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Essential Broadband With Stream Unfair Extra Monthly Costs

lisa33
On our wavelength
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    Virgin UK  offer an essential broadband package for customers who are on certain welfare benefits, I recommended my brother to apply for this but I noticed that the difference between broadband 54Mbps (£20 per month) and 54Mbps with stream (£25 per month) is £5. This seems to be a very unfair charge being that you can currently pay a one off payment for stream of £35 (Was £25 a few months ago) meaning someone who takes up the essentials package with stream over 12 months will pay an extra £25 if they don’t buy stream as a one off payment. In the second year it will be an extra £60, considering the essential packages are supposed to help low income families this appears to defeat the object of that package and many customers will be unaware of those unfair extra charges as there is no information letting the customer know that they will be paying more money for the stream than they would if they paid a one off fee and took the 54Mbs package without stream. 
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10 REPLIES 10

newapollo
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Essential Broadband customers are charged a subscription price of £12.50 a month for 15 Mbps broadband with free set up .

Essential Broadband Plus customers are charged a subscription price of £20.00 a month for 50 Mbps broadband with free set up.

Essential Broadband Plus with Flex customers are currently charged a one off set up fee of £10 (which is the cheapest it's ever been and is actually an activation fee for the equipment) In the past this set up fee been has £35, or for a period of time also on offer for £25)

The set up fee has nothing to do with the subscription price which is £25 a month for the 50 Mbps broadband and Stream (Flex) 

 

Dave
I don't work for Virgin Media.
I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge.
Problem solved? Click to mark as a Helpful Answer, or use Kudos to say thanks

The Service you do for others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth - Muhammad Ali

lisa33
On our wavelength

But you can be an essential customer and get 54Mbps and then purchase the stream unit for a one off £35 fee so your monthly outgoing is £20 a month once you have purchased the stream for a one off £35 so your total for 12 months will be 12 x £20 = £240 plus £35 so £275 OR Essential Broadband including stream for £25 a month total for 12 months is then £300 and if you sign up for another 12 months on Essential = £240 or if you’ve took the stream package that’s £300 I have taken the package without stream and paid £25 for the stream unit as it was £25 then, so it definitely costs more to get the package that’s £25 a month rather than do it the way I have, and this is not considering any set up costs to keep it simple so that anyone can see it costs more money to take the £25 a month package than the £20 including buying the stream as a one off payment, it costs me nothing to use my stream unless I choose to add on, as I paid a one off cost for it.

lisa33
On our wavelength

This screen shot shows you can purchase the stream unit on its own for a one off fee (albeit they call it an activation fee its still a one off fee with no further monthly charge unless you want to add channels besides the free ones) and then if you take out the Essential Package 54Mps at £20 a month that’s cheaper than the Essential Package with Stream at £25 a month 

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newapollo
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

The package you took out included a set up fee of £25 - that is not a fee for the actual box.  Customers can't purchase any of VM's equipment (including the Stream (Flex) box) The one off cost is not for the box it's a set up fee. Due to the box being loaned to you VM provide all repairs and box replacements for free unless it's due to misuse, neglect of, accidental or wilful damage to VM's equipment

Since the box is on loan from VM it needs returning if you cancel  your services.  If the box isn't returned then you are charged up to £60 per unit for the Stream box  -  see  /legal/price-guides  the Non Returned Equipment section at the bottom of the page.  (The box will just be a doorstop if you cancel the services as it can only be used with VM broadband and is linked to your account, so nobody else would be able to use it.).

There's a pinned post at the top of this forum from the forum manager <here> regarding Flex.  

It won't affect the price you are currently paying, however all new Flex customers (with or without Essential Broadband) currently have to pay the one off £10 set up fee along with the additional £5 a month for the Flex service.

Dave
I don't work for Virgin Media.
I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge.
Problem solved? Click to mark as a Helpful Answer, or use Kudos to say thanks

The Service you do for others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth - Muhammad Ali

unisoft
Knows their stuff

It changed around 17th October 2024 for new customers to £5 a month for everyone instead of no fee for Freeview channels (technically, more channels than terrestrial Freeview). Stream is now known as Flex, it's new product name.

The setup fee for Flex is one off of £35 normally, and for Broadband Essentials Plus social tariff is £10. 

lisa33
On our wavelength

Seems like my post is lost in translation so to speak 🙂

lisa33
On our wavelength

Seems like my post is lost in translation so to speak 🙂  and Essentials packages are now £12.50, £20 and £25 in fact

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those prices is on my screen shots.

unisoft
Knows their stuff

It changed around 27th October. Any web pages saying it's free are incorrect and not updated as it should be. It's a £5  per month charge now in addition to an activation fee/setup charge which is one-off. In social tariff for Broadband and Flex, the £5 charge is included already at £25. Yes it's going to cost more than the previous offering of just an activation fee. That's a business decision VM have made to do, probably because Sky Stream has never had a free option and Sky typically charge around £26 under 24 month contract but that does include Netflix and subscription channels not just free to air. In VMs defence here, you can opt in or out monthly as you want for a Sky entertainment package on Flex and/or Netflix. Taking all three now works out more expensive than Sky Stream though.

lisa33
On our wavelength

Actually since I queried it with Virgin (and I’m not saying it was anything to do with my query) they are now offering Essentials Broadband Plus with Flex  (correctly I feel) at £20 a month and a one off £10 set up fee for the stream, not one person who replied addressed my original post (like I said lost in translation) this package is the same as Essentials Broadband Plus @ £20 a month the difference being the stream box which should be a one off fee rather than £25 a month which would cost low income users much more financially, unaware at the time they could have bought Essential Broadband Plus for £20 a month then pay a one off fee for the stream (which they can now do).

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