Bloody Virgin Media, putting up my costs again!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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After starting this thread I called Virgin for a haggle. Although it was hard going, they kept telling me I was on the best deal, I did have some success. If you pay your line rental a year up-front then there are some savings to be made.

In the end I payed line rental up-front at £120. (it's now, £140 I think?) plus I'm paying £33/m for my package, so all in £43/m . That's for 60MB BB, phone and the XL TV package with a Tivo and second V+ box.

Oh and the BB will go up to 100MB soon.

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DSLiverpool said:

Christ I am getting ripped, BUT I cant use Virgin TV its not as good as SKY as we need two boxes with the ability to record on each Virgin dont do that.

I have two recording boxes, one Tivo and I kept my old V+ box which sits in my office, rarely used!

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Here we go again! Just got a letter from Virgin, my package is going up by £3.99 in Feb. That's after a £3 rise earlier this year, they're taking the pi$$ again!

Time to get back on the phone to cancellations. I may even bite the bullet and dump them, there are some cracking deals for new Sky/BT etc contracts, lots of cash back on Quidco etc. Yes, Virgin's BB is excellent, but I don't really need 200Mb/s!

Edited by megaphone on Wednesday 9th December 08:13

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Anyone having a better luck getting a deal? I've just called retentions and they're offering me more or less what I'm paying now if I take 12months line rental. So

Big Kahuna (152mb BB, XL TV and phone) £43 for 6 months then £46/m. Advance line rental £164.

So works out at £58.16 a month.

Anyone getting a better deal for similar, if so how?

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outnumbered said:

megaphone said:

Anyone having a better luck getting a deal? I've just called retentions and they're offering me more or less what I'm paying now if I take 12months line rental. So

Big Kahuna (152mb BB, XL TV and phone) £43 for 6 months then £46/m. Advance line rental £164.

So works out at £58.16 a month.

Anyone getting a better deal for similar, if so how?

I'm about to be in the same position, and was planning to point out that it'd be a fair bit cheaper for me to use BT for phone/BB/TV, given the TV channels that I need. Did you do something similar, or just ask for a discount ?

Go through to the retentions/customer care, can't remember which button presses, but it will be "if you're thinking of leaving us press x". This will get you to a UK call centre.

They more or less gave me a better price straight away, I tried to push them but they stood their ground, I've said I'll get back to them once I've looked elsewhere. The line rental goes up at the end of Jan, so I have until then.

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Just a bit of an update. Virgin would not play ball, gave them another call over the weekend and they said I was on the best deal and they could not do better, so I have left! Cancelled with 30 days notice, fella on the line did not appear bothered, said they would send a bag out for all the equipment, my line goes dead on Feb 9th.

So I now need to make a decision, do I move elsewhere or wait to see if Virgin call me back with a better deal. Any one had any experience?

There are some really good BB deals around from BT and Talk Talk etc, with potential cash back from Quidco. BT are offering some reasonable TV deals, but to be honest I'd be happy with Freeview and a PVR.

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gpb1 said:

megaphone said:

Just a bit of an update. Virgin would not play ball, gave them another call over the weekend and they said I was on the best deal and they could not do better, so I have left! Cancelled with 30 days notice, fella on the line did not appear bothered, said they would send a bag out for all the equipment, my line goes dead on Feb 9th.

So I now need to make a decision, do I move elsewhere or wait to see if Virgin call me back with a better deal. Any one had any experience?

There are some really good BB deals around from BT and Talk Talk etc, with potential cash back from Quidco. BT are offering some reasonable TV deals, but to be honest I'd be happy with Freeview and a PVR.

You'll get a call within 3 days offering you a much better deal than the people you cancelled with could offer.

Had a missed call, 0800xxx , when I called back it was Virgin, message said they would call back. Let's see what happens, would rather not switch, just need to stand my ground, fed up with companies taking good customers for granted.

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Just another update for those interested.

Got a call back from Virgin yesterday. Their 'offer' is to give me my line rental FOC for a year, so saving me over £200. I said I could not make a decision there and then as I needed to check what other providers can do. I'm going see if I can get a little more before I agree.

Even with line rental FOC it will still cost me £46/m for their Big Kahuna bundle, 152Mb (200) BB, XL TV and phone.

And what happens next year, go through the same bloody process!

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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.

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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 .

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Yes my Tivo is running slow, it's had an upgrade, but I don't have the channel logos in the guide, well I don't think I do.

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Esseesse said:

Speed 3 said:

The price hiking on the back of freebies/upgrade is pretty annoying.

Oh dear, I've just clicked on the 'ok' for 50mb->70mb 'free upgrade'. Should I be expecting a hike? Currently I pay £28.25/month for internet access only.

Phone line rental is going up in Nov, so as you don't have a phone line it shouldn't affect you. However package costs are also on the rise, so maybe!

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Just got my letter from Virgin, package going up by £3.49 in November. My line rental is already paid, so this is just the BB/Phone/TV going up, they don't actually break the rise down.

So again, within a year, I'm going to be on the phone to them. I'll let you know how I get on. Tried to get through to retentions last night, but they where way too busy, bet I'm not the only one calling!