10M : Virgin Media Broadband price rises

[AndyCalling]

Originally Posted by Begall

Erm, I got a letter today saying my price would rise by £2.25 a month. I have 50MB BB/Lowest tier phone and I thought the price increases were only applying to 30MB BB?

Interesting. I have the same as you (+ clid on the phone @ £2.05 & the free 0870/0845 price reduction pack they gave out to many a short time ago) and I have received no such communication. I am paying the standard rate quoted on the VM web site.

Can I ask, what were you paying for your 50meg+basic phone package before they quoted an increase? Could it be that they are now removing any discounts people have?

I'm half expecting them to want to increase my package cost by trying to charge for the 'free for life' 0870/0845 pack as they told me that would become chargeable if I make any changes to my package despite the claim that it would be free for the life of the account when it was provided originally. I am expecting the speed increase to trigger that trick so I'm already preping for the argument.

But, so far, it seems they aren't contacting me about any price rise so I might still be safe. It's hard to tell, as there seems to be no standard price rise. Some people are being contacted about a rise but such rises appear to be individually tailored to each customer contacted. Kind of like a VM 'Reverse-Tickle' (fnar!) or something.

Let's hope I manage to avoid getting reverse-tickled, I'm happy as I am.

[Begall]

I am/was paying £35/month, which was a price I got in a virgin retail store that was a little bit cheaper than what was available on the website. It was explained to me that the phone line came free with the BB. I suppose this could be cutting out that discount.

[Skie]

I hope someone complains to Ofcom over Virgin completely obfuscating their bills and the price rise. Its crazy that a company thinks that hiding individual charges and then sending out a vague price rise letter is acceptable.

I guess the superhub team were put in charge of the billing system.

[Chrysalis]

yeah the price rise should have been broken down.

[alexcopeland]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

yeah the price rise should have been broken down.

I agree strongly and found I had to call customer services after recieving my letter of a rise to clear things up. My bundle is around £110 per including 50Mb broadband. The letter stated a £4.25 rise from April. After speaking to the rep on the phone I discovered my XL TV package was to go up by £2 and the 50Mb broadband service to increase by £2.25.

[Chrystal86]

Just wanted to update... I got a reply to my email from Virgin today and they have explained the breakdown of my £2 bill increase. My M+ TV is going up by 50p and my L (10Mb) internet is going up by £1.50

I quote:

Hi ***,

Thanks for your e-mail to Virgin Media about the recent e-mail you've received regarding the price change from the 1st April 2012.

We're sorry to hear that you are unable to view the changes for the TV and Broadband services.

From the 1st April 2012 we’re changing some of our prices to make sure we continue to give our customers the best home entertainment and
services.

The monthly charge for the TV Size M+ package will increase by 50p to £7.00, for Broadband Size L will increase by £1.50 to £27.50.

EDIT:
Just realised something here, I don't actually currently pay £6.50 for my TV and £26 for my internet. I have TV, BB and phone line and my bill comes to £33.90 per month (it was £30 per month until the price increase last year). So I'm taking these prices (£7 and £27.50) are the prices charged for new customers?

[Kabaal]

Originally Posted by alexcopeland

I agree strongly and found I had to call customer services after recieving my letter of a rise to clear things up. My bundle is around £110 per including 50Mb broadband. The letter stated a £4.25 rise from April. After speaking to the rep on the phone I discovered my XL TV package was to go up by £2 and the 50Mb broadband service to increase by £2.25.

Hmm, £4.25 was the number they sent me too, yet i cancelled my TV package a while ago as i never watch it and currently have the 'freeview' version of it. If they're going to increase my bill higher because i have that then i'll quite happily give it up completely.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Chrystal86

So I'm taking these prices (£7 and £27.50) are the prices charged for new customers?

£7 is the price of M+ for everyone from 1st April

£27.50 is the undiscounted price for BB L on the system, and if you have a phoneline hasn't been sold at the price for at least 5 years i.e. it always comes with an adjustment.

[Griffin]

I for one am glad i left in January, fair enough the BB speed that i was getting 30M package is ahead of anything else, although BT infinity is very close with a faster upload speed. The tv was the main reason for me leaving as i always found the HD channels were not as clear as standard def on the sky HD box.
End result i am with sky now & they will be offering fibre round this area with 40mb speeds & completely unlimited speeds with no fair usage allowances.

[Kymmy]

Will be interesting to see what I end up paying.. Ordered 50Mb back in January with an install date early March (was waiting for my 90 days notice on VMB) Contract states the prices as 28.90 for 3 months then 38.90 for the rest of the contract.. I've had no notice of any price increase directly from VM..

[Wild Oscar]

Got my email re. price rise today .. going up by £2.25!

50Mb broadband
Standard phone line
free TV (with phone line)

Paid by DD and no paper bill.

[thedavid2007]

Sneaky to move the cheap phone time from 6pm to 7pm. Loads of people will still think 6pm is the cheap time to phone. And pressing 1471 followed by 3 costs money now. Time to get rid of the phone i think.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by thedavid2007

Sneaky to move the cheap phone time from 6pm to 7pm. Loads of people will still think 6pm is the cheap time to phone

It's 2 years after everyone else changed it, so it's not like Virgin are the only ones

[AndyCambs]

Originally Posted by thedavid2007

Sneaky to move the cheap phone time from 6pm to 7pm. Loads of people will still think 6pm is the cheap time to phone. And pressing 1471 followed by 3 costs money now. Time to get rid of the phone i think.

Ringback costs on all operators.