VM locking customers into TWO YEAR contracts
With competition and cost pressures heating up it seems VM are quietly and gradually bumping up contract lengths from the more familiar 18 months to a marathon two years (BT, bless their soles, routinely use two year contracts now).
I will monitor this on a monthly basis but current examples include both M250 and Gig1 packages for new customers with just the first quarter of the contract discounted.
The two year contracts are, of course, now also fully locked in under the new and more onerous Ts and Cs so that (a) you can no longer just cancel without penalty if you don't like the mid contract price hike every February and (b) that mid contract price hike is the highest of all of the major providers as it uses the higher RPI measure of inflation and is RPI plus 3.9%.
It seems the Essentials, Student (and of course rolling) contracts will continue to be special cases in this respect.
I am also not aware, at time of posting, that renewing customers are being hit by this trend either but am very open to hearing about your experience upon negotiating a new deal re length of contract being demanded by VM please.
This thread would benefit from observations from other VM forum users please who spot new two year contractual lock ins.
Let's see where VM choose to go with it and shine some more light on it together.