Huge price hike

[Richiek]

Good evening all.

I received an email from Virgin this morning informing me that my contract had just ended and that my new monthly price would go up to £147.50 from £92. This is simply not affordable for us so I called customer services and after a lengthy chat with a pleasant chap in the Philippines I was told that the cheapest they could offer me for the same package was £120 which is still not acceptable. My daughter pays £76 per month for everything I get so I don't see why they can't match her price? Even new customers are being offered great deals compared to mine. I've been a loyal customer with Virgin for over 20 years and would have thought that loyal customers should be treated with a bit more respect to be honest. If they can't come up with something acceptable I'll have to jump ship to Sky or BT. I'd rather not have the upheaval but as a family we're not a cash cow for big companies to milk either!

[goslow]

This story has been repeated many times over on here recently - namely a price hike at renewal time, followed by a ridiculously high renewal offer.

Seek out your alternatives and do the research so you know what the competition is offering. Then try again with VM.

If VM does not come up with a good offer, cancel and switch provider.

You may well get a better VM offer once you have cancelled (though there is no guarantee at all this will happen) so you need to be prepared to follow through and leave if you do cancel.

Talk of 'thinking about' leaving or wanting to avoid the 'upheaval' will simply tell the agent you do not intend to leave and your renewal offer will be priced accordingly.

[japitts]

Although it's worth pointing out that in many cases such as this, the "price hike" is very often just the loss of time-limited discounts - each monthly bill shows the full cost of your package, and both the amount & expiry of any promotional discounts. So there's rarely a reason for the increase to be a surprise.

That aside, awareness of your options is partway to a more productive conversation with retentions.

[Richiek]

Ironically I wanted to leave Virgin back in May after their email system got hacked and many customers including myself had our logins and passwords that we used that were linked to Virgin email addresses compromised and accounts hacked. As soon as I knew what was going on I rang Virgin CS to notify them as time was of the essence and was told that 'someone would contact me back within 5 working days.' It took me weeks to reacquire and secure some of the accounts and even longer to recover money that had been taken but Virgin CS were incredibly laissez-faire about the whole thing which was very annoying. Their product on the whole is pretty good but I'm not a fan of their CS anymore as it's not what it used to be by any stretch of the imagination. Even when your contract has expired do you still need to give them 30 days notice? They claim that an email was sent to me on 9 August informing me that my contract was ending in 1 month but, I've been through my old emails and can't find it anywhere. May that went to the hackers too?

[unisoft]

Yes 30 days notice required EVEN if your contract has already ended. In my Virgin Media portal online, there is a contract section where a copy of your contract is (assuming you have re-contracted in past few years at some point).

[japitts]

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@unisoft wrote:

Yes 30 days notice required EVEN if your contract has already ended.

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In any service provision agreement, the contract only ends when the service does. It's a popular misonception that these contracts are fixed-term ones that "end" 12, 18 or 24months from when they start - they don't. The minimum term on a rolling contract ends at that date.

[Ashleigh_C · Accepted solution]

Hi there @Richiek 

Thank you so much for your post and welcome back to the community forums, it's great to have you here. 

I am so sorry that you have faced an issue with your package and thank you again for posting. While we do have new customer offers we always want to arrange the best possible deal we can for you as an existing customer. We do not typically handle package changes via the forums so we do recommend reaching out to us on 0345 454 1111, on WhatsApp messenger on 07305 327 112 or via the DM service on either our Facebook, X or Instagram accounts and we will do all we can to find a suitable deal. I understand you have reached out previously and been unhappy with the offers but please do reach back out and the teams will take a look at what we can sort for both your budget and needs. 

Thank you . 

[Richiek]

Thanks Ashleigh. I've spoken with Sky though and they can offer me pretty much everything I'm getting with my current Virgin package for over £40 per month less. I doubt Virgin would get close to that never mind match it so it looks like it's adios Virgin after many years!