Virgin media:(

Amazin

Who's with virgin media here? My monthly bill went from £37 to £62. Last time when this happened I phoned them and complained. It's so annoying considering they're offering £30 per month for new customers. I will phone them again but I'm seriously thinking about leaving them even if I have to settle for a slower provider. why do they do this, been with them over 10 years

iniltous

Why do they do it ? , because of customer inertia, you may feel sufficiently aggrieved to do something about it , many will notice but simply ‘shrug’ , others may not even notice .
Presumably , even VM don’t arbitrarily put bills up without any reason , so either you were on some sort of discount, that’s ended ( possibly a discount that was dependent on being within a minimum term ) or they have used the % +CPI increase that they ‘highlight’ in the T&C’s ( although £37 to £62 seems too much of an increase for it to be just that ) , but it’s not going to be VM simply putting up the price because they can charge what they like , there will be a reason .

Unfortunately it’s the way it is ( and to be fair , it’s not just VM ) as far as settling for a slower provider, VM are often matched and in many cases beaten on  ‘speed’ , thats is if speed  is the only criteria you judge ISP’s on , if you haven’t looked anywhere else for 10 years , you may be unaware of what’s on offer by other ISPs  , I know people who think VM are market leaders for speed , they definitely are not that .

What speed do you get from VM , what speed do you actually need , even before the proliferation of FTTP (which matches and in many cases beats VM ) FTTC was widely available and I would suggest is perfectly usable alternative ,  in my case I had 100Mb VM , and now have 80Mb FTTC , and there is no perceptible difference, and ( as far as those that require fast ‘pings’ , gamers for example ) , VM are not well regarded, even if the headline speed is impressive , FTTC often gives better real world experience.

It could be the case that VM are your only real choice , but for increasing numbers , there are multiple viable alternatives to them , if you haven’t done so , explore your options , even if you want to stay with VM , knowing what’s available and the price of it , means you can negotiate a better deal with VM , although you would be in the same position when any newly negotiated deal expires. 

prowla

Yep - they did that with me and came up with an offer which wasn't good enough; I pointed out they were offering better to new customers and told them I was going elsewhere.

I signed up with another provider and called Virgin to cancel as of the end of contract date.

I got a call back a day later with a better offer, but I told them I'd already gone elsewhere (as I said I would).

I did decide to keep the line on a lower rate as a fall-back.

At the moment I happen to have 2Gbps into the house (1.1 on Virgin and 900 via FTTP)!

M25

Just leave.

Unless they have something amazing you can't get somewhere else.

Virgin have a habit of locking in lazy customers much more than other suppliers. I think the previous owners  (20+ years ago especially) of cable did provide something people couldn't get elsewhere and that's part of the ignorance/laziness.

I have a cable connection to my house (installed during COVID) I almost went with them but I knew FTTP was a few streets away but if there was no FTTP then I would have went with Virgin and had to pay a lot more than FTTP.

Virgin is so damn expensive for most people.