MSE News: Virgin Media customers face 6.7% price hike

MarkBargain

In August I got a letter about a price rise so I phoned up and negotiated a price of £120 up front for a year plus £8.50-a-month.

Now, THREE MONTHS LATER, another £3-a-month increase!

I looked at my bills and they seem to be charging £14.99 a month line rental, which isn't what we agreed.

After two phone calls to Virgin Media this evening I think they have it sorted and apparently I face a £2 a month increase rather then £3 as I have prepaid line rental.

itsnothing

I'm really sorry if I sound dumb but hopefully someone can help.

I have medium tv package, phone, line and internet.

I've also had the email today:

Dear Mr W,
We wanted to let you know that from 1st February 2014, the price of your Virgin Media services will go up by £4.50 a month. Plus, any calls you make to UK landlines outside of your talk plan will increase by less than 1p per minute. It's never nice when your bill goes up, but it means we can keep making all the things you enjoy about Virgin Media even better.




Does this mean I am within my right to cancel all of my services although I've only had it from May this year?


Thanks in advance.

MarkBargain

itsnothing wrote: »

Does this mean I am within my right to cancel all of my services although I've only had it from May this year?


Thanks in advance.

Yes, that's how I read it. At the very least I would phone up and go through to the cancellations team to say you want to leave because of the price increase to see whether they will offer you any discounts.

Two increases in one year really annoys me, and it's the way they word it too.

"because you've opted for eBilling and Direct Debit, the good news is you already save over £80 a year. "

That's not 'news' though is it, as I've always paid by direct debit and nearly all customers do so we hardly 'save' do we?

kwikbreaks

What does it say about it in the letter? Normally they include a paragraph about right to cancel. If they don't then I think you are not yet covered by the upcoming Ofcom regulations that give you that right.

Regardless of whether or not you have any rights it's worth calling retentions (150 and select the "thinking of leaving" option) as I imagine that's a well above inflation increase which may give you the right to cancel anyway. They may offer a discount immediately if you point out it's above inflation and you consider you have the right to terminate the services.

===
Ah sorry - email not letter and I see the content from an earlier post. If I get one I'll complain that they should be notifying me in writing as well as about the increase As I haven't had one yet it may be that broadband only customers won't be getting it as I mentioned as possible in an earlier post.

itsnothing

Hi,

Ive just spoken to Virgin...

apparently after the e-mail is sent out a letter is posted as well.

When the letter is received you have 6 weeks to ring them up and cancel the services because of the price increase.


Will wait and see if I receive a letter!

MarkBargain

Note though that the line rental saver (£120 for a year) is only refundable in the first 7 days, so if your other services go up you'll lose your prepayment money if you leave.

weegie.geek

DJBenson wrote: »

Love the bit about multiple people streaming HD video - you're lucky if you can stream a YouTube video at peak times on VM.

In your area, perhaps. I get full speed at any time of the day. Streaming's absolutely fine.

It's well known that some of VM's areas have been left to rot, and are heavily oversubscribed, and some are decent. It's been a problem since it was NTL and Telewest.

kwikbreaks

It's also well known that those areas change and what are good areas today are not guaranteed to remain so.

One problem with cable is the low capacity local pipes - currently it's a maximum of 400Mbps down along with 36Mbps up serving several hundred customers. It only takes a torrent freak or two on high end tiers amongst them to discover the delights of a VPN to turn what is a good area into one that struggles.

powerful_Rogue

Quite annoyed at this price rise.

Renewed with VM roughly 3 weeks ago.

£120 upfront to cover line rental
£24 per month for 60MB Broadband, Freeview on Tivo and XL Telephone Package.

Received email yesterday saying our bill will be going up by £5.25 per month! Thats a 22% increase!!!!

Cant cancel otherwise we will lose the £120 we paid upfront for the line rental. Pretty pee'd off.

MarkBargain

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Quite annoyed at this price rise.

Renewed with VM roughly 3 weeks ago.

£120 upfront to cover line rental
£24 per month for 60MB Broadband, Freeview on Tivo and XL Telephone Package.

Received email yesterday saying our bill will be going up by £5.25 per month! Thats a 22% increase!!!!

Cant cancel otherwise we will lose the £120 we paid upfront for the line rental. Pretty pee'd off.

That's what I dislike, they agree to something then three weeks later renege on it.

I wonder what Ofcom would make of the refusal to refund the line rental saver in these circumstances?

Have you phoned Virgin to complain?

Couldn't you scrap the Freeview (just buy your own Freeview box connected to an aerial) and downgrade the XL telephone to M (use the cheap dial numbers on http://callchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/ukcallchecker/landline/daytime/virgin/easy )?