Price rise or not?

[madmatt30]

So had the price rise letter but this paragraph leads me to think it wont affect me until November when my current deal ends.

'However, this 2023 price increase won't affect you until your current price offer ends. The full price of your package will then increase by £7.00 a month, subject to the new pricing terms referred to below. If you'd like to check when your offer ends, please refer to your bill.'

Does that sound right ?? as a colleague had a similar letter but has rung and been told that their price is going up on April 1 irregardless of the wording.

Another £7 pm is a 33% increase for me on 135mbs and bt fibre have just hit my area with 250 mbs for £30 which is virtually the same price .

Typically I came from bt from virgin because their old copper connection was shocking speed wise but 2 weeks after changing over they started to upgrade the whole area.

[Kain_W]

Hi there madmatt30,

Thanks for your post and welcome to the community.

Many of our customers who join us take promotional offers for a period of time which will be fully honoured. These customers will all receive a price rise communication, but the 2023 price rise won’t be applied until after their offer price promotion ends.

Hope this helps, also regarding the speed, is that happening on a wired connection?

Regards,

[madmatt30]

Hi Kain , I think you misunderstood regarding the speeds.

I'm more than happy with virgin speeds, the issue was with my old bt internet which ran on  30+ year old copper lines.

Good to know that my current price stands until Feb 2024.

That said its scheduled to go up to £51 then + the £7 increase + a further rise in April 2024 so I suppose Ill have to play the old retentions game which I did years ago as an early adopter of cabled internet some 20 odd years ago because clearly no one would pay that amount of money per month just for internet.

Regards , Matt.

[Andrew-G]

---

@madmatt30 wrote:

I'm more than happy with virgin speeds, the Good to know that my current price stands until Feb 2024  That said its scheduled to go up to £51 then + the £7 increase + a further rise in April 2024 so I suppose Ill have to play the old retentions game which I did years ago as an early adopter of cabled internet some 20 odd years ago because clearly no one would pay that amount of money per month just for internet.

---

Well, you can play the old retentions game when your current contract ends, but any future RPI+ price increase you'll have to accept because the T&Cs are being changed.  Possibly VM will choose that a Feb 2024 new contract doesn't get hit by the April 2024 price rise,  but that's their choice not yours.  And if they decide not, then you'll be hit with a higher price for most of the contract you've just agreed, and then again in April 2025, and you'll just have to watch your bills going up.  

As you probably know, the way VM apply their price rises they are amplified by any discount a customer gets.  On the most heavily discounted deals (eg the Big Bundle or earlier equivalents) the discount can be around 50%, and a skilled retentions game player can get those prices.  However, those customers will next April see an increase of double VM's RPI+3.9%.   The maths here is that is that the customer's new price will be the result of their current discounted price multiplied by 1 + ((RPI+3.9%) divided by (100-XX)), where XX is the percentage discount of the customer's package to original full price, and my reasonably guessed RPI value is 6.1% for next February when VM take the RPI figure.   

But none of this affects me.  I've already left and I'm with a smaller ISP on a twelve month fixed price deal.  When that ends it will undoubtedly go up, but as this smaller ISP don't do the massive discounts + userous price rises that all the larger ISPs have adopted, I don't anticipate anything much beyond a CPI increase.  But if I'm wrong, and they wheel out a 50% increase, I'll be a free agent, with no tie in, unlike VM's customers who'll be staring out between the bars, wondering why they agreed to be locked in, in the way they will be. 

I'd imagine this forum is going to be full of the shrieks of tortured and imprisoned souls come next March, as people find they're being whacked with an increase they can't refuse, and that they apparently agreed to that.

[Matthew_ML]

You will receive a personalised communication that will detail the specific change to your monthly charge. Price increases will vary as it will be specific to the service(s) you have.

Your individual price rise will be specific to the service you have. Overall, the average price rise is 13.8%. Some price changes will be lower and some customers will be excluded completely. Thanks 

[Matthew_ML]

Thank you for reaching back out.

Every customer will receive an individual price rise specific to them. If you wish to discuss your increase further, you can reach us online (virg.in/contactvm), by calling 150 from your Virgin Media landline, or 0345 454 1111 from any other phone. Thanks 

[Marv147]

I’m calling BS on this 13% average increase.

I’ve had the email recently and my bill is due to go up by 33% in May. I get an exceptional deal at the minute as a long suffering, sorry long standing customer but when the advertised price increase is due to be an eye-watering 17.7% as it is (13.8% CPI + 3.9% ‘just because we can’ tax on top) and you then try to inflict an increase of almost double that figure is, quite frankly, taking the mick and also illegal. If it isn’t illegal, then it darn well should be! 

I note also that rising energy costs are cited as the main reason for these price increases. However, as wholesale energy costs are forecast to reduce substantially later in the year, will Virgin be then introducing price cuts for everyone to reflect this downturn in energy costs?

No, I didn’t think so either! 🤣