Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Yep, I am on VIP collections 100 and mine is going up £5.59, this seems very steep to be honest.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

yes it sure is same as mine totally unjustified

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Just had VM call me up to see if they could keep me as a customer. Told them there is no way I would keep their broadband even if they gave it to me for free, so he offered me a basic phone line and tv for £12.40 before saying actually it will be £13.90 and "like everyone, we will be raising our prices in February" so that will go up £1 or £2. When pushed he was actually downgrading my tv package at the same time, to basic M.

Good that they are informing people of the change in Feb up front, when giving out the new costs. Does seem a bit silly to give me a price that will change in just over a months time though.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Received my letter to-day. £5.34 I suppose I could phone up tomorrow and opt for Line Rental Saver.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

threaten to cancel, get a deal, and then when you've nailed the deal you can call and apply line rental saver to the new price :)

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Ours is going up £5.34 a month thats for Tivo,xl bb and med phone. the one thing that really is bugging me is the line saver. some people can not afford this option so still have to pay the hgher price while for thoes who can afford it make savings. so the same old rule applies the rich get richer and poor get poorer. i will be e-mailing the ceo about this cause it is simply not fare for the same service.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Wonder if they are pushing to line rental saver to plug a gap in this quarters takings due to customers leaving.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Don't worry. The coalition government have just announced that you'll be paying £22 per month less income tax next year.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Mine is going up by £6.59 :mad:

I was on the original VIP 50 bundle but now it is the

Broadband XXL
TV XL + Sky sports and movies + Premium HD
Phone XL
2 TiVo boxes

Increased from £111.96 to 118.55

my bill in September was £108.71 so a rise of just under 10% in 4 months :td:

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Guess all that are signing up to line saver think Virgin will still be trading in 12 months !
Think MFI & Comet. Never pay in advance if I can help it.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

You must get your dreams sorted out Itshim as your imagination is running riot with the thought that Virgin won't be here in 12 months.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Yesterdays (mondays) news article causing subliminal messages getting into dreams :D

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Why is this forum full of clowns who make comments like this, there really does appear to be a number of Sky customers on these forums posting comments without facts aimed at putting thoughts about changing suppliers into their heads.

Wait until they post their numbers in Jan/Feb - you will probably get a shock

This is the view of people who know whats what - investment companies, this is reuters view

In the context of a bleak macroeconomic environment and high broadband and pay-TV competition in the U.K., VMI's ability to steadily increase penetration of bundled products and advanced services and attract and retain subscribers generating the highest ARPU in the market are likely to be key considerations for the rating over the coming year, along with management's update on its shareholder return policy beyond 2013. We anticipate at this stage that management will adjust shareholder returns to reflect business prospects and cash generation.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I just cancelled undet the price increase. Incredible conversation!

The person I chatted with was prepared to offer reductions on my package however I made it clear about joining SKY under friends and family. Virgin couldn't match the package.

Anyway he told me I was in luck as my 30 day window was due to expire in 2 days. He claimed my letter was sent to me in the middle of November. I advised this is simply not true. My letter is dated December 2012 and was only received on Saturday. I challenged him on this and advised I would share this information with others here as there are other members of the site in the same boat.

He advised I should be careful what I post as Virgin can and will hold me liable for any misleading or inaccurate posts!

I can assure you I am not making this up. If you plan to contact Virgin about your price increase do it now, just in case they claim your letter was sent 28 days ago too.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

£4.65 Increase for me! Abit drastic i have to say!!! Still going to stick it out with VM though as internet speeds from sky here are slow (6-8Mbit), no FTTC planned here.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I put out a thought regarding the line rental and you panic that your VM shares will go down in value? Says a lot about how secure you think your shares are ;)

When virgin announced their 3rd Quarter statement I predicted the last quarter would be worse and you replied with the same vm-shares owner type worry then. Looking at the whole picture I actually think the first quarter next year will be the really interesting one.

I am a VM customer still and only had Sky TV installed yesterday.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

You said due to customers leaving, if you base that on the views of people on this forum , fine, however this forum contains posts from a miniscule number of VM's overall base. I am not panicking at all about the share price as it continues to rise - over 35 dollars this morning

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I read a lot of forums and the trend from customers is similar in other places. As you say though, forum users are still a very small number of virgins overall base. For some things forum users can be a good sample size and for others not so good.

Thing is we know that a lot of people are leaving vm and was it not last quarter that vm mentioned it knew customer churn was high but it didn't matter as they were selling more services per household? Hence me wondering if the upfront line rental push was for similar reasons.

It could equally be that its a tool for when customers call up to leave due to the price rise, they can offer the line rental saver and say that will bring a customers bill down to less than before. Never count out psychological warfare with virgin ;)

---------- Post added at 10:58 ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 ----------

I just got the letter about price rises even though my services are due to go in a couple of days :)

Virgin are going to get in to some trouble over this letter I believe, although like their advertising it would have already served its purpose. The letter is not dated except to say December 2012. While it does say that you can cancel your contract without penalty, it does not say you have to do it within 30 days. With there being no actual date on the letter it is impossible to know when that time is up.

So many will be told its too late to cancel and choose to stay as it will cost them to leave. With the timing being over christmas many wont want the hassle of switching at the moment. So the letter has done well there.

The ones who complain may be let out of contract anyway, to stop them taking the complaint to higher bodies who will pull VM up with the date issues. VM will probably avoid trouble by saying they will honour letting anyone leave until the end of the next of the month after the date on the letter.

VM are just way too tricky.

---------- Post added at 11:02 ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 ----------

Forgot to say, the price increase was £4.24

Services were £32 at the start of the year and had increased to around £43 during the course of the year already. With that increase on top im actually getting Sky much cheaper with more broadband speed and instead of M+ tv, getting Sky entertainment extra.

Worth switching for the year and then checking who offers what in a years time.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

QTX not sure where you get your info from you think this "Thing is we know that a lot of people are leaving vm and was it not last quarter that vm mentioned it knew customer churn was high but it didn't matter as they were selling more services per household? Hence me wondering if the upfront line rental push was for similar reasons"

This is what they actually said

The number of cable customers we serve grew by 39,500 during the quarter compared to 6,300 in Q3-11. Churn fell from 1.7% to 1.4% with gross disconnections down year-on-year for the fourth quarter in a row.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

You are right with that, so maybe I got something confused there. Happy to admit if I have made a mistake. I'll do some digging later to see where the confusion came from.

VM's published results are always a bit dodgy due to wording anyway. You can search these and find this is exactly what they said in their announcements:

Virgin Media 2nd Quarter 2012 Results - On a percentage basis, monthly churn was 1.4%
Virgin Media 3rd Quarter 2012 Results Churn down from 1.7% to 1.4% in the quarter

Worded different to make it look better. So the 2nd Quarter churn was actually 1.7% and not 1.4%. The good news for you is that churn did go down.

That is probably where my initial confusion was and I thought churn had gone up to 1.7%.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

It's really only 8 months though. If you pay for the line rental saver, once you pass the 8 month point you have paid as much as you have done if you'd not elected to pay it upfront.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

It has nothing to do with VIRGIN as a company ; It could easily go into receivership to "lose" debits & restart with a clear book. That being the case you have no hope of getting "your" money back. It happens on a daily basis,not saying by any stretch that it would, but it has to be born in mind.

Secondly & more to the point I was making ANY company may not be around in 12 months time & as such I do not give payments up front to any one.
Be it a hamper company , leather sofa company. electrical goods store. All gone it recent times. So I would NEVER give monies upfront for goods or services not received.I have no sympathy for those that choose to & then get stung ;)

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Strange day today. Received the letter saying the price has increased along with 2 retention calls and a CEO complaints dept call which ended up with my last bill scrapped and the Friday disconnection date of all my services extended a week without any more payments whatsoever.

My email did tell them to disconnect my phone/broadband/tv immediately as I would not pay them any more cash. So a bit shocked that they called and offered me another week free on top.

Gobsmacked :Yikes:

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Just spoke to retentions and they changed my package all fine, apart from they took me off Talk Unlimited Extra - down to Talk Unlimited and then added 1000 free mins for mobiles and 0845 and 0870 numbers. is this legit?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Hi all new to this only joined due to vm shambles.
I cancelled my tv, bb & phone package, I gave 30 days notice on 9th October 2012, only to receive a call C.S on the 13th October 2012 offering me phone & 20mb bb package for £20.90 for 18months, to which I agreed. Both November & December bills were incorrect, finally got them sorted yesterday 12/12/12 only to receive a letter today informing me of a price increase of £3.24, 15.5%. Phoned vm gave me a load of verbal rubbish. being disconnected 12/01/2013 :-)

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Hi mate, welcome to the forum. you may want to read through this > http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/92...ily-codes.html

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I seem to remember reading someone like Ben saying we should all be told of the price rise by a certain date?

I have still not had notification of what my rise will be.
Looks like for now I will be grin and bare it though as Sky Broadband not in the area and so it's something like a 5Mb connection :(

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I only got my letter yesterday or the day before, so yours is still probably on the way.

Does suck to be limited in choice, so you have to make the best of what you can get. Call VM and see if they can give you a better deal. Personally I would check to see when your exchange is going to be upgraded for fibre before getting in to a new 12 month contract.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

The bit about 0845 and 0870 numbers being included in the package is for everyone, says so on this months bill. So the agent gave you a half truth.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

The last letters are due to be sent on Monday.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Surely icreases are to pay for the FREE speed increases they keep delaying.
BT are supposed to be providing infinity in my area and if you think Virgin are bad then BT are a complete nightmare. My adjacent neighbours can order but I can't as my postcode is rejected as the house number is not on thier database, you should contact the Royal Mail was their stupid advice.
"The computer says nooooo"
Can I speak to someone more senior? There would be no point if I say you can't you cant!

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I am not prepared to pay anymore for VM at the present channels and HD content, what really annoys me and member don't answer this one, How can VM justify the increases IF they have not added more channels or HD content.

All bills are going up and in this time of financial hardship VM increase bills up to £5/6.00, there having a joke, With Sky there increase is about £1.00 or £2.00 per YEAR.

I have already spoken with Sky and they are prepared to offer me a deal, and they have MORE channel content and a better quality of service, and yes they might be expensive, BUT they have more and even if you pay for HD channels - you get a lot more HD channels than VM, and l have a feeling that BT Vision Sport could be part of a new package with Sky, whereas you might have to pay more on VM.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Arthur, I understand your feelings about the price rises - do you say the same thing to your gas and electricity suppliers when the bills go up?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Hugh, please realise one thing, companies constantly increase prices without giving a thought for the paying customer.

I for one, like probably everyone else is now counting every penny, and l can assure you that unless VM change there ways, l will be going to Freesat.

You cannot simply increase prices without giving justification for it, and VM don't do this. Customers are getting angry that VM are not supplying the goods, and l don't blame them. All bills water, electricity increase but these are essentials - TV is not.

VM do not give value for money, Sky and BT Vision tell you as it is and price it accordingly.

Its like going for electricity, you go and look for various providers, the same with Gas - these are essentials services and you pay for it.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

The workforce still require paying Arthur, wages gone up from last year also need to pay for new technology???

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

When a company is making profit or paying dividends to shareholders that kind of argument is silly.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

That, after all, is why a company is in business.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Just gave notice to cancel, didn't offer a sausage so cancelled the whole lot. Asked one last time if any offer on the just broadband and managed to get a little discount. Off to Sky now on 50% off for 12 month offer. Saves me around £27 overall per month for the year so a nice saving of £324. Will then take up upfront discount for the phone line and save another £48 for the year.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Congrats! Took a similar offer and had it all installed now, no regrets at all.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

thanks, got my install on Saturday.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Nice and quick! Installation guy who fitted mine said they were rushed off their feet. Seems a lot of people are fed up and switching to alternatives like Sky.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Same deal I got from SKY via a friends and family offer. The 50% offer from SKY only lasts until Wednesday.

If you trawl the internet, and find pro SKY forums, there is plenty of SKY staff more than prepared to sort you out with a 50% rebate code if you ask them.

Seems like a few of us here have jumped ship, and saved ourselves a small fortune.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

A train goes in two directions not one and you will generally find there are more passengers on the train going in the other direction .:)

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

would be crazy not to move at those prices, to add skysports and movies to virgin its about £28

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Yes that's correct, It's well known that Sky are struggling to attract new custom, so are offering all sorts of deals to to train and attract more. Question is what happens when the deals end. Forums are littered with people who move again at the end of a deal.

It must be expensive for both vm and sky to continue with this practice, you would think they would drop their prices rather than continue moving one to another and then back again?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I have just paid a years worth of line rental to VM to escape the price increase!

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

No, because they they make their money from the people who stick with them, not realising they are paying more for less services than say a new customer.

Customer ignorance along with the lazy ones who can't be bothered to change suppliers or just forget about it as direct debits just come out and their services work.

Look how many VM customers are still on 10mb broadband but are paying the same, if not more than other customers who are on 30mb. Same with the other services. If VM lowered all their prices then they lose money from those customers.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/b...=feeds-newsxml

:tu:

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Virgin Media already allow cancellation without penalty for cable and ADSL services for the price change

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I was on 10 and 30 was not an option being offered, I could have gone to 60 for more money.
However just had the speed "doubled" and now getting 14, was getting 9.
But I did have to ring them to enable this even though the post code checker was saying yes. The computer said no

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

When you do cancel, expect a bunch of phone calls after to ask why
When I cancelled, I had 3 calls and 2 missed calls
An email and two letters
Oh and then I started getting Virgin (un addressed) flyers through the door, too, haha
Probably a coincedence, but thought it was amusing.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

wonder how many did cancel as time will have pasted by now

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Like you I paid £120 advance line rental and pay £25 month for TV TiVo 500 and broadband, I phoned up to upgrade my broadband speed only to be told that I would lose the £120 advance line rental and pay £48 a month and if I wanted to take advantage of advance line rental I would have to pay £120 again!

They really need a lesson on customer service!

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Your post just reminded me of something.

I cancelled with Virgin on the 10th December. My 30 day notice period is almost up. On Friday afternoon I left my house at 1:30pm to attend a funeral. As I was pulling away in my car a man wearing a black coat with a Virgin Media clipboard approached my front door and started to knock the door. Sadly I couldn't really stop to find out why he was visiting. He didn't leave a card or anything.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I have still had no notification of any rise or offer to pay in advance etc.
If I didn't come on here would have no idea that there even is a price rise to come and still don't know know how much more I am expected to pay.

Is everyone supposed to have been told by now?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Yes

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Ok so it's a bit of a bizarre thing to do but do you suggest I call 150 and ask about the rise and the possibility of paying the line rental etc? I will not be going anywhere immediately it seems so I may as well take advantage of any cost cutting exercises I can.

Just seems bizarre I am going to call asking about a price rise when I don't want to hear about any price rise at all but there's no doubt even though I have not had my letter I will get stung for a rise

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I was never told about the pre pay discount even though I was told about the increase.
If you are thinking of changing at any time don't forget they won't refund any prepaid rental so you are tiied in

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I never received a letter informing of the price rise either, just an email.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Same here.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

No E mail but a letter. Not happy but seems to be on the low side of range posted here. Head down I think for the moment . O` Yes out of contract how ever fail to see any sort of offer I would consider. Last one was have a free TiVo & we will cut your price as well. Don`t see that happening again. Bigger TiVo perhaps - never gone over 17% full on 500 so see no use for that. Better phone package last month my calls came in at around £1. TV is XL, no interest in Sport or movie channels. 10 meg BB is fine & in the year the 2025( I so miss Zager & Evans) it will be doubled so forget that Guess short of a straight forward price cut I am at the end of the road .

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Same here.

Not sure I'm going to continue with VM as I can't even stream BBC iPlayer or YouTube reliably, and as this is an Infinity enabled area I've got a choice of other fibre suppliers for the same price! Looking into SKY, PlusNet, etc.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

We live in TW area, and we haven't heard anything yet. I am still trying to persuade my wife to go over to Sky.

Simply as VM do not live up to the promises, and prices have gone up - without justification.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Not had an email either and I have even been lucking in Spam folder as it's not unheard of that wanted stuff can go in there. My bill always comes to Inbox though.

So rogerhume says he never got the offer to pre pay. So I wonder what the criteria is to be offered that? If the prepay option kind of cancelled out the rise (or part of it) then I would have sucked it up and gone with it.
To not get that option I may look at taking the massive hit on broadband speed and jump ship to 6 months free Sky etc.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Do you mean the Line Rental Saver? If so, you don't need to wait for an offer. It's available to everyone.
http://store.virginmedia.com/phone/p...tal-saver.html

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

To everyone that doesn't have a telephone offer ;)

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Which we won't know about as the bills are still so convoluted and obscure only referring to goodwill discounts, rolling credits etc. and bundles instead of clearly itemising the individual 3 services. What exactly is a 'telephone offer' and how will it be described on the bill ?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

From my bill

Phone line rental total £13.90

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

That's standard line rental with no line rental offer as opposed to a telephone offer.

They have 4 different telephone services and add-ons /offers such as 0845 calls, international package, multi-talk, etc.etc.
What exactly is defined as being a telephone offer as it is a rather vague description to use.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

A free telephone call package or an existing reduction applied against the landline.

Depending what offer have will depend on how it's displayed on the bill e.g. if it's a time limited offer it will say so

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Sorry but I worry about paying in advance for anything I can chose not to -- Anyone with Jessops gift vouchers out there ?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

It is hard to ignore a £5 a month discount, if BT don't get their finger out with my address and infinity I may well opt for 60gb with the saving.

Really annoying as my whole street can order infinity but not my house "the computer says no".
I would be tied in for 18 months anyway if I change to 60 with Virgin
I wonder if I already am already tied in with Virgin by activating the "free" speed increase form 10 to 20.
I hoped that might be enough speed but only actually getting 12gb
How do you find out? I suppose I will have to ring the robot.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Thanks for the links and info everyone.

Will look into that when I get back home later and looks like I have to make a call to set it up.
I'm half tempted to wait for my first increased bill to come through that they have not told me about and then ring to see what they can do for me.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I never understand why people buy gift vouchers for ANYTHING. A £10 gift voucher costs £10, yet you can only use it in one place and it usually expires. Why not just give the tenner to someone?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

stupid question perhaps are you using & have a B T account for your phone line. I am given to understand that if the answer is no to either of these questions then computer says no everytime:)

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

No it is a Virgin phone and never been BT, but I have tried all ways, including BT so called customer service who said when I asked for a more senior person "If I say you can't have it you cant have it" and put the phone down.
Our area won the race to infinity so all homes were supposed to get it.
For some reason our post code and house number are not on the database.
Engineers who are connecting everyone else confirm I should be able to order
Most homes in our road are on Virgin but everone but me can order Infinity

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I understand what you are saying. My office is not on the computer at BT. We do not "take" BT services so not on it . Others in the building are ( same line in ) and are . Told as they are NOT my provider I am not on the computer - simple Huh:shocked:

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

BT certainly has my post code on its database as it allows me select my house number but when it checks the line it says not enabled. Other Virgin phone customers are able to order it in my road.
Anyway I gave up with BT as I got the 60 speed with virgin including the hub for actually less than I would have been paying with the latest increase by paying the rental up front.
No loss as I had to agree a new contract anyway
So hopefully if they stick to the agreed prices which is is £24.50 after paying (£10x12 in advance) and I asked about any delivery charges for the hub and they said they would be free.
Includes 24/7 uk calls

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

You can order it but you'd need a new BT line put in. I'm on an Infinity street and everyone can get it on the checker bar us and next door as there has never been a BT line put in. I emailed Openreach about this (as I am close to my limit on horrendous customer service from VM) and I got a really decent detailed email back:

"To try and assist you the best I can from looking at the information you have provided us the reasons I believe why you currently cannot see any details against your address on the ADSL checker is due to your current phone line being with Virgin therefore as this is not utilised over our suppliers infrastructure we are unable to obtain any test results as you are not currently registered within our network and there has been no active service at this address for over 10 years. "

It then went on to say that you probably won't be able to order online but that a company would take an order and Wholesale would then have to put a line in. In fact Talk Talk's website would let me order online. So try them?

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

I can see and select the postcode but when they test the line the ordering system says it is not enabled .

BT are installing infinity to our whole trio of villages (3300 homes) as we were winners in the Race to infinity in 2010.
BT decided that it would be cheaper for them to install fibre to the premises.
This has caused massive problems as the ducting is not up to the job, fibre is blown through rather than coppper which pulled by rope.
We have never had a BT line but we were told that would not be a problem and some houses are being connected with a new a BT line.
The villages are new and only started build 13 years ago
Many of the first homes had a virgin (NTL) service but they withdrew when they had financial problems in the early 2000's.

We have now been told that the ducting issues are likely to take some time and they have suspended ALL infinity orders anyway until they catch up. They think mine is just a postcode/database problem.
So I gave up and ordered the 60mps fron Virgin and have a new superhub.
Not much more expensive as I paid rental up front for a year as we are now tied in anyway with the new hub being provided for free.
So free 24/7 calls 60 broadband for £24.50 + £10 (x12).
This is still below what BT were offering even with new customer offers.
I am still way better off than some who are only getting 1mps with BT copper and many are not at all happy as they were expecting infinity by the end of 2012.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Glad you are happy. Guess the message is that you will pay for extras if not with BT. Even if the line is still in.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

No letter or e-mail, :mad:

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Not good as far as communication goes.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Nothing for us either. Pretty poor show really :(

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

The many price rises a year is probably a purely psychological based decision. If a customer got a letter once a year saying their bill is going up £15 then it could be enough of a shock to make them think about switching providers. Three or four bills of around £4 are more likely to brushed aside as inflation/the cost of everything is rising. It also has a benefit of increased income earlier in the providers part.

What I am interested to know is what caused so much resentment towards the price rises this time? Is it there was one price rise too many in a year (possibly avoided by making earlier increases a little higher?)? Was it that customers felt that virgin had not provided enough extra this year to warrant the cost? Or is it simply the state of the economy and customers in general are feeling the pinch in their pocket in all areas?

Interested to hear your thoughts.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

If I had to guess, I'd say people are more annoyed because they were told that their speeds were being doubled "for free" but then have to incur a bill increase. I'm sure many people would rather have stayed on the speed they were at and kept their older bill price.

I'm not saying I subscribe to this or agree with it, just putting it out there.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Except the prices would have still changed, and then people would have complained they got a price increase but 'got nothing for it'.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Like I said, I don't subscribe to this viewpoint or necessarily agree with it, I'm just putting it out there.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Have to say the two coming together is a bug. & not the best PR . Expect price rises - fact of life. This is free & we are putting the price up are strange bed fellows. More so when 18 months ( & two prices rises later ) still waiting.:erm:

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Was the price rise to keep customers happy with the price rise or PR related in that they could say in a quarterly report that 450k ish of their customers are now on Superfast 30mb+ broadband? Obviously it was a decision based on those and many other factors such as what the competition is doing.

The linking of the price rise and speed does indeed seem to be a bone of contempt for some though. If Virgin announced the speed increases so early as a way of keeping customers at the time, then maybe they made the right decision for them at the time in relation to cash flow. Then this would be the coming back to bite them part which would have been expected maybe. It is hard to know what percentage of people upset with the pay rises fall into this category though.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

The broadband speed increases have been mostly paid for by the sale of VM's UKTV stake. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/new...in-the-uk.html

The Price rises is/was a price rise, the same as VM have done on most years.

I don't think it really would have mattered which way around they were announced, they are going to be associated no matter what is said. Even if there hadn't been a price rise on broadband last year, but had been this year it would of been 'oh now we know how VM were paying for the 'free' increases' etc.

Re: The price of your Virgin Media service is going up
 

Oops, I should have said speed increase in the first sentence.

Was the price rise to keep customers happy with the price rise or PR related in

Should have been

Was the speed increase to keep customers happy with the price rise or PR related in

Yeah price happens happen anyway as you say. Maybe Virgin should have said they are consolidating their broadband tiers and there would be a small increase in bills related to that. Rather than saying the speed upgrade was free.

Interesting to see how it is funded, thanks for the link.