MSE News: Virgin Media to hike prices

visidigi

nicol1978 wrote: »

I phoned them and they said yes i could cancel but id have to phone in the start of january to give my 30 days notice which would take me up to when the price increase is set to start.
I dont know if this has anything to do with me only taking out the contract in august, i dont think so as plenty of other people on this site have the same.

rubbish!

Thats them trying to trick you, if you don't notify them within 30 days then you cannot cancel

call them back and cancel immediately. They want you to wait till January so that you potentially can't cancel.

latecomer

I phoned up and cancelled last night - I was told I couldn't cancel my phone if I wanted to keep the number, it had to be done by the company taking over the number - seemed fair enough so just said cancel the lot. No attempt made to keep me but it was 7:50pm and they close at 8pm so perhaps that might explain it.

Will wait and see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

c_smith

I phoned up to query the rise and whether it would apply to me as I signed a new contract in August. I was told that it would, but the guy I spoke to said he would apply a credit to my account to cover the full amount of the increase until the end of my contract.

I think that was very fair and I'm happy with that. From what I've been reading here, it seems that it's pot luck depending on who you get to speak to when you phone. I didn't even need to threaten to cancel, it was all sorted out in a friendly conversation.

peter999

c_smith wrote: »

I phoned up to query the rise and whether it would apply to me as I signed a new contract in August. I was told that it would, but the guy I spoke to said he would apply a credit to my account to cover the full amount of the increase until the end of my contract.

I think that was very fair and I'm happy with that. From what I've been reading here, it seems that it's pot luck depending on who you get to speak to when you phone. I didn't even need to threaten to cancel, it was all sorted out in a friendly conversation.

The rise has been postponed till end of contract.

Virgin Media can afford to wait.

c_smith

peter999 wrote: »

The rise has been postponed till end of contract.

Virgin Media can afford to wait.

Once I'm out of contract I'll phone them up to see what deals they have on then, but until then I'm still paying the price we agreed I would pay over the 12 months contract term. Don't think you can ask for fairer than that.

Only thing I'm thinking about now is prepaying the line rental for a year to save a bit more money, but that will take my contract out of sync with the annual line rental prepayment and it might not be as easy to negotiate a better deal in the future. Decisions, decisions ......... .......

nick.steve

Hi All,

First time poster so please feel free to let me know if I am posting in the wrong place or not giving enough information.

Have been a customer with Virgin Media for many years. Apparently Virgin Media sent out a notification by post in December saying they were going to increase their prices starting Feb 1st 2013, however I did not receive this notification.

The first I knew of it was when I got the bill for February (arrived yesterday). I have rang Virgin and spoke to retentions who said as I did not give notice within 30 days of their notification to increase their prices that I would have to pay a disconnection fee.

However as previously stated I did not receive this notification letter. The next available opportunity for me to have been notified about the price increase would be the first bill since the price increase (arrived yesterday).

Does that mean that because the letter was lost in the post, or that Virgin did not send it out in the first place that I cannot cancel without paying c.£127.00??

All help and comments are much appreciated!

Nick

vivtse

nick.steve wrote: »

Hi All,

First time poster so please feel free to let me know if I am posting in the wrong place or not giving enough information.

Have been a customer with Virgin Media for many years. Apparently Virgin Media sent out a notification by post in December saying they were going to increase their prices starting Feb 1st 2013, however I did not receive this notification.

The first I knew of it was when I got the bill for February (arrived yesterday). I have rang Virgin and spoke to retentions who said as I did not give notice within 30 days of their notification to increase their prices that I would have to pay a disconnection fee.

However as previously stated I did not receive this notification letter. The next available opportunity for me to have been notified about the price increase would be the first bill since the price increase (arrived yesterday).

Does that mean that because the letter was lost in the post, or that Virgin did not send it out in the first place that I cannot cancel without paying c.£127.00??

All help and comments are much appreciated!

Nick

I have the same problem. Have phoned VM CS 3 times today, and each time to a different person, even with T&C's in hand (Clause J3(a)) which quite clearly states I can cancel without penalty within 30 days of bill increase or notification. They keep saying that is it from bill increase or 30 days notice from their notification (which according to their computers was sent out in November) whichever is sooner (Although 'whichever is sooner' is not written in the T&C's) despite us never receiving said notification. They have refused to budge, despite it being in black and white.

I'd be interested to see what results other people get when they call VM, as I feel we are being punished for rubbish postal services! They cannot guarantee post arrives if not sent recorded delivery. How is 'well, we sent the notification' the same as notification received????

So I would also appreciate anyone else's experience!

susan47

I've had Virgin broadband for many years plus a phone line. I got the letter saying prices were going up, but put it to the side and decided to wait till I got the increased bill before doing anything. I got the bill today. So previously I was paying £25.90 for the 20MB broadband and the M phoneline, and it went up to £28.14. Hardly worth bothering about, but I don't use the phone line anyway as I already have a BT line, and it just annoyed me. So I decided to call and cancel my phone line and ask what the saving would be. I got through to an Indian chap I couldn't understand, who then passed me on to customer relations. An English guy who said I should just come to customer relations with this sort of query anyway. They have such a complicated system of loyalty discounts and such like - but the guy told me that basically, he could give me a discount which would mean that I would be paying the same whether I kept the phone line or not - £23.14 a month. So my bills are going down by nearly £3 instead of going up by nearly £3. He told me that the discount would last for 24 months and then I could do it again. They just want to keep customers. He did try to get me on to a bigger broadband and suggested tv too, but I said no thanks, happy with my Sky, happy with the broadband and he just accepted it, so no hard sell at all. Very pleased I made the call (and it was free cos I looked it up on the avoid 0870 website!), and now I'm saving £3 a month instead of spending an extra £3 a month. But for anybody else out there in the same situation, just go to customer relations and threaten to leave, they really don't want you to go. I've been very happy with my Virgin service, but I wouldn't take their tv, I like my Sky too much.

Spankey

PanamaJack wrote: »

Re: Virgin Airlines
Used to be one of the cheapest long haul companies around. I was one of Branson's greatest fans, until he and his empire started to get greedy. Now, rather than his flights being at the top of the list when you do a search for flights, his are at the bottom, KLM, Continental, AA., are way cheaper.

Virgin Broadband
It went down the pan when Virgin bought NTL. The sales support is brilliant, but when you complain as to why your broadband service has gone up from £10 per month to £20 per month, they say this, "If you don't like it Mr. R*****, then I will cancel you account now. I left it only to discover 6 months down the line the the price had gone up to £22.50 per month. I called them and was told, " Prices will be going up just over 10% per year, do you want me to cancel your account?"

I have now had enough of this greedy empire and its greedy profiteering owners! Many friends of mine are absolutely disgusted with this company and many have left. The only thing I am grateful for is that Virgin continue to still send me loads of junk mail for all their services (which I requested), why? Because each envelope goes straight into the recycle bin and ups my points with the local council so that I can get discounts off shopping and the Plusnet internet service. So a message for Virgin," No thanks, I don't want your services anymore, and thanks for the junk mail".

So true, i was one of first to fly New York to Uk on virgin atlantic and it was truly excellent flight and service so years later when i wanted to book a Florida 2 week holiday then Virgin was my first port of call.
I was quoted £5600 for a family of 4 and this was for a hotel in Orlando not in disney itself. I shopped around and got the same standard hotel on the same road in Orlando for £1860.
Last year i wanted to go up north to visit family and was quoted £285 per person booked 2 months in advance on the virgin trains, this would have cost about £1140 for 4 of us.
I flew instead costing about £44 per person.
Virgin are now a total rip off and i consider them anti customer friendly and they have 0 value for money for me now.
When i think of how proud i was to be one of the first on virgin and how madly i promoted theyre flights to friends and family i now feel totally betrayed by branson.

Uther

vivtse wrote: »

I'd be interested to see what results other people get when they call VM, as I feel we are being punished for rubbish postal services! They cannot guarantee post arrives if not sent recorded delivery. How is 'well, we sent the notification' the same as notification received????

So I would also appreciate anyone else's experience!

I have the same experience, the first I knew of the price increase was when I got the February bill. I discovered they had sent notification via email, but they had sent it to the viginmedia email address that is created when you sign up to virgin, but I have never used that email because I prefer to use internet based email.
Also on the phone they would not budge.

I do not want to stay with this bunch of cowboys and have sent a formal complaint. If I get no joy I will go to http://www.cisas.org.uk to arbitrate.