MSE News: Virgin Media customers face 6.7% price hike

Rtype

I've been with VM for around 2 years and have just renewed my contract.

I got an e-mail yesterday telling me that my monthly charge would be going up by £3.99 in Feb despite only renewing my contract less than 2 weeks ago!

Surely if you sign a contract, that contract should be honoured!!

I know it's only £3.99 but it's the principal, this has really annoyed me!

I have 30 days in which I can cancel and I am seriously considering doing this, has anybody spoken to VM customer services and had any joy with them??

dildeep

Give your 30 day notice. Outbound retentions should have a good deal for you.

kwikbreaks

I had exactly the same sort of thing happen -
price increase
phoned to moan
got a good deal (less than it was before the increase)
got notice of another increase a month or so later.

I phoned and confirmed I could leave without penalty. They just said yes so I ordered Fibre from Plusnet.

When I phoned to cancel it was a farce. The rep insisted their price increase notification was an error so I'd have to pay early termination. Spoke to manager and he said the same. Asked for his manager who apparently wasn't available. eMailed CEO office. Got a callback within the hour apologising. They also waived the 30 day notice which was rather nice.

VM run their business like a car boot stall and you have to call them all the time to haggle. You get a good deal then read on a forum where somebody got an even better one. I just got fed up with it. There is no way I would ever return. Well I might if it was free...

visidigi

kwikbreaks wrote: »

I had exactly the same sort of thing happen -
price increase
phoned to moan
got a good deal (less than it was before the increase)
got notice of another increase a month or so later.

I phoned and confirmed I could leave without penalty. They just said yes so I ordered Fibre from Plusnet.

When I phoned to cancel it was a farce. The rep insisted their price increase notification was an error so I'd have to pay early termination. Spoke to manager and he said the same. Asked for his manager who apparently wasn't available. eMailed CEO office. Got a callback within the hour apologising. They also waived the 30 day notice which was rather nice.

VM run their business like a car boot stall and you have to call them all the time to haggle. You get a good deal then read on a forum where somebody got an even better one. I just got fed up with it. There is no way I would ever return. Well I might if it was free...

I'd rather a car boot than a shambles

All providers have thier good and bad points, with VM if you are willing to put in a bit of effort and you are in a low subscription area they simply cannot be beaten...

Chrisblue1962

Hi, like many folks, I received a letter from Virgin Media today stating that "We wanted to let you know that from 1st February 2015, the price you pay for your Virgin Media services will be going up by £3.84 a month"

What I find annoying is the total lack of clarity in this announcement. Does this relate to line rental costs? TV package costs? Broadband service costs? All three?

I've always found Virgin Media guilty of "burying" information about call charges in obscure parts of their website and even then spread the information over two separate documents to make calculating costs for comparison difficult to say the least.

I like VM broadband for its speed so may keep standalone VM broadband and get separate phone line - despite me and OH both having mobiles, OH insists on keeping landline .

Thoughts anyone?

prowla

My current Virgin connection is £31.74 per month.
I've just had a letter saying they're increasing it by £3.84.
That's a bit steep!

kwikbreaks

Call in and complain. If you speak with retentions the chances are you'll get a cut instead of an increase. VM prices should be considered a start point for negotiations. If you don't come to a deal that suits you leave.

prowla

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Call in and complain. If you speak with retentions the chances are you'll get a cut instead of an increase. VM prices should be considered a start point for negotiations. If you don't come to a deal that suits you leave.

Yep - that's my plan...

Actually, I'm currently on a £6 discount anyway; I've got a phone line but have never used it - I asked them to disconnect it and they gave me a discount so that phone+BB is cheaper than BB alone.

My other option is, if they are hiking up speeds (mine is slated to go from 60 to 100 Mb real soon now), I could drop back to a lower service.

clunky1965

A word of warning for anybody who has paid upfront via the line rental saver deal. We paid a lump sum upfront and now pay £5.50 a month for our internet and phone, this now going up to £9.14 a month following the recent rises from 1st February 2015. This works out a percentage rise of nearly 65%, when i enquired about this and possible early cancelation i was told that i can cancel but i would not be entitled to any refund of the unused upfront payment. Would anyone know if this is right? because if you cancel you will lose money that you have paid upfront.

Peco141

I got a "mates rate" back in June for the big Kahoona bundle or equivalent (forget the actual name of the bundle) and I'm certain I was told that the 18 month contract would not be subject to any price increases. This was the reason I left Sky for Virgin. I have the full XL package for £50.99 p/m.

Came home to the news today that my £4.50 a month!!

Not sure where I stand as I'm bound to an 18 month contract of which I've only served 6 months.