Another Virgin Media price hike

jamesbrownontheroad

Just posting to see if other MSE users are receiving these tedious little price hikes. We've been with Virgin less than a year, and have now had two price rises.

In November 2013 we got a letter that explained...

We wanted to let you know that from 1st February 2014, the price of your Virgin Media service will go up by £2.00 a month. It's never nice when your bill goes up, but it means we can keep making all the things you enjoy about Virgin Media event better.

Now in August 2014, we get an email saying...

We wanted to let you know that from 1st October 2014, the price of your Virgin Broadband will go up by £1.50 a month. Whilst a price rise is never good news, we are committed to continually delivering an award-winning broadband service that’s the fastest widely available in the UK.

Dejà vu? Anyone else getting these? We're 11 months into an 18 month contract a "30MB" (not that we ever see that) broadband package in NR3.

nardeeno

i got it too.gonna ring to give my notice and mention plusnet deal which works out 15.49 a month for first 12 months with line saver.

jamesbrownontheroad

Update: Had a little call to Customer Relations. First agent useless, claimed that there were no more more price rises scheduled for this year. Second agent clearly in retentions (although did not introduce himself as such). Immediately offered £15/m for remainder of the contract and a new wireless hub.

Phone up folks and put your foot down. The email includes the wording (my emphasis):

We hope you keep enjoying the great value you get from Virgin Broadband, but should you wish to, you can cancel or change your contract – just call our team by the end of September on 150, free from your Virgin Media phone or mobile, or on 0345 454 1111* from any other phone.

...so call up and tell them you want to cancel your contract. Either get a better deal or walk away with no early termination fee.

kwikbreaks

I got so fed up with them playing silly sods with price increases followed by me calling in and getting a reduction instead of the increase only to get another price increase notification a couple of months later that I left despite the price actually being lower than the Plusnet fibre I moved to.

teddysmum

I believe that all the internet/tv/phone companies have at least one annual price increase. Sky have announced their tv one for September and I expect a phone one in November, as the last rise was just after I joined them in October.


Their T&Cs allow for this.

Kev27

I'm currently paying £19 a month for 30mb fibre optic with Virginmedia and got the letter earlier that it will be going up by £1.50 on 1st October, so i am going to call them and say im leaving in the hope of getting a better deal off them as I am happy with them really. Does anyone know who the best deal is currently with so i can hit retentions with it in the hope of getting a cheaper deal. Thanks

kwikbreaks

teddysmum wrote: »

I believe that all the internet/tv/phone companies have at least one annual price increase.

It was their third increase in about 9 months iirc that finially broke my will to survive. None of those increases were huge in cash terms but they were quite high % wise compared to inflation. In fact after the first two followed by negotiations I think I was actually paying less than I started out on. Despite that I still heard of deals that were cheaper than I was paying.

What I objected to most was the completely arbitrary pricing and the absolute necessity to call in and renegotiate to get anything like a fair price. We still see the odd post here from somebody still on 10Mbps + phone + TV paying about £50 a month because they've never called in to negotiate on those tiddly increases over the years.

The whole business model seems to be based on a dodgy car boot stall with charging based on what they can get away with rather than a decent honest price for all. They are complete gits.

Oh yes and while I'm in Victor Meldrew mode they aren't very reliable either. In best part of 10 years on ADSL I had no outages at all. In 3 years on cable I had numerous short term ones of minutes to a couple of hours. Yesterday my son's was down from earlyafternoon to late evening. He works from home and couldn't. Having no internet was so bad he even resorted to mowing his lawn.

roddydogs

My TV package has gone up, they blame SKY which has increased £2 PM.

Kev27

Just rang Virgin to cancel in the hope of a better deal, told them i was moving to TalkTalk as their Price hikes take the P***.

They offered me

30 Meg Broadband for £15 a month on a 12 month Contract with the first month free and it will remain at £15 for 6 months after the contract is up.

That will do me.

Kev

nardeeno

just got call from retentions.was offered 16.50/month 50mb bb only.took it.might try call again and aim for 15 pm