BB and phone prices
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Discussion

Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Monday 29th July 2019
quotequote all
I'm with Virgin Media and just got yet another bill as follows:

Broadband:
M200 Fibre Broadband

Telephone:
Talk Weekends
Telephone Line Rental

Cost: £45.99

What are you lot paying? It's 90% reliable. I do notice times when it goes down.

PF62

4,065 posts

204 months

Monday 29th July 2019
quotequote all
BT

Superfast Fibre 2 - 67Mb down / 10Mb up - plenty for my needs and the telephone with the free weekend calls (plus free installation of the BT line at the start as I had been with Virgin for years but they were being stupid with their price increases).

Has worked out overall at around £18 pm over the last 18 months or so.

Never had a hiccup in those 18 months.

Riley Blue

23,212 posts

257 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
£18 per month? How come, we're on the same service and paying much, much more.

megaphone

11,715 posts

282 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
I'm back on Virgin this year, 100Mb and phone, £27/m with £75 cash back via Quidco, works out at £20.75/m. I now change my supplier every year to get the best prices.

abzmike

12,123 posts

137 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Plus rental?

richatnort

3,204 posts

162 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
megaphone said:
I'm back on Virgin this year, 100Mb and phone, £27/m with £75 cash back via Quidco, works out at £20.75/m. I now change my supplier every year to get the best prices.
Yeh i pay £27 a month. I feel if my virgin ever goes over £30 a month i'm paying too much and go to cancel and tell them this so they get it to around what i was paying previously

craig1912

4,684 posts

143 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
£18 per month? How come, we're on the same service and paying much, much more.
Same here, nearly three times that and that’s with a £15 “discount” but does include anytime calls

QuartzDad

3,014 posts

153 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Plusnet. 80/20 inc. line rental, £29/month effectively £26.80/month after cashback. 18 month contract, 4 months remaining.

Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Right, thanks esp for those on Virgin still. I ain't paying for the Necker Island refurb.

Edited by Hoofy on Tuesday 30th July 09:45

Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
richatnort said:
Yeh i pay £27 a month. I feel if my virgin ever goes over £30 a month i'm paying too much and go to cancel and tell them this so they get it to around what i was paying previously
So you've been a customer with them for a while? And you have a phoneline with them?

richatnort

3,204 posts

162 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
richatnort said:
Yeh i pay £27 a month. I feel if my virgin ever goes over £30 a month i'm paying too much and go to cancel and tell them this so they get it to around what i was paying previously
So you've been a customer with them for a while? And you have a phoneline with them?
Yep in my current property i've been with them 3 years and then another 3 in another property for 100mbps BB, PAYG phone line (only connected to my alarm system)/

Every time my calendar tells me my contract is going to run out next month (have to give 30 days notice of cancelling) i phone up saying I don't want to pay more and i'll move to another provider. Only once in that time have i actually got through the cancellation period and someone phone me up a week before trying to save my custom.

I'm very lucky that Open Reach have just installed Fibre to the property on my street so worst comes to worse i'll move to them.

Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
richatnort said:
Hoofy said:
richatnort said:
Yeh i pay £27 a month. I feel if my virgin ever goes over £30 a month i'm paying too much and go to cancel and tell them this so they get it to around what i was paying previously
So you've been a customer with them for a while? And you have a phoneline with them?
Yep in my current property i've been with them 3 years and then another 3 in another property for 100mbps BB, PAYG phone line (only connected to my alarm system)/

Every time my calendar tells me my contract is going to run out next month (have to give 30 days notice of cancelling) i phone up saying I don't want to pay more and i'll move to another provider. Only once in that time have i actually got through the cancellation period and someone phone me up a week before trying to save my custom.

I'm very lucky that Open Reach have just installed Fibre to the property on my street so worst comes to worse i'll move to them.
Oh right. I failed to get anywhere yesterday on the phone. Will try again tomorrow when I have a moment.

megaphone

11,715 posts

282 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
Oh right. I failed to get anywhere yesterday on the phone. Will try again tomorrow when I have a moment.
Here's a long thread I started about Virgin and their price increases and how to get a deal...or not. . https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

PF62

4,065 posts

204 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
£18 per month? How come, we're on the same service and paying much, much more.
Took out a new contract in April 18 when they were doing a deal of £34.99 a month for BB and phone line rental, but with a £150 cash back via a prepaid gift card, tied into an 18 month contract.

They then messed up the installation date by a couple of days so gave me £35 for the inconvenience.

Four months later the morons at BT then put their prices on some obscure phone number I would never call but which under the rules allowed me to 'cancel' but in reality renegotiate a new deal.

This was agreed at £23.99 for 18 months, but because the sales adviser lied during the deal (they said the contract was for Superfast 2 when it was only for Superfast 1) their complaints team added a credit of £75.

And then two months later they sent me an email telling me they were upgrading me to Superfast 2 speeds for free!

So actually setting that out by the time the new contract expires, over the 22 months I will have actually only paid them the equivalent of around £15 a month for both broadband and phone line rental - unless of course the idiots put up their prices again giving me the opportunity to cancel and take another deal.


Edited by PF62 on Tuesday 30th July 21:59

anonymous-user

85 months

Tuesday 30th July 2019
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
Oh right. I failed to get anywhere yesterday on the phone. Will try again tomorrow when I have a moment.
When ringing try this number:

0345 045 0586

It seems to get through to retentions. You just have to play a bit hardball
What did it for me this time was that I was really going to go. I wanted to keep the landline number and I went with TalkTalk who then requested a line transfer.
This meant that retentions really did know I was leaving I was offered a deal and said I would think about it. I then rang back and had various staff telling me why they couldn't do the deal I had been offered.
Then finally I got a guy who offered me a good deal at £33 a month 100 meg BB / Basic TV Package/ Unlimited anytime calls on a 12 month contract.
The TalkTalk deal was £26.50 a month for a Broadband and talk anytime package

It's in this thread here
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Wednesday 31st July 2019
quotequote all
megaphone said:
Hoofy said:
Oh right. I failed to get anywhere yesterday on the phone. Will try again tomorrow when I have a moment.
Here's a long thread I started about Virgin and their price increases and how to get a deal...or not. . https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Thanks. Will have a read.

Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Wednesday 31st July 2019
quotequote all
techiedave said:
Hoofy said:
Oh right. I failed to get anywhere yesterday on the phone. Will try again tomorrow when I have a moment.
When ringing try this number:

0345 045 0586

It seems to get through to retentions. You just have to play a bit hardball
What did it for me this time was that I was really going to go. I wanted to keep the landline number and I went with TalkTalk who then requested a line transfer.
This meant that retentions really did know I was leaving I was offered a deal and said I would think about it. I then rang back and had various staff telling me why they couldn't do the deal I had been offered.
Then finally I got a guy who offered me a good deal at £33 a month 100 meg BB / Basic TV Package/ Unlimited anytime calls on a 12 month contract.
The TalkTalk deal was £26.50 a month for a Broadband and talk anytime package

It's in this thread here
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Thanks, will have a read too.

Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Wednesday 31st July 2019
quotequote all
Anyone recommend mobile broadband that I can use with a desktop? Got the same message about £46 being the best deal as per my first post.

Slushbox

1,484 posts

136 months

Wednesday 31st July 2019
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
Anyone recommend mobile broadband that I can use with a desktop? Got the same message about £46 being the best deal as per my first post.
There's the monster Three 4G Home Broadband thread here:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Provisos: needs a decent indoor signal, and throughput varies a lot in congested areas. Twitter says inner London and Bristol are extremely slow at times.

Look for 'unlimited' SIM offers, don't sign up for a long contract until you've tested it in your home/area with a PAYG sim (in a phone) for your chosen supplier.

4G routers are about £60 upwards. Mifi's: about £40. (Amazon) SIMs from about £20 a month. Speeds up to 40+ Mbs, often less in busy areas.

Three's junior offspring Smarty have monthly-contract 4G MBB offers at £25. Two-year contracts with 'free' routers from Three are currently £22, with a discount offer for the first six months. EE and Voda also have offers, but may be capped.


https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

http://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadb...




Hoofy

Original Poster:

80,160 posts

313 months

Wednesday 31st July 2019
quotequote all
Slushbox said:
Hoofy said:
Anyone recommend mobile broadband that I can use with a desktop? Got the same message about £46 being the best deal as per my first post.
There's the monster Three 4G Home Broadband thread here:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Provisos: needs a decent indoor signal, and throughput varies a lot in congested areas. Twitter says inner London and Bristol are extremely slow at times.

Look for 'unlimited' SIM offers, don't sign up for a long contract until you've tested it in your home/area with a PAYG sim (in a phone) for your chosen supplier.

4G routers are about £60 upwards. Mifi's: about £40. (Amazon) SIMs from about £20 a month. Speeds up to 40+ Mbs, often less in busy areas.

Three's junior offspring Smarty have monthly-contract 4G MBB offers at £25. Two-year contracts with 'free' routers from Three are currently £22, with a discount offer for the first six months. EE and Voda also have offers, but may be capped.


https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

http://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadb...
Thanks!