50MB Broadband now just £18 per month

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Traduk

Having been in business myself there is always an upfront and fall back logic behind apparently ridiculous decisions.

The fact that they are discounting implies that the higher price is the price they desire but for however long they choose they will discount. At some point in time they can increase prices, but avoid touching the headline price, by clawing back part of the discount. They would have the argument that the headline price is unaltered but the discount (which they graciously gave away) has been reduced.

The confusion is that the price shown on the bill has a discount applied to reach the headline price. Not one of what the headline price is. It's a billing system weirdness nothing to do with pricing policies. Any removal of the weird discounting on the billing would increase headline price. It's like me telling you something is 30GBP but the bill saying 35 - 5GBP. Headline price is still 30 but for whatever reason I charged you 35 then randomly took off 5. I can't touch that discount without your headline price.

Probably a system hangover from the initial pricing of the service at 52GBP standalone.

Shame I still have a system hangover in being charged the pre-Sept 1st rate...

I agree . The headline price should just be the price end of

[Traduk]

Just to add to the confusion I was taking the headline price as the one that appears on the bill.... £45.00. I see the £17.00 discount as a possible future variable which at some point will be classified as a release offer or any other spun logic they can get away with to retrospectively give it a temporary status. I suspect that they will whittle away at the discount, in the future, to aim for the £45.00 price as shown on the bill. Why show the price (£45.00) if is meaningless.

To meet the pricing as shown in the press release they have had to reduce the billed price and then further discount below that but in the process have added confusion to the lower tiers inasmuch as it is difficult to see where value is to be found. I suspect if they billed for £28 then all the lower tiers would be screaming but unless there are universal discounts for the lower tiers perhaps they hope customers will not notice

For the time being the bottom line is what matters for customers and your point about variables (discounts) is to achieve a future purpose and of course you are correct inasmuch as a variation on discount at this time would impact on headline price and the bottom line. Businesses tend to have strategies (short, medium and long term) and I suspect a short term give away leading to a claw back.

I like VM's products (most of the time) but have deep suspicions when it comes to the manner in which they deal with customers. I always expect to leave them at some point which is unfortunate.

[Ignitionnet]

I think the 45 quid price is a legacy artifact of previous pricing.

Initially it was 52GBP for stand alone, 35 with phone line. Drop 7 from both and you have 45 and 28 - which is what we have *but* evidently someone decided that price for the stand alone service was rather high at some point and it was dropped to 38, so I suspect that the path of least effort was taken. It was either:

Drop headline price by 7GBP, reduce discount for 2 services by 7GBP. (Headline price 45 -> 38, double play discount 17 -> 10GBP) or the current system, (Leave headline price, apply 7GBP discount to stand alone, leave double play discount at 17GBP).

So making two changes and having clearer bills or making a single change and having bills that look weird. They chose the second option.

Not sure there's any conspiracy or thoughts of messing with pricing just some laziness over the tier price changes.

EDIT: And yes it would be far less confusing though of course wouldn't look as good if they were just honest about it and said 'Buy XXL 50Mbit for 38GBP a month and get a VM phone line for a pound'. Given they are selling everything they should tell us the prices and tell us what discounts we can get, not tell us the prices assuming discounts for taking multiple services.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

I think the 45 quid price is a legacy artifact of previous pricing.

Yes. Its got to do with price of the XL tier

Initially it was 52GBP for stand alone, 35 with phone line.

Both of which were £15 more than XL - £52 is £15 more than the undiscounted XL and £35 is £15 more than £37 - £17

So the £52 price was chosen so it could 'easily' drop into the existing discounts and pricing structure.

The £45 price is a straight £7 drop on that price, making it £8 more than the £37 XL core price - again allowing it to drop into the same current bundles as XL without much issue.

Unfortunately when XXL was launched someone though it would be a good ideal to give Triple XL and above customers an extra £5 off by upping the discount - probably because £15 on top of VIP bundle was a bit steep

So that has then confused matters.

If it had just been £15 extra for everyone in the first place the price reduction would have made more sense

Drop headline price by 7GBP, reduce discount for 2 services by 7GBP. (Headline price 45 -> 38, double play discount 17 -> 10GBP)

Of course if they had done that they then would have had to start playing about with the other tiers as well, as the XXL 'full fat' price would only be £1 more than the XL one causing issues with the bundles and discounts

Not sure there's any conspiracy or thoughts of messing with pricing just some laziness over the tier price changes.

Again, it's more to do with the legacy of the other prices than laziness.

[Ignitionnet]

Overall a symptom of the mess that is the VM pricing structure.

I did forget something though, those people who are presently paying over the odds would pay less if they were to simply change the pricing on the tiers rather than adding discount codes, so it certainly pays Virgin to grandfather legacy pricing and add discounts to drop pricing to current levels rather than drop the prices of the tiers themselves

You were dead right though Ben, nothing to do with being lazy but more to do with keeping those who are paying legacy rates paying those rates while advertising lower prices for new customers and older customers who persue the matter

EDIT: I'm not saying this is somehow wrong, it's what every company does.

[saeedk786]

Just spoke to customer service

spoke to a really nice person from the UK

was told that only today is FREE INSTALLATION

was well chuffed, so i only have to pay £20 for activation and £1 extra a month on my bill

i also get the free router and dongle

soo happy i rang today and if your thinking of getting it, ring today because you might just get teh free install too

oh yeah and he said my contract wont be renewed

Install date = 15 Oct

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by saeedk786

Just spoke to customer service

spoke to a really nice person from the UK

was told that only today is FREE INSTALLATION

oh yeah and he said my contract wont be renewed

Install date = 15 Oct

He may have been nice but he was also dim, nice but dim Tim. XXL carries a new 12 month contract. I had certain dispensations given to me with my XXL install due to issues with XL and having formerly been a reasonably high level member of technical staff who had demonstrable issues which would be resolved through the migration to XXL, having the 12 month contract waived was not one of them, that was non-negotiable.

I seriously and strongly recommend you get back in touch with Virgin and try and ascertain this guy's grasp on reality. I seriously doubt both that there's a free one day only free installation service and that there's no contract on this.

Honestly get back in touch, I think you've gotten through to a really nice guy with no problems about telling you what you want to hear, which sadly won't reflect what's going to be on your next bill as he's just promised you a lot of things that he can't deliver.

FACT: XXL costs 50GBP to be provisioned, 30GBP installation charge, 20GBP activation charge, this charge cannot be waived only made up by account credits which the average customer service bod on the phone cannot do.

FACT: XXL has a 12 month contract. This is neither variable nor negotiable. Taking the XXL service entails a new 12 month contract on the XXL service. This is to cover the cost to Virgin of the modem, router and dongle. This cannot be waived by a customer service bod on the phone.

[Raistlin]

^^ What he said ^^

Either that or we'll be hearing from you in a few weeks when you post to complain that you're now a) paying for installation, and b) tied into a new contract.

[Horace]

So if XXL is £28 and I've just ordered a phone installation but according to my bill I'm paying £37 for XL broadband if I take XXL does that mean I end up paying less?

[BenMcr]

XXL *usually* is more expensive than XL

What other services and discounts do you have?

[Alexander]

is it worth to upgrade from 20mb to 50mb to have the same issue with Internet? I think the best thing to do it's change the company.

[damned]

I'm still confused with the pricing.
I currently have:
Line Rental £11
XL Phone £7.95
L Broadband £25
Total £43.95

So, would I be right in thinking that my new total with XXL Broadband would be £46.95?
And, are there other bundles with their inherent discounts that would give me better value?
Cheers for any help.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by damned

So, would I be right in thinking that my new total with XXL Broadband would be £46.95?

Yes that's right

And, are there other bundles with their inherent discounts that would give me better value?

Nope (well not without the TV anyway)

[fever]

I rang up today as my bill is £58 with xl tv and broadband and m phone line

and they told me it would be an extra 9.50 for xxl broadband and £30 for a modem and £20 for installation

surly this isnt right ? they are only charging 38 on the website without a phone line