MSE News: Virgin Media customers face 6.7% price hike

ryan92

I guess it's not worth getting onto VM just now? I'm assuming I need to wait to I get the official price rise notification and not just going by what's being reported?

Jayden1980

you don't need to wait until you get the letter or email.

I've not had either, but just went onto chat on the virginmedia website to discuss my options. I'd imagine as I was offered this, anyone else would be too.

I was told that if I so wished I could completely disconnect giving 30 days notice, at no penalty.

However, they also stated that while our contract with them would see a price increase of £3, they would be happy to give me £3 off our total bill for the next 18 months, essentially avoiding the price rise if I stayed.

As it goes I've been looking to get out of our VM contract for a while as our financial situation has changed, so it works out nicely for us as an excuse to get out of it. But, well worth speaking to them as it looks like you can probably avoid the price increase if you tell them you want to leave

ryan92

Where abouts is this chat service? Can't find it anywhere

Jayden1980

at the bottom of the page click the "contact us" button. Not all the options will give you a chance to chat, but if you select... general enquiry..... my contract with virginmedia then click the "haven't found what you're looking for? contact us" on the right hand side, you should be given the option to open up chat. Probably easier to phone them, but I personally find it easier to state my case when I'm writing it down

ryan92

Got it thanks Currently on to them just now so will let you all know how I get on

ryan92

OK, so at the moment I pay £97 for ;

100 meg Broadband
TV XL with 4 boxes ( 2 additional boxes as per the Premiere pack providing 2 boxes)
Talk Weekends
Caller Display

I've been offered as an incentive to keep my services with them ;

Deal 1
60 meg Broadband
L TV with 4 TiVo boxes
Talk Weekends
Caller Display

£88.49

Deal 2

60 meg Broadband
M+ TV with 4 TiVo boxes
Talk Weekends
Caller Display

£80.20


I'm not too sure about Virgin's pricing ; kinda confuses me. Would you say these sounded good?

bonders99

You have to be careful with this outfit of cowboys. They are the Ryanair of the comms world. back in August I changed (downgraded) my service by removing the Asian Mela pack and wanted to increase my BB speed. So all went ok on the call and my new monthly total was given and I was ok with it.

Then I received an email stating the changes I made and the pricing of the new package. I looked at it closely and suddenly realised these jokers had billed me an extra £49.99 for installation of the BB. I promptly called and called them liars as they never mentioned it to me on the call and told them to forget the BB upgrade.

Makes my blood boil. This is the second time they lied to me, and since then whenever I have called them (twice for support) I tell them first up that as they record the call for "training and quality purposes", I will record the call as well for my own and their security purposes.

Absolute bunch of clowns they are.

Today I got the letter informing me of the price increase and it's gone up from £43.64 a month by an additional £4.25 or 9.74% not even 6.7% as they have been spouting.

Can't wait to get rid of these jokers as soon as BT come to our area with Fibre.

Mat_Lock

craig1477 wrote: »

OK, So after hearing this on the radio back from work, I then tweeted virgin and told them how disgusted I was with this considering they hiked my broadband up nearly a fiver in 12months (fiver isnt much but its the frequency increase) got the usual sorry you feel like that response. Then tweeted them again. Saying I`m paying nearly £35 for 60mb broadband on its own and then they wanted to increase it again in Feb, not really value for money is it? They then gave me a number to ring 08454541111 if anyone needs it.

This morning I rang said number and spent at least an hour telling them how dissatisfied that for all virgin has the most powerful BB by far I certainly wasn't going to continue to be a virgin media customer on the basis that SKY are offering current Virgin customers 25% off their 12 months of contract if they switched. So if you played your cards right and selected a sky package that's on offer you would get six months discount, applied the 25% off code you would also get £100 M&S voucher (It hasn't been confirmed if the 6 months cut price rental and 25% works though) Explaining all this to customers services and wanting to obtain a TV package from them I now have my current 60Mb BB with XL TV, phone and TiVo box, installation of £49 wavered (I complained again) all for around £65 (when Feb price increase happens) so in reality the £35 pound Im currently paying for BB only its cost me another £30 to get the box, XL package, landline and retained my BB speed. One word of caution to those thinking of dropping the Landline. I asked about this as everyone these days have mobile phones and this is the point of contact and for me a landline is an extra expense for something I would never use. Customer service told me that it is more expensive to build a package WITHOUT a landline that it is with. To get the package I have now secured without landline would have took it over the £70+ mark.

Were you in a contract or had you come to the end of your contract and paying the £35 a month.

I used to pay £33.75 a month for 60mb cable (no phone or TV) and when I said I was moving home and wanted to leave I negotiated a price of £13.75 for 60mb cable.

If you're in a fixed term contract I don't think you could have got out of it, however I was 11 months out of my original fixed term so had the power to negotiate.

Either way VM are taking the mick with their price changes. I only took out my new contract in August this year and by October they wanted to increase it by £2 so I just told them no way should I pay extra after just 2 months in to a new contract, they gave me more goodwill discount to cover the rise

I no doubt will have to pay the increase next year though. I just wish I could actually get 60mb, I rearely get above 40mb and if I do it still feels sluggish on YouTube etc.

Saetana

kwikbreaks wrote: »

You can usually trade a new minimum term for a discount.

I negotiated the broadband only customer increase for my 60Mbps from the then £26.75 (slightly down on new customer pricing thanks to an earlier negotiation) + a £1.50 increase down to £22.50 including the increase. Some did better still by also getting the newer Superhub as well.

VM published prices are only a guideline as they run their business like a car boot stall. If you don't call in at least every year to negotiate a new discount you end up paying over the odds. The price of the discount will be a new 12 month minimum term.

Same here - I was out of contract and signed again for £24 a month plus a free Superhub, its always worth trying to negotiate if you aren't locked into a contract and sometimes even when you are

ryan92

I tried negotiating with them again today and the best they could offer me was £80 with the lowest TV tier going up to £87 in February. A bit too expensive so I've gave them my 30 days notice.

A shame but ADSL will have to do