30% increase of just basic broadband unacceptable

[Rory123]

Just had my email notification of £7 increase from May 23.  That will be approximately 30 % increase.

That is not a fair proportionate increase and unacceptable for a basic broadband only.

This must be complained about and will lead to the Ombudsman.

[unisoft · Accepted solution]

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@Rory123 wrote:

Just had my email notification of £7 increase from May 23.  That will be approximately 30 % increase.

That is not a fair proportionate increase and unacceptable for a basic broadband only.

This must be complained about and will lead to the Ombudsman.

Renegotiate by using the "leaving Virgin" option on the telephone not standard customer services. You should get new customer pricing or near or sometimes even better. Be polite to VM retentions and explain what you are not happy about and the changes you want to make (you may decide your current BB speed isn't being utilised for example or want to reduce TV channels or reduce one service and add to another).

• Existing customers are cheaper than new as no free gifts (TV's Xbox Cashback as examples depending on the marketing for any given month), no need for VM to pay return postage for kit, no need to refurbish kit, no need to pay cashback to referral sites like quidco/topcashback.
• There has to be a benefit to a customer like a discount because they are being locked into an 18 month contract again
• Know your market prices for other providers Broadband, for example FTTC on NOWTV is 12 month or monthly only contact at £22. If you just want broadband only its going to easier than someone who wants landline and TV
• Consider whether you need a lock in contract for TV services. Does VM's STREAM box offer the channels you want (its Freeview part is free) and can you go without recording facility and just use catch up players or have another device that does recording off Freeview (aerial) for example? Stream's Sky subscriptions channels is only £8 per month and a 30 day notice contract. You also get 10% back on many subscriptions like Netflix, Disney etc.
• Ofcom rules mean you can currently exit your contract without penalty, as long as you do this within 30 days of being notified by VM; wait 3 months and be classed as a new customer and get new customer offers. Alternatively, many people on here sign up the next day in their partner's name.
• Be prepared to give 30 days notice if the result isn't what you want, this gives you time to arrange BB installation by someone else and you can ring back in to cancel the cancel if you change your mind. During this time you **may** get a call from 2nd level retentions with a better offer. It's not guaranteed and they won't if you have marketing disabled in My Virgin Media under My Profile.
• Despite annual price rises at ridiculous rates, new customer offers have been static for years (like Ultimate package hovers around £79-£85 often and sometimes with cashback or free gifts like a TV as just one example)

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[Andrew-G]

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@Rory123 wrote:

Just had my email notification of £7 increase from May 23.  That will be approximately 30 % increase.

That is not a fair proportionate increase and unacceptable for a basic broadband only.

This must be complained about and will lead to the Ombudsman.

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Follow unisoft's advice rather than wasting time on a complaint.  There's no basis for complaining to the Ombudsman just because you don't like this, so you'd have to go through a formal complaint process with VM, reject that and get a deadlock letter, and then refer to and wait on Ombudsman Services who should throw your complaint out as it's out of their terms of reference.  Under VM's existing T&Cs that are part of your contract (even if you haven't read them) they can increase your price as and when they want, although you can refuse them this time.  When they do the same next year, because the T&Cs will have been revised you won't have that options, so the last six months of any contract you agree now will be around 20% more expensive and you'll have to just take that.

Or you do what I recently did and find another ISP that (for example) offers 12 month minimum term contracts with no price rise during the fixed term.

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @Rory123 

We always balance our prices with the need to continue investing in our network, products and services. Like many businesses, we’re experiencing rising costs due to inflation. We are not immune to rising costs, primarily due to wider economic changes from rising inflation.
 

We’re seeing growing demand for data – with usage growing by more than 10% each year. Last year, we invested more than £2bn in our networks, which contributed to average broadband speeds increasing more than 40%, while helping to make sure our customers stayed connected and were able to keep using our services more and more.

Thank you.