The price of your Virgin Media service is going up

[Qtx]

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.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Qtx

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.

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.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Kushan

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.

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

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

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

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

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by Kushan

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.

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.

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

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

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.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Qtx

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.

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

Investment in the work has primarily come from a £110m cash injection using the "remaining proceeds" from Virgin Media's £339m sale of its 50% stake in pay-TV operator UKTV to Scripps Networks International last year.

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.

[Qtx]

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.