Virgin Media price increases: How are they calculated..... and what does it mean for next year?

cammyloon

Hi all.  I've seen a number of posts from Virgin customers being informed that they're facing a price rise of over 20%.  I've been notified my bill is to rise by around 28%.  I've two questions.

First, how is Virgin calculating the increase?  I spoke to an agent this evening (not an enlightening experience).  She was unable to tell me how my increase had been set.  But I wonder if it's set as a lower percentage increase on the price I would have paid BEFORE discounts were included in my current contract.

Second, if that is how Virgin calculates its rises, this will become critical next year, when customers will no longer be allowed to end their contract early.  Say my contract with Virgin was originally for £100 pm, but I negotiated a lower rate of £60 pm with discounts.  If Virgin ups its prices by 10% next year, I want that to increase my £60 pm tariff by £6.  I don't want Virgin to impose a £10pm increase - by applying 10% to the £100pm figure.  Is this something Virgin customers should be getting clarification on from Virgin's agents?

SaverRate

It seems Virgin are rising pricing by differing amounts per customer so no idea how its calculated. 

Next year the rise is RPI + 3.9% so its more uniform against virtually every other broadband supplier. This increase should be on the price you pay after discounts according to the T&Cs ive seen.

Good luck getting clarification from agents on next years rise, they could hardly help me this year.

My advice to Virgin customers is if they agree a contract thats affected by next years price increase then get the price as low as possible. Even use next years non-cancellable price increase as an excuse that you want it lower. If normal retentions cant offer a good price cancel and speak to outbound retentions on  020 3743 6947

If they just discount your current contract that expires before next years price increase still get it down as much as you can but you know that when your current contract ends you need to negotiate as hard as you can to drive that price down as low as possible. 

nigreeves99

I pay £9 a month for my Virgin broadband. (Lots of haggling at last renewal).

 I had an e mail advising my contract will increase by another £7 from 1/5/23.

I rang outbound retentions to query how they had calculated my increase and was advised that the increase is based on the monthly charge before discount. In my case the monthly charge is £44 before discount so based on this a £7 increase is in line with the 13% being banded around.

Outbound retentions couldn’t help re reducing my increase so i was told to ring the general customer service number. I rang and selected the option to leave. I was immediately offered an automated message offering me £3.50 discount for 6 months.

i decided to accept this as my monthly charge is so low.

SaverRate

nigreeves99 said:

I pay £9 a month for my Virgin broadband. (Lots of haggling at last renewal).

 I had an e mail advising my contract will increase by another £7 from 1/5/23.

I rang outbound retentions to query how they had calculated my increase and was advised that the increase is based on the monthly charge before discount. In my case the monthly charge is £44 before discount so based on this a £7 increase is in line with the 13% being banded around.

Outbound retentions couldn’t help re reducing my increase so i was told to ring the general customer service number. I rang and selected the option to leave. I was immediately offered an automated message offering me £3.50 discount for 6 months.

i decided to accept this as my monthly charge is so low.

If you had spoken to an actual person I bet they would have discounted the package so there was no price increase. 

OrbitHeadache

I had the email as well;

"We're writing to tell you about some changes that'll affect your package price, our services, and the way our price rises will work from 2024 onwards. Please make sure you read this email carefully.

As you can probably imagine, with costs like energy bills rising fast, our running costs are increasing too. So to make sure we can keep giving you the quality of service you expect from us, the price of your package will go up by £7.00 a month from 1st May 2023."

When I ring Virgin I get an automated message offering me £3.50 discount, does anyone know will that mean my price will not go up from 1st May if I take the £3.50 discount?

OrbitHeadache

So further to my previous post.

I am currently paying £23pm for 100mb internet.

Price will go up to £30 1st May.

My contract ends in September.

I called retentions got straight through, said not happy about the price increase and straight away the guy said will give you £7 discount till 1st May l, at that time your price will go up by £7 which means will be paying £23pm again until September.

He stated to call back before end of contract to negotiate new contract.

Happy with this, seems rather easy to cancel the price rise  considering Virgin seem to be saying in the email they are encountering extra costs so need to put prices up 

SaverRate

OrbitHeadache said:

So further to my previous post.

I am currently paying £23pm for 100mb internet.

Price will go up to £30 1st May.

My contract ends in September.

I called retentions got straight through, said not happy about the price increase and straight away the guy said will give you £7 discount till 1st May l, at that time your price will go up by £7 which means will be paying £23pm again until September.

He stated to call back before end of contract to negotiate new contract.

Happy with this, seems rather easy to cancel the price rise  considering Virgin seem to be saying in the email they are encountering extra costs so need to put prices up 

They did this with me so at the moment I pay £29/month for M250 broadband, maxit TV, weekend calls 

OrbitHeadache

SaverRate said:

OrbitHeadache said:

So further to my previous post.

I am currently paying £23pm for 100mb internet.

Price will go up to £30 1st May.

My contract ends in September.

I called retentions got straight through, said not happy about the price increase and straight away the guy said will give you £7 discount till 1st May l, at that time your price will go up by £7 which means will be paying £23pm again until September.

He stated to call back before end of contract to negotiate new contract.

Happy with this, seems rather easy to cancel the price rise  considering Virgin seem to be saying in the email they are encountering extra costs so need to put prices up 

They did this with me so at the moment I pay £29/month for M250 broadband, maxit TV, weekend calls 

That's a really good deal.

I do find these prices changes so dramatic and annoying  because there emails always imply that prices MUST go up due to increased running costs.

Yet in reality if you call retentions they will cancel out the increase or put you on a new contract where the new price is not that dissimilar to the old price.

SaverRate

OrbitHeadache said:

SaverRate said:

OrbitHeadache said:

So further to my previous post.

I am currently paying £23pm for 100mb internet.

Price will go up to £30 1st May.

My contract ends in September.

I called retentions got straight through, said not happy about the price increase and straight away the guy said will give you £7 discount till 1st May l, at that time your price will go up by £7 which means will be paying £23pm again until September.

He stated to call back before end of contract to negotiate new contract.

Happy with this, seems rather easy to cancel the price rise  considering Virgin seem to be saying in the email they are encountering extra costs so need to put prices up 

They did this with me so at the moment I pay £29/month for M250 broadband, maxit TV, weekend calls 

That's a really good deal.

I do find these prices changes so dramatic and annoying  because there emails always imply that prices MUST go up due to increased running costs.

Yet in reality if you call retentions they will cancel out the increase or put you on a new contract where the new price is not that dissimilar to the old price.

It infuriates me that they put the price up every year and you have to call up and negotiate a deal. Why they cant just keep it the same price for the entire contract is beyond me.

Wire5375

So I get the letter yesterday and last bill was £91:50 on contract to 30 July 2023 (18months). Letter states my price will increase by £21.50 from 1st April 2023 which by my calculation is a 23.5% increase  which seems to ignore the promotional discounts which are supposed to be valid to end date. Is there a cosy industry cartel? By coincidence they are all moving to RPI plus 3.9% automatic increase which Ofcom should be challenging since RPI is not industry relevant and with plus 3.9% is surely an unfair contract term. I fought the last increase and got it reversed but I have come to dislike Virgin and the hassle of negotiating prices so will probably look to do something different in response to this enforced change.

SaverRate

What do you pay £91.50 for? If you let us know the package you have we can tell you if you can haggle the current monthly cost down aswell as getting the price increase wiped out.