27% price increase

[ps-dodds]

Received a letter last week informing me that my monthly price is to rise from the contract £80 to £101.50 - an increase of 27%. 
Although this change is, according to the letter, not scheduled to take place until 1st May, my package cost on My Virgin Media has already been updated. 
I am still in contact until October but obviously am within my rights to cancel without penalty. 
After 20 years as a Virgin customer, I am absolutely disgusted with this ridiculous price hike and feel that it’s unacceptably high. 
Has anyone else in the community experienced a similar level of price increase and are you going to cancel your services as a result?

[AwkwardBroccoli]

Don't know how they think they can justify increasing prices to more than double what inflation was, before it came down. 

The service is down in my area...again.

They tried to increase our prices a few months ago but I pointed out that it was a negotiated retentions deal and they couldn't, and then they never mentioned it again.

Been with these guys since the early 90s when it was Comcast, NTL and all the other rebrands.

Going to be looking elsewhere in August. Probably going to ditch TV. Have to pay for Paramount+, Disney+, Prime and Netflix. Virgin channels are just all repeats, can't get the good shows which are exclusive to Sky channels.

Broadband and the stupid fibre optic  landline with it, are constantly down, like tonight, again.

Seems a bit weird to increase prices when the service is getting disproportionately worse. Definitely not good value for money.

[jamesofmerton]

'Has anyone else in the community experienced a similar level of price increase and are you going to cancel your services as a result?'

ours went up by about the same. affordability not a problem, but we will be leaving when the tv360 'upgrade' is forced upon everyone. we are out of contract but won't be getting involved in any changes that result in commitment to another long contract.

[jbrennand]

My friend round the corner from me got a similsr letter last week. He called retentions to cancel the contract and they gave him a reduction of his charge to stay - on an new 18 month contract.

Worth a call to see.

[ps-dodds]

I spent a while chatting to customer support through WhatsApp and they reduced my monthly charge to £82 until the end of my contract which is October this year. I felt this was reasonable compared to the figure quoted in the letter. Will see what is on offer on a new contract later in the year. 

[AwkwardBroccoli]

Our letter came today. Unless they offer a better retentions deal than we have currently (£81), we'll be leaving in August, the earliest they can put ours up.

[Andrew-G]

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@ps-dodds wrote:

I am still in contact until October but obviously am within my rights to cancel without penalty. 

This time, yes.  But if you agree to a new deal with VM, then next time round they'll be able to put up your bill by a similar formula, but by renewing you'll have accepted new terms that mean you won't be able to cancel without penalty when they put up prices in a similar manner next April.  Unless you can renegotiate a specifically fixed price deal, and make sure you've got and kept evidence of that agreement.  Most VM deals are fixed discount, and that's how the company get away with such outrageous price rises, because a customer's discount of £x a month is still in place, it's just that they've inflated the base price from which the discount is subtracted.

Has anyone else in the community experienced a similar level of price increase and are you going to cancel your services as a result?

The price rise reflects the way that VM calculate and apply the price rise, which means the better the discount you're on, the greater the multiplier that is applied to the claimed price increase.  

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[ps-dodds]

Thanks for your insight. 
I had read about next year’s contractual changes so if we do negotiate a new contract later this year then any agreement I make will be on the condition of a fixed price for the full duration of the contract. 

[AwkwardBroccoli]

If they agree to that on the phone, ask them to include it in the paperwork - they won't, they'll just send you the bog standard stuff. In that event, do a Subject Access Request and ask for a copy of the call recording for the retention call, so you have what was agreed. You're not allowed to record it yourself unless you have a recording license and their permission. I believe they have to record them all as they're essentially verbal contracts on the phone.

I had an issue last year where they categorically told me multiple times that nothing would change but the price, that the package would remain the same and nothing but the price would be altered and then they removed the children's channels and wanted to charge us extra to add them back on  as an add-on.

As my nephew, he visits a lot, was approaching 4, he was getting more into cartoons and such, so we really need them.

Thankfully the forum staff here helped us out and I got a copy of the call via a SAR as a back up.