Bloody Virgin Media, putting up my costs again!

Bloody Virgin Media, putting up my costs again!

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megaphone

Original Poster:

10,694 posts

250 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
Just had a letter from Virgin, they're putting up the cost of my package again, this time by £5.75 from next Feb. That's more than 10%. I recently agreed a special price after the last increase, why do they keep trying to ps off their customers? What's the point in giving me a deal for a year then putting the cost up within a few months.


CraigyMc

16,313 posts

235 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
megaphone said:
Just had a letter from Virgin, they're putting up the cost of my package again, this time by £5.75 from next Feb. That's more than 10%. I recently agreed a special price after the last increase, why do they keep trying to ps off their customers? What's the point in giving me a deal for a year then putting the cost up within a few months.
Stop feeding the hand that bites you.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
Got the same letter yesterday. Seems a bit dodgy. I only just paid for the 50% deposit for a year upfront thing and now they raise prices.

iPlod999

368 posts

143 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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I dumbed down to the basic package.

Was paying £96 per month for xl tv, net and phone. Additional extra of the sports.

Have not missed the sports at all and no difference in speed on my broadband.

Far too expensive now to justify.

Once I get my arse into gear I will get rid completely and move to plusnet.

krunchkin

2,209 posts

140 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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I got that letter too. The worst bit was that awful faux cheery and chummy tone that Virgin like to use. "Hey! How ya doing! We've got some truly fab news that you're just going to love! Richard Branson is going to pop round your house and bend you over and rape your ass!! How cool is that?" ps off Beardy

megaphone

Original Poster:

10,694 posts

250 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
CraigyMc said:
Stop feeding the hand that bites you.
If they don't do me a deal then I might. Thing is it's par for the course for all service providers, it seems standard practice to hike prices (above inflation) whenever they think they can get away with it.

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
That is the problem of getting many different services from a single provider, lot of hassle to move so they are just finding how much they can charge you before you squeak.

JamieBeeston

9,294 posts

264 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
megaphone said:
CraigyMc said:
Stop feeding the hand that bites you.
If they don't do me a deal then I might. Thing is it's par for the course for all service providers, it seems standard practice to hike prices (above inflation) whenever they think they can get away with it.
Likely due to 2 reasons

a) they have a monopoly and what're you going to do
b) they dropped their pants to get you in at the start and now actually need to make a profit to ensure they can keep providing the service and rolling out the faster and faster broadband speeds.

megaphone

Original Poster:

10,694 posts

250 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
JamieBeeston said:
megaphone said:
CraigyMc said:
Stop feeding the hand that bites you.
If they don't do me a deal then I might. Thing is it's par for the course for all service providers, it seems standard practice to hike prices (above inflation) whenever they think they can get away with it.
Likely due to 2 reasons

a) they have a monopoly and what're you going to do
b) they dropped their pants to get you in at the start and now actually need to make a profit to ensure they can keep providing the service and rolling out the faster and faster broadband speeds.
True, although they don't really have a monopoly there are alternatives, but like other service providers they all appear to operate like a cartel.

I've been with them for years, they have had their pound of flesh! I just get fed up with having to haggle every year, sometimes twice, they all appear to be more interested in getting new subscribers that looking after their loyal customers.

mad4amanda

2,410 posts

163 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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Hmmm yes we pay a big chunk per month but have everything in % terms its not that much for us , last time they did this I looked around and for what we were getting they were still the cheapest .
very fast broadband too

kinabalu

239 posts

198 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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A step tooooooo far for me, 5th price rise in 2 years I've been with them, whilst, in a recession, as a freelancer, to compete, I've had to adjust my prices down. Just bought a Roku 3, enough is enough, bye Virgin.

JamieBeeston

9,294 posts

264 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
kinabalu said:
A step tooooooo far for me, 5th price rise in 2 years I've been with them, whilst, in a recession, as a freelancer, to compete, I've had to adjust my prices down. Just bought a Roku 3, enough is enough, bye Virgin.
Are you going to move to a competitor or just cancel the additional services all together?

So far I can see only 4 options in terms of prestige / offering (perceived)

a) FreeView
b) YouView/Peers
c) Virgin
d) Sky

TotalControl

8,016 posts

197 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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I read somewhere that Virgin only own something like 3% off the broadband they deliver. IIRC they were also making a loss with their services.

Correct me if I'm wrong though.

I've been with Virgin for years and tbh their service is far better than having to deal with the st that is BT Openreach.

blaineuk

2,614 posts

246 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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If you are on a deal with them, your price will stay the same until your contract runs out.

viggyp

1,917 posts

134 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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I've not had the letter yet but my understanding was the price rise was a maximum of 6.2%.

Funnily enough, was chatting to a Virgin Media employee in one of their stores on Saturday and they said my package price will be going up by £2 AND my broadband will be upgraded from 60mb to 100mb. That's not bad if it's the correct info.

I'm currently paying just over £71 for XL TV (500gb TiVo box and normal HD box, no movies or sports), 60mb broadband and evening/weekend calls.

Seems they raise the prices every February but rather be with Virgin than Sky. Worst case scenario is I'll stay with Virgin for the TV & go with Plusnet for the broadband and phone.

calibrax

4,788 posts

210 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
Got the same letter. I'm also paying around £96 for XL TV / Sports / Phone / 60mb broadband.

Does seem a lot, but I get to claim £25 of that back from my company for broadband. Have to say though that Virgin are very reliable, downtime is rare, and they give me BT Sports free on my package too.

What does really piss me off is that they charge a monthly fee of about £7 if you want all the HD channels. I simply refuse to pay this so for things like Sky Sports I only get SD quality, despite it being a premium channel I'm paying for. Surely these days HD should be provided as standard?

viggyp

1,917 posts

134 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
calibrax said:
Got the same letter. I'm also paying around £96 for XL TV / Sports / Phone / 60mb broadband.

Does seem a lot, but I get to claim £25 of that back from my company for broadband. Have to say though that Virgin are very reliable, downtime is rare, and they give me BT Sports free on my package too.

What does really piss me off is that they charge a monthly fee of about £7 if you want all the HD channels. I simply refuse to pay this so for things like Sky Sports I only get SD quality, despite it being a premium channel I'm paying for. Surely these days HD should be provided as standard?
I'm sure HD channels are free with Virgin whereas Sky charge for them.

mattshiz

461 posts

140 months

Wednesday 11th December 2013
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They charge for the Sky (Sports?) HD channels i think. We have Sky Sports but not in HD, but we still have BBC, ITV, ESPN and BT Sport channels in HD along with the others that no one watches.

ofcorsa

3,527 posts

242 months

Wednesday 11th December 2013
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Got the same letter here. No deals to reduce my price . Back to BT it is.

DervVW

2,223 posts

138 months

Wednesday 11th December 2013
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Samish letter a week ago. Guess I'll be ringing them to renegotiate my services in Feb, or accurately set the misses on them