New customers vs Old customers

[alexcopeland]

Just sign a new 12 month contract and be done with it or pay £60 over the next year for not signing. Or go to another provider that can dish out 50Mb BB oh you can't. Well not so true but VM have to service and it's in you area. With that £60 saving for the next 12 months treat yourself in which ever way you see fit.

[jfknight]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

And all XXL customers got a price reduction to make XXL £28 on top of the phoneline - which is made up of £45 - £17. Down from £52 - £17 which was calculation when it was advertised as £35

I didn't get a price reduction - and when I questioned this a couple of weeks ago I was told flatly "you are not eligible" and "this is our final position" with no explanation as to why. I've been with VM since it because VM; I suffered through the NTL years before then, and Cabletel before that. I already had an XXL package with phone line when this press release was issued - which surely qualified me as an existing customer, so would really like it if someone could explain why?

[BenMcr]

If you post your services charges (if possible before and after the XXL charge when from £52 to £45) - yes we could

[jfknight]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

If you post your services charges (if possible before and after the XXL charge when from £52 to £45) - yes we could

OK here goes:

Before
=====
Description Date/period Amount
Line Rental 05 August - 04 September £11.00
Talk International 05 August - 04 September £1.50
Talk Unlimited 05 August - 04 September £7.95
Ultimate Double 1 05 August - 04 September £-5.95
Calldispl,Callwait 05 August - 04 September £3.50
TV Size: X L 05 August - 04 September £23.00
1 Add Set Top Box(es) 05 August - 04 September £15.00
Add Set Box(es) Discount 05 August - 04 September £-10.00
XXL 50Mb Broadband 05 August - 04 September £52.00

After
====
Description Date/period Amount
Line Rental 05 September - 04 October £11.00
Talk International 05 September - 04 October £1.50
Talk Unlimited 05 September - 04 October £7.95
Ultimate Double 1 05 September - 04 October £-5.95
Calldispl,Callwait 05 September - 04 October £3.50
TV Size: X L 05 September - 04 October £23.00
1 Add Set Top Box(es) 05 September - 04 October £15.00
Add Set Box(es) Discount 05 September - 04 October £-10.00
XXL 50Mb Broadband 05 September - 04 October £45.00

and NOW
=======
Description Date/period Amount
Line Rental 05 March - 04 April £11.00
Talk International 05 March - 04 April £1.50
Talk Unlimited 05 March - 04 April £7.95
Ultimate Double 1 05 March - 04 April £-5.95
Calldispl,Voicemail 05 March - 04 April £3.50
TV Size: X L 05 March - 04 April £23.00
1 Add Set Top Box(es) 05 March - 04 April £15.00
Add Set Box(es) Discount 05 March - 04 April £-10.00
XXL 50Mb Broadband 05 March - 04 April £45.00

[BenMcr]

XXL did drop by £7 from £52 to £45 on your bill which is correct.

Unfortunately you don't have the right discount for your services. Instead of the Ultimate Double discount of £5.95 (which for is for XL TV/XL Telco only) you should be getting a £20.95 discount

[jfknight]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

XXL did drop by £7 from £52 to £45 on your bill which is correct.

Unfortunately you don't have the right discount for your services. Instead of the Ultimate Double discount of £5.95 (which for is for XL TV/XL Telco only) you should be getting a £20.95 discount

Thanks for pointing out the discount error, much appreciated. I'll request a correction for this.

However I still don't understand how the £7 drop is "correct", when there is a very clear statement from VM on XXL (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) that the XXL price for new and existing customers will be reduced to £28. This is on top of the £11 phone line rental.

Am I missing something here?

[BenMcr]

The £28 price mentioned, as with almost all prices Virgin currently advertise is after discounts

Before the change XXL was £35 after discounts (£52 - at least £17 discount) which was £15 more than XL @ £20

After the change XXL was £28 after discounts (£45 - at least £17 discount) which is £8 more than XL @ £20

So the reduction was £7

Obviously if you have the wrong discount in the first place then it doesn't work out as it should

[fairlight]

Sorry the tin of beans analogy is clearly a bad one. Mobile phone contracts are a more acceptable analogy IMHO but unless old NTL/Virgin customers upgrade or add new services they can't just take out or renew their contracts for parity with new customers (I know I've tried).This is not the case with mobile phone contracts once they expire.Now my parents have been on a budget ADSL service for years and still pay their original contract price even though new customers to the same service pay more (OK they get a faster service as their original basic package is no longer available to new customers) but that (for me anyway) is a better example of good practice to existing customers than the present Virgin model. I'd happily sign a new 12 month contract to get my ye olde broadband only service price down to the new customer price but I'm told I can't do that unless I add a service that I don't want.

[Lord Vetinari]

Just to say I had a wonderful phone conversation recently with one of the customer services people in India as to why I was being charged 20£ for 10mb service when it clearly stated on the site that this could be got for either £12-50 or £15-00 for existing customers with all three services depending on which page you looked at. I did not get a clear explanation but when I told them I was unhappy with the situation re price advertising I was put though to a UK customer services person who patiently explained that those prices were only for new contracts. We have had various services from C&W/NTL?VM for quite a few years and when I queried this I was told I could have the new prices simply by taking out a new contract. I asked what was the downside of this and was told none apart from locking us in for one year, So I promptly took out the new contract and appear to have saved around £10 on the the previous price for TV/telephone and Broadband services in total. Must say I don't know how they work out their prices with all the old and new discounts etc on offer let alone how the customers are supposed to do it especially when some discounts are built in to the prices and others are not.

Brian V.