Virgin Media Community

[Susime]

Today I called up to try and take out the tv part of my package completely as I don't watch tv anymore and costs were getting too high, but was told I would have a cheaper deal with the base tv package along with broadband and phone. It worked out like this:

TV, phone, broadband = £59

Just phone and broadband = £65

My question is if this seems right or is correct? I'm having difficulty understanding it and feel even £65 is a bit expensive for just phone and broadband.

Thanks.

[goslow]

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@Susime wrote:

Today I called up to try and take out the tv part of my package completely as I don't watch tv anymore and costs were getting too high, but was told I would have a cheaper deal with the base tv package along with broadband and phone. It worked out like this:

TV, phone, broadband = £59

Just phone and broadband = £65

My question is if this seems right or is correct? I'm having difficulty understanding it and feel even £65 is a bit expensive for just phone and broadband.

Thanks.

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VM's pricing is based on taking out bundles of services and offering a discount for additional services.

If you re-negotiate your services every 18 months you will get a new package price and 'bundling' can work out well. If you do not renew after 18 months, then you will be paying a higher standard price for an additional service (or services) that you may not really need/want. VM hopes you will like using the (say) TV service and keep that in your package and/or you will let the renewal lapse in which case you will be paying the standard price for a bigger bundle of services.

If you really just want broadband and phone, then look around for prices from other suppliers so you can compare with any offers VM comes up with. You will also get new customer pricing with another supplier.

Read some advice from Andrew-G at message #5 below on the business of negotiating with VM

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Why-oh-why-does-loyalty-get-punishe...

(And, yes, £65 p.m. offered by VM is very high indeed for broadband and phone compared to what you might be able to get elsewhere!)

[Andrew-G]

If renegotiating your contract, be clear on whether the April/May price rise this year will apply to the price you agree (and if so how much you'll then be paying), but also note that next April you'll be hit by an RPI+4% increase that you won't be able to renegotiate.  If we guess RPI+4% to come to 10%, then next April your price will then go up, but not by that guessed 10%, but by more than that in inverse proportion to your discount because VM apply the price increase to the undiscounted price and then whatever that cash increase is, they add to your monthly payment. 

So basically, the better the discount you have, the higher any VM price hike will be - for anybody getting the sort of good deals that VM offer to new customers (and that existing customers can negotiate close to if they follow the rules of negotiating with retentions), that can mean that the effective monthly price increase will be more than double the rate VM announce.

[Gareth_L]

Hello Susime,

Thanks for your first post and welcome to our Community.
Sorry to hear about the mixed messages you are getting when enquiring about removing TV from your package.

The more services a customer has gives us a better range of discounts that can be added.

Sadly as a Forum Team we are unable make any package changes.

Can you please keep us updated on what you decide to do.

Gareth_L