Anyone started a new Virgin Media contract recently?

VoucherMan

As I'm almost out of contract, I'm curious about how they now price the contracts.

Currently my contract shows an extortionate headline price, with multiple discounts applied to it, so when the 13.8% increase came along, rather than my bill going up £1.38 from £10 to £11.38, they wanted to add £13.80 to the headline price of £100 (made up prices for simplicity), before re-applying the discounts.

Now I'm looking for a new deal and their prices look simple enough:

£18.00* a month

*Monthly price shown will increase each year from April 2024 by the Retail Price Index rate of inflation announced in February plus 3.9%.

I'm happy if those are the genuine terms, but I'm still expecting to get a contract listing a £100 price with £82 monthly discount, which will allow them an OTT price increase next year, with nothing I can do about it.

I know I could just cancel the new contract, but it would be interesting to know how they word it, so I'm prepared for negotiations.

born_again

Just had notification that my 18 month contract ended @ £80 a month, & was going to be £157 a month.
Just spent a hour on online chat with them & have the same package for £84 a month on new 18 month contract.

More than happy.

Ultimate Volt bundle but with 600 Mbps.

VoucherMan

born_again said:

Just had notification that my 18 month contract ended @ £80 a month, & was going to be £157 a month.
Just spent a hour on online chat with them & have the same package for £84 a month on new 18 month contract.

More than happy.

Ultimate Volt bundle but with 600 Mbps.

I guess you won't have written confirmation yet though, of whether it's a genuine £84 a month, or £157 with a £73 discount?

When your price goes up next April, will it be to £94 or £104 a month? (assuming similar % rise to this year)

Detail_Merchant

VoucherMan said:

I'm happy if those are the genuine terms, but I'm still expecting to get a contract listing a £100 price with £82 monthly discount, which will allow them an OTT price increase next year, with nothing I can do about it.

I know I could just cancel the new contract, but it would be interesting to know how they word it, so I'm prepared for negotiations.

See - https://prod.ctassets.virginmedia.com/uploads/Terms_and_Conditions_TV_Fibre_and_Phone_FROM_01_MAY_2023_42b6cb7201.pdf - go to page 8 which includes section K "Annual price adjustment and changing this agreement" - that includes an example with a discount.
To me it reads that the RPI+3.9% will be applied to your net (discounted) price.
Like you say, in the past they have applied the discount to the gross (pre-discount) price, and then kept the discount unchanged, so the net price increases by much more than RPI+3.9% - but as you could cancel before now, that was just a good excuse to to renegotiate.
But from next year the price rise won't give the chance to cancel, so it's good that it they will be applying it in a fairer way (assuming I've read it correctly).

ladruid

I just asked this exact question to the lady before I signed up. She said the 3.9% + RPI is on the price you pay, not on the total package price before discounts.