Now Broadband up for renewal. Time to move to Full Fibre

prowla

Eldi_Dos said:

prowla said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

prowla said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

prowla said:

dnpark38 said:

@shiraz99
Yes we have Virgin but it is co-ax, an ALT BRSK and OR.
I read VM are thinking of about a take over of City Fiber and BRSK who recently merged with another Alt.
So I guess a lot of changes on the way.
We used to have at least 13 independent TV companies now we have just ITV.
Again we used to have 13 or so Cable TV companies' and which became Virgin.

Virgin takeover CityFibre - NooooOOOOOO!!!!!

Would make sense, probably cheaper than replacing all that decades-old coax that's no longer up to snuff.

Well, it might make sense for Virgin, but not for the CF customers!

Indeed, but the first duty of CityFibre's and VirginMediaO2's directors is to maximise the returns to their shareholders.

Anything else is a nice to have.

Aye, but this site isn't about maximising companies profits.

But a bigger company with a larger customer base,along with bit of rationalistion to cut costs per subscriber might be in the customers interests in the long run.Who knows.

I am both a Virgin customer and Zen (over CityFibre).

From my experiences I can say that Virgin's customer support is awful and they do the annual inflation +3% price rises; there's no way they'll step off that bandwagon.

OTOH my recent Zen renewal didn't have a price increase over last year's (competitive) rate.

Based on that, speculating that Virgin might suddenly become altruistic after taking over a significant competitor and thereby reducing the competition is a fantasy.

Thus I'd say that, whilst I don't know, my experience as a customer suggests that I do have a fair idea.

iniltous

Virgin don’t use the CPI +3% or whatever , they (as all providers are required to do ) have to state the increase in advance in ££’s and pence, that’s if they increase prices without the option to leave penalty free because of that contractual increase ,  they must set that out in the T&C’s , which they do ,
 so as an example the terms are displayed on sign up as £23.99 increasing to £27.99 the following March (or whatever month they use) , increasing to £31.99 a year after that (if it’s a 24 month minimum) …there is no ‘formula’ based on inflation at all, it was outlawed years ago .

prowla

iniltous said:

Virgin don’t use the CPI +3% or whatever , they (as all providers are required to do ) have to state the increase in advance in ££’s and pence, that’s if they increase prices without the option to leave penalty free because of that contractual increase ,  they must set that out in the T&C’s , which they do ,
 so as an example the terms are displayed on sign up as £23.99 increasing to £27.99 the following March (or whatever month they use) , increasing to £31.99 a year after that (if it’s a 24 month minimum) …there is no ‘formula’ based on inflation at all, it was outlawed years ago .

Happen so, but their amount is suspiciously similar to that calculation anyway.

Detail_Merchant

iniltous said: there is no ‘formula’ based on inflation at all, it was outlawed years ago .

I think you are slightly overstating it when you say "years ago".
Here's the link to the Ofcom ban - https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/bills-and-charges/ofcom-bans-mid-contract-price-rises-linked-to-inflation
It didn't actually take effect until 17 January 2025, so slightly under 1 year ago.

Virgin Media didn't change their contracts until shortly before that deadline, so some customers who took out 18 month contracts in late 2024 could still experience RPI linked increases in April 2026.

iniltous

Ofcom required this way to illustrate annual increases in  2024,  when it was introduced Ofcom allowed a period to accommodate those already contracted using this formula based increases , many ISP introduced the ‘new’ way to advise of the annual increases immediately, not waiting for the last possible moment , so to say it didn’t come into effect Jan 2025  isn’t true , for most this method was introduced was mid 2024 , so around 18 months ago , and as that’s more than 1 year , ‘years’ is hardly overstating it 

prowla

iniltous said:

Ofcom required this way to illustrate annual increases in  2024,  when it was introduced Ofcom allowed a period to accommodate those already contracted using this formula based increases , many ISP introduced the ‘new’ way to advise of the annual increases immediately, not waiting for the last possible moment , so to say it didn’t come into effect Jan 2025  isn’t true , for most this method was introduced was mid 2024 , so around 18 months ago , and as that’s more than 1 year , ‘years’ is hardly overstating it 

So, since it was "outlawed years ago", does that mean that the ones who didn't implement it until just under a year ago were "outlaws" and acting illegally?

But yes, saying something which was introduced a year and a bit ago was "outlawed years ago" is very much overstating it.

Regardless, though, their above-inflation increases are taking the mick.