Virgin Media price hike woes

Artyboy1973

I renewed my contract with Virgin Media last year because I agreed to a suitable price plan through getting loyalty discounts and another discount which brought it to an affordable price for me. I was told that the loyalty discounts will end in 2024 when my current contract ends. Unfortunately, I received a letter from Virgin Media last week telling me that there will be a price rise in my bill in May.

I contacted Virgin Media to cancel my contract but I mentioned that I would stay if they could freeze the price rise or give me another discount so that when the price rise happens I am paying the same amount as I agreed to when I renewed the contract last year. Unfortunately, Virgin Media couldn’t give me a discount that I was happy with so they left it as it is. Virgin Media apparently mentioned to me that they cannot see the price rise on tne bill in May which is the month the price rise is included.

However, I received a mysterious email from Virgin Media thanking me for making adjustments to my bill and apparently I agreed to further discounts which isn’t true and got me worried. I phoned Virgin Media back wanting an explanation for the mysterious email and told them that I didn’t agree to any discounts. They told me that I did phone to make the agreement but I told them that I never and that I’m worried someone could be phoning pretending to be me but no one has my account details except for me.

The_Unready

"I’m worried someone could be phoning pretending to be me but no one has my account details except".

I think the chances of that are slim - you need to forget about that and concentrate on negotiating with Virgin for a mutually agreeable outcome.

Artyboy1973

The_Unready said:

"I’m worried someone could be phoning pretending to be me but no one has my account details except".

I think the chances of that are slim - you need to forget about that and concentrate on negotiating with Virgin for a mutually agreeable outcome.

I’ve tried negotiating with them and getting nowhere. I have an anxiety disorder and this experience is making it worse. I have tried to be polite and calm with them but still getting nowhere. All I’m wanting is for them to freeze the price hike until my loyalty discounts have ended but they cannot do it. Apparently, they told me they cannot see the price rise on the bill in May which is intriguing.

jw7a28

Hiya if you have a look on the virgin media forum help pages, manage my cable account there's loads of posts about customer advisers signing people up to contracts they didn't agree to. It's a right eye opener. I was a virgin customer up until they wanted an extra £9 a month just for broadband I was on the m350 and have dropped to 50meg with voda phone I dont notice the difference. 

Ryan_Holden

You will have to conquer your anxiety in this case and call back.

The forum is full of people who received the standard rate raising letter, who have then run through and gotten the rate removed, myself included.

Artyboy1973

Ryan_Holden said:

You will have to conquer your anxiety in this case and call back.

The forum is full of people who received the standard rate raising letter, who have then run through and gotten the rate removed, myself included.

I’m totally baffled. I phoned Virgin Media back to tell them I’m leaving them because of the price rise and I had a complaint to make about the strange email I got recently from them telling me that I agreed to a discount but I didn’t agree to a discount and this was done without my agreement. However, this time I was told to disregard the email as they cannot see any discount made recently.

I then asked politely if they could freeze the price rise until next year but they told me they cannot do that but what they can do is give me a discount. They told me they would have to speak to the manager to see if they can give me a further discount so I’m paying the same amount I’m paying currently once the increase is applied.

This is driving me crazy.

daveyjp

Why is it driving you crazy if you are leaving?  As you are leaving you have a new provider lined up so let Virgin play their games with others and cancel with them.

fariefarie

You're not going mad and it's not fair what they've done - I had this happen to me with EE - I got a phone call about a SIM pay monthly for my son that I had been browsing on the internet. I said I would think about it but the agent signed me up anyway, because they get bonus or whatever (sign up targets or something) - I complained officially when I received the sim I didn't order and found out I was going to be charged for it. Unfortunately as I could prove that I hadn't called back, instead of apologising, they logged a SIFA against me meaning all credit checks had to be run past a human because its a fraud thing - the fraud was done by their own staff but I was penalised. There was nothing I could do to. This sounds like the same underhanded behaviour. 
Make an official complaint in writing and then contact ombudsman when they don't manage it properly (which they wont because tbf Virgin's customer service is the worst in UK!)

Ryan_Holden

Artyboy1973 said:

Ryan_Holden said:

You will have to conquer your anxiety in this case and call back.

The forum is full of people who received the standard rate raising letter, who have then run through and gotten the rate removed, myself included.

I’m totally baffled. I phoned Virgin Media back to tell them I’m leaving them because of the price rise and I had a complaint to make about the strange email I got recently from them telling me that I agreed to a discount but I didn’t agree to a discount and this was done without my agreement. However, this time I was told to disregard the email as they cannot see any discount made recently.

I then asked politely if they could freeze the price rise until next year but they told me they cannot do that but what they can do is give me a discount. They told me they would have to speak to the manager to see if they can give me a further discount so I’m paying the same amount I’m paying currently once the increase is applied.

This is driving me crazy.

You're not alone, it's a dumb and dishonest practice. What they will do, if you keep on at them, is apply the rise to your contract but then apply a discount that will negate the actual annual price it will rise by.

It's what they did for me.