MSE News: Virgin Media customers face 6.7% price hike
Comments
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I had the upgrade offer, but it's for July to December next year!
I think I'll ditch the phone line as soon as I can and hang on to the TiVo box for the moment.0 -
You can usually trade a new minimum term for a discount.
I negotiated the broadband only customer increase for my 60Mbps from the then £26.75 (slightly down on new customer pricing thanks to an earlier negotiation) + a £1.50 increase down to £22.50 including the increase. Some did better still by also getting the newer Superhub as well.
VM published prices are only a guideline as they run their business like a car boot stall. If you don't call in at least every year to negotiate a new discount you end up paying over the odds. The price of the discount will be a new 12 month minimum term.0 -
The new Ofcom contract get out ruling comes into effect on 23 January 2014. It'll apply to any new landline, broadband, and mobile contract, including bundled contracts in some cases, which begins after that date.
In the meantime your relying on VM own get out clause.
"Virgin Media says you have 30 days from receiving a letter or email informing you of the price rises to tell it you want to leave your contract – in which case, you'll be able to do so penalty-free."0 -
Huge numbers of VM customers are no longer in any minimum term and can give the standard 30 day termination notice regardless of any letter or new regulation.
Those outside a minimum term have the best negotiating position but VM will usually offer something to anyone who calls and takes the "thinking of leaving" option. Once any price increase notification is received anybody can try their luck.
Incidentally I've been told (unofficially) that this increase will not apply to broadband only customers by a VM employee on cable forum as they already had the £1.50 increase. I have no idea whether or not that is correct but suspect it isn't.
Clearly the recently declared speed increase is a sweetener but remember that the last "speed doubling" round took best part of two years to complete from the first announcement. Some on the top tier still have 100Mbps instead of the promised 120Mbps and none of the lower tiers have had double upload yet sfaik.0 -
From the wording it strikes me as this: you'll get a letter telling you your price is going to increase. Once you get this, contact them and tell then you aren't happy with your service and you're abandoning ship.
The latter means anyone from January 2014 can ditch their contracts if prices rise mid-term (penalty free) whereas before you either had to like it and lump it (especially if the increase was below the rate of inflation) or pay a fee to escape.
OFCOM has only clairifed the situation. At present you can still lodge a complaint about the price increases and follow it through the complaints process with CISAS etc.
I did it with Orange who were adamant that that 3.3% rise last year was fair all the way up til the point I asked for the deadlock letter and complained to their 3rd party arbitrator. At which point they offered to move me to a new plan, without a reset of time, at the same old price for the same service.
You have to be bloody minded!0 -
starsailor123uk wrote: »OFCOM has only clairifed the situation. At present you can still lodge a complaint about the price increases and follow it through the complaints process with CISAS etc.
I did it with Orange who were adamant that that 3.3% rise last year was fair all the way up til the point I asked for the deadlock letter and complained to their 3rd party arbitrator. At which point they offered to move me to a new plan, without a reset of time, at the same old price for the same service.
You have to be bloody minded!
What would be the point ? they have already said you have 30 days from receiving a letter or email informing you of the price rises to tell them you want to leave your contract – in which case, you'll be able to do so penalty-free.
Its mentioned in the original post if you read it fully.0 -
OK, So after hearing this on the radio back from work, I then tweeted virgin and told them how disgusted I was with this considering they hiked my broadband up nearly a fiver in 12months (fiver isnt much but its the frequency increase) got the usual sorry you feel like that response. Then tweeted them again. Saying I`m paying nearly £35 for 60mb broadband on its own and then they wanted to increase it again in Feb, not really value for money is it? They then gave me a number to ring 08454541111 if anyone needs it.
This morning I rang said number and spent at least an hour telling them how dissatisfied that for all virgin has the most powerful BB by far I certainly wasn't going to continue to be a virgin media customer on the basis that SKY are offering current Virgin customers 25% off their 12 months of contract if they switched. So if you played your cards right and selected a sky package that's on offer you would get six months discount, applied the 25% off code you would also get £100 M&S voucher (It hasn't been confirmed if the 6 months cut price rental and 25% works though) Explaining all this to customers services and wanting to obtain a TV package from them I now have my current 60Mb BB with XL TV, phone and TiVo box, installation of £49 wavered (I complained again) all for around £65 (when Feb price increase happens) so in reality the £35 pound Im currently paying for BB only its cost me another £30 to get the box, XL package, landline and retained my BB speed. One word of caution to those thinking of dropping the Landline. I asked about this as everyone these days have mobile phones and this is the point of contact and for me a landline is an extra expense for something I would never use. Customer service told me that it is more expensive to build a package WITHOUT a landline that it is with. To get the package I have now secured without landline would have took it over the £70+ mark.0 -
One word of caution to those thinking of dropping the Landline. I asked about this as everyone these days have mobile phones and this is the point of contact and for me a landline is an extra expense for something I would never use. Customer service told me that it is more expensive to build a package WITHOUT a landline that it is with. To get the package I have now secured without landline would have took it over the £70+ mark.
I have to say that when we were thinking of moving to Virgin and were looking at the packages, it was indeed more expensive to have the 60Mb BB & TV (M+), than to have the phone line too. :doh:
I'll see what happens when I ring them, I'm prepared to ditch the TV (and get a nice Freeview HD box) too if needs be.0 -
Love the bit about multiple people streaming HD video - you're lucky if you can stream a YouTube video at peak times on VM.
Wish BT would pull their fingers out and enable the cabinets for Infinity - if only to give me a bargaining chip with VM.0 -
I saved around £3 by dropping the landline. That together with the £2.50 saving from callerid just about paid for Vonage VOIP which gives me 24x7 geographic calls rather the the evening only I had from VM and includes callerid.One word of caution to those thinking of dropping the Landline. I asked about this as everyone these days have mobile phones and this is the point of contact and for me a landline is an extra expense for something I would never use. Customer service told me that it is more expensive to build a package WITHOUT a landline that it is with.
All these things are negotable but you'll only get the best deal by taking the "thinking of leaving" option. Talking to standard CS is not the way forward regardless of whether you intend to drop or increase services.0
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