Contract dispute - price increase after just 33 days into an 18 month contract!?

The usual catch that customers don’t read. You have agreed a FIXED DISCOUNT, not a fixed price. The base price is allowed to go up every year by a stated amount, which you have been quoted on your contract. This all complies with the new OFCOM price increase rules that came in on 17/01/25. The majority of the competition now operates under the same rules.

There are winners & losers with any change to the rules. The old system increased costs varying on your subscription level. The new rules dictate there must be a stated amount. Hence whether you currently pay £30 or £100+ a month, the increase will be the same.

Hey danlat1415, thank you for reaching out and I am so sorry  to hear about your renewal issue.

Discounts are time sensitive, they can run from anyone to 1 month - to 18 months.

Please do remember we do bill right until the day of the disconnection, then we would send you a final payment and once any kit and the bill as we been paid we would send a cheque refund out within 45 days of this. 

We continue to bill you as usual until your disconnection is complete. This helps to make sure your final month of service isn't interrupted. You will therefore probably see charges that go beyond your disconnection date, normally because your cancellation date takes effect mid billing cycle. 

Any other questions please do feel free to ask.

Hi danlat1415,

When did you actually take out the new contract?

Was it before 9th January 2025? If it was after that date them the April price increase should only be £3.50.

It might be worthwhile contacting retentions again with the £3.50 increase in mind if you wanted to renegotiate from today?

The info below is from https://www.virginmedia.com/help/prices?

If you joined or took out a new contract with Virgin Media before 9 January 2025, your price is adjusted based on the UK government’s Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation. RPI measures the rate of inflation by assessing the average change from one year to the next in the prices of a representative sample of goods and services purchased by typical UK households.

If you joined or took out a new contract with Virgin Media from 9 January 2025, your price will increase each April by £3.50, for a full breakdown of your price increases and when they will apply, please refer to your contract forms.

Is the 16% something you have calculated on the back of a "pounds and pence" increase of £3.50 or does the contract actually state in terms "16%"? I am currently guessing the former rather than the latter given what the VM agent said to you. Secondly when is the contract dated? 

As per the first post - the new contract would be due to start on 27/02/2025.

It would then increase just 33 days later - which is the point of my issue.

Any new customer signing up then gets an immediate increase - should be front and centre of the offer, and not hidden in small print.

There should be some better customer focused rules, something like - annual price increases every April, but does not apply within the first 3 months of a contract for anyone on 18 month contracts and longer (24 & 36 etc) - so anyone signing up between Jan - March are not impacted by any increase in April (as within first 3 months), but those from December and before (longer than 3 months) would be, and the same each year.

I do not see this as fair to customers that sign up a new contract on for example 20/03/2025 at one price, for it then to increase 2 weeks later.

The increase is unfair if within a certain short period of the start date.

This is a new thing that only commenced this year and most people don't realise until the change comes into affect in April that there will be kicking off.

The 16% I referenced reflects the percentage increase of amount.

For example.

Choosing a £22 package for 18 months - to then only provide small print after acceptance which shows that it's not £22 for 18 months (£22 x 18 = £396)

It's actually £22 for 1 month, then £25.50 for further 12 months, then £29.00 for further 7 months (total = £532) which overall is 34% than the initial implied offer.

The fixed amount increases only help those on larger packages - and penalises those on low income and small packages.

People need to be aware of small print - and this is going to cause a lot of fuss when the changes actually take effect.