What *Should* Broadband ONLY Cost for an Existing Customer?

[BananaRamaLama]

We no longer watch much TV and stream 90% of what we do watch & are planning to just use Freeview and Broadband once our contract expires.

That being the case what should we be expecting to pay for M500 (or even 1Gig) Broadband only?

I honestly (and I cant stress this enough) HATE bartering, and we don't really have any other options for decent speed internet in our area so threatening to just leave fills me with dread, and I know they will try to take the proverbial & do not have clear and honest pricing.

Just a ballpark would be good.

We currently pay £67 (would rise to £99 in Sep) for:

All we want going forward is M500 Broadband, no TV and no Phone (we haven't used a Landline in over 10 years yet they constantly force you to have one, or at least they did)

Thanks

[Cardiffman282]

You could probably lower your speed to 200/350 without noticing any real difference too. 

[Tudor]

Unfortunately you are unlikely to get a definitive answer from anyone on the board. VM staff on the board cannot deal with this type of question. If you are renewing your contract you can get a quote of the telephone at that time, be aware that the price offered is usually ‘at this instant’ price and would be higher the next time you phone. If you think it’s good you should accept it there and then. For changes to an existing contract you still need to phone up and the above is probably the same if you wish to accept the price quoted.

[jpeg1]

VM don't have any standard charges.

It's pretty clear that apart from the published prices to attract new customers, every user is charged whatever the VM negotiator thinks they can bear. And that can vary a very great deal. So you either pay the inflated automatic increases, or phone up and argue. There isn't any other choice. 

[asim18]

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@BananaRamaLama wrote:

That being the case what should we be expecting to pay for M500 (or even 1Gig) Broadband only?

I honestly (and I cant stress this enough) HATE bartering, and we don't really have any other options for decent speed internet in our area so threatening to just leave fills me with dread, and I know they will try to take the proverbial & do not have clear and honest pricing.

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It's a shame isn't it. I wish there was fair pricing for all. Unfortunately the broadband industry is completely unregulated in my opinion. The "regulators" recently said that complaints being at the same high levels as last year is a positive thing! Might as well be unregulated then.

In my opinion you should be paying around £15 per month for a 500Mb DOCSIS internet connection. 1Gb can be had for £30 per month on brand new full fibre infrastructure. VM pricing structure is completely uncompetitive and unfair. In my opinion, VM is a cash cow first, ISP second.

It's a real shame that VM are allowed to charge around £100 per month for 1Gb internet on their multi-decade old botch-internet CATV DOCSIS network (yes the CATV network was never designed to carry internet), and other companies charge £30 for a brand new network built from the ground up to carry internet.

[Tudor]

"1Gb can be had for £30 per month" yes, but that again is for new customers. Few quote renew prices and there is a lot of these start up companies and a lot of them will not be around for very long, there will certainly be a lot of consolidation.

[japitts]

Also remember VM operate a multibuy bundle discounting system - the more services you take, the lower the per-unit price. For telephony products especially, the bundle discount often more than offsets the cost of the service.

Whether you use the service is another question.

[BananaRamaLama]

Thanks all

I find it crazy we can't get just a standard and honest price. Like anything else you buy. eg You dont phone up British Gas and start bartering for a discount, it's a price, take it or go elsewhere.

How they are allowed to get away with it staggers me.

I'm going to make a 2nd thread asking "What Do You Pay" and see if I can get any kind of idea from that

Thanks for your replies

[BananaRamaLama]

Hi 

I posted yesterday about trying to find out what I should expect to pay for M500 Broadband ONLY. You can read the thread here: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/What-Should-Broadband-ONLY-Cost-for-an-Ex... 

No one was able to answer.

So I thought I would ask a different question:

What do YOU pay?

I am hoping seeing what other people are paying will give me an idea of when to accept the offer or when to push for a better one

So, what do you pay? 

I only want Broadband M500 but it will be helpful to see what you pay whatever the services are that you take, so as to start to build a picture of what is a reasonable price for each service (and subsequent bundles) & hopefully this thread will also help others in the future.

[japitts]

It's generally considered bad forum etiquette to start new threads for what is essentially the same question. Also what others pay has no bearing on you - commercially, VM are likely to offer more generous discounts when there's more competition, for one.