Virgin putting prices up

flimsier

They've been crap since we got them, but this really annoys me, even though it only costs £1.75 extra a month. We only got the contract in January!

Complaints
Virgin Media National,
PO Box 622,
SWANSEA,
SA1 9GW

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Reference account number: xxxxxxxxx

I’m frankly disgusted that I received a letter today (incidentally dated February) that outlines proposed increases in the amount you are to charge for my services.

I only started the contract with you in January; like many others I took advantage of your half price offer. You have in turn taken advantage of us by now increasing the bill. Not only are those services no longer half price, but you lured me into a long contract with cheap deals, and as soon as the cancellation period ends, you have increased the price.

As I said to you when I took out the contract, I can handle paying a little bit more for my services (incidentally there are very very few TV services that I can’t get on freeview or via my Sky set top box for free) if I receive a good service and am not treated like an idiot. In this financial climate, to be increasing your charges is unacceptable.

Of course, I have a long time to run with Virgin, and I am in the fortunate position that I can afford this. In fact, I am an avid baseball fan and would be upgrading to ESPN for the baseball season (that starts at the beginning of April). I will no longer be doing that, and would prefer to spend my money by subscribing to MLB.tv. I am indeed tempted to pay the one off cancellation fee of £180, though I suspect you won’t care.

I just phoned your customer services advisor who claimed that “no-one at Virgin knew this was coming in January”. I fail to believe that Virgin Media did not have a long term pricing strategy, and I am offended that your customer services representative thinks I am an idiot. Given the fact that you will have had a pricing strategy, and given your promotion of 6 months half price deals, I can only conclude that you wilfully misled me in your promotion. Though I can see few things you did against the letter of the contract, you have certainly broken the spirit of it; something I hope OFCOM take into account.

In fact your customer services advisor gave the impression he simply did not care about the aggravation. He might want to be taught how not to sound quite so delighted that it would cost me so much to cancel my contract.

I will post this letter on the moneysavingexpert forums, of which I am an established member. It is commonly held that a customer will tell six to seven people regarding bad service. I promise you that in this case it will be so much more.

Yours faithfully



Flimsier

flimsier

Before I get the usual, I know it's a small amount. I know that the contract says they can vary the price, etc etc etc

nurka1

If they increase their price, you have 30 days to quit the contract with no penalty or cancellation fee.

I've done this myself.

flimsier

nurka1 wrote: »

If they increase their price, you have 30 days to quit the contract with no penalty or cancellation fee.

I've done this myself.

They didn't say this on the phone. They said £180 cancellation fee.