Blog Post
Batman44 wrote:I have a fixed price broadband package of £27pm + volt deal. 1 Broadband package 200m x 2 O2 volt sims, i pay £27pm for the broadband and £16pm to O2 for the sims. The contract started in Sept 2023 for 18 months so March 24 it expires. Today like many received notice of the price increase of £9pm. This is a 33% increase! not even 5 months into the contract, I shall be cancelling.
It must say FIXED in your contract. It usually says "discount" if a negotiated offer or new customer offer. Price increases are done on the full package prices before any discount was applied to your contract.
From next year, its going to be published RPI and additional 3.9% on top. So yearly prices rises will use this formula and you can't exit the contract. This year you can exit without any penalty if still in contract if done within 30 days of notification by email or letter by VM.
There are also certain exclusions to the general rule for some folk not getting any price rise this year. I did think that new customer offers were being honoured without price increase, but I could be wrong....
I left in sept 22 and gave notice to quit, retentions office contacted a week later offering a new Broadband and Volt 02 deal at £27 for broadband and £16 for 2 sims. I have a printout of the contract saying £27pm for 18 months, O2 are separate contracts on this deal, not read the small print yet but 33% is scandalous thats broadband for £36, yuet they offer the same currently at £29 on the website and large package deal at £29!
The email is so confusing, £9 increase, does it mean from May 23 or May 24? it's not a discount deal from my old contract but a completely new offer not even 5 months in!
It might be that price increases are done on the "headline" price of the package, but that's disingenuous I feel, as you have entered into a contract with VM to provide the services for a certain amount, which you pay them each month. I'm not arguing that they can't do it, just my view on the % increase.
As per the OP, I've just been notified of a 33% increase on the price I pay each month; I never used to have many fibre BB options, but I do now and, as such, coupled with the recent "Roger/Phillip" "not a hack" response from VM, I'll be leaving.
Hi Batman44,
Thanks for your post and welcome to the community.
As a business, we are not immune to rising costs, primarily due to wider economic changes from rising inflation. With rising customer usage, we’re continuing to invest in our network and services to meet customer demand, as well as innovating and improving network performance and reliability to ensure our broadband service continues to deliver the fastest widely available speeds in the UK.
Your individual price rise will be specific to you. Some price rises are lower, and some customers will be excluded completely.
Regards,Hi Team,
Yes I understand that generic response as posted with the notification emails sent out to everyone, CPI + 3% is the genral increase as with other in the industry not 33%!
I was expecting around £3-4 extra but no, greed seems to be the order here, and the same excuses about investment is always used, that should not be on the back of loyal customers. Any possible pay increase I get does not even cover my water bill increase let alone anything else and my person and household expenditure already has been reduced to the minimum.
I entered into a contract in good faith, that mean I promise to pay the said amount for 18 months, I kept my part of the deal but Virgin Media contracts work only one way, you have the right to increase whatever you want and lump it or like it or leave, until 2024 that is when it changes, this increase is more than my Council Tax, and Rent Increase for the next 12 months! really?
Fortunately Grain are laying cable in my area so I hopefully will have a choice soon, but as it happens I did speak on the phone to retentions, I think it was them on the "thinking about leaving option". They informed my that they can apply a discount of £9 to my account to cover the increase for the duration of the contract so i am not out of pocket when it hits, would or is this correct? It seems to have been applied but I dont want to be in a situation when 30 days have passed and that discount is removed so I pay the extra £9 on my bill with no option to leave. It has not altered my contract or a new contract.
Its a sad time when trustworthyness in your business practises are questioned, especially to a longtime loyal customer who still has an NTL email account active, and Freeflow before that!
I thank you for your comment, and I do hope you can confirm my question about the discount, I have the name,date,time of the conversation.
Regards
Kain_W wrote:As a business, we are not immune to rising costs, primarily due to wider economic changes from rising inflation.
Let's take that at face value, and perhaps you can now answer a simple question: Why don't the company apply this 13.8% increase to what customers are actually paying? Even if we accept that there is some need to increase costs by well over the prevailing level of inflation, there's no case for increasing customers actual bills by 20, 30, even approaching 40% in some cases. other than rampant greed by the most over-paid CEO in Britain.
VM's practices on pricing really ought to be illegal. I'm pretty sure some of them will be after the next general election.
