Am I being overcharged?

[BecksBeer]

Just checked my latest bill and noticed the following in the "Your Package" section of the bill.

Bundle Charges -> free line rental -talk weekends local - calldispl - broadband size: L -> £17.05

Phone Line Rental - line rental -> £13.90

Your Package Total -> £30.95

So if I am reading this right I am paying for the "free" line rental.

Had this package since it was NTL and haven't really paid much attention to the bills but looking to reduce spending at the moment and finally took a look at the bill.

So should I be ringing Virgin Media asap or will I just be wasting my time?

Would definitely rather be paying just £17.05 a month

Also if this is a billing error and I have been overcharged is there any hope of getting the money back as this has probably been going on for some time now?

Looking at sky etc £30 a month for 10Mb broadband and a phone line does seem a little on the high side these days.

BB

[BenMcr]

You haven't been overcharged

'Free Line Rental' as an offer stopped before ntl became Virgin Media. This is because of the way it worked

E.G

ntl used to charge £25 for BB L, so you could add 'Free Line Rental' and the total cost would still be £25

However the way Virgin price and advertise the services is that you usually pay full price for line rental and then the cost of TV/BB is on top

So if we said the line rental was £11 (which is closer to the cost when the offer would have been given)

On an ntl bill it would show as

£25 BBL
Line Rental £11
Free Line Rental -£11
= £25

VM would now show it as

BB L £14
Phone Line Rental £11
= £25

The total cost ends up the same, but the description is different.

[BecksBeer]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

You haven't been overcharged
The total cost ends up the same, but the description is different.

That makes sense but it still says "free line rental" on my current Virgin Media bill which is obviously not the case as the next section of the bill adds in the line rental charge.

Probably an oversight by someone but it does say it

Oh well - if £31 is the best deal I can get from VM then it may end up having to be time to switch after many years. Sky seem to offer the same package but with 20Mb broadband for £18 initially then £23. I don't want to switch but I may have no choice.

Thanks for your reply.

BB

[Chris]

What broadband speed do you get from VM? Unless you live right on top of your local BT exchange you won't get anywhere near 20meg from Sky.

[BecksBeer]

10Mb and that is plenty fast enough for my current needs so if Sky can only hit 30-50% of the stated 20Mb it should still be plenty.

I really wanted to avoid the hassle of switching providers but as I am probably one of the lowest tier Virgin customers I know not to expect much. I do wonder if it would be worth asking if they would consider price matching Sky @ around £23 per month?

BB

[Chris]

It's always worth asking ...

[motor123]

hi maybe someone could help me.
Numbers don't add up to 12.55 unlike on other bills. Am I missing something, as usual?