarterly charge for the phone is free as we have the tv and internet..)  and we also have all the channels (excluding movies and sports) and also the internet broadband.  (When we went with sky for a year or so because we fancied a change, it cost us over £100 a month too, as we didn't get free quarterly rent.  And the sky package was about £50.)  We are with Virgin too. 

Sprooty, I think there is a risk if you change your package that it does tie you into a 12 month contract again, they have you by the balls.     We had to go to another 12 month contract when we changed to V+ and had the V+ package..  But that was last August, so we are halfway into it already.  If/when you do change, ask them about paying I think it's £6 a month extra for unlimited landline calls.  I make a lot and speak to family and friends a lot, and one time last summer, our phone charges for a month was £44!  And they actually offered me the chance of unlimited landline calls for £6 a month.  (our package was £52 a month before...)  The call can only be up to 59 minutes though, so if you're yakking to your mom/mate/fella, hang up at say 55 mins and ring back again and it registers as a new call. 

Like I said, our bill is always £58 -  as if we make moby calls, we use the mobile

my mum only pays about 30 quid for anytime calls broadband & tele... 110 squid for tele ??????????

I know Clumsycat.  £110 a month for your cable package is ridiculous.  I don't know one single person who would pay that.  What a ridiculous price to pay.   There are so many good offers out there, that it beggars belief why anyone pays this.........

Cos the boy's got all the channels in his room too and since the VAT's gone up to 20% it's made a difference.

As I said though, I will be looking to reduce it!

Definitely Slinki!  
We were paying around £74 a month (unlimited calls package etc)  I phoned them last year and asked if they had a better deal and if not I might think of going to another provider 
They eventually came up with it. They didn`t chop anything though - they offered an extra TV XL (which we took for my son`s bedroom) and they reduced it to £49 a month.  
That`s unlimited UK calls, broadband (20mg) and 2 tv packages - excluding Sky Sports. It`s well worth it. 
Phone them Sprout. I think it depends on who you get though. If you don`t get the deal you want - phone back later to speak to another operator. That`s what I did. Good luck xxx

Thanks everyone.    I might try ringing again and see if they can do anything for me. I'd kinda like the sports back if I can and I don't know if being with them for a long time counts but I'll try that too. I was there from it being United Artists with the plain black box which then changed to Telewest and from there Virgin