Bloody Virgin Media, putting up my costs again!

[megaphone]

Strange you had to pay to 'upgrade' the V+ box. They recently sent me a letter offering a free swap to a Tivo, letter said the V+ boxes where being phased out, they would not get all new channels etc.

[megaphone]

Also note there will be a new Tivo box by the end of the year, to compete with Sky Q, it will have UHD capability .

[outnumbered]

megaphone said:

Strange you had to pay to 'upgrade' the V+ box. They recently sent me a letter offering a free swap to a Tivo, letter said the V+ boxes where being phased out, they would not get all new channels etc.

I've been told a few times that they can't do TiVo without the £5 monthly fee, which is why I caved in the end. Interesting that you got a different offer.

[ecsrobin]

More increases to come: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/19/virgin-medias-...
Virgin Media's next price hike will come in November

[Jonesy23]

If people are willing to keep paying then they'll keep pushing up the price.

[tali1]

Jonesy23 said:

If people are willing to keep paying then they'll keep pushing up the price.

That, sadly, is a British Disease.

[ecsrobin]

tali1 said:

Jonesy23 said:

If people are willing to keep paying then they'll keep pushing up the price.

That, sadly, is a British Disease.

The problem is though is the only good Internet in the area is virgin so it's a captive market, but the TiVo is rubbish it's so slow and clunky if only I could have sky tv and virgin broadband.

[DervVW]

ecsrobin said:

tali1 said:

Jonesy23 said:

If people are willing to keep paying then they'll keep pushing up the price.

That, sadly, is a British Disease.

The problem is though is the only good Internet in the area is virgin so it's a captive market, but the TiVo is rubbish it's so slow and clunky if only I could have sky tv and virgin broadband.

yeah the tivo seems like a great idea until you actually try to use

[megaphone]

ecsrobin said:

tali1 said:

Jonesy23 said:

If people are willing to keep paying then they'll keep pushing up the price.

That, sadly, is a British Disease.

The problem is though is the only good Internet in the area is virgin so it's a captive market, but the TiVo is rubbish it's so slow and clunky if only I could have sky tv and virgin broadband.

Nothing to stop you, if you're willing to pay for both. My neighbour does.

[megaphone]

outnumbered said:

megaphone said:

Strange you had to pay to 'upgrade' the V+ box. They recently sent me a letter offering a free swap to a Tivo, letter said the V+ boxes where being phased out, they would not get all new channels etc.

I've been told a few times that they can't do TiVo without the £5 monthly fee, which is why I caved in the end. Interesting that you got a different offer.

Maybe because I already have one main Tivo, the V+ box is a second box in the spare room. They sent me a letter/flyer offering the free swap for the second box, I'll try and dig it out as there was a link to a web page to register. I've not taken them up as the second box is never used, not even switched on, they could have it back, but they don't charge me extra for it so I just keep it.

[ecsrobin]

megaphone said:

ecsrobin said:

tali1 said:

Jonesy23 said:

If people are willing to keep paying then they'll keep pushing up the price.

That, sadly, is a British Disease.

The problem is though is the only good Internet in the area is virgin so it's a captive market, but the TiVo is rubbish it's so slow and clunky if only I could have sky tv and virgin broadband.

Nothing to stop you, if you're willing to pay for both. My neighbour does.

For the little TV I watch on virgin I think I'll pass.

[mad4amanda]

megaphone said:

Maybe because I already have one main Tivo, the V+ box is a second box in the spare room. They sent me a letter/flyer offering the free swap for the second box, I'll try and dig it out as there was a link to a web page to register. I've not taken them up as the second box is never used, not even switched on, they could have it back, but they don't charge me extra for it so I just keep it.

Only if the virgin hd+ box was a particular manufacturer did you get the offer of a free upgrade as it is being unsupported from next year .

[megaphone]

mad4amanda said:

megaphone said:

Maybe because I already have one main Tivo, the V+ box is a second box in the spare room. They sent me a letter/flyer offering the free swap for the second box, I'll try and dig it out as there was a link to a web page to register. I've not taken them up as the second box is never used, not even switched on, they could have it back, but they don't charge me extra for it so I just keep it.

Only if the virgin hd+ box was a particular manufacturer did you get the offer of a free upgrade as it is being unsupported from next year .

Very likely, it is one of the old Scientific Atlantic boxes.

[IanCress]

I wish their pricing was a bit more transparent. I'd like to reduce my monthly bill by going down to the basic phone package, but I'm told I'm on a special rate and that the price would actually go up.
I get the same answer if I ask about reducing the broadband speed, or getting rid of the rarely used V+ box.

Following this logic I could reduce every service down to the most basic package and be paying £200 a month!

[All that jazz]

IanCress said:

I wish their pricing was a bit more transparent. I'd like to reduce my monthly bill by going down to the basic phone package, but I'm told I'm on a special rate and that the price would actually go up.
I get the same answer if I ask about reducing the broadband speed, or getting rid of the rarely used V+ box.

Following this logic I could reduce every service down to the most basic package and be paying £200 a month!

The thing with VM you have to remember is it's the phone that makes them the most money. Internet makes them fk all and TV is much the same. That's why they force the phone package on you whenever possible, wanting to keep you at the same price or more and the way they do this is offer you 3,000,000 free minutes every month for the same price knowing full well you'll never use any of them, but they'll continue getting £x per month for the phone line regardless, which is better than you cancelling it and them making no profit at all from on your internet and TV package. You can see this in their pricing really easily as any package that includes the phone always works out cheaper than ones without. Think about it.

[megaphone]

ecsrobin said:

More increases to come: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/19/virgin-medias-...
Virgin Media's next price hike will come in November

Yep saw that, waiting for the letter to arrive. They are now real taking the p.

[outnumbered]

If the price goes up again, I'll re-compare against BT and see how it stacks up. We'd be fine with Freeview for a lot of our TV viewing, but I need Eurosport, and BT Sport is a "nice to have", and that always means paying for a lot of other crap that I don't really need, whatever provider I use.

Plus there's the horrors of BT customer support to consider too, even if they end up being slightly cheaper

Edited by outnumbered on Tuesday 23 August 10:33

[condor]

I've had temporary problems with pixcellation and not being able to view BBC1 and BBC2 for short periods over the last 2 years. I've been given discounts because of this. Recently they told me that they couldn't keep giving me discounts but needed to fix the problem - so I've been ringing them every few days when the pixcellation issues arise!
Issue still not fixed but I have £12.50 knocked off the next month's bill for utilisation issues...and told to ring again next month when the problem shows again.

[Zingari]

Out of interest has anyone had recent problems where the Tivo box is running slow? By this I mean when you attempt to call up/play what you've recorded you get the 'spinning wheel' that reminds me of the old dial up problem. I can also have a delay of 3-5 seconds accompanied by a black screen when I switch from My Shows/Guide back to TV.

I think they've recently done a firmware update as when you dial in channel numbers they appear yellow until it switches over

For something that's supposed to be fibre optic it is like a slug compared to Sky

[condor]

Yes I have - last night was trying to use 'catch up' but it wasn't available.