NOW Broadband - price increased by £3 a month - haggling

Woodsy

Got an email saying that NOW Broadband is increasing by £3 a month.

I phoned up the number with a view to finding out whether I was within the minimum contract period (I knew I was not) but before even asking got offered £1 off the increase!

Not happy with that I said I could still get it cheaper with Vodaphone and cited Vodaphones £26 a month but with a £55 gift voucher. The lady went away and came back with a £1.50 increase but a £30 one off discount voucher for a 12 month contract which overall is actually £1 cheaper than I am paying now (before the increase) so totally went with that

Don't be intimidated by haggling.  Make sure you do your sums.  You don't need to tell them you want to leave, a new provider would do that all for you.

Marvel1

Joined in February, just waiting on the £94 cashback, don't want to start a new contract.

dank_2

Called Now twice today to say I was unhappy with the £3 increase, and with my contract expiring next month, I was considering going elsewhere.

The best they could offer me is £25 per month - £1 more than what new customers pay. I said I was unhappy with this, but both operators couldn't care less if they tried and said that's all they could offer.

soundandvision

Just received the email, its the tone of the email that just ticks me off - it just sounds swarmy as heck.

"We understand that things are tough right now, and so alongside investing in improvements, we’re committed to keeping prices as low as we can." [...] "The prices of our broadband membership plans will be going up by £3."

Just feels like a kick in the face of someone going "wahh we know things are difficult but stuff you it's going up anyway"

Regardless, time to give them a call and see what they can do... extra annoying as only just renewed

brewerdave

soundandvision said:

Just received the email, its the tone of the email that just ticks me off - it just sounds swarmy as heck.

"We understand that things are tough right now, and so alongside investing in improvements, we’re committed to keeping prices as low as we can." [...] "The prices of our broadband membership plans will be going up by £3."

Just feels like a kick in the face of someone going "wahh we know things are difficult but stuff you it's going up anyway"

Regardless, time to give them a call and see what they can do... extra annoying as only just renewed

That's just about the same wording as Sky used on their email announcing the various increases in their services earlier this year - makes me thoroughly p********d off !

Rob5342

Personally I can't be bothered with haggling, the way I see it everyone has one chance to offer me a price and I'll go with the best I'm offered. You can often get cashback from TopCashback by doing that and it means you get a new router each time too.

Shedman

We renewed with them in mid March with a deal so hacked off that 3 months later they want to increase price by an unjustified £3 uplift and yet they continue to offer new customers lower prices and cashback through sites like TCB.  

Just spoke to them and again best they could offer was £22 rising to £25 on 5 July and they wouldn't budge.  When I said that I would then likely switch to another provider they said that i would still have to call in to cancel. I said I don't want to cancel as that would terminate the whole line but just wanted to switch.  However, they said that if I did this there would be a risk that the early termination charge would apply and that I have to call in on the day of switch .to cancel.  

It all sounded wrong to me.  Anybody knew what the correct contractual position is in these circumstances? I wouldn't want to be hit with early termination costs as we still have nearly 9 months to run and that would be a chunky number. 

mgns

I was offered £25 p/m but with a £12 credit to bring it back to £24 p/m (which is my current payment). I asked if they could do any better and was offered a £15 credit. This would mean signing a new 12 month contract.

Has anyone else been offered something different?

Just to note, it seems that last week, NOW has changed their broadband branding to 'NOW powered by SKY'. One FTTC product and two FTTP products - it also now looks like 18 month contracts for new customers.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/06/now-broadband-launch-sky-uk-powered-75mbps-full-fibre-plan.html

Silverking

Woodsy said:

Got an email saying that NOW Broadband is increasing by £3 a month.

I phoned up the number with a view to finding out whether I was within the minimum contract period (I knew I was not) but before even asking got offered £1 off the increase!

Not happy with that I said I could still get it cheaper with Vodaphone and cited Vodaphones £26 a month but with a £55 gift voucher. The lady went away and came back with a £1.50 increase but a £30 one off discount voucher for a 12 month contract which overall is actually £1 cheaper than I am paying now (before the increase) so totally went with that

Don't be intimidated by haggling.  Make sure you do your sums.  You don't need to tell them you want to leave, a new provider would do that all for you.

Thanks for the post, I just rang them and they offered me £25 per month, I was paying £25.50...which would go up to £28.50 with the price rise. That's a £42 saving overall for a call lasting a couple of minutes

Searcher2

They offered me £25... but I said that new customers are paying £24.  I asked if I could leave and rejoin at £24.  She said I could but would have to set up a new account in a different name!  Looks like they have dropped their offering of standard broadband now too.  My mum's on standard broadband with them so she will be paying the same price for standard as for fibre.... unless I move her off.

Yorkshire_Pud

£25 for fibre was my offer too after the £3 for nothing price increase. Seems that’s the default offer plus a one time credit if you ask for it.