Time to switch from virgin media, increasing price from 1st April

biscit

dreamypuma wrote: »

Hmmm... Two consecutive quaters of shrinkage to get into recession, but a single quater of minuscule artificially catalysed growth, and the masses are led to believe we are all good! Far from it.

Wait until the later on today. My money is on a double (deeper) dip. We're up !!!! creek, but Gordon Brown, will tell you otherwise.

You may be right about the recession not being quite over yet. However:

Businesses have costs to meet, they don't just decide to put up prices to screw the customers as some would claim.

Costs to businesses increase, even in a recession. In fact in a recession, the cost per person will go up as so many people decide not to pay for those extra premium channels that they never watch.

I can't believe I'm being forced to defend NTL T/A Virgin Media.

Look at the price rise, look at what you can get from the competition, and assess whether you actually use the service you're getting. If you can save money by stopping services you don't use, or signing up with someone else, do so.

Don't let your analysis be as simplistic as a knee-jerk "it's gone up, how dare they- not gonna stand for this, I'm leaving" as that is obnoixiously ignorant.

Cryptoprocta

First post after long time lurking, please be gentle with me!

We are M Broadband, XL TV users and also have a phone line. Virgin called us last week and said that we'd get a 9.99 discount from now on for being good customers! Sounds a bit suspicious, but there you go.

A few days later Sky knocked on the door and told us that all our neighbours were switching to Sky because Virgin were putting their prices up by £10/month.

They said they could save us money as the TV was cheaper and the broadband free, so I asked them to come back in a bit. When they did so, I had my laptop and previous bills all ready for them.

I listed all the Virgin charges and rebates in one column, and got him to list what the Sky charges would be.

For a start, the HD would cost £10/month, whereas we don't pay anything extra with the XL package. OK, Sky have more but Virgin are increasing their HD channels. The extra free channels you get with Sky are pretty poor anyway and not worth considering as a bonus.

We'd lose quite a lot of channels we have, due to Sky's package deals. Their On-demand is nowhere near as good either, from what I could see. They download a 'selection' of on-demand programmes to your box, whereas Virgin have the technology to make them available to you from HQ.

Finally, the free broadband is only 2Mb. It's an extra £5/month for the 10Mb we get with Virgin.

When I totted it all up, it was cheaper to stay with Virgin, unless we were charged £10/month more. And then, it would be the same but we'd have less channels and on demand.

As it turns out, the price increase is £2.50. So it really isn't worth it in our case. The poor guy was only 3 days into his job, so he wasn't able to really sell it to me. But I'd advise anyone who's unhappy with the price increase to get the Sky guys in, arm yourself with with the current facts and figures and see what they can do for you and if it's any cheaper.

dreamypuma

biscit wrote: »

Don't let your analysis be as simplistic as a knee-jerk "it's gone up, how dare they- not gonna stand for this, I'm leaving" as that is obnoixiously ignorant.

Have you miss quoted me? As in post ten I suggested that they either leave or switch packages. Obviously another option would be to negotiate. Either way I very rarely pay over the odds, and can't see how some can justify paying full price for VM's XXL service.

Who need 50mb broadband at home? Maybe it's just a !!!! extension?

biscit

dreamypuma wrote: »

Have you miss quoted me? As in post ten I suggested that they either leave or switch packages. Obviously another option would be to negotiate. Either way I very rarely pay over the odds, and can't see how some can justify paying full price for VM's XXL service.

Who need 50mb broadband at home? Maybe it's just a !!!! extension?

No, not misquoted you, but I didn't direct my post at you beyond the first line either! The line you quote is general advice, not taking direct issue with you. Apologies if the emphasis wasn't clear.

Cryptoprocta wrote: »

First post after long time lurking, please be gentle with me!

It was a very thoughtful and considered post- no need to be worried.

Apples2

dreamypuma wrote: »

Who need 50mb broadband at home? Maybe it's just a !!!! extension?

So I can download Debbie Does Dallas before she has even got off the plane!!

Your analogy was fairly close!! :cool:

dreamypuma

biscit wrote: »

No, not misquoted you, but I didn't direct my post at you beyond the first line either! The line you quote is general advice, not taking direct issue with you. Apologies if the emphasis wasn't clear.



It was a very thoughtful and considered post- no need to be worried.

Forum Friends! :beer:

Have they announced this quarters results? I am 99% sure there was supposed to be an announcement by close of business today.

dreamypuma

Apples2 wrote: »

So I can download Debbie Does Dallas before she has even got off the plane!!

Your analogy was fairly close!! :cool:

Ah Ha! Apples2, Ye know too much!

I have Size M 10mb at home with VM which surpasses all my requirements. I download music, films, TV shows etc, browse the web, email VOIP and play online using my PS3. Quite happy with the value.

I won't be subscribing to TV though. Just don't see the point of more than 10 good quality channels, don't have the time (too busy watching Debbie )

biscit

dreamypuma wrote: »

Forum Friends! :beer:

Have they announced this quarters results? I am 99% sure there was supposed to be an announcement by close of business today.

No idea, but on the large bandwidth- the only applications I can think of is a kind of video on demand at the same sort of quality as ordinary broadcast TV.

Unless it's for big-time gamers. That could use a lot of bandwidth.

My job is writing software for the sort of reciever boxes cable and satellite TV companies use. Typically I have a freeview box when I'm at home and am happy with my 4mb/s that I get on my ADSL line.