Virgin Media Community

[SS_2011]

Hello all, I have a query regarding the 2021 price increase. I've searched this forum and it seems this question has been covered on a number of occasions, but there doesn't seem to be one specific for my situation, which I shall explain and it may help other people in a similar scenario. If there is, apologies as I must have missed it.

If you have just taken out a new contract in the last few weeks, but then receive notification of a price increase, does it apply to the new contract, or could the notice have been generated before making changes to the account? I haven't yet seen a new bill post changes so do not know whether I have a fixed price deal or standard deal with £xx or xx% off. My last bill was for a higher amount than usual (due to no longer getting the promo price), my next bill is going to be lower than the new deal (to counteract my last overcharged bill, as it were), and then the third bill (and ongoing bills) are going to be at the new lower deal price until this new deal ends.

For more specific details, I had broadband only on a promotional price on an 18 month contract that ended in January 2021. When the next bill arrived it was at more or less the standard higher price and more than I was prepared to pay, so I called customer services with the intention of cancelling - I had already lined up 3 good deals with other companies. As a side note, being a long term customer since 2005, years ago I had various TV, broadband and landline packages but gave this up about 2 or 3 years ago as I rarely made use of the non free-to-air channels and did not need a landline.

So, back to my query. It's been about 2 weeks since I intended to cancel my broadband service, but upon speaking to customer services, I was offered a good deal on a new 18 month contract which I accepted. Then, yesterday a letter arrived advising that my bill is going up on 1st March.

Could this be just bad timing and my new promo price will in fact stay at the same for this new 18 month contract? If not, the increase is going to be 10% which does not seem justifiable and I will likely have to look elsewhere.

I've posted here because, although the customer services phone line was answered reasonably quickly when I wanted to leave, the line quality was poor and the operator had a fairly heavy non English accent so it wasn't the easiest conversation to understand. I also tried the web chat yesterday but gave up after nearly an hour of waiting for a human, and also tried today and again gave up are waiting about 2 hours for a human. The chat bots can only do so much to help! I realise most companies have reduced staffing levels to some degree and some maybe working from home what with all the Covid-19 restrictions on at the moment, so I felt this community could provide a definitive answer to my non-urgent query.

Thanks for reading if you managed to make it this far!

[Emma_C · Accepted solution]

Hi SS_2011, 

Thanks for your post and welcome to our community. 

Any discount that you’ve been offered for the 12/18 months will still be honoured – so if you accepted a fixed price then you’ll receive that until the end of the discount period.  If you accepted a £ or % amount off, this will also continue to be honoured but you will see your price increase from the 1st March.

We will advise you in your communication how the price change will affect your deal. 

I hope that clears things up but if you have any further concerns you'd like to discuss please let us know. 

[SS_2011]

Hello and thanks for the response. I think that clears it up, although I'm a bit more confused. Only because I accepted a fixed price until the end of the discount period which means it will be honoured, but checking my new contract it states:

Promotional Offer(s)
Discount (until 7th July 2022)

I don't want to assume, then on 1st March my bill goes up by 10% and that'll be after the date at which I can cancel without paying any fees.

Just to be 100% sure I've found and submitted a web form in the 'Raise a complaint' section. That's the only way I can see to seek clarification for my particular circumstances without waiting hours on end for a call centre or human response on a web chat. I will post the response here when I receive it.

Thank you for the help.

[Chris_W1]

Hi SS_2011, thanks for the message, the price increase would be added on top of the monthly term and we give you the option to cancel without EDF charges if you choose too ^Chris

[SS_2011]

Replying back on this thread to update for those who may have encountered a similar situation.

The issue was my promo deal came to end so I was looking to go elsewhere for a more competitive deal. I was offered a good deal to stay, with a new contract which I accepted, then less than 2 weeks later was sent notification in the post of a pending price increase. This would mean my monthly bill going up by 10% after just 1 month on the new deal. After submitting an online complaint form (as that was the only way I could get through to query this), I've now had a response after 3 weeks.

"I would like to let you know that the notification you received with regards to the
price increase, I would like to request you to ignore the same as you would not be
impacted for the price increase taking place in March. So you need not worry about
the increase in your package pricing."

I'm happy to know the new deal is being honoured so will be staying with VM for the foreseeable future, having been a happy customer, for the most part, since 2005.

Thanks to all who responded with help / advice.

[Paul_DN]

Hi 

SS_2011,

Thank you for reaching back out to us and for the update, really glad to hear you have got the information required and that you will continue with us as a happy customer just has you have been since 2005.

Kind regards

Paul.