Broadband rip off

[Chuffedmonkey]

You are paying for something new though you just do not see it. Upgrades yearly are constant and in return you get more bandwidth to enable us to enjoy Netflix, Prime Video etc. A few years ago ISP's could not cope to well with the bandwidth issues if most house holds starting streaming video in the evening. Today there is much more bandwidth available at peak times.

As for the government putting pressure on ISP's it comes down to who is going to pay for it? We don't like price rises but we all love pay rises.

Edited by Chuffedmonkey on Thursday 11th July 18:25

[Oakey]

It is a load of BS. We took a new contract in Dec 17 for 18 months. The deal was £52 a month until June 2019 at which point it becomes £55.00 per month. That's what the contract says right now if I look at it.

Yet within the first 12 months my monthly payment had gone up to £55.50 a month, by May 2019 I was paying £60.50 a month and my latest bill for June is £63.50.

I suspect it's now £63.00 a month because once June rolled around they added the £3.00 price increase that would have taken it from £52pm to £55pm had they not already increased the price twice before that. Cheeky s.

[james_gt3rs]

Virgin did this to me, so I've switched to BT. Same speed internet, same price as Virgin before the price increase, and a free £150 voucher for their shop

[anonymous-user]

Oakey said:

It is a load of BS. We took a new contract in Dec 17 for 18 months. The deal was £52 a month until June 2019 at which point it becomes £55.00 per month. That's what the contract says right now if I look at it.

Yet within the first 12 months my monthly payment had gone up to £55.50 a month, by May 2019 I was paying £60.50 a month and my latest bill for June is £63.50.

I suspect it's now £63.00 a month because once June rolled around they added the £3.00 price increase that would have taken it from £52pm to £55pm had they not already increased the price twice before that. Cheeky s.

Hi ya
They are incredibly shifty at applying loyalty discounts against different parts of your package that expire before the contract end. - see my earlier post

[Phil.]

Plusnet (owned by BT) have honored their fixed prices, in my experience.

[Saleen836]

Just off the phone with Virgin, have been paying £58 a month for past 4 months for BB/TV/Phone due to waiting for different discounts to expire, best deal they could offer me as a long standing (20 odd years) customer is a new contract at £43.50 a month with a one off £30 discount applied to the second month bill effectively making my 12 month contract £41 a month. I told them that wasn't good enough as new customers can get a slightly better package for £29 a month so to go ahead and cancel my contract. I now have 30 days for something to happen, they also no longer do a discount for paying upfront for the phone line either.
Time will tell I guess

[judas]

I've been with VM in their various incarnations for over 25 years now and am finally at the end of my tether with them with their ever increasing costs. If I were to join them now as a new customer, the package I'm on would cost £29.99/month. At the moment I'm paying about £65 - and that's before the price increase!

Not sure if I have a BT line into the house, but I'm prepared to pay for one just to get away from VM

[Graveworm]

It's strange that the Broadband only is so expensive. I looked into seperate providers many times. Maybe its a loss leader when in a bundle. I have been with them for a very long time - since Bluyonder I do have their TV and phone and pay about £95 for 362mb, full TV + sports and basic phone.

[Oakey]

I wonder, if say you joined as a customer 20 odd years ago when they were Telewest or one of their other incarnations, and had never bothered to renegotiate a better deal in all that time, I wonder what the monthly price would be?

[anonymous-user]

TalkTalk are offering for £26.50 a month incl VAT:
Broadband up to 67mb phone and unlimited (59 minutes) anytime calls
No TV
Fixed for 18 months

[TeaNToast]

We've had a similar problem with VM, their prices just keep going up and up and there just seems to be no loyalty for their existing customers

[MikeyC]

Just switched over from VM, just pee'd off at the £40 for just BB and average speed
A bit of a pin losing the e-mail address, but hey ho !

Went to BT - only because I've never had BB via phone line so just wanted to be safe!

I'm afraid it doesn't pay to be a 'loyal' customer.....

[anonymous-user]

My wife and I made the decision to leave home broadband and TV full stop.

I was paying circa £70pcm for 100MB Virgin Media BB, standard TV package, BT Sports and landline.

Now we are just running additional data via our mobile devices and hot spotting if needed.

Wife managed to go from 20GB to unlimited data for £1 extra pcm with Three on a monthly rolling contract. I went from 8GB to 20GB for an additional £10 pcm but I’m still in contract for 10 months with EE.

So we are saving £59pcm and I never have to talk to VM’s appalling customer service team again.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 16th July 20:30

[Grumpy old git]

Phil. said:

It’s a pricing scam. I have 150mbps up/download at my place in Spain, no contract, for £20 per month. The UK is being ripped off by these companies.

Can I ask who your supplier in Spain is? We're still on crappy satellite broadband and pay more than that for 10gb a month!

[davek_964]

I am getting sick of Virgin myself. Currently paying £53 for just broadband (not the fastest) and landline. And according to the letter I got to l today, it's about to go up another £3.50. I'm sure it went up less that a year ago. Seemss a tad excessive.

Think I need to look around for something cheaper.

[CoolHands]

They’re just massive ripoff companies, there’s no justification for it.

[Saleen836]

When I called VM (regarding my post above) I got an automated message straight away offerring a £2 a month discount,i'm guessing if I had accepted that would have been the only offer I received

[ashleyman]

My last Virgin Contract cost me £43 a month for 100MB broadband only. The month the contract ended, the monthly cost became £46 and then with price rises, the month after that was £51.

Didn't even bother asking for a deal to stay just straight up cancelled and have gone to Plusnet at £28 a month. A small drop in speed but it won't be noticeable I don't think. £50 install but they gave us £50 spend card as part of the deal so balanced out.

It was installed today - working perfectly and the Virgin kit is all ready for the bin.

[anonymous-user]

ashleyman said:

My last Virgin Contract cost me £43 a month for 100MB broadband only. The month the contract ended, the monthly cost became £46 and then with price rises, the month after that was £51.

Didn't even bother asking for a deal to stay just straight up cancelled and have gone to Plusnet at £28 a month. A small drop in speed but it won't be noticeable I don't think. £50 install but they gave us £50 spend card as part of the deal so balanced out.

It was installed today - working perfectly and the Virgin kit is all ready for the bin.

Genuinely watch out on that. Depends what kit you have. Virgin sometimes decide it should be returned and bang on charges on final bills for non return.

[s2kjock]

I'm paying £56 pm for the basic VM BB, phone, TV package and have just ordered a 4g router. I reckon I use about 40-50GB a month currently, so will trial it with Giffgaff for a month and if good can at least look to cancel VM.

I have a rubbish communal TV aerial though which I can't easily upgrade, so freeview options are limited for more than about 4 channels.

At least I can give the 4g a decent go, and if it doesn't work out I plan to pass on to my folks so they can ditch their dreadful BT service (always losing t'internet).