VM National ADSL thumping great big price hike

[Chris]

Just got an email from Virgin Media telling me that my ADSL service is going up to £17.99 a month (it's £14.99 at the moment).

But, not to worry, at the same time they're going to upgrade me from 1 meg to 'up-to-8 meg'.

Except, I've been on the up-to-8 service for years. Tech support have no problem with this, whenever I have the need to talk to them. Only their marketing department seems determined to believe I'm still on an ancient 1Mb package.

Anyway, back to the main issue - how can they justify stuffing my bill up by £3 a month? That's a 20% increase!

THIEVING SWINES!

[dilligaf1701]

Originally Posted by Chris

Just got an email from Virgin Media telling me that my ADSL service is going up to £17.99 a month (it's £14.99 at the moment).

But, not to worry, at the same time they're going to upgrade me from 1 meg to 'up-to-8 meg'.

Except, I've been on the up-to-8 service for years. Tech support have no problem with this, whenever I have the need to talk to them. Only their marketing department seems determined to believe I'm still on an ancient 1Mb package.

Anyway, back to the main issue - how can they justify stuffing my bill up by £3 a month? That's a 20% increase!

THIEVING SWINES!

I've not had an email from them about this yet

[Chris]

It reads like this:

We’re writing to tell you about some changes to your broadband service.

The first thing to tell you is that the cost of your broadband is increasing. Starting from 8th of March 2010, the new cost will be £17.99 a month. When we make changes of this kind, we always like to give you at least 30 days’ notice, so you’ll see the new monthly cost on your bill over the next few months.

Go faster with up to 8Mb broadband!
The good news is that we are giving you up to 8Mb broadband (instead of 1Mb). That means you could enjoy speeds that are up to 8 times faster than your current connection, letting you surf, stream, download and browse quicker than before. To find out how click here.

Get free stuff with V Stuff – and more
Not only will you enjoy faster broadband, you’ll benefit from some added extras to your service, too. With our V Stuff service, you can automatically back up and store all of your most treasured files and share them online with friends and family. What’s more, you can print up to 25 of your digital photos for free every month. And of course, you'll stay protected against all sorts of internet nasties with our trusty PCguard. It’s free to all Virgin Broadband customers. Click here to find out more.

Enjoy unlimited weekend calls, a Virgin Phone line and speedy broadband
The good stuff doesn’t stop there. Virgin Media now offers a new phone service. So you can hang up on BT – and get one single, simple bill from Virgin Media which covers all calls to UK landline numbers and your line rental.

Adding our phone service couldn’t be easier. If you’d like to find out more visit my.virginmedia.com

All the best

About the only thing it's got going for it is the fact that, unlike BT last week, they had the decency to put the price increase up front, rather than telling me about the fluff and freebies and then hiding the real news in the small print.

[dilligaf1701]

Cheers for the info

I pay my line rental to virgin too so I don't think the BT thing will apply to me.

[Ignitionnet]

Not surprising, 14.99 is a tad cheap for the national service especially given you've not had any shaping / capping issues.

Why anyone would use Virgin National is a mystery to me I must confess. If in an LLU area you can get a better deal, even using the same LLU network, and in a non-LLU network some good deals available too.

[Chris]

Most definitely not in an LLU area. You must have forgotten.

I've used Virgin National up to now because they were cheap and have never enforced any cap, STM or shaping (such that I noticed). I don't tend to be a heavy downloader, but I have my moments and its been nice not to need to keep one eye on a download meter.

Now, however, I may have to go a-hunting for something better. Anyone got any suggestions? Remember, I'm on a remote, rural, non-LLU exchange, so only non-LLU, up-to-8Mb offerings are any use to me.

[dilligaf1701]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

Not surprising, 14.99 is a tad cheap for the national service especially given you've not had any shaping / capping issues.

Why anyone would use Virgin National is a mystery to me I must confess. If in an LLU area you can get a better deal, even using the same LLU network, and in a non-LLU network some good deals available too.

Initially I had to as I was moving out of a cabled area and they told me it would be close to £500 to get out of my contract.

Not sure which deals would be better for me though. Anyway I get 6.2mb/s just fine so I don't mind.

[Ben B]

Originally Posted by Chris

Most definitely not in an LLU area. You must have forgotten.

I've used Virgin National up to now because they were cheap and have never enforced any cap, STM or shaping (such that I noticed). I don't tend to be a heavy downloader, but I have my moments and its been nice not to need to keep one eye on a download meter.

Now, however, I may have to go a-hunting for something better. Anyone got any suggestions? Remember, I'm on a remote, rural, non-LLU exchange, so only non-LLU, up-to-8Mb offerings are any use to me.

BT Broadband?

[Chris]

I guess the obvious choice is always the one right under my nose ... I'll have a wee browse and see what they're offering.

[Cobbydaler]

Originally Posted by Thomas T

Initially I had to as I was moving out of a cabled area and they told me it would be close to £500 to get out of my contract.

Ditto, moved out of a cabled area & would have to had paid off my contract if I hadn't gone with VM National...

Haven't had this e-mail yet though.

[Ben B]

Originally Posted by Chris

I guess the obvious choice is always the one right under my nose ... I'll have a wee browse and see what they're offering.

Or there's BT owned PlusNet:

* - Plusnet Value broadband starts at £5.99 a month for the first 3 months. If you live in one of our low cost areas you'll then pay this price every month. If you live outside of one of these areas you'll then pay £11.99 a month thereafter.
** - Plusnet Premium Broadband starts at £11.99 a month for the first 3 months. If you live in one of our low cost areas you'll then pay £15.99 a month thereafter. If you live outside of one of these areas you'll then pay £19.99 a month thereafter

Value is up to 8meg and Premium is up to 20meg

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Chris

Most definitely not in an LLU area. You must have forgotten.

I've used Virgin National up to now because they were cheap and have never enforced any cap, STM or shaping (such that I noticed). I don't tend to be a heavy downloader, but I have my moments and its been nice not to need to keep one eye on a download meter.

Now, however, I may have to go a-hunting for something better. Anyone got any suggestions? Remember, I'm on a remote, rural, non-LLU exchange, so only non-LLU, up-to-8Mb offerings are any use to me.

Nope just mentioning that LLU has better options than Virgin.

My suggestions depend on how much you're prepared to pay really.

Have a think about http://www.plus.net though. 80GB/month with unlimited overnight usage.

[Down the Pub]

Originally Posted by Ben B

Or there's BT owned PlusNet:



Value is up to 8meg and Premium is up to 20meg

funny u should mention them, theres a big billboard just down the raod from my house, and just gone up is an ad for plusnet and their £5.99 deal. bloody good value fi you can get it.

[III]

Chris, any use?
http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/

From http://www.samknows.com/broadband/llu-operator/be

"The provider may also offer broadband services using other technologies (most commonly BT Wholesale ADSL "

[Ignitionnet]

Strongly suggest against O2's Access package, it is poop