Phone charges

[m419]

I'm a bit concerned about the call charges which Virgin Media is charging for its landline phone service, basically its quite extortionate.

A 30 second call on M Telephone package on Wednesday evening to someone else on Virgin Media two doors down would cost 11p from June, this time in 1998 it would cost 0p!!! However a 10 minute call would cost 47p whilst a 20 minute call to a landline from a BT Public Payphone kiosk would cost just 40p.

Those on L and XL phone packages still have to put with the expensive call rates to mobiles and 08 numbers, even with the Talk Mobile option, BT's standard rates for calls to mobiles are cheaper.

Theres no Evening rate anymore and no weekend rate for calling mobiles.

This will result in large bills since you also have TV and Internet to pay for which is also rising in June.

If everyone complains or threatens to leave, then I'm sure they'll do something about these expensive call rates!

Therefore, i'm asking everyone who is a Virgin Media customer to complain through this link, the more people complain the more likely it is that something will get done, its just really difficult for me to change providers at this property!

Link: http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/contact/complaint-feedback.php#anchor-feedback

A tariff like this would be ideal:

I also think that local and national rate dialing should be re-introduced too.

M Telephone plan:

Local non-VM calls:
3.5p per min Daytime
4p per hour evening
Free at weekends

Local Virgin Media to Virgin Media calls:
2.5p per min Daytime
Free at evenings (Monday to Friday)
Free at Weekends

National calls:
4p per minute daytime
6p per hour evening
Free at weekends

Daytime calls to mobiles: 19p per min (11p per minute with Talk Mobile)
Evening calls to mobiles: 13p per min (9p per minute with Talk Mobile)
Weekend calls to mobiles:9p per min (7p per minute with Talk Mobile)

These call rates still provide Virgin Media with plenty of revenue and also make it more competitive!

Furthermore, they should introduce something that offers unlimited evening and weekend calls to mobiles too.

[BenMcr]

Theres no Evening rate anymore and no weekend rate for calling mobiles.

There is still an evening rate, just no weekend rate, the same as BT

This will result in large bills since you also have TV and Internet to pay for which is also rising in June.

For most customers the bundle prices are going up by £1, which you can stop happening if you sign up for e-billing.

The line rental of £11 is not being changed.

If you don't sign up for BT e-billing your line rental is £11.75 per month

Local non-VM calls:
3.5p per min Daytime
4p per hour evening
Free at weekends

The local rate/cable to cable distinction doesn't work anymore

Do you know what is a cable line and what isn't? What is a local rate and what isn't? Most people don't, and as everyone is used to not having to work it out with any other provider, it would cause a lot of confusion. Also since you can transfer your number between cable and other providers and vice versa, what used to be free call may suddenly become chargeable

National calls:
4p per minute daytime
6p per hour evening
Free at weekends

You actually want national landline calls to be MORE expensive than they are?

All UK landline calls (to any provider) both local and national are already free at weekends with the standard line rental anyway

Furthermore, they should introduce something that offers unlimited evening and weekend calls to mobiles too.

As soon as the mobile networks offer sensible termination rates to their networks I'm sure they will

In the meantime there is always Talk Anywhere, which gives you 200, 400 or 800 minutes to use to landlines, mobiles, international numbers (both landline and mobiles) and 0845/0870 numbers.

[m419]

The termination rates have lowered over the past few years with O2 being the cheapest. Calls to mobiles through other providers seem a lot cheaper than Virgin Media.

Ok,agreed,local cable to cable calls would be a bit of a dead loss, maybe national cable to cable calls would work??? Thats what TalkTalk and Bulldog did. It raked in the customers for TalkTalk. Remember those ad's? ''We don't have to pay to talk anymore''?

Ported numbers shouldn't be a problem since mobile networks seem to manage it well, When I was on T-Mobile and bought the 5 day pass,one of my friend ported out to 3 which meant that the call was no longer included in the allowance, therefore it is up to the person your calling to tell you what network your on.

National calls more expensive? Yes because most people make calls to local numbers and since they abolished this we've seen prices for other calls shoot up. So customers wanting to call outside there geogrpahical area and make long durational calls could use XL package. Virgin Media probably have a revenue target so to ensure that is met, they would likely charge a higher rate for national calls if this tariff was ever considered, I reckon the high prices are to pay for all the advertisements currently being broadcast.

Also when you are on Talk anywhere calling a landline is to the equivalent of paying 4p per minute, so its not beneficial for calling landlines.

[BenMcr]

From what it sounds like you make a lot of local calls, which is why you want to see cheaper rates.

However, other customers may make lots of national calls and no local calls. Why should they have to be treated differently?

Virgin offer Talk Evenings and Weekends which is only £3.45 a month which cover evening calls to all landlines.

[m419]

lol thats right I do, I hate restrictions and like things being unlimited.

Thing is BT are offering Evening and weekend calls for free plus with cheaper mobile rates and with 100 free texts providing you have a text enabled phone. Also SKY offer this at no extra cost too if you have SKY TV and SKY free broadband. So Virgin have a lot of catching up to do really.

Bare in mind,I was talking about the M Telephone package and about the charges o/s your L telephone package allowance.

It would be great if they offered something like this then, Talk anywhere 200 for £20 per month incl line rental and for £5 extra get unlimited UK landline calls or £3.45 extra get unlimited evening and weekend calls to landlines, minutes should not be deducted out of Talk anwhere allowance if the extra add ons are applied.

[BenMcr]

Thing is BT are offering Evening and weekend calls for free

Which you only get if you sign a rolling 12 month contract, which renews itself automatically!

[m419]

My old flat mate just signed up for that offer and they told him that they will send out paper work on the 11th month,but he was told if he didn't return the paper work, then it will automatically continue. But you can still join SKY Talk which he recently did, SKY don't take over the line, you still pay BT for line rental and SKY for call charges and broadband. But for TalkTalk phone and broadband, TalkTalk take over the line as well as the line rental and you'd have to pay BT to get off that contract.