Re: TV price rises
 

yes very true both are far to expensive but the rest don't carry number of channels Vm or sky have either

Re: TV price rises
 

I think the biggest problem is the way VM handle these price rises. They seem to advertise numerous 'free' services such as broadband speed doubling and TV Anywhere and then shortly after they announce / release these, they up their prices. VM have got to realise people aren't stupid and it is clearly obvious that the 'free' services come at a cost.

It is also poor that VM stagger their price increases. Nobody likes a price increase but I would stomach it more if they did something like Sky and promise that if prices are to change, they will do so once per year. I could then live with that as I would know it was coming instead of getting numerous price hikes sprung upon us.

I think VM are becoming worse than some of the power companies with the numerous hikes and from some of the prices quoted by others on here, the price hikes equate to more than 10% increases in less than a year, no wonder the company is turning around and starting to make a profit!!!

I guess it really is time for people to start voting with their feet as I almost jumped ship to Sky last April but stayed due to a retentions deal that supposedly guaranteed my price for 2 years but then I got a price rise in September with Sky Sports so they can't even keep their promises on retentions deals. If mine goes up again, I'll definitely consider the switch this time as although I'll miss my TiVo it is now becoming a joke at an ever increasing cost!

Re: TV price rises
 

They also don't offer as much , BT in its current form is Freeview with OD. You go on their website or Talk Talks and the prices start to rack up when adding additional channels , you also only get the Freeview channels in HD.

Re: TV price rises
 

For £10 from TalkTalk. Pretty good value even if there is no HD.

Re: TV price rises
 

Talk Talk's YouView triple play package (the one with the Entertainment TV Pack) offers the likes of FX and Syfy for £44.

As for HD - that will change when a future software update enables adaptive bitrate streaming.

BT's YouView offering isn't anywhere near as strong.....yet.

---------- Post added at 19:34 ---------- Previous post was at 19:33 ----------

Yep, and on VM, you'd need to be on the XL pack to get some of those channels.

Re: TV price rises
 

I agree with both of you , it's great Talk Talk and BT Vision are here to shake up the market , however the £44 HDFootyman is quoting doesn't differ vastly from VM's XL with BB and phone pricing or Sky's Entertainment+ with BB and phone plus both offer more channels. I personally think VM's XL TV and Sky's Entertainment+ represent decent value , I'm afraid it's the premium channels which are increasing at too fast a pace for me , aren't sports stars already earning enough.

Re: TV price rises
 

And VM is also a business of course. Your point; other than another cheap shot at VM? :confused: :rolleyes:

No. They won't pay over-the-odds for a channel that doesn't get many viewers.

This is true :)

Re: TV price rises
 

Hi Dave 42, Yes VM is a business, but they also do deals with Sky, and the majority that VM have are from Sky.

Lets put it this way, IF you took all the Sky channels away from VM, you would not have a business.

We have various companies that deal with VM, but not as big as Sky. Don't know wether people know this, is that Sky have a monoply over broadcasters in the UK.

Re: TV price rises
 

A very fair point.

Of course Sky know this too. Hence the possibly over-inflated prices :)

Re: TV price rises
 

yes agree VM is sky biggest customer Arthur so let be fair no one else has got the sky channels that's missing on VM that's all I asking for be fair about that bit and I would also agree VM business not be as big without the sky channels

Re: TV price rises
 

Thanks for that.

Re: TV price rises
 

Well I emailed VM and got this.....

"The monthly charge for Broadband size M only would be £23.00 and with
Telephone it would be £36.90."

So Virgin would charge me 50p a month more for M broadband than they advertised price for L broadband!

Also £36.90 for M broadband with a phone line!

An unbelievable £8.50 more than the price (on VM website) for L broadband and phone line.

:td:

Re: TV price rises
 

Had my email today, telling me my increase will be £5.59 per month! I was expecting a couple of pounds, but not more than a fiver!!

And to rub salt in the very raw wound, they end the email with the paragraph

"And it's only going to get better.

We've got lots of exciting new services up our sleeve too - so your Virgin Media experience will just keep getting better. It's all part of our commitment to bringing you the most exciting entertainment and best value."

So more coming soon promises then...... that never materialise.

Looks like Sky may soon be gaining another customer.

Re: TV price rises
 

Can I just get clarification on something?

When I receive the email, and I am not happy with the increase, I have 30 days to cancel any part of the Premiere package, even if my contract for TV does not end until April ?

Would only want to keep Phone & Broadband.

Re: TV price rises
 

Thats a utterly ridiculous price rise which is totally not justified to start off with then they vaguely as per usual say we have all these new things coming our way well we have heard that one before and how does that old saying go in that history repeats itself in that things are coming soon but how soon is the question?.

Re: TV price rises
 

To be honest, that isn't what you'd get charged - as the price they are quoting is the system prices for BB M / BB M and phone - which goes back to my point as to why they are not shown on the bills anymore. So all whoever has emailed you had done is literally remove the cost of the TV and then the bundle adjustment from the prices and quoted you what is left.

If you did disconnect services through Customer Relations, you should be able to be put on the current pricing (including system adjustment) for those that remained

Re: TV price rises
 

To be fair, a lot do :)

And yes, >£5 is a huge increase!

---------- Post added at 10:16 ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 ----------

Whilst that is, of course, good news, it does seem to be a stupid way of doing it; ie telling someone their price is going up by more than it actually may :confused: Surely there must be some way around it.

You mentioned previously that all these problems are due to legacy systems from when cable was all different franchises (or something like that anyway!) but now that they are all one company, would it really cost that much to get a new system that does what they want it to do. They could justify the cost by saying that it will allow them to be more transparent with their pricing and so possible retain more customers :)

Re: TV price rises
 

This is still using current pricing, as the phone line rental will increase to £14.99 in February.

Re: TV price rises
 

Unfortunately it's because whoever answered the email was being literal with what the system is saying. Customer Relations have systems that would give them the correct price after disconnection of services

Probably, as the system doesn't just handle the billing - it also makes the services work, so it's a bigger thing than just 'fixing' the pricing

Yes, but if you gave notice now, you would disconnect in December - so although the overall price is wrong, it would be correct for the line rental cost at the point of disconnection

Re: TV price rises
 

That is ridiculous, an extra £67.08 per year!

What services do you have?

Re: TV price rises
 

No email for me....just a nice letter explaining my price rise of £4.09.

Re: TV price rises
 

I assumed these were 'form' emails and so it should be fairly easy to automatically calculate the correct price for each one?

Re: TV price rises
 

That is pathetic. You email VM for a price and they aren't capable of working out the right price? Unbelievable!

Re: TV price rises
 

Eh?

That I agree on, really they should have advised to contact Customer Relations

Re: TV price rises
 

Same here. Seems alot to me. Not sure if VM have noticed but there is a recession on with companys going to the wall daily and none of us are getting any more in our pay packet.

My package is XL for all services with 2 Tivos taken before individual costs kicked in. Unlimited land line. I'm paying around £77 p/m. It is starting to get a bit silly. I'll soon be paying £100 p/m.

Re: TV price rises
 

Here is some of virgin media's price hikes

Landline line rental is going up from £13.90 to £14.99 (no other call costs are rising)

Standalone broadband and TV packages will also rise some of the collection bundles will also see a price hike

Regulator Ofcom is currently investigating whether price rises midway through a contract "are appropriate".

Re: TV price rises
 

They are, but that's in relations to Mobile price changes http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012...hone-contracts

Also anyone one a fixed price or short term offer against services with VM won't the see price change on those services until after the offer ends

Re: TV price rises
 

Like this...

... and the computer fills in the blanks.

Re: TV price rises
 

Well those are the emails that are going out now. However when you email in, replies are composed by people, not a computer. There are obviously guidelines as to how/what to respond with - in the above case I'd say they weren't followed correctly.

Re: TV price rises
 

That's the higgest we've seen so far.

This is becoming more and more disgusting. It’s total robbery. It looks like some customers, those with SKY Sports in their package, will have seen their subscription going up by almost £11.00 since April.

I’m beginning to understand why so many people on the internet refer to them as Vermin Media.

Re: TV price rises
 

Got my letter £5.34... holy carp!

Re: TV price rises
 

Right. Okay. And your experience in this field on which you base your comment is... what, exactly; other than "wow that's a high number"?

Pretty sure it won't be "robbery" of any sort.

Sorry but I don't like hyperbole and over-reaction much.

Well I'm sure we'd all like to pay less for everything. Still no need to be so rude.

Re: TV price rises
 

Classic Carl :rolleyes:

It really is good to have you back in your new roll as the the hyperbole and over-reaction police :D

Re: TV price rises
 

Your WElcome
;)

Re: TV price rises
 

:D

Re: TV price rises
 

So no actual answers then. Fair enough :)

Re: TV price rises
 

Aren't a lot of customers who originally got TIVO only paying £3.00 per STB ? Wonder if this increase recoups the missing £2.00.

Re: TV price rises
 

I'm pretty sure I read that Tivo costs £3.

The inference that I got from Neil Berkett in a financial statement he made, was that Tivo was shifting well so they thought they could get away with upping the price to £5. Of course, I could be wrong.

Re: TV price rises
 

The cost of a TiVo box is £5.00, and l have been paying it for the past seven months.

If other members are paying £3.00 there something wrong.

Re: TV price rises
 

No there isn't - some early adopters of TiVo currently pay £3 either per account or £3 per box

Re: TV price rises
 

A view-point I'm sure you wouldn't have if you were one of those paying the £3 and not the £5 :)

(Wouldn't we all!)

Re: TV price rises
 

Didn't some VM customers get free Tivo for life if they were in the pre-launch test/focus group ? You were one of them as I recall Carl ?

Re: TV price rises
 

I don’t like to talk about my job in forums however since your pushing I’ll elaborate. I work as a paralegal for a solicitors firm in Edinburgh. Contract disputes are my specialty. Day in, day out I’m providing advice, help and support to people our firm represent who have an issue with a supplier or service provider be it the Council, their bank, a finance company, mobile phone provider…. I think you get the just.

Anyway, as you can imagine, people always want to know if and when they have the right to cancel their contract or an agreement if they are in dispute. One of the most common grievances is price increases, or not being notified of them, or not agreeing to them. If you go through the history of this forum, you’ll tend to find whenever Virgin announce a price increase or a change of contract I’m always all over it to see what options customers have under their terms and conditions. Ben to his credit always comes up with the information.

So in terms of me saying “This is becoming more and more disgusting. It’s total robbery.” I feel I have plenty of experience to be making such a bold statement. From my day to day work and the fact I’m a Virgin customer, I’ve got to say the price increases over a 10 month period from Virgin are incredibly high for the service they provide.

Hope that helps to quantify my anti Virgin outbursts :)

Re: TV price rises
 

Here is the list of the price rise / hike

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/11/23.jpg

Line rental is going up by £1.09 from £13.90 per month to £14.99 per month which is a rise of 3.4 per cent.

You are entitled to cancel your package with Virgin Media without charge as long as you contact them within 30 days of receiving a letter or e-mail depending on which arrives first.

Re: TV price rises
 

or within 30 days of receiving the first new (higher) bill if I recall BenMcR post correctly.

Re: TV price rises
 

Yes, it sometimes pays to be an early adopter. I got got both of my Tivos ASAP after they were available and pay just £3 p/m in total for them both.

Re: TV price rises
 

l for one understand your and other customers grievances totally and we all have every right to air our opinions whether its good or bad and if some members don't like that then its their problem.:)

Re: TV price rises
 

Just Had my letter £5.95 increase,Robbing gits !!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: TV price rises
 

Then you recall incorrectly.

---------- Post added at 18:32 ---------- Previous post was at 18:29 ----------

You mention a load of experience in getting people out of contracts. Which is fine, but it doesn't speak at all as to whether something is "robbery" or not.

I would assume that, like anyone else's, VM's costs rise. Sometimes they swallow them; sometimes they don't.

Not so much, no :p:

---------- Post added at 18:33 ---------- Previous post was at 18:32 ----------

Of course no-one's ever said otherwise.

Re: TV price rises
 

£6.84 for vip that's robbery with nothing new oh well bye bye VM

Re: TV price rises
 

One expects the same price rise for me as l am on the VIP package.:(

Re: TV price rises
 

Oh well then, at least I tried.

As for the robbery stuff, that's pretty much my own take on things. If people don't thing they are being robbed, then fair enough. Personally I think Dick Turpin is alive and well, sending letters and e-mails to Virgin customers informing them of yet another price increase :D Some of that is tongue-in-cheek of course, Dick Turpin was illiterate.

---------- Post added at 20:01 ---------- Previous post was at 20:00 ----------

What increases have you had so far in 2012, to go along with your pending £6.84?

Re: TV price rises
 

l had the Sky premiums rise plus a £2 or £3 rise in April and now this as well so it works out at around £13 per month price rise multiplied by 12 working out at £156 for a year.

Re: TV price rises
 

And we're will that be too Dave seeing as you like your sport in HD , VM's HD offering smashes BT's currently.

Re: TV price rises
 

probably have to do with freeview :mad: MM mate as sky would cost lot more on tv side for what I got and that with only 1 recordable box instead of the 2 I got now I did check couple weeks ago what cost would be on there

Re: TV price rises
 

An extra £156.00 per year in less than 10 months is a lot. That's almost exactly the same as a new customer would pay in total for the Essential Collection plus phoneline for their first 6 months. Their getting great value for their £158.00 or so, are you getting such great value for your extra £156.00?

Re: TV price rises
 

... yet.

Oh, apart from TVAnywhere. That's kinda new :)

Re: TV price rises
 

Well looking at the last year it seemed a good idea to be on the VIP package to start with but any value in it is being eroded by relentless price rises thus if it keeps going this way then something will to give as theres only so much that many of us can afford each month.

Re: TV price rises
 

and it will loss more value if bt sports do in it instead of espn Den mate

Re: TV price rises
 

Of which those of us with an Android phone can't access unless using a computer/laptop. To Android users the TV Anywhere doesn't work anywhere unless they carry a laptop around with them (and how many will do that?)

Re: TV price rises
 

Very true. My parents however just ain't buying it. My parents are Virgin customers in their early 60's. They will never, ever use TV Anywhere but they'll get a price increase just like everyone else.

---------- Post added at 20:29 ---------- Previous post was at 20:27 ----------

Prior to any price increases this year, what was the price in VIP in January? Was it around £107.00 per month?

Re: TV price rises
 

To be fair Den all companies prices increase , my Sky sub has risen by £5.75 this year , £1.00 to Sky Sports , £1.50 to Entertainment+ , £1.00 to ESPN and £2.25 line rental :mad::mad::mad::mad: all platforms non premium packs ie XL , Entertainment + offer good value in my opinion it's the premium sports what's fast becoming a ripoff.

Re: TV price rises
 

Was it not around £103 pound Chad if my memory serves me.

Re: TV price rises
 

That's still more palatable than the £13 Den's had to endure

---------- Post added at 20:34 ---------- Previous post was at 20:33 ----------

I used to be on the VIP and it used to cost me £103.90

Re: TV price rises
 

yes it getting beyond a joke now as of the 1st February we will have 3 price rises withing a year 2 vm ones and 1 sky sports sky one cant justify paying it now it only tv at end of day

Re: TV price rises
 

l know prices increase MM but for most of us our monthly financial incomings have not increased at all and in some cases has gone down.

Re: TV price rises
 

I am afraid the cost of pay TV is being driven by the outrageous amount of money being paid by Sky and BT to the Premier League. Until consumers make a stand and say I am not prepared to pay vast amounts of money to watch these over rated and overpaid prim a donas then nothing will change.

Re: TV price rises
 

It's going up to £113.99 so an increase of just over £10.00 in less than a year.

http://mediacentre.virginmedia.com/S...a-VIPs-aa.aspx

When I first got the VIP package in 2007 it was £85.00 per month. So between February 2007 and January 2012 the VIP package only increased by £18.99 over that 5 year period, yet we're seeing an increase of over £10.00 in 10 months.

We can all understand price increases etc... but what has happened this year is excessive.

Re: TV price rises
 

Agree and thats going to get worse once BT and Sky start passing on the extra cost of football, VM will suffer too as they will have wholesale costs.

The thing that always cheeses me off is that if you move your business you will no doubt get a new customer deal from a competing company, why they do this I will never know as its the existing customers who cover the cost of this?

Its a very odd business model.

The other thing I have noticed , once one puts its charges up the others follow suit. A good example is VM, not long ago they were the most expensive for line rental, after all the price rises from BT, Sky and Talk Talk, they are now the cheapest - so what do they do - they increase their prices to be on a par with the others.

They must all rub their hands with glee one one makes a move!

Re: TV price rises
 

I received it and I'm only on Broadband, they lowered the BB price in April and are raising it back on Feb 2013... nice

Re: TV price rises
 

How much will it cost in Feb for just BB then?

Re: TV price rises
 

That's pretty much my thoughts. I too was looking at my increases since I joined in 2006 and this year has by far been the worst as by February I'll be paying between £13 and £14 more than I was last February. I can just about take one rise every 12 months and even accept the Sky increases but this rise in February just feels a bit over the top.

I will be unlikely to leave as I am happy with my services but I'll be looking for either an improved deal from retentions or an improvement in service in some way e.g. more channels, Android app, more streaming channels, option to back up my recordings

Of course it would be a good idea for Virgin to stop wasting their money on "Dear Occupier" correspondence offering me the chance to become a new customer and perhaps asked their mailing department to make use of the following multiset operation to remove their existing customers' addresses from any mailshot:

http://www.techonthenet.com/sql/minus.php

Re: TV price rises
 

I currently have TV, BB and Phone and am out of contract. Can I cancel the TV and BB and just keep the phone which I have paid upfront for a year a couple of months ago?

Re: TV price rises
 

True. You just have to wait a little longer :)

---------- Post added at 22:13 ---------- Previous post was at 22:12 ----------

Which wasn't really my point, but I do get your point :)

Re: TV price rises
 

Just had a look on the website , good value and the Talk Talk player on Youview looks pretty good , if only it could record now and had HD , my problem is no fibre optic here.

Re: TV price rises
 

Okay we've all gave Virgin a true and thorough bashing however, what can they deliver in the next 6 to 8 months to redeem themselves and justify the price increases? I'm going for:

1. As many missing HD channels as possible (TCM HD, Eurosport 2 HD, ITV 2HD etc...)
2. SKY Atlantic
3. BT Sport in the XL package
4. More on demand content
5. More SD channels (Sony Movie Channel, Al Jazeera etc...)

They do state in their letter that:

"We've got lots of exciting new services up our sleeve too".

I know they can't comment however people would be a little more forgiving if Virgin could at least throw a bone and confirm new channels and new on demand content are planned for 2013.

Re: TV price rises
 

Summed up perfectly Chad.:tu:

Re: TV price rises
 

Well they haven't before so why would they start now? ;)

I agree it would be nice, but my point being that the information could well be commercially sensetive.

Re: TV price rises
 

I think you mean sensitive;), even so they need to do something or they my find people moving to sky in reasonable numbers.

Re: TV price rises
 

1. A mis-selling is not the same as using the wrong word completely
2. No-one likes a smart-alec :p:

Oh yes, I'd love to know that something/anything is happening :)

Well they haven't yet :)

Re: TV price rises
 

You calling me a smart Alec:D A case of the pot calling the kettle black:D

Well there is Plenty of incentive now for people to move

Re: TV price rises
 

Getting that way mate there is fast becoming more incentive to move than ever,if there not carefully vm will become the titanic and we all know what happened to that :erm:

Re: TV price rises
 

Such cheery optimism from the great bard himself.:D

Re: TV price rises
 

Min e goes up by £4.34 a month, I managed to save some by prepaying for my phone line 12 months upfront, next time when I cannot save any, I will have to downgrade my TV package.

Re: TV price rises
 

Just having a bit of fun mate ;) vm will be okay.With daft people like us still paying for it,Just agreed to another 12 months and have swapped my daughters v+ for a brand new samsung tivo box.Seems to responed a little faster than my cisco,She is buzzing thou:D

Re: TV price rises
 

I notice "My Virgin Media" website is down. Apparently 'for maintenance'.

Now, I'm not one for conspiracy theories (well, not all the time :p:), but I wonder if this is deliberate to stop people trying to either a) see where the increases are made up (even though they won't be on there yet, of course) or b) to prevent people getting a breakdown of exactly what they currently pay with a view to comparing it to alternative providers?

Saturday evening seems a strange time to do 'maintenance'. Surely it can be done in the early hours when hardly anyone is likely to want to log on?

Re: TV price rises
 

ive just logged in mine working fine

Re: TV price rises
 

My "My Virgin Media" is ok. Must be an area specific maintenance closure

Re: TV price rises
 

Indeed. No problem logging-in here.

Re: TV price rises
 

It was down earlier but is working now.

Re: TV price rises
 

Just had a letter detailing a £6.59 a month increase from Feb 1st 2013.

So I decided to call in to find out the breakdown of all the costs. They didn't know really but he did come back with:

£2 increase on TV (I have XL)
£1 increase in TiVo
£2 increase on BB (I have XXL)

He didn't know what the other £1.59 was for but I suspect it will be line rental related.

That's quite an increase over the year and although it's affordable to me it's a rather large jump all in one go - I would have liked any increases to be phased in over a longer period. I'd also like the VM app for Android to be released before (but that's another story).

I was told that a letter would be sent out to all customers by the end on November detailing the breakdown of the increase. No idea why these letter weren't combined into one - save a lot of bother!

Re: TV price rises
 

There won't be another letter - I have no idea where they got that idea from

Re: TV price rises
 

Hmm OK so how can I find out a true breakdown of the price increase (what services by how much) since two people now were not able to give me that information.

I'd like to see where I could maybe cut services to save.

Re: TV price rises
 

To be honest a breakdown won't help. VM sell services as bundles, so you have to compare one bundle with another to understand what options you have to reduce your services.

Re: TV price rises
 

Wow, biggest one so far.. can anyone else beat an inflation busting extra £79.08 per year?

Re: TV price rises
 

Ben,the way I read it Acathla wasn't looking to reduce their services but wanted to know (quite rightly) how the increases were distributed .

Re: TV price rises
 

Exactly, not everyone is on a specific bundle and alot of people probably have custom bundles with new customer discounts, loyalty discounts, Promotional offers, goodwill gestures etc.

So if there is a specific bundle price rise document that VM must use to work it all out, can we ask what the breakdown will be?

For example, I have a bundle discount, Promotional Offer and Goodwill Gesture credit all on my bill each month.. if I tell you what services I have, can you tell me my price increase? ;)

Oh and what about the customers who are on different TiVo pricing.. such as £3 per account, £3 per box, £5 per box

Re: TV price rises
 

Going around in circles with this.

The only specific increase VM have announced is £1.09 for the line rental, the rest of the price rises are a single amount against the account, as the per the letter that is sent out.

Even if you knew the breakdown, it wouldn't then translate to making changes, as the bundles aren't a straight addition or subtraction on adding or removing services.

Which is why I'm saying you can only compare one bundle against another

Re: TV price rises
 

And the reason for that is the lack of transparency in the billing system.

It is really outrageous, given the large increases, that people can't see the individual price increase for each component of the service, along with the bundle discount that has been applied.

Re: TV price rises
 

We shall have to agree to disagree on that - I see no value in showing a discount that isn't one, nor showing prices that aren't actually what you are charged.