Essential Broadband - Confirming Ongoing Eligibility

[foggynervosa]

Hi,

We have Virgin Media's Essential Broadband package as being in receipt of Universal Credit.

On our monthly bills there is the following note:

"You're getting an essential broadband plus discount, which will end on 22 September 2024. We'll be in touch before then to confirm your ongoing eligibility"

I have not been contacted, and we are still eligible, but my most recent bill has had the discount removed.

How can I contact the relevant department, (Billing, or whatever) to provide this evidence and continue to receive the discount?

I have called 0345 454 1111 and after going round in circles with the automated options, I managed to talk to 3 different people, non of whom seemed to have the definitive answer. The last person suggested going through the sign up process again, which I'm not convinced about and risks us having two ongoing contracts.

The most obvious option to my mind would be to speak to someone in Billing.. but how can I contact them?

[Cardiffman282]

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Essential-Broadband-Renewal/td-p/4922777 

[Paul_DN]

Hi foggynervosa,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us Via our community and welcome back, as you have advised he contract is ending you can speak to our Customer Relation team and once the relevant information is provided they will then be able to get this added for you for a further 18 months contract, please call either 150 from a Virgin Landline or 0345 454 1111 from any other phone, option 1,3 then 4.

Regards

Paul.

[Mr_K]

Confusing reply from the VM team about 18 month contracts. One of the points of essential broadbandbis that it's a 1 month rolling contract? 

Also it seems apparent from this and the other thread that they don't 'contact you to confirm ongoing eligibility' each year,  and just increase the price and hope you don't notice. 

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us Mr_K, that is correct it wouldn't be an 18 month contract for essential broadband it would be a 30 day rolling contract for the Essential broadband services.

Regarding eligibility checks. We’ll check to see if you’re still eligible for our Essential broadband packages every 12 months and notify you of the outcome of the eligibility check. If you are, you’ll continue to be charged £12.50 a month for Essential broadband, or £20 a month for Essential broadband plus. If you no longer receive support payments or if your eligibility check fails, the monthly price will increase to our standard pricing for each package respectively. 

That information can be found in the FAQS of our Essential broadband pages 👉 https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/low-income-families

Kind Regards,

Steven_L