Virgin Media to raise broadband and phone prices in Feb 2015

[Pea-Pod]

Yes it's definitely a case of 'I'm thinking of switching to (whoever) and was wondering if there was anything you could offer me to stay' 'alleviate the financial burden'...etc.. than 'I'm am going to cancel, unless you give me this and that'....not saying that anybody would adopt the latter stance, but just something to bear in mind.

[johnathome]

Well i had another phone call from 0800 408 9341 offering me a great deal, so she said.

We did the same security check, first 2 letters of my password, and she couldn't access the database or my account and wanted to phone back in a couple of hours.

'What's the great deal?' i asked, 'discounted Sky Sports', she said.

I declined. I've had SS once in 20 years so why she thought she could upsell it i don't know.
Not sure she was even aware i've put my cancellation in.

[kandinsky]

Just off the phone to them. They were going to put my price up by another£4-50 a month.
I presently pay £44-50 a month for Big Kahuna bundle with 1Tb Tivo, an extra VHD box, and evening and weekend calls. Paid line rental upfront 3 months ago.
First guy offered me a £3-00 reduction which I refused so he put me on to retentions. The girl there offered me to stay on the price I was paying just now but I would need to enter another 18 month contract. I said I did nt want to sign up for another 18 months. She said do you want to cancel then, and I said yes.
Then she said wait and I ll see what I can do. She came back with £39-60 for 6 months and then the remaning time of my present contract at my £44-50 and 6 months Netflix.
No new contract, so happy with that.
So its worth phoning to save your self some money.

[Dinalt]

Got my price increase letter yesterday - they want another £9.09 - current bill is £74.50 (excluding my wife's VM mobile which never seems to show up on our main bill. More than 12% increase... Was too late to get through to retentions last night when i saw the letter but I'll be ringing them tomorrow. Glad i checked my bill as i see they still haven't credited me for the appalling broadband speeds weve had recently (complained last week as the speed has been dropping steadily and went to single figure speeds last week - was promised a refund which there's no sign of).
As others have said i wish i could drop my phone line the only incoming callls are spam and we only use it ourselves for ordering the occasional takeaway or 'phoning abroad.

Will update with their reply

[alexcopeland]

I'm considering ditching all but my broadband with VM and investing in a freesat receiver from Humax. I currently have the Big Kahoona bundle along with sky sports and movies in HD and 2 additional boxes but enough is enough. Netflix and Amazon instant video seem to be the way forward. Haven't had a letter just yet. But I'm not paying these prices any longer.

[paultrademark]

Originally Posted by Dinalt

Got my price increase letter yesterday - they want another £9.09 - current bill is £74.50

Wow that's shocking

[MrB]

I am on a Mates Rates deal which was a good deal when I signed up - is there any chance of renegotiating with retentions on Mates Rates or do I just have to accept any price rises (or leave)?

I understood that you cannot change anything in the package without losing Mates Rates, but see that Mates Rates itself has changed a number of times so what people refer to as Mates Rates may be different depending on when they signed up?

Current package is what was XL TV/XLBB (now 100MB)/XLPhone, 2x Tivo and 1xV+ with Superhub 2, Line Rental £144 paid in advance, plus currently paying £40 a month on top (so about £52 per month before the rises) - when we signed up it was £36.

This is the third £4+ rise in less than 2 years (this time £4.75). It is annoying that you are not even sure what in your package is going up - I pay in advance for Line Rental so does the £4.75 include line rental (if I were paying normally) or exclude Line Rental (so will be another £20+ rise if/when I renew that too)?

I appreciate that this is still a reasonable deal compared to some, but there is no point just accepting the rise if there is any way to get the price reduced again - happy to drop the Talk International 2 and Talk Mobile 2 as we don't even use them and could probably do without the Talk XL too if the price came down enough to warrant it (as plenty of calls on mobiles anyway and rarely use the landline).

Sky have recently been in touch offering 50% off for the year which is an option but generally happy with VM apart from their price rises so better/less hassle to stay if possible.

Many thanks

[RobboEdin]

Perhaps you should address your questions to the Virgin Media Mate that got you the Rates in the first place?

[Dinalt]

OK spoke to retentions they''re upping my broadband to 152 from 60, sending me a SH2 (dunno if it's the ac model), giving me 6 months Netflix and reducing my bill by £10 (so I'll still be paying almost £5 less when the increase happens - its a new contract though (12 months with price held for 18),

So got to say Im pretty happy overall - though why on Earth they didnt just offer me a good deal in the first place... One thing that was very interesting was that the CS person i spoke to didn't understand why these large increases are being sent out...

[andy_m]

Originally Posted by Dinalt

OK spoke to retentions they''re upping my broadband to 152 from 60, sending me a SH2 (dunno if it's the ac model), giving me 6 months Netflix and reducing my bill by £10 (so I'll still be paying almost £5 less when the increase happens - its a new contract though (12 months with price held for 18),

So got to say Im pretty happy overall - though why on Earth they didnt just offer me a good deal in the first place... One thing that was very interesting was that the CS person i spoke to didn't understand why these large increases are being sent out...

The vast majority won't query them, so they're still quids in.

[MrB]

Originally Posted by RobboEdin

Perhaps you should address your questions to the Virgin Media Mate that got you the Rates in the first place?

I already had, thank you for the suggestion. They didn't know (as I am sure most VM staff wouldn't either, as the base Mates Rates has changed a number of times since I signed up years ago), therefore perhaps someone on here who has been on Mates Rates will have experience and I will be in a better position to know if it is worth contacting them or not, and what is possible (in the same way that many other posts on here are showing what retentions deals are possible).

Thank you.

[andy_m]

It's always worth contacting them. What's the worst that can happen?

[RobboEdin]

Originally Posted by MrB

I already had, thank you for the suggestion. They didn't know (as I am sure most VM staff wouldn't either, as the base Mates Rates has changed a number of times since I signed up years ago), therefore perhaps someone on here who has been on Mates Rates will have experience and I will be in a better position to know if it is worth contacting them or not, and what is possible (in the same way that many other posts on here are showing what retentions deals are possible).

Thank you.

I'm not suggesting that an individual Virgin Media employee would know the ins and outs of Mates Rates but this is an employee benefit and I would expect them to be able, perhaps through their HR department, to be able to get the contact information for someone who does understand.

[spiderplant]

I *think* I know the rules for changing your package with Mates Rates, but no matter what anyone here tells you, at the end of the day it's Customer Services you have to deal with. So as andy_m says...

[thedavid2007]

20mb broadband and M phone up by £3.64 for me. I think I might ditch phone and broadband if I can find an alternative broadband cheaper and use my mobile.