Any supplier not adding CPI + 3.5% to contracts?

Neil_Jones

Money_Grabber13579 said:

Sky are doing 18 month fixed price contracts.

https://www.sky.com/broadband

The thing that really annoys me is that for the providers which increase their prices part way through a contract (under the guise of costs increasing), they generally continue to market their products to new customers at the original price, making a mockery of the whole rationale for increasing prices in the first place.

Yeah because that's how mature industries work and pinch each other's customers - introductory deals in the hope that you stay for 18 months at the introductory rate and then decide (by accident or otherwise) to pay full price for a while, recouping the whole discount they offered you in the first place in the space of a few months.

Easy enough to deal with - get a new deal or get a new provider with a newer (ideally better) deal.

darrow_2

Neil_Jones said:

Easy enough to deal with - get a new deal or get a new provider with a newer (ideally better) deal.

That’s what I do every year but 1 year contracts are disappearing. I have a pile of old routers.

onomatopoeia99

A&A have never increased the price in the over 19 years I've been with them.  Sometimes I've changed service (e.g. from ADSL to FTTC) which has caused a price change, but once changed for the new service, the price has not varied year on year meaning I've been paying the same for my broadband since I moved from ADSL to FTTC several years ago.

However they are a proper ISP that doesn't do "deals" and publishes the price you will actually pay on their website, so not popular around here.

southsidergs

onomatopoeia99 said:

A&A have never increased the price in the over 19 years I've been with them.  Sometimes I've changed service (e.g. from ADSL to FTTC) which has caused a price change, but once changed for the new service, the price has not varied year on year meaning I've been paying the same for my broadband since I moved from ADSL to FTTC several years ago.

However they are a proper ISP that doesn't do "deals" and publishes the price you will actually pay on their website, so not popular around here.

It's not just they don't do "deals" it's fine if they work for you but 500GB of usage for £35/month is actually a rip off!

Neil_Jones

southsidergs said:

onomatopoeia99 said:

A&A have never increased the price in the over 19 years I've been with them.  Sometimes I've changed service (e.g. from ADSL to FTTC) which has caused a price change, but once changed for the new service, the price has not varied year on year meaning I've been paying the same for my broadband since I moved from ADSL to FTTC several years ago.

However they are a proper ISP that doesn't do "deals" and publishes the price you will actually pay on their website, so not popular around here.

It's not just they don't do "deals" it's fine if they work for you but 500GB of usage for £35/month is actually a rip off!

That's as may be but that's not the overarching point here.

The question was are there any providers that don't include a CPI+x% rise.  And the answer is yes.  The caveat is you pay more for that lack of inclusion of an automatic rise.

There is no such thing as a a free lunch - either you pay more from the outset or less with a baked in rise.  The budget end of the market has clearly decided that the cheaper headline rate with rises is the way to go.

JohnReese

darrow_2 said:

It looks like this is the latest attempt to squeeze more out of us. So far I have tried BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Shell Energy. They all add this huge increase to your “fixed price 😄” contract every March. The % added to CPI varies. TalkTalk add 3.7%. That’s currently an extra 13.6%. Is anyone still offering a genuine fixed price deal?

There are some yes from what I gather.

Gigaclear
Sky (very recently only)
A&A
Cuckoo
Zen

Cuckoo has 30 day and 12 month contracts and is highly ranked on the MSE Customer Service poll (number 1) along with Zen (number 2).

I agree with you and others that contracts should be fixed prices. For those companies that want to build the right to have a price increase, then the regulator should enshrine by law the consumer's right to state they will pay a price decrease ever year based on personal circumstances and see how if the company likes it! 

armith

I've been with Now Broadband for about 3 years now. They have a "we can increase prices" clause in their terms and conditions - but I've never had a price increase from them - and they're cheap to start with. They're a little odd in that you sign up for 12 months, after which they send you a letter asking you if you'd like contract for another 12 months - as a much higher price. But they also say you can continue on a month-by-month basis for the price you're currently paying. I've been on this out of contract rate for well over a year now and am still paying the same as I was when I started. If they do now go and put a 2, 20 or 200% price rise in I can simply leave before the price actually goes up.

southsidergs

Neil_Jones said:

southsidergs said:

onomatopoeia99 said:

A&A have never increased the price in the over 19 years I've been with them.  Sometimes I've changed service (e.g. from ADSL to FTTC) which has caused a price change, but once changed for the new service, the price has not varied year on year meaning I've been paying the same for my broadband since I moved from ADSL to FTTC several years ago.

However they are a proper ISP that doesn't do "deals" and publishes the price you will actually pay on their website, so not popular around here.

It's not just they don't do "deals" it's fine if they work for you but 500GB of usage for £35/month is actually a rip off!

That's as may be but that's not the overarching point here.

The question was are there any providers that don't include a CPI+x% rise.  And the answer is yes.  The caveat is you pay more for that lack of inclusion of an automatic rise.

There is no such thing as a a free lunch - either you pay more from the outset or less with a baked in rise.  The budget end of the market has clearly decided that the cheaper headline rate with rises is the way to go.

Yes & on a £25 contract you're still not going to be paying more than that £35 after 2 price increases!

Neil_Jones

southsidergs said:

Neil_Jones said:

southsidergs said:

onomatopoeia99 said:

A&A have never increased the price in the over 19 years I've been with them.  Sometimes I've changed service (e.g. from ADSL to FTTC) which has caused a price change, but once changed for the new service, the price has not varied year on year meaning I've been paying the same for my broadband since I moved from ADSL to FTTC several years ago.

However they are a proper ISP that doesn't do "deals" and publishes the price you will actually pay on their website, so not popular around here.

It's not just they don't do "deals" it's fine if they work for you but 500GB of usage for £35/month is actually a rip off!

That's as may be but that's not the overarching point here.

The question was are there any providers that don't include a CPI+x% rise.  And the answer is yes.  The caveat is you pay more for that lack of inclusion of an automatic rise.

There is no such thing as a a free lunch - either you pay more from the outset or less with a baked in rise.  The budget end of the market has clearly decided that the cheaper headline rate with rises is the way to go.

Yes & on a £25 contract you're still not going to be paying more than that £35 after 2 price increases!

Like I say, the point isn't the price itself, its the principle.

Yes £35 is a lot of money, but for the likes of A&A you get what you pay for.  I presume its better customer service and according to the website a real tenacious approach to fault fixing.

But people are obviously happy to pay it so they're clearly doing something right - everybody else at the cheap and cheerful bottom end of the market are just that - mass appeal with low prices and rises built in, and a large bunch of complaints to boot.

Of course haggling is available with the budget end of the market so you can often reset your price every new contract as it were, so on that basis the rises could be just temporarily.

darrow_2

armith said:

I've been with Now Broadband for about 3 years now. They have a "we can increase prices" clause in their terms and conditions - but I've never had a price increase from them - and they're cheap to start with. They're a little odd in that you sign up for 12 months, after which they send you a letter asking you if you'd like contract for another 12 months - as a much higher price. But they also say you can continue on a month-by-month basis for the price you're currently paying. I've been on this out of contract rate for well over a year now and am still paying the same as I was when I started. If they do now go and put a 2, 20 or 200% price rise in I can simply leave before the price actually goes up.

Now Broadband prices look good. I checked their T&Cs. 

“Prices may increase and services may vary, including during your minimum term.” The list of possible reasons to charge more includes “increases in the cost of running our business.” Inflation, particularly energy costs make this a certainty. I will be surprised if any new contracts, and your contract, stay as they are now for 12 months.