New customers vs Old customers

[pdjkeelan]

Lately I've been browsing the Virgin Media website and am finding myself dumbfounded by the prices being offered to new customers and not being allowed to existing customers.

I'm particularly disturbed by the broadband offerings... at the moment new customers can get 50Mb for £28/month.... this isn't even the introductory price, the 3 month introductory price is even lower.

Yet when I phoned to ask about an upgrade I was told it would cost £16.50 extra per month on top of what I already pay for my 20Mb connection.

These are my current services:
Telephone Line Rental 17 October - 16 November £11.00
Phone, TV & BB Bundle Saving 17 October - 16 November £-9.50
Talk Weekends 17 October - 16 November £0.00
TV Size: X L 17 October - 16 November £23.00
V+ Box 17 October - 16 November £0.00
Broadband Size: X L 17 October - 16 November £37.00
B B X L For Price Of B B L Bonus 17 October - 16 November £-12.00

As you can see my current 20Mb by default is £37 but I'm given the £12 discount.... even with this 'discount' it's only £3 cheaper than new customers are getting 50Mb.... and if a new customer were to get 20Mb it would be £5 cheaper than my current price.

Surely it can't be right that new customers are raking in on these what seem like 'lifetime' offers, while old customers are being forced onto higher prices? I've already issued a complaint via e-mail to Virgin Media and am hoping they can come up with a fairer offer on the price for 50Mb.

Is anyone else being subjected to outrageous price increases for upgraded services that new customers are being given at extremely cheap lifetime rates?

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by pdjkeelan

As you can see my current 20Mb by default is £37 but I'm given the £12 discount.... even with this 'discount' it's only £3 cheaper than new customers are getting 50Mb.... and if a new customer were to get 20Mb it would be £5 cheaper than my current price.

You are wrong there

If you were a new customer for those services (whether XL or XXL) you would recieve a £18.50 discount.

£17 of it would make XL broadband (£37 - £17) £20 as advertised or XXL £28 (£45 - £17)

The other £1.50 would make XL tv £21.50 as advertised

So as you get an extra £3 you are in fact only paying £17 for your Broadband.

So to upgrade to XXL it should cost you an extra £11 if nothing else was changed - which would be the £8 advertised plus the extra £3 your currently underpaying by.

---------- Post added at 22:22 ---------- Previous post was at 22:20 ----------

The £16.50 price you were quoted is an upgrade to XL tv, XXL broadband and XL phone - which means it would work out to be £66 for the bundle you were quoted, exactly the same as new customer for the same services

Oh I wish they got rid of the stupid discount and just charged you advertised prices

[pdjkeelan]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

You are wrong there

If you were a new customer for those services (whether XL or XXL) you would recieve a £18.50 discount.

£17 of it would make XL broadband (£37 - £17) £20 as advertised or XXL £28 (£45 - £17)

The other £1.50 would make XL tv £21.50 as advertised

So as you get an extra £3 you are in fact only paying £17 for your Broadband.

So to upgrade to XXL it should cost you an extra £11 if nothing else was changed - which would be the £8 advertised plus the extra £3 your currently underpaying by.

---------- Post added at 22:22 ---------- Previous post was at 22:20 ----------

The £16.50 price you were quoted is an upgrade to XL tv, XXL broadband and XL phone - which means it would work out to be £66 for the bundle you were quoted, exactly the same as new customer for the same services

I was under the impression that the £9.50 discount applied to my account is because I have phone, broadband and TV. Why would this be affected by an increase to 50Mb? That's why I've not included that in previous calculations.

I'm unsure why VM quoted me £16.50 if it should have been £11 since he didn't mention XL phone and neither did I.

The way VM seems to handle it's discount and billing system is overly complex. All i can go off is their on-site prices and on their site the difference between 20Mb and 50Mb is £20 to £28 which in essence on my account should reduce £37 down to £28 if I were to move to 50Mb and the removal of the £12 discount. The removal of the £9.50 discount would make no sense since this is meant to be for having the TV/phone/broadband which I would still have?

Originally Posted by zing

Oh I wish they got rid of the stupid discount and just charged you advertised prices

I really wish that too :s

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by pdjkeelan

I was under the impression that the £9.50 discount applied to my account is because I have phone, broadband and TV. Why would this be affected by an increase to 50Mb? That's why I've not included that in previous calculations.

It is. In fact your bundle discount is being increased from £9.50 to £18.50

However the complication is the additional £12 discount you currently recieve. The majority of customers do not get the additional £12 discount as it was withdrawn 2 years ago.

You still recieve it because you have not changed your broadband services since it was applied. If you upgrade to XXL then it would be removed and you will then pay the same price for XXL as everyone else

---------- Post added at 23:14 ---------- Previous post was at 23:07 ----------

All prices on the website include a discount in the price quoted.

The only price you should look at is the total for the services you are wanting.

So if you look at XL tv, M phone and XXL broadband on the bundle calculator it will give you a price of £60.50 - £11 more than you are paying which is the same price difference I explained earlier

[pdjkeelan]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

It is. In fact your bundle discount is being increased from £9.50 to £18.50

However the complication is the additional £12 discount you currently recieve. The majority of customers do not get the additional £12 discount as it was withdrawn 2 years ago.

You still recieve it because you have not changed your broadband services since it was applied. If you upgrade to XXL then it would be removed and you will then pay the same price for XXL as everyone else

---------- Post added at 23:14 ---------- Previous post was at 23:07 ----------

All prices on the website include a discount in the price quoted.

The only price you should look at is the total for the services you are wanting.

So if you look at XL tv, M phone and XXL broadband on the bundle calculator it will give you a price of £60.50 - £11 more than you are paying which is the same price difference I explained earlier

Thanks for the info, I really wish they'd get rid of the discounts being shown on the lifetime price. Discounts should be temporary like the 3 month initial periods. The static price shouldn't have discounts it just confuses the issue when it comes to upgrading/adding features

[Raistlin]

Except if they turned around to you now and said "Hi, we're taking away that 'lifetime' discount you're receiving - from now on you owe us £x extra per month" you'd be complaining.

What Virgin need to do is get rid of all discounts, and have one flat pricing structure. With competitive prices that are the same for new and old customers, but with no 'loyalty' discounts, no 'introductory offers', and no confusion.

They'll never do it though - if they do people will be moaning that Virgin never offer any 'incentives' for new/existing customers, and that ISP y do.....

[Maggy J]

Actually with BB NTL/VM /did/do occasionally get around the new v old customers situation by actually upgrading the service.Just think I was upgraded from 512 to 2MB t0 10MB all for free..Not sure if any other ISP has done that?

Plus they are always adding and changing the TV packages to include new and different channels without making extra charges.

I am thinking though that maybe they should be making the cable telephone service a little more price competitive though.

[Itshim]

Seem to recall ( no I can`t find it lost in the mist of time) That at one stage Cabletel offered "free" internet connection for life. O happy days of dial up.

As said before a lot of unhappy customers. If their deals were revoked. I feel that perhaps the Green eyed monster it about. Yes I have a discount ( £9.50p "for life")

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Itshim

Seem to recall ( no I can`t find it lost in the mist of time) That at one stage Cabletel offered "free" internet connection for life. O happy days of dial up.

As said before a lot of unhappy customers. If their deals were revoked. I feel that perhaps the Green eyed monster it about. Yes I have a discount ( £9.50p "for life")

I remember the free 24/7 C&W dial up..which lasted for most of their customers for about 18 months/2years.I was one of the last to get issued an install disc after waiting the two years only to have the free part repealed three months after I got my disc.They kindly extended the cut off period for my area because of the complaints but I was greatly aggrieved about it.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

......

All prices on the website include a discount in the price quoted.

The only price you should look at is the total for the services you are wanting.

.....

Here we go again. Smoke and mirrors; haze & mist; cobblers & rubbish.

Has BenMcr been briefed officially to say this? Does Ben say this when talking officially to customers?

The VM web site advertises headline prices. There is no mention of discounts on a previous price - only a 3 month sweetener for new victims.

All prices on the web site include a REDUCTION ON A PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED PRICE. When the 50 Mbps price REDUCTION was announced by VM, this paragraph was in the press release (see http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/p...695&highlight=)

To celebrate the completion of the network roll-out, Virgin Media announced a new pricing structure for its 50Mb service. From 1st September Virgin Media will reduce the monthly cost of its 50Mb service for new and existing customers to £28, when taken with a phone line, or £38 if taken as a sole product, making the ultrafast service ultra-fantastic value. The 50Mb service continues to be free of traffic management.


So let's have some plain old honesty about VM's disreputable billing policy and BenMcr should stop misrepresenting the pricing structure.

[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

[Sephiroth]

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

So it IS a reduction now. Not a discount. A discount is what you get when you take a bundle or complain. NOT THE EFFING HEADLINE PRICE!

Part of the issue is the ridiculous billing structure which shows discounts when the headline price is the reduced price.

Smoke and mirrors and it's p*ssing off a heck of a lot of customers.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

So it IS a reduction now. Not a discount.

The XXL change was always a reduction. Where has it been said it wasn't?

A discount is what you get when you take a bundle or complain. NOT THE EFFING HEADLINE PRICE!

Wrong.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

The XXL change was always a reduction. Where has it been said it wasn't?

.....

Your very words in (e.g.) http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12...september.html.

I can't be bothered to trawl through all the other posts where you call the headline price the previous price minus discount.

Got to give you props, though, for your thick skin. Doesn't do much for VM's good name when we're dealing with this smoke & mirrors business - but a solid performance none-the-less.