Change in contract and price rise

[BBwill]

Hi,

Need some help please. I'll come to the price rise in a moment. 

Firstly, I would like to know if I can leave my virgin contract not because of the increase but due to the change Virgin are making to the contracts. From 2024 they are adopting the RPI model to raise prices which means you will not be able to leave any longer, this is now going to be baked into the contracts. Surely, such a change to the terms allows us to hand in our notice?

I joined VM 14 months ago on the ultimate volt bundle, this package includes an O2 SIM, the price was £79 for the package, £25 was billed by O2 and £54 by Virgin. 

In the interim, VM put the price up last March, then in April, O2 put the price up separately, I'm now paying closer to £90 for the package.

Back to this year, we've been informed VM are putting the price up by nearly 14%, on top of that O2 will shortly announce an RPI increase of around 20% 😱.

End result will mean I'll be paying over £100 come April. Only been with the company for 14 months!

Fed up with all this and the fact the Virgin Broadband has been flaky, I decided to sign up with Community Fibre since I live in London, joined last month and got the first three months free and then £25 a month for 1 Gig symmetrical speeds, the BB is way better compared to Virgin, lower latency and 20 times faster uploads compared to my VM gig service. 

The problem is I have yet to receive the price increase notification yet from VM, I can't wait to ditch them! At the moment I'm not paying for community Fibre, but that will change in March. 

Does anyone know when the price increase notifications are being sent? Or can I just give my notice to leave simply because Virgin are changing the terms of their contracts. 

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

[Adri_G]

Thanks for posting on our help forum, ollietup.

Changing prices is never an easy decision, but as service usage has increased over the last 24 months we have to continuously re-invest in our network. Doing so permits more people to enjoy our services and meet the demand to continuously deliver the fastest widely-available speeds in the UK. We're continuing to invest in our network which will help improve performance and reliability for all.

In addition to this, we have supported our customers with a range of upgrades and new services at no extra cost. Whether that's giving customers a free speed boost, upgrading their equipment or providing new content and channels, we're committed to giving our customers more.

[ollietup]

You can understand why it's galling, though - my monthly bill is going up by 25%, nearly double inflation. Meanwhile you are reducing my service later in the year by removing the wifi hotspot service. Also I notice that new customers can get double the speed that I'm getting, for a lower monthly price than mine is set to rise to. It doesn't really seem like you care much about customer loyalty.

[unisoft]

---

@Adri_G wrote:

Thanks for posting on our help forum, ollietup.

Changing prices is never an easy decision, but as service usage has increased over the last 24 months we have to continuously re-invest in our network. Doing so permits more people to enjoy our services and meet the demand to continuously deliver the fastest widely-available speeds in the UK. We're continuing to invest in our network which will help improve performance and reliability for all.

In addition to this, we have supported our customers with a range of upgrades and new services at no extra cost. Whether that's giving customers a free speed boost, upgrading their equipment or providing new content and channels, we're committed to giving our customers more.

---

So on the 1GIG service, where is the higher upload than paltry 52mbps? There was no free upgrade to speed on that tier down or up.

Where are the HUB5's for everyone "at no extra cost" as promised on this very forum and press release when launched?

You upgrade people's speeds "for free" like sometimes in the past you do a tier upgrade - then sting people later for an increase at that tier level when they may have been perfectly happy on their old tier where an increase would have been lower.

You can't negate the price increase your staff say , but my other half had an O2 SIM, upgrade to all the TV channels except premium standalone ones, and an upgrade from 350mbps to 500mbps for £1 more than the price increase. That is a marketing ploy to make believe they got value when they didn't even NEED the extra stuff. They had already got boosted from M100 to M200 originally and then to M350 on previous retention deals for an extra £1 each time. M125 more than enough without this forced bundling. Anyway too late for them, they have woken up, and sorting another FTTC provider out at £21 per month for full 80/20 a reduction of £30! FTTP is coming anyway by an ALTNET and BT.

[unisoft]

---

@ollietup wrote:
You can understand why it's galling, though - my monthly bill is going up by 25%, nearly double inflation. Meanwhile you are reducing my service later in the year by removing the wifi hotspot service. Also I notice that new customers can get double the speed that I'm getting, for a lower monthly price than mine is set to rise to. It doesn't really seem like you care much about customer loyalty.

---

they fully understand. Remember the staff on thee forums are not on Exec salaries. They just can't agree as they have to tow the company policy 😉

I bet there isn't any one of them that disagree at a personal level....

[Adri_G]

Thanks for getting back to us with your concerns, ollietup. 

The use of our Wi-Fi Hotspots has been declining in recent years. Maintaining a network of over 4 million hotspots is a significant expense, and with traffic on the decline, as well as increased usage over 4G or 5G mobile services, we want to continue investing in and providing the services our customers use and value the most.

Virgin Media customers with a mobile device will still be able to access Wi-Fi on the London Underground. From April 1st 2023, they will need to sign up and register for the new BAI/TFL service.

[mark_a_carpente]

So I had the inevitable email today telling me that my package is going up by £15.00, meaning I will be paying over £150 a month. Time to seriously look around at other options now. Had prices rises before but nowhere near approching this amount honestly it's a joke. I think last year it was about £5 to put it into context so this is 3 times what they put it up by last year. I mean do they think people have a bottomless pit of money and will just pay whatever ?           I suppose I could downgrade the package I have back to the same broadband speed I had before they upgraded, me and remove some random kids pick thing they gave me for example that I never asked for in the first place, but probably still pay more for less. As long as they don't try and force me to take out a new contract which i'm not prepared to do

It would be nice if existing loyal customers got offered a deal similar to new customers without having to waste god knows how much time calling up and basically being prepared to leave. Fortunatley I have not actually taken out a new contract for years so I see no reason why I should not be able to cancel at any point in time without any kind of fee which should be the same for anybody who's contract has run it's course. I feel sorry for anybody who has taken out a new contract recently only to find out they are about to be stiched up. It also really winds me up that they seem to insist on a minimum contract of 18 months to guarantee that any anual price hike will mean you have to just suffer it until the contract reaches it's end or pay some ridiculous cancellation fee

While everyone understands the situation with inflation being what it is, I find it rather obnoxius they will start putting up prices over and above inflation. Start thinking of your customers and how it affects them instead of just profits. Maybe when they have massive amount of people leave and suddenly find a big drop in the amount of cash coming in something might change

[M1llwallsky]

thanks @BBwill,

Its Lit Fibre that is available in my area. I still haven't received my notification from VM. Called them and expressed my annoyance about that! Sadly, the person on the phone hang up! 

Anyhow, I'm now connected with Lit Fibre, they gave me 3 months free, the install was carried out professionally and within 5 days of placing the order. I will be paying £27 for the 500Mbps Symmetrical speeds after the free period ends. On an 18 month contract.

So far, I am absolutely delighted with the speeds Lit Fibre provide, I am getting a steady ~500Mpbs up and down. The latency is so much lower than Virgin Media, even though I was on their 1130Mbps service, my new broadband just performs better. No lag or buffering whatsoever.

Cant wait to receive the notification so I can ditch VM for good. The three months free with Lit will cover the period I am forced to stay with VM.

[Adri_G]

Hi M1llwallsky, thank you for your post on our help forum and this thread.

We're sad to see you go and that you're not happy with our services, if you're looking to cancel VM you can do this without fees within the last 30 days of your contract.

Although we don't want to see you go, our retentions team will be happy to best advise on your options for disconnecting your services.

For this, you'd need to call in at our main line 0345 454 1111 or 150 from a VM landline, our agents will put you through to our dedicated cancellations team from there.

We'd love to assist further however we do not support cancellation requests from this end.

Please, get in touch and we'll be eager to support you on this process.
Let us know if you have any questions.

[unisoft]

---

@mark_a_carpente wrote:

So I had the inevitable email today telling me that my package is going up by £15.00, meaning I will be paying over £150 a month. Time to seriously look around at other options now. Had prices rises before but nowhere near approching this amount honestly it's a joke. I think last year it was about £5 to put it into context so this is 3 times what they put it up by last year. I mean do they think people have a bottomless pit of money and will just pay whatever ?           I suppose I could downgrade the package I have back to the same broadband speed I had before they upgraded, me and remove some random kids pick thing they gave me for example that I never asked for in the first place, but probably still pay more for less. As long as they don't try and force me to take out a new contract which i'm not prepared to do

It would be nice if existing loyal customers got offered a deal similar to new customers without having to waste god knows how much time calling up and basically being prepared to leave. Fortunatley I have not actually taken out a new contract for years so I see no reason why I should not be able to cancel at any point in time without any kind of fee which should be the same for anybody who's contract has run it's course. I feel sorry for anybody who has taken out a new contract recently only to find out they are about to be stiched up. It also really winds me up that they seem to insist on a minimum contract of 18 months to guarantee that any anual price hike will mean you have to just suffer it until the contract reaches it's end or pay some ridiculous cancellation fee

While everyone understands the situation with inflation being what it is, I find it rather obnoxius they will start putting up prices over and above inflation. Start thinking of your customers and how it affects them instead of just profits. Maybe when they have massive amount of people leave and suddenly find a big drop in the amount of cash coming in something might change

---

Renegotiate by using the "leaving Virgin" option on the telephone not standard customer services. You should get new customer pricing or near or sometimes even better. Be polite to VM retentions and explain what you are not happy about and the changes you want to make (you may decide your current BB speed isn't being utilised for example or want to reduce TV channels or reduce one service and add to another).

• Existing customers are cheaper than new as no free gifts (TV's Xbox Cashback as examples depending on the marketing for any given month), no need for VM to pay return postage for kit, no need to refurbish kit, no need to pay cashback to referral sites like quidco/topcashback.
• There has to be a benefit to a customer like a discount because they are being locked into an 18 month contract again
• Know your market prices for other providers Broadband, for example FTTC on NOWTV is 12 month or monthly only contact at £22. If you just want broadband only its going to easier than someone who wants landline and TV
• Consider whether you need a lock in contract for TV services. Does VM's STREAM box offer the channels you want (its Freeview part is free) and can you go without recording facility and just use catch up players or have another device that does recording off Freeview (aerial) for example? Stream's Sky subscriptions channels is only £8 per month and a 30 day notice contract. You also get 10% back on many subscriptions like Netflix, Disney etc.
• Ofcom rules mean you can currently exit your contract without penalty, as long as you do this within 30 days of being notified by VM; wait 3 months and be classed as a new customer and get new customer offers. Alternatively, many people on here sign up the next day in their partner's name.
• Be prepared to give 30 days notice if the result isn't what you want, this gives you time to arrange BB installation by someone else and you can ring back in to cancel the cancel if you change your mind. During this time you **may** get a call from 2nd level retentions with a better offer. It's not guaranteed and they won't if you have marketing disabled in My Virgin Media under My Profile.
• Despite annual price rises at ridiculous rates, new customer offers have been static for years (like Ultimate package hovers around £79-£85 often and sometimes with cashback or free gifts like a TV as just one example)

[unisoft]

---

@mark_a_carpente wrote:

So I had the inevitable email today telling me that my package is going up by £15.00, meaning I will be paying over £150 a month. Time to seriously look around at other options now. Had prices rises before but nowhere near approching this amount honestly it's a joke. I think last year it was about £5 to put it into context so this is 3 times what they put it up by last year. I mean do they think people have a bottomless pit of money and will just pay whatever ?           I suppose I could downgrade the package I have back to the same broadband speed I had before they upgraded, me and remove some random kids pick thing they gave me for example that I never asked for in the first place, but probably still pay more for less. As long as they don't try and force me to take out a new contract which i'm not prepared to do

It would be nice if existing loyal customers got offered a deal similar to new customers without having to waste god knows how much time calling up and basically being prepared to leave. Fortunatley I have not actually taken out a new contract for years so I see no reason why I should not be able to cancel at any point in time without any kind of fee which should be the same for anybody who's contract has run it's course. I feel sorry for anybody who has taken out a new contract recently only to find out they are about to be stiched up. It also really winds me up that they seem to insist on a minimum contract of 18 months to guarantee that any anual price hike will mean you have to just suffer it until the contract reaches it's end or pay some ridiculous cancellation fee

While everyone understands the situation with inflation being what it is, I find it rather obnoxius they will start putting up prices over and above inflation. Start thinking of your customers and how it affects them instead of just profits. Maybe when they have massive amount of people leave and suddenly find a big drop in the amount of cash coming in something might change

---

Renegotiate by using the "leaving Virgin" option on the telephone not standard customer services. You should get new customer pricing or near or sometimes even better. Be polite to VM retentions and explain what you are not happy about and the changes you want to make (you may decide your current BB speed isn't being utilised for example or want to reduce TV channels or reduce one service and add to another).

• Existing customers are cheaper than new as no free gifts (TV's Xbox Cashback as examples depending on the marketing for any given month), no need for VM to pay return postage for kit, no need to refurbish kit, no need to pay cashback to referral sites like quidco/topcashback.
• There has to be a benefit to a customer like a discount because they are being locked into an 18 month contract again
• Know your market prices for other providers Broadband, for example FTTC on NOWTV is 12 month or monthly only contact at £22. If you just want broadband only its going to easier than someone who wants landline and TV
• Consider whether you need a lock in contract for TV services. Does VM's STREAM box offer the channels you want (its Freeview part is free) and can you go without recording facility and just use catch up players or have another device that does recording off Freeview (aerial) for example? Stream's Sky subscriptions channels is only £8 per month and a 30 day notice contract. You also get 10% back on many subscriptions like Netflix, Disney etc.
• Ofcom rules mean you can currently exit your contract without penalty, as long as you do this within 30 days of being notified by VM; wait 3 months and be classed as a new customer and get new customer offers. Alternatively, many people on here sign up the next day in their partner's name.
• Be prepared to give 30 days notice if the result isn't what you want, this gives you time to arrange BB installation by someone else and you can ring back in to cancel the cancel if you change your mind. During this time you **may** get a call from 2nd level retentions with a better offer. It's not guaranteed and they won't if you have marketing disabled in My Virgin Media under My Profile.
• Despite annual price rises at ridiculous rates, new customer offers have been static for years (like Ultimate package hovers around £79-£85 often and sometimes with cashback or free gifts like a TV as just one example).