Package Change Enquiry

[avanti4010]

I phoned today to enquire the cost of up-grading my current Broadband L package to XL, as it is currently on offer at £9-25 for six months then £18-50 per month.

I know this is for new customers but I was astounded to be told that the up grade cost for me would be £15-45 per month plus a £30 installation fee.

I am currently paying £26-00 for L BB so the new price would be £41-45 per month. I receive a total loyalty discount of £24-45 so taking this off the quoted BB XL price of £41-45 brings it down to £17-00, but my understanding is that the loyalty discount is intended to offset my cost of telephone BB and TV so I have no way of knowing the real charge that the up-graded XL BB would be.

Also previous changes to BB packages did not incur an installation fee as they were simply done by a signal via the line.

In these hard financial times this up-grade is not value for money and I will not be going ahead.

[BenMcr]

1) You are not paying £26 a month for BB L. That is the price before any discount. BB XL at £18.50 a month is AFTER a discount. It shows on the bill as £37

2) BB XL 30 requires new equipment i.e a SuperHub, so a £30 fee is required for this.

3) Loyalty discounts are instead of standard bundle adjustments, not on top of the

As you've not details your total bill at the moment, can't say whether it's correct or not, but £15.45 to upgrade does sound about right as they will likely be moving you from your loyalty discount price onto the current sold price for the services you are requesting.

I am so glad that the new bill format removes all this and bundles things together to match how the services are advertised. Will eventually make things easier

[thenry]

As Ben said the 30£ charge is for the SuperHub and your bundle discount will increase. Could you post up your current bill in full which include each service charge, discount(s) and other charges such as paper bill, payment charge etc.

[avanti4010]

Current Package

Line Rental 13-90
Talkt Ev & We 4-00
TV XL 26-00
BB Size L 26-00
Add V + box 6-50 (net)
Sky Sports 22-50
sub total 98-90
Less Loyalty 22-70
Add Loyalty 1-75
Total 74-45

Why do I need a hub? Do I also need a new modem to receive a faster speed than 10mb?

[RobboEdin]

This shows that you are currently getting BB L for the 'discounted' price of £3.05!!!!!!

The webpage about this upgrade to BB XL clearly states that you have to return to standard pricing. You are far from standard pricing with your current deal.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/existing...broadband.html

PS The upgrade charge you have been quoted is therefore correct.

Discounted price of BB XL £18.50
Your current BB discounted price £3.05
Hence you charge increases by £18.50 - £3.05 which equals the £15.45 increase you were quoted.

[avanti4010]

How do you work out that my current discounted price for BB L is £3-05? Bill shows £26-00 with Loyalty Disc for TV BB and Phone as £22-70 plus additional loyalty disc of £1-75.

Is it any wonder people get confused about Virgin pricing!!

[denphone]

Originally Posted by avanti4010

How do you work out that my current discounted price for BB L is £3-05? Bill shows £26-00 with Loyalty Disc for TV BB and Phone as £22-70 plus additional loyalty disc of £1-75.

Is it any wonder people get confused about Virgin pricing!!

Yes its very confusing even though l get my bills online with Virgin.

[BenMcr]

Try it this way then. The website says the service you want to upgrade to cost £89.90 a month after any six month discount

Monthly cost

Your bundle £25.50
Virgin phone line £13.90
Your extras £29.00
Total £68.40

£68.40 for first 6 months
£89.90 after that

Your services
TV XL
Phone L
Broadband XL
Virgin phone line
Broadband extras
Virgin Media Super Hub
TV extras
ESPN
V+ HD Box
Additional V+ HD Box
Sky Sports Collection

You are paying £74.45

£89.90 minus £74.45 = £15.45 difference. Exactly the same as you have been quoted to upgrade to the same services.

The quoted price is 100% correct

[thenry]

Originally Posted by avanti4010

Current Package

Line Rental 13-90
Talkt Ev & We 4-00
TV XL 26-00
BB Size L 26-00
Add V + box 6-50 (net)
Sky Sports 22-50
sub total 98-90
Less Loyalty 22-70
Add Loyalty 1-75
Total 74-45

Why do I need a hub? Do I also need a new modem to receive a faster speed than 10mb?

You need the superhub because you'll be on the new docsis 3 network not the old outdated one so you need new hardware to use it.

The price for broadband will increase if you upgrade to 30Mb but so will your discount.

Call 150 from your VM home phone > press 1 to confirm your account > press 5 (thinking of leaving) and speak to an agent.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by thenry

The price for broadband will increase if you upgrade to 30Mb but so will your discount.

Why would the discount increase? It's already higher than the one new customers get.

As I've posted above he has been quoted the completely correct price for the services he wants that match what a new customer would pay

[thenry]

The bundle discount would increase not the additional discounts already on the account.

[avanti4010]

Having studied this breakdown by BenMcr I can now understand how the up grade price of £15-45 was arrived at. However the discounted price I am currently paying for my BB L service will remain a complete mystery to me.

Never mind I am grateful to you BenMcr for the clarification and will carry on with the BB L speed of 10mb as an increase of £15-45 for an extra 20mb speed is not worth it to me.

My thanks to everyone for trying to help an OAP out!!!

[RobboEdin]

Originally Posted by avanti4010

How do you work out that my current discounted price for BB L is £3-05? Bill shows £26-00 with Loyalty Disc for TV BB and Phone as £22-70 plus additional loyalty disc of £1-75.

Is it any wonder people get confused about Virgin pricing!!

I'm surprised Ben didn't explain it this way as he originally told everyone how to do this.

Your total discount is £22.70 + £1.75 = £24.45.

Of ANY discount, £1.50 is assumed to be against TV XL, reducing the billed £26 to what gets quoted on the website for TV XL (£24.50).

The rest of the discount is associated with the BB portion. In your case, this amounts to £22.95, which when removed from £26, the billed charge for BB L, gets to the £3.05 price.

Independent of all the arithmetic on this thread, Virgin Media and both Ben and I on here have given you the same quote for an increase in your BB to XL.

In your position, given the VERY generous discount that you currently have, I would stick on your current package.

Another way of looking at your current bill:

Line Rental 13-90
Talkt Ev & We 4-00
TV XL 24-50
BB Size L 3-05
Add V + box 6-50 (net)
Sky Sports 22-50
Total 74-45

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by RobboEdin

I'm surprised Ben didn't explain it this way as he originally told everyone how to do this.

I didn't do it because it's not relevent anymore.

By the time anyone gets a bill with any upgrade changes on it, they will be on the new format bill which doesn't split out the discount line

Therefore it's better to explain how the total cost difference was arrived at, rather than the breakdown.

[avanti4010]

Originally Posted by RobboEdin

I'm surprised Ben didn't explain it this way as he originally told everyone how to do this.

Your total discount is £22.70 + £1.75 = £24.45.

Of ANY discount, £1.50 is assumed to be against TV XL, reducing the billed £26 to what gets quoted on the website for TV XL (£24.50).

The rest of the discount is associated with the BB portion. In your case, this amounts to £22.95, which when removed from £26, the billed charge for BB L, gets to the £3.05 price.

Independent of all the arithmetic on this thread, Virgin Media and both Ben and I on here have given you the same quote for an increase in your BB to XL.

In your position, given the VERY generous discount that you currently have, I would stick on your current package.

Another way of looking at your current bill:

Line Rental 13-90
Talkt Ev & We 4-00
TV XL 24-50
BB Size L 3-05
Add V + box 6-50 (net)
Sky Sports 22-50
Total 74-45

Thank you RobboEdin. Now the maths of my current package and bill make sense. I can also understand BenMcr`s point about the new billing being easier for everyone to understand as it should eventually mean we all pay the same for our services - or will it? If it brings an end to the current belief by so many posters that someone else is getting a better deal that must be good.

But what will you do with all your spare time BenMcr if there are none of these billing issues to answer?

One last question to RobboEdin. Why is my current package VERY generous? Unless I have missed the point to all the answers to my original posting surely in the future anyone with a similar package to mine would pay the same amount as me.