Overcharged for being a Loyal Customer

[javedsaleem]

I have been with Virginmedia since the days of ntl.

I pay just over £40 for the 1 Gig Broadband with Volt, whilst Virginmedia now show itnfor £33.

When I questioned this and the logic for it, I was told that he's just a discount for new customers.....clearly showing they don't care about loyal Customers.

Several Members of my Family have disabilities.  Having a fast & working broadband connection is critical, as various medical & communications are reliant on this, so any interruptions are detrimental to their wellbeing.  I don't want to take the risk of switching provider and the whole system falling over.

Also, after many years of complaining, they replaced the internal cables, which were over 20 years old, but did not replace the external cable, so I still have issues with noise on the line, as the external cables are over 20 years old.

I hope, that after reading this post, VM will lower my Line Rental and replace the external cable.

[Adduxi]

VM will not lower your costs because you are a loyal customer.  They will only do a repull of the cable if it is proven to be faulty.  VM's business model is to give "new" customers the best price so that's normal.  It sounds as if you are out of your original 18 month contract, so you could ring Retentions and see if you can negotiate any cost reductions?

[carl_pearce]

£40/month for Gig1 is a good deal.

I pay £54.40/month (None Volt) and have been with them for years.

[Adduxi]

£40 is not too bad at all.  It's £39 pm for "new" customers at the moment.

[newapollo]

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@javedsaleem wrote:

I pay just over £40 for the 1 Gig Broadband with Volt, whilst Virginmedia now show itnfor £33.

I still have issues with noise on the line, as the external cables are over 20 years old.

I hope, that after reading this post, VM will lower my Line Rental and replace the external cable.

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The price for new Gig1 customers is actually £39 a month - rising to an out of contract price of £78 per month.  The pricing  doesn't  include a landline or sim card.

There's a £33 a month price point for new customers on the M500 speed. This increases to an out of contract price of £72 per month. It doesn't come with a landline, nor does it include an O2 sim card to Volt the speed up to the next available level. The O2 sim card would be an additional cost to the new customer. 

VM don't actually charge line rental, although it's currently shown as equivalent to  £19 a month in the small print, in the bundle cost.  Customers  that take a landline generally have a discounted cost compared to buying a solus broadband product.

The Forum Team can't help with lowering package costs, as indicated by other posters you would need to negotiate a new deal by speaking to Retentions (option 4 thinking of leaving us) if you dial 150 from your VM landline.

Again, VM won't replace the external cabling unless they test it and it's proven to be faulty.  Do you have any current telephony or broadband problems, and if so have you reported them to VM Faults (option 2 when dialling 150 from your landline)?

[Rosebush18]

There is no such thing as a ‘loyal customer’ is there? You stay with VM because, frankly you can’t be bothered to go elsewhere, it’s too much trouble, I might lose email addresses whatever! Yes. 

If you were truly ‘loyal’ then you would do whatever, gladly pay whatever VM demand, because you are ‘loyal'!

Rubbish - there is no loyalty, VM see you as a source of revenue, nothing more nothing less, and fine. And they absolutely will charge you the maximum amount they think you will bend over and accept!

VM’s current business model is to simply attract new customers at a big discount on the assumption that existing customers (or, at least most of them) will simply suck up massive increases because the inconvenience of changing is worse. These ‘new customers’ will eventually find themselves in your situation. And so on!

It’s a perfectly valid business strategy, and always remember that VM is not a charity, they exist, purely to make money. Whether or not their strategy works in the long run is open to question. But please, please don’t ever, ever think that VM owe you anything, or indeed do you to them!

[Matthew_ML]

Hey javedsaleem, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear this.

We do look after new and existing customers.

Have you checked here to see what deals we may have for you?

Also are the cables causing some problems for you, is your connection not great?