Price rises this year.

[HughA]

I was notified of a £6 increase on my £42 bill and managed to negotiate a new deal by phone. No price increase and a speed increase from 50 Mbps to 125Mbps. No new contract.

Unfortunately when the e-mail confirmation came through the promised speed increase had disappeared!

I posted on the Virgin Media forum and an agent got involved and had the speed increase re-instated after listening to the recording of my call. I also seem to now have a price reduction to £36!

So, a satisfactory outcome but I had to work hard to get it. It would so much easier if there was a fixed price for a specific service that everyone paid.

[daveeb]

Originally Posted by HughA

I was notified of a £6 increase on my £42 bill and managed to negotiate a new deal by phone. No price increase and a speed increase from 50 Mbps to 125Mbps. No new contract.

Unfortunately when the e-mail confirmation came through the promised speed increase had disappeared!

I posted on the Virgin Media forum and an agent got involved and had the speed increase re-instated after listening to the recording of my call. I also seem to now have a price reduction to £36!

So, a satisfactory outcome but I had to work hard to get it. It would so much easier if there was a fixed price for a specific service that everyone paid.

This has been the outcome for me on several occasions after ringing retentions. Negotiate a deal, then deal isn't as stated so over to the Community Forum. They usually fix it first time although I have had issues carry on with more than one forum agent getting involved. As you say it can be hard work and is very annoying.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by HughA

I was notified of a £6 increase on my £42 bill and managed to negotiate a new deal by phone. No price increase and a speed increase from 50 Mbps to 125Mbps. No new contract.

Unfortunately when the e-mail confirmation came through the promised speed increase had disappeared!

I posted on the Virgin Media forum and an agent got involved and had the speed increase re-instated after listening to the recording of my call. I also seem to now have a price reduction to £36!

So, a satisfactory outcome but I had to work hard to get it. It would so much easier if there was a fixed price for a specific service that everyone paid.

Ahhh, but that way they wouldn't be able to screw extra money out of those who pay inflated prices due to inertia, vulnerability or because they are foolish enough to assume that Virgin automatically honour agreements made.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Ahhh, but that way they wouldn't be able to screw extra money out of those who pay inflated prices due to inertia, vulnerability or because they are foolish enough to assume that Virgin automatically honour agreements made.

Why would Virgin offer discounts to everyone when the competition isn’t uniform?

Sky, BT and everyone else do exactly the same thing.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by jfman

Why would Virgin offer discounts to everyone when the competition isn’t uniform?

Sky, BT and everyone else do exactly the same thing.

You may well be right, but that doesn't make the practice any more paliable

---------- Post added at 20:06 ---------- Previous post was at 20:05 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

Why would Virgin offer discounts to everyone when the competition isn’t uniform?

Sky, BT and everyone else do exactly the same thing.

You may well be right, but that doesn't make the practice any more palatable

[Joedm45]

Has anyone on Ultimate oomph (with an O2 SIM) done any negotiations recently?

I'm interested to how it works now that you are billed separately by VM and O2. Phone both? Just VM?
The O2 SIM is used by my other half but the GB allowance is far too high for her needs, I'd like to reduce it down when the contract is up in July to save money but unsure if VM can do this or O2 need to.
It certainly isn't straight forward any more.


On a separate note, I was an existing O2 customer before the merger and it only took them 14 months to double my GB allowance... Typical VM

[ozsat]

Yes - I have for a new contract for both.

Before £25 was a part of your total package. With the switch to O2 you can keep the top tier broadband and tv at £25 less.

VM do all the transfer work for you.

But you can also downgrade your O2 contract to a cheaper one so instead of unlimited data you can choose a realistic one for you.

As you know as VM customer which ever level of data allowance you select is automatically doubled - but you have to ask at times.

Originally Posted by Joedm45

Has anyone on Ultimate oomph (with an O2 SIM) done any negotiations recently?

I'm interested to how it works now that you are billed separately by VM and O2. Phone both? Just VM?
The O2 SIM is used by my other half but the GB allowance is far too high for her needs, I'd like to reduce it down when the contract is up in July to save money but unsure if VM can do this or O2 need to.
It certainly isn't straight forward any more.


On a separate note, I was an existing O2 customer before the merger and it only took them 14 months to double my GB allowance... Typical VM

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by ozsat

Yes - I have for a new contract for both.

Before £25 was a part of your total package. With the switch to O2 you can keep the top tier broadband and tv at £25 less.

VM do all the transfer work for you.

But you can also downgrade your O2 contract to a cheaper one so instead of unlimited data you can choose a realistic one for you.

As you know as VM customer which ever level of data allowance you select is automatically doubled - but you have to ask at times.

Thanks ozsat.
Looks like I can treat them seperately now. I haven't been able to change the O2 contract as it isn't up until July but it will be the first thing I do on the day it is up.
I weirdly look forward to the end of contract negotiation with VM, always fun trying get the best deal and tieing them up in knots with all the info I'm armed with

[TMLeafs]

Originally Posted by Joedm45

Has anyone on Ultimate oomph (with an O2 SIM) done any negotiations recently?

I'm interested to how it works now that you are billed separately by VM and O2. Phone both? Just VM?
The O2 SIM is used by my other half but the GB allowance is far too high for her needs, I'd like to reduce it down when the contract is up in July to save money but unsure if VM can do this or O2 need to.
It certainly isn't straight forward any more.


On a separate note, I was an existing O2 customer before the merger and it only took them 14 months to double my GB allowance... Typical VM

I'm planning to ditch the O2 Sim and work on Virgin to keep everything at the price I'm paying now and I will be happy. I will be switching the sim to Smarty my other half barely uses 5Gb a month nearly £30 for a sim with a terrible signal is taking the piss. With the savings on the sim, virgin can go up by £20 I will still be saving.

[wildfruit]

Was paying £44 pm for ultimate oomph. Didn't want to pay the price rise so rang up and got it nullified. Fine I thought.
Think someone has made a mistake somewhere though as my latest bill is £17 and new contract states further price will be £22pm for remainder of contract. Will see if next bill adds price rise on to go back to £47.
(something similar has happened to me many years ago)
Will enjoy this until youfibre comes live in my area at end of the year.

[SirThomas]

Originally Posted by Joedm45

Has anyone on Ultimate oomph (with an O2 SIM) done any negotiations recently?

I'm interested to how it works now that you are billed separately by VM and O2. Phone both? Just VM?

If it's of any help, I just renegotiated my Virgin pricing and then messaged O2 via their website to get the associated 'Volt' SIM cancelled, as VM said they have no way to change plans or cancel these (althought they are able to sign people up at te beginning...)

After being told it would be x,y & z amount to cancel - They eventually relented and cancelled with no fees. Be firm and tell them that you will simply stay on the chat until you are satisfied. Just takes time for them to respond!

Tom

[nialli]

Virgin’s revised Terms and Conditions are particularly galling but I can’t help but suspect that these companies are all as bad as each other and even the new Alt Nets will in future get away with whatever they can. The problem is the lumbering incompetence of OFCOM, which serves the companies rather than the customers

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by SirThomas

If it's of any help, I just renegotiated my Virgin pricing and then messaged O2 via their website to get the associated 'Volt' SIM cancelled, as VM said they have no way to change plans or cancel these (althought they are able to sign people up at te beginning...)

After being told it would be x,y & z amount to cancel - They eventually relented and cancelled with no fees. Be firm and tell them that you will simply stay on the chat until you are satisfied. Just takes time for them to respond!

Tom

Thanks Tom
I'm looking forward to the challenge, it sounds like it is inevitable I'll have to pay more for VM when my contract is up but if I can knock O2 down considerably then it softens the blow/might make things cheaper overall.

I've had two RPI increases from O2 since I last renewed my VM contract so the SIM is now just over £32/month... Horrendous amount

[ozsat]

You can downgrade the O2 contract if it was swapped over from VM.

Remember what ever data level you choose gets doubled.

Originally Posted by Joedm45

Thanks Tom
I'm looking forward to the challenge, it sounds like it is inevitable I'll have to pay more for VM when my contract is up but if I can knock O2 down considerably then it softens the blow/might make things cheaper overall.

I've had two RPI increases from O2 since I last renewed my VM contract so the SIM is now just over £32/month... Horrendous amount

I had registered with Openreach, asking to be informed when their fibre was being installed (as it wasn't even planned when I last checked).

Received an email today letting me know my address was now in the planning cycle, but no further details, so I went on to the website and checked - let's put it this way, the outcome was underwhelming ....

Build planned between

now and Dec-2026