Matthew Revell

Want to leave Virgin Media without queuing for hours? Here’s how:

1. Call BT on 0808 100 5152.
2. Ask to port your cable phone number to BT.
3. BT will contact Virgin Media for you.

BT’s sales line will be answered far quicker than the Virgin Media customer retentions number. Virgin Media may call you to ask if you’re sure you want to leave, at which point you can either haggle for a better deal or confirm your choice.

I plan to stay with Virgin Media, for a number of reasons:

• Excellent broadband: despite a couple of rough months, it’s back to the usual high quality service.
• Sky needs competition.
• They pay me: with combined discounts to retain my custom, my last two bills have been for negative amounts - they’re paying me to be a customer.
• Virgin Mobile deal: I pay ?10 a month and nothing else for any mobile or landline calls.

I stopped using their TV service at Christmas, when I bought an excellent twin tuner Freeview hard-disk recorder. I don’t use the landline phone for outgoing calls as it’s far too expensive, instead I use the Virgin Mobile deal.

So, I’d lose by leaving Virgin Media. I couldn’t really care less about Sky One; Lost bores me now and I’ll never need to see Ross Kemp on Gangs, or whatever.