Upgrade to Gig1 costs more than £62 a month?

[daniel121]

So i've been looking at upgrading to Gig1, and on Virgins website right now they're offering Gig1 for £45/pm for the first 18 months then £62/pm from there on forward. But when I login to my account and look at upgrading it says it would cost me £81/pm??? Why would this be, is there some sort of reversed customer retention reward logic here?

[Andrew-G]

Broadly speaking yes.  New customer deals are heavily discounted, and VM make a loss on them.  They're in no hurry to offer that pricing to all customers, although when your fixed term runs out there's the potential to secure a sizeable discount against another fixed term, depending on how knowledgeable you are about playing your part in the retention pantomime.  When it comes to upgrades, they've usually got more leeway to charge higher prices, because by definition if you're looking to upgrade, if you're already in a fixed term you can't leave, and even at the end of a fixed term you're substantially less likely to leave if you're talking about giving the company more money rather than less. 

You're not being sucked in by the "loyal customers deserve better" fairytale are you?  Customers aren't loyal, companies aren't loyal.  Many people persuade themselves that not changing ISP is some mark of loyalty to be rewarded, when in fact there's no obligation on the customer to remain with VM or with the company to offer some better deal.  From the customers side, they've either been happy to stay with VM on a purely commercial basis, or they've simply not been bothered to change ISP.

The harsh reality is that you either renegotiate when you're out of any fixed term, or you leave for a different provider, and if you want to upgrade whilst in a fixed term contract, you pay whatever they want to charge.

[unisoft]

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@Andrew-G wrote:

Broadly speaking yes.  New customer deals are heavily discounted, and VM make a loss on them.  They're in no hurry to offer that pricing to all customers, although when your fixed term runs out there's the potential to secure a sizeable discount against another fixed term, depending on how knowledgeable you are about playing your part in the retention pantomime.  When it comes to upgrades, they've usually got more leeway to charge higher prices, because by definition if you're looking to upgrade, if you're already in a fixed term you can't leave, and even at the end of a fixed term you're substantially less likely to leave if you're talking about giving the company more money rather than less. 

You're not being sucked in by the "loyal customers deserve better" fairytale are you?  Customers aren't loyal, companies aren't loyal.  Many people persuade themselves that not changing ISP is some mark of loyalty to be rewarded, when in fact there's no obligation on the customer to remain with VM or with the company to offer some better deal.  From the customers side, they've either been happy to stay with VM on a purely commercial basis, or they've simply not been bothered to change ISP.

The harsh reality is that you either renegotiate when you're out of any fixed term, or you leave for a different provider, and if you want to upgrade whilst in a fixed term contract, you pay whatever they want to charge.

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Depending on the VM rep, you can also re-negotiate a package change during a contract. I was always told you can change your package during a contract term, you just couldn't end it early without penalty (subject to exceptions). I did this within past 2 years to change to gig and ended up being cheaper on my package as made some changes (like dropping kids channels for a TV package where full house was bundled). There is no right to request them to offer it at a better price, but my VM rep was good and we just had a chat.

[daniel121]

Well fair enough, dropping some channels and stuff to reduce your package cost sounds reasonable, except I only pay for broadband, I have M125 and I pay £48p/pm but I know someone paying £43/pm for M350…feel like I’m being ripped off a little. Although I know my M125 is a couple quid cheaper than what it should be, I feel like when you compare £48/pm to £62/pm for M125 vs Gig1, sounds extremely excessive, especially when to upgrade it would cost me £81-82/pm

[newapollo]

Hi @daniel121 

Ignore the £81-£82 price point being shown in My Virgin Media, the offers there are seldom the best available, and it looks like it's been incorerectly priced.

Contact regrades,  they would probably be very happy to recontract you at the £62 out of contract price,  and with a little bit of encouragement from yourself you may be even to negotiate it for less than tjhat figure since with it being a new contract you will be tied in for 18 months again.

 If you  have a VM mobile call 150, option 4 regrades, or 0345 454 1111 from any other phone, it's classed as a normal landline number so free on most tarifs, but it's best to call at 8am to avoid call queues

If you don't want to be tied up on the phone you could also text VM on 0753 305 1809 or use WhatsApp on 0730 532 7112. Please be aware that replies aren't instant from either of these services, often taking 4 to 6 hours, but the agents will reply as quickly as they possibly can.

[DarkGeisha]

Just get the cheapest O2 sim only contract you can find and enable Volt.  Assuming you're already on 500megs BB, you can get a free upgrade to 1gig or whatever is the next tier up for you.

[Ilyas_Y]

Hi @daniel121 thanks for the message on the forums.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with the package.
We are unable to look for new contracts / deals on the forums.

The best way to search for a new deal is through our retentions team, you can ring them on 0345 454 1111.
Alternatively you can message us on WhatsApp via +447305 327 112 and our team will assist.

Let us know how it goes.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.