renewal deal costs higher than advertised.

[grumpycustomer2]

I called to reduce my package to the big bundle. The VM team offered me a “price reduction” of £49 per month. However it is clearly listed on the website at £37.99. They refused to honour that amount and would not give me the details of anyone to complain to albeit they would forward the complaint on but nobody would contact me. Surely the fact you are advertising a lower price and refusing to provide it is illegal? At the very least it goes against the OFCOM CMA loyalty penalty changes brought in, in 2020. £49 is a hell of a fee for broadband and phone. The package doesn’t provide anything past freeview tv.

https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband?gclid=CjwKCAiAgvKQBhBbEiwAaPQw3Df00OyDYCm2Cg3ntqCrnPDHc6_ZKO7X...

Any suggestions?

[cje85]

Virgin is one of the only major ISPs that doesn't allow existing customers to re-contract on new customer prices, but they're not actually doing anything wrong as the Ofcom scheme is voluntary. 

[goslow]

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@grumpycustomer2 wrote:

I called to reduce my package to the big bundle. The VM team offered me a “price reduction” of £49 per month. However it is clearly listed on the website at £37.99. <snip>

Any suggestions?

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Assuming you are referring to 'Big bundle + Drama & Docs', the £37.99 p.m. price is for new customers. The post-contract price is listed as £71 p.m.

What do you actually/really want out of your package? If the TV above is, in fact, Freeview plus a few extra channels, many recent posts have opted on the forums to pay out for the necessary receiving/recording kit (aerial/video recording device etc.) and simply get the basic TV that way for those one-off set up costs.

If you are then seeking just BB and phone, then you will certainly get better pricing than VM by becoming a new customer with another supplier via new customer pricing.

[japitts]

I presume you're referring to the "Big bundle + Drama + Docs" on that linked page, in which case the standard price (under the drop-down) is £71/month.

You've been offered a discount of £23/month, which isn't far off a third off.

[grumpycustomer2]

but it is advertised online at £37.99 for the first 18 months and I have entered a new contract under the same terms and goes up after 18 months at the  advertised £71 rate so the "reduction" is £11 more pcm than at the advertised price?

[grumpycustomer2]

CJE85 very helpful answer thank you. it sucks but it helps 😂

[goslow]

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@grumpycustomer2 wrote:

but it is advertised online at £37.99 for the first 18 months and I have entered a new contract under the same terms and goes up after 18 months at the  advertised £71 rate so the "reduction" is £11 more pcm than at the advertised price?

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Have you looked around other providers to see how the £49 for TV/phone/BB stacks up and used that pricing in negotiation with VM?

You may be able to get closer to the £37.99 new customer pricing if you have other offers to put against VM's

The VM renewal process is completely broken and ridiculous where each individual person has to try to carve out their own deal in a game of bluff with VM. I did manage to get an offer from VM of a near-new-customer pricing on BB and phone by the above method but I wanted to drop the phone for BB only which VM wouldn't entertain (by way of adverse pricing for BB only) so I have now switched to BT as of last Friday. Now just need to extract myself from VM. Cancellation letter went in today. Will see if it is possible to actually leave VM without a fight.

Good luck with the quest for the elusive new customer price!

[GLP008]

Virgin don't seem to have any policies or offers targeted at retaining existing customers - my Broadband + phone contract expired recently & they wanted to offer me a new contract at a higher price than before, a higher price than they offer new customers & for a service which has a fault which they tell me is due to insufficient capacity in my area with no date for a resolution.

Why would I want to renew with Virgin given their attitude towards existing customers?

They seem to believe that offering the fastest service in the area via their full fibre product is enough to prevent existing customers from leaving - for me at least, they are wrong - BT offer sufficient speed for my needs & whilst no suppliers are perfect, they do have a much healthier customer philosophy.

Sadly Virgin, you seem to have lost the "customer's champion " credentials on which your brand was built ....

[japitts]

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@GLP008 wrote:

my Broadband + phone contract expired recently & they wanted to offer me a new contract at a higher price than before

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Your contract didn't expire, it was still continuing albeit the minimum term had passed.

Quite often that means time-limited discounts expire also, which many people mistake to mean a price increase.

If your base price genuinely was changing, it's likely you were being moved to a new product/package as part of a renegotiation.

[GLP008]

Hi Japitts

I understand the reason for your assumption but my issue is one of principle.

As you suggest, offering new customers "loss leader" pricing to secure them as a customer has not been uncommon for service companies.

However, the number of enlightened suppliers promising never to offer new customers a price they won't honour for existing customers, has grown significantly over the last 18 months. I suspect this is due to the wealth of research highlighting that 'loss leader' pricing followed by a significant price hike is one of the biggest causes of customer friction.

In Feb'20 Ofcom reported that 20 million customers were out of contract & paying more than they needed to because suppliers were not reminding customers that their initial committed contract term had ended & their price was going up. Virgin were not alone - but in my personal experience through other properties, businesses and service providers they are one of the worst for this practice.

The numerous threads on this issue on this forum would seem to support this insight.

For me the bigger issue is that my service is currently faulty with a my Broadband supply suffering bad contention at peak time - and Virgin admitted to me that it was due to a 'capacity issue in my area' for which they have no timescale for a resolution. To then increase what they are charging me whilst offering new customers a significantly lower price - even as a loss leader - is disingenuous at best. 

Virgin built it's brand on being the "customer's champion" - sadly this no longer appears to be one of the company's brand values 😞