VirginMedia pushing the envelope on renewal

JamboJet

Hi All, I hope you are well.
My contract with them have just expired.
Trying to find out what the length of that contract was but cannot find the info on the invoice. I reckon 18 months.
I paid like £40 a month for M350.

I called them and what they offer is £40 then
price increases to £43.50 from April 2026 then
price increases to £47.00 from April 2027~

On top of that they want me to commit for like 24months.

I can see that currently for new customers they offer M350 for £29.99 increased to £33.50 from April 2026.
New customers get a Gigabit connection for £36.99.

What would you recommend me to do in this case?
Temporarily change the provider?

I am with them for the last 3 years now and for many years in the past.
Thanks

Mark_d

If you're prepared to leave Virgin then they sometimes offer you the same deal being offered to new customers.  If they don't treat your fairly then leave then and consider rejoining after at least 12 months.

Do you really benefit from 350Mb broadband or could you get a 150Mb service from a company with better customer service?  We're currently in contract for a 250Mb service but I'm confident that our service wouldn't be noticeably different if we were on 100Mb

born_again

Look back through emails, or login to your account.

How much would you pay to get 350 speed or what you need elsewhere & the length of contract required?

JamboJet

Mark_d said:

If you're prepared to leave Virgin then they sometimes offer you the same deal being offered to new customers.  If they don't treat your fairly then leave then and consider rejoining after at least 12 months.

Do you really benefit from 350Mb broadband or could you get a 150Mb service from a company with better customer service?  We're currently in contract for a 250Mb service but I'm confident that our service wouldn't be noticeably different if we were on 100Mb

Right so if I leave they will keep me on their system for 12 months then treat me as a new customer.

Do you think I should change the ISP or ask VM to downgrade me to M125 (132Mbps)?
Personally I think 300Mbps is an overkill for me.

I could also just downgrade to mobile Internet.

JamboJet

I checked the alternatives via MoneySuperMarket and I can see Sky, Vodafone, OneStream could give me 100-200Mbps for £22-26 on 12/24 months contracts.

Current Internet from VM is via the cable service(DOCSIS) so a different medium not a landline.
I have not used Internet from a landline in 4 years so not sure how good it is. 
It use to be much slower comparing to cable service and nowhere near their claims.

I don't think any of the ISPs listed can go via cable, I think VM owns this network.

iniltous

Something wrong with your analysis, 100-200Mb isn’t available from FTTC , so the companies that you quote must be using Gfast (not very likely this is a dead end technology that Openreach no longer provides a modem for ) or FTTP , and if it’s FTTP then speeds way in excess of 100-200 Mb are available.
Using a comparison site only shows the companies that have paid that comparison site to be ‘featured’ or pay a commission for any sign ups via that comparison site so shouldn’t be viewed as a comprehensive list of what’s available……Openreach and the dozens of ISP that use them are the most likely other network in your area ….put your address into this checker and post the results 
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

JamboJet

iniltous said:

Something wrong with your analysis, 100-200Mb isn’t available from FTTC , so the companies that you quote must be using Gfast (not very likely this is a dead end technology that Openreach no longer provides a modem for ) or FTTP , and if it’s FTTP then speeds way in excess of 100-200 Mb are available.
Using a comparison site only shows the companies that have paid that comparison site to be ‘featured’ or pay a commission for any sign ups via that comparison site so shouldn’t be viewed as a comprehensive list of what’s available……Openreach and the dozens of ISP that use them are the most likely other network in your area ….put your address into this checker and post the results 

That's awesome. Thanks for the link. I can see VDL and WBC FTTP up to 1000 available.
Ok, I could switch from DOCSIS to FTTP as then I can choose my own router rather than ISP.
For instance I want the Wifi to be on an hourly schedule but Virgin's router does not have such settings.

Even if I switch it to modem only mode I will need 2 devices powered at all time.

iniltous

If OR FTTP is available, then using a third party router that has the facilities you want should not be a problem, the only caveat is if you take a phone service from the ISP , using their router is often necessary, but if you don’t want or need a phone service bundled with broadband it’s not an issue