VirginMedia In-Contract Price Rise!

camsoft

Just got email from VM saying that my £80pm package which is only 3-4 months into an 18 month contract will go up in May by £21pm that's a 38% rise mid contract. 

How can they do this given I've got a contract and this rise is disproportionate at 

camsoft

Email from VM, package is £55pm and they want to put it up by £21pm 

victor2

Phone them and choose the "thinking of leaving" option. Ignore the automated offer of a credit for half of the increase and wait for a human. IME they will offer to remove the increase, but all future contracts will have it in their T&Cs

camsoft

Yeah will do that. Just to clarify I’m on the Ultimate Volt package so my VM component is £55 and O2 £25. It’s VM saying they want to put it up from £55 to £76pm mid contract. I just can’t work out how they have worked that out and how they can justify a 40% mid contract rise?

Detail_Merchant

camsoft said:

Yeah will do that. Just to clarify I’m on the Ultimate Volt package so my VM component is £55 and O2 £25. It’s VM saying they want to put it up from £55 to £76pm mid contract. I just can’t work out how they have worked that out and how they can justify a 40% mid contract rise?

Looking at https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/broadband-and-sim - it shows Ultimate Volt at £85 per month = £60 VM + £25 O2. But if you go into 'Plan details' it shows the VM price will be £136 from month 19 onwards.
So the standard Ultimate Volt deal includes a £76 discount. I guess you got an £81 discount from the £55 price you mention.
Your contract should show both your discounted, and, from a future date, your undiscounted price.
£21.50 is 15.8% of £136, which is still higher than the 13.8% average they are talking about, but I guess is how they calculated it.
I don't think this 'justifies' the price rise, but it sort of explains how they calculate it, based on their ridiculously high standard prices.

FreeBear

victor2 said:

Phone them and choose the "thinking of leaving" option. Ignore the automated offer of a credit for half of the increase and wait for a human. IME they will offer to remove the increase, but all future contracts will have it in their T&Cs

Or email them and make your feelings known. I did, and they reversed the increase and have assured me that the price will remain unchanged for the remainder of the fixed term contract.

I used ResolutionsTeam@virginmedia.co.uk - Always best to get any agreement in writing. They will then have a hard time reneging on the deal.

camsoft

FreeBear said:

victor2 said:

Phone them and choose the "thinking of leaving" option. Ignore the automated offer of a credit for half of the increase and wait for a human. IME they will offer to remove the increase, but all future contracts will have it in their T&Cs

Or email them and make your feelings known. I did, and they reversed the increase and have assured me that the price will remain unchanged for the remainder of the fixed term contract.

I used ResolutionsTeam@virginmedia.co.uk - Always best to get any agreement in writing. They will then have a hard time reneging on the deal.

I emailed them as you suggested and got a "boiler plate" response attempting to justify the price rises without directly addressing my price rise or answering any of the questions I put to them. 

We’re sorry to hear you’re not happy with our upcoming price increase. 
As a business we’re faced with rising costs too, which in this case are mainly down to rising inflation. These increased costs, and our customers’ growing demand for data, mean we have to review our prices from time to time. 
We do our best to balance keeping our prices competitive with the need to continue investing in more of what our customers need and love. From streaming and gaming to working and studying at home, our customers are doing more online than ever. 
We invested more than £2 billion in our networks last year to upgrade, expand and improve our services – and we won’t stop there. We’ll continue to invest, improving network performance and reliability to make sure our broadband stays the fastest widely available in the UK. 
It’s important to us that vulnerable customers, including those on our Essential Broadband packages who receive Universal Credit, as well as Talk Protected home phone customers won’t see their prices change. We’ve set out a package of support in recent months to help those struggling most with rising prices. For more info, visit www.virginmedia.com/broadband/low-income-families 
If you wish to do any changes to your account, we request you to contact our customer service team on the below mentioned number. You can also visit our website at https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-changing-your-services for further assistance. You can also manage your account, schedule a technician, and view your bills online, including a breakdown of any call usage on your account, we recommend registering or signing into your My Virgin Media account at virginmedia.com/myvirginmedia. 
We hope you’ll carry on enjoying your services with us. But, if you want to, you can change or cancel your package without paying any early cancellation fees within 30 days of receiving the price increase communication by getting back in touch with us.

Here's what we offer as a resolution:
My Contract/package (2023) ->Extra info provided on Price Rise 2023

We hope this works for you.

FreeBear

camsoft said:

FreeBear said:

victor2 said:

Phone them and choose the "thinking of leaving" option. Ignore the automated offer of a credit for half of the increase and wait for a human. IME they will offer to remove the increase, but all future contracts will have it in their T&Cs

Or email them and make your feelings known. I did, and they reversed the increase and have assured me that the price will remain unchanged for the remainder of the fixed term contract.

I used ResolutionsTeam@virginmedia.co.uk - Always best to get any agreement in writing. They will then have a hard time reneging on the deal.

I emailed them as you suggested and got a "boiler plate" response attempting to justify the price rises without directly addressing my price rise or answering any of the questions I put to them.

Perhaps they are getting annoyed at receiving a whole raft of similar emails after I posted their email address....

I'd respond with "the proposed resolution fails to address the complaint" and then go on to give notice to terminate the contract (once you have another provider lined up).

camsoft

Yeah that’s what I’ve done.  The email is pretty ambiguous and there is discussion on Twitter to suggest people who have discounts are unaffected but the email is really unclear and says that the price rise starts in May 2023, so if it is wrong this is a massive PR !!!!!! up.