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Arthurgray50@blu
14-06-2011, 23:09
My mother in law has advised us that she has recieved a letter from VM saying that the cost of line rental is increasing by £3.50 per month.

IS this correct, and how do they justify it if true.:(

dilli-theclaw
14-06-2011, 23:26
I find it odd that you need to ask a question that you already asked in another thread, but anyway have a look at this link

http://shop.virginmedia.com/content/dam/allyours/pdf/005369%20010811_Residential_Cable_august_V6.pdf

Which had the prices at the new rate.

Peter_
14-06-2011, 23:32
My mother in law has advised us that she has recieved a letter from VM saying that the cost of line rental is increasing by £3.50 per month.

IS this correct, and how do they justify it if true.:(
Line rental is increasing from £12.99 to £13.90 which is the same price as BT it is a rise of 91p and not £3.50.;)

Arthurgray50@blu
14-06-2011, 23:41
I was told by the boss - the mother in law that it was increasing by £3.50 if it is only 91p, that isn't bad.

Peter_
14-06-2011, 23:45
I was told by the boss - the mother in law that it was increasing by £3.50 if it is only 91p, that isn't bad.
It is showing here in this link as per below.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/up-to-100mb.html


Plus a Virgin Phone line for £12.99/month (Increasing to £13.90 from 1st August 2011)

Cobbydaler
14-06-2011, 23:54
That's still 7%, well above inflation. Seems they've taken a chance to jump on the bandwagon & match BT's price...

PsyCrow
15-06-2011, 00:04
Does anyone know how is this going to effect the price of VIP50?

iluvabargain2011
15-06-2011, 00:32
That's still 7%, well above inflation. Seems they've taken a chance to jump on the bandwagon & match BT's price...

But the question is are they matching BT`s inclusive bits with increase ;)

Some of these VM Staff should be in politics :D

Peter_
15-06-2011, 06:46
But the question is are they matching BT`s inclusive bits with increase ;)

Some of these VM Staff should be in politics :D
The are changes with regards 084 and 087 numbers coming in which are listed in the link above.

richard1960
15-06-2011, 07:22
That's still 7%, well above inflation. Seems they've taken a chance to jump on the bandwagon & match BT's price...

VM are not quite matching BTs phone line rental charges as BT do an offer if you pay for a years line rental in advance BT charge £10 a month for the line rental,also talk unlimited is £4.70 a month extra (BT) ,with VM its £8 a month extra.

So with BT you could get line rental with talk unlimited for £14.70 a month,whereas VM will charge after august £21.90 a month for same.;)

iluvabargain2011
15-06-2011, 08:43
The are changes with regards 084 and 087 numbers coming in which are listed in the link above.

Caller Display? oh and the 0845/0870 is apparently only if you take a talk plan which again are more expensive than BT`s ;)

So like I said earlier, Some VM Staff should be in politics lol

denphone
15-06-2011, 09:30
VM are not quite matching BTs phone line rental charges as BT do an offer if you pay for a years line rental in advance BT charge £10 a month for the line rental,also talk unlimited is £4.70 a month extra (BT) ,with VM its £8 a month extra.

So with BT you could get line rental with talk unlimited for £14.70 a month,whereas VM will charge after august £21.90 a month for same.;)

l have no choice to pay it because of my medical condition where information gets downloaded down the phone line but yes Virgin's line rental is getting increasingly expensive.

johnathome
15-06-2011, 13:49
The are changes with regards 084 and 087 numbers coming in which are listed in the link above.

so its only 0870 numbers which are free within a call plan? 0845 continues to be charged at a high rate?

hansi
15-06-2011, 20:04
The new features are not going to please everyone obviously, but I have been on the unlimited call plan for years now and the facility of being able to dial 087 numbers for free is really welcome. Saves having to go to saynoto0870.com to find the geographical number, although it would have been nice to have 0845 nubers included in the plan.

buckleb
16-06-2011, 15:39
The new features are not going to please everyone obviously, but I have been on the unlimited call plan for years now and the facility of being able to dial 087 numbers for free is really welcome. Saves having to go to saynoto0870.com to find the geographical number, although it would have been nice to have 0845 nubers included in the plan.

Yes the addition of free calls to 0870 numbers will far outweigh the increase (in my case anyway). Even my local Doctor surgery has an 0870 number for goodness sake!

I think it also difficult to compare the cost of a Virgin phone line with another provider, as Virgin's offerings are so tightly linked to triple-play bundles and seem to actually reduce the cost of other services.

The overall package cost is still acceptable, and I guess that's what is important (again in my case only).

tridens
21-06-2011, 21:18
Sky at the moment are doing Free line install for Virgin customers taking line rental and calls Normally £40 i just got my line rental with sky for £9.25 pm if you pay for 12 months free evening and weekend calls 0870 caller display

BILLYVIRGIN
23-06-2011, 11:56
Virgin tell me that by September 0845, 0870 etc numbers will be included in your unlimited calls per month, assuming you have of-course that set-up on your phone package, I am still annoyed the 90p on phone bill rise in August is pathetic and greed by Virgin. but we are all hooked on there big three, Phone/Broadband/TV so what do we do ?? complain to Virgin and Sky and the likes of multinational company's.every day phone and complain, stick together and complain. United we stand !! divided we fall.:td:

windbag
23-06-2011, 15:12
We were a bit miffed at getting the letter re the increase, as the contact we signed was only in April, installed May 11th (via an employee-specific Advantages deal).
The pdf brochure on the Advantages site describing the (minimum one year) contract package gave as part of monthly cost breakdown:

"Cost breakdown:
• Phoneline is £12.99 ongoing"

No mention of an increase to come only 2 months later. If we have to be tied to the specified contract for 12 months (without penalty), so should VM.

It's not obvious how much benefit the 0870 change will be.
It could be significant, but unless they detail it on the bills, which they didn't on our first, that will be difficult to assess.

BILLYVIRGIN
23-06-2011, 19:54
More company's are now using 0870 0844 etc etc, so at the moment if you phone a lot of business numbers it will help significantly in the future. As i said get on the phone to Virgin,ask for customer service and suggest you wish to discuss leaving them for BT,or Sky ?? and they will talk to you about reducing your monthly expense, tell then you have a budget etc etc, ok lay it on thick, ,just try it ok, good luck, post me with a victory
,

AndyCalling
24-06-2011, 22:57
No mention of an increase to come only 2 months later. If we have to be tied to the specified contract for 12 months (without penalty), so should VM.


VM are bound by the contract. That is why you are free to leave the contract with no ongoing charges if they change it in any way, such as by putting the price up. Just call up VM and ask to dissolve your contract quoting their price rise letter as the reason. You can then switch to another provider. I warn you though, I think they all do this because the alternative is to have people on a whole range of different call charge ladders with different time-out dates to switch to the latest tariffs.

kenoliver
26-06-2011, 20:17
VM are bound by the contract. That is why you are free to leave the contract with no ongoing charges if they change it in any way, such as by putting the price up. Just call up VM and ask to dissolve your contract quoting their price rise letter as the reason. You can then switch to another provider. I warn you though, I think they all do this because the alternative is to have people on a whole range of different call charge ladders with different time-out dates to switch to the latest tariffs.

I wonder if it's ever a good idea to switch anything:(

lets assume the switch goes smoothly, there is no guarantee that the new company will not do the same to you, in the future months

In my experience VM are the best provider particularly if you have their cable service, so many of my friends have switched away only to find the Broadband speeds appalling

I don't like price increases anymore than the next bloke, but sometimes its better sticking with what you know

IMHO VM are up there with the best and no dearer in the long run :erm:

AndyCalling
26-06-2011, 22:01
Well, if you have Sky telly then Sky LLU is worth considering as their package prices are good. If you use Freeview then TalkTalk LLU is really cheap and their forum support is great (though not so their phone support). BE do some interesting products as well, especially if you want LLU ADSL with no phone line. All of these services rely on a good phone line though, so it all depends on that. Also BE and Talk Talk rely on BT to do the engineering so it can be a bit of a disjointed experience getting anything done. I have no idea if Sky use BT to do their engineering or not.

Certainly, most providers follow BT's lead with phone tariff price rises. VM are a little better in this regard as they don't always seem to follow the BT tune, at least they haven't moved evening rates from 18:00h to 19:00h, but their call charges are not the best and the additional cost for Caller Display seems outdated.

The key is packages, as always.

VMboy
27-06-2011, 12:06
Talk Weekends, am I right in that when it says Unlimited calls to 0870, 01, 02, 03 and Virgin Mobile phones at weekends. does this mean any numbers that begin with 0131 the Edinburgh code for example?

Also I take it that Talk Weekends is the Medium package?

BenMcr
27-06-2011, 12:45
does this mean any numbers that begin with 0131 the Edinburgh code for example?Yes

Also I take it that Talk Weekends is the Medium package?
Yes

VMboy
27-06-2011, 16:33
I don't suppose it matters that we don't dial the first part (0131) when calling locally?

BenMcr
27-06-2011, 16:46
Nope

japitts
27-06-2011, 20:21
More company's are now using 0870 0844 etc etc, so at the moment if you phone a lot of business numbers it will help significantly in the future. As i said get on the phone to Virgin,ask for customer service and suggest you wish to discuss leaving them for BT,or Sky ?? and they will talk to you about reducing your monthly expense, tell then you have a budget etc etc, ok lay it on thick, ,just try it ok, good luck, post me with a victory
,

The whole thing is a game of cat & mouse - as soon as VM start to offer the incusion of 0845 & 0870, more companies are moving to 0844 & 0871 which are chargeable across every network operator.

For customers who get this package - good on them. Personally, I can't help but think this only goes towards legitimising 08x numbers and giving companies an excuse to keep earning their revenue-share on incoming calls at the expense of the majority of the British public.

kenoliver
27-06-2011, 20:35
The whole thing is a game of cat & mouse - as soon as VM start to offer the incusion of 0845 & 0870, more companies are moving to 0844 & 0871 which are chargeable across every network operator.

For customers who get this package - good on them. Personally, I can't help but think this only goes towards legitimising 08x numbers and giving companies an excuse to keep earning their revenue-share on incoming calls at the expense of the majority of the British public.

Yes your right,

I had the 0845 package for a while (£2 pm) but cancelled it as most of the numbers I needed to ring had changed from 0845 to 0844 or 0871
so it didn't work for me as the 0844 and 0871 are still chargeable :(

richard1960
28-06-2011, 11:38
Yes your right,

I had the 0845 package for a while (£2 pm) but cancelled it as most of the numbers I needed to ring had changed from 0845 to 0844 or 0871
so it didn't work for me as the 0844 and 0871 are still chargeable :(

Hi Ken i think vm have 2 levels of 08 packages your old one is talk 08 £2 which includes 0845/0870 as well i think,and there is also talk 08 £5 which includes numbers such as 0844 and 0871 i think as well as 0845/0870.

BenMcr
28-06-2011, 11:42
That's correct - the £5 covers every number starting 08

Perfect Choice
28-06-2011, 12:08
VM have been trying to get hold of me for the past 3 or so weeks and finally did last night. They were ringing up to offer me the extra £5 option for all 08 numbers to be included in my call package.

The person ringing me (from Newcastle call centre I was told – Home Services?) said I had incurred a cost on these services of over £6 so a benefit to me. However I said I would check my bills first before proceeding if worthwhile which is good that I did.

I checked back 10 months worth of bills and only found a single month bill over £5 cost for 0844/0871 and even combining the total 0844/0871/0845/0870 calls I could only exceed £5 cost in 2 out of 10 months.

Even accounting for VAT, my average monthly bill for such numbers was around £3.60 so this was very close to getting to be a con and was disappointed that whatever systems VM use to calculate such figures did not give an accurate picture of my costs on these numbers. Of course the person ringing me may have “accidently” not been that specific on the £6+ charge mentioned as I did have a single month when that was the case.

But it only took me a few minutes work to confirm paying £5 a month is not worthwhile for me even if every insurance firm, etc who I tend to ring on these numbers moved over to 0844/0871.

So the morale of this story is to check your own records before committing to anything new to your call plan, the data you are being quoted may not be accurate or may only reflect a single month, as the only way in my case a £6 figure could be quoted.

Incidentally I’ve checked all the main insurance companies I use right now and the reason for 08 numbers being on my bill. Only 1 uses a 0844/0871 number and one even still provides me with a 0800 free number for insurance renewals; all the rest are 0845/0870 right now which are about to become free of charge from August onwards if phoned within your call package time, which I will do of course.

BenMcr
28-06-2011, 12:58
all the rest are 0845/0870 right now which are about to become free of charge from August onwards if phoned within your call package time, which I will do of course.Only 0870 is. For 0845 you'll need either the £2 or £5 Talk 08 package as well

Perfect Choice
28-06-2011, 13:08
Only 0870 is. For 0845 you'll need either the £2 or £5 Talk 08 package as well

Yes correct, stand corrected. Just checked the residential tariffs from August 2011 and it does state 0870 only is included within your call plan while 0845 is still charged.

Doesn't change my situation on that £5/month offer though, always check your own bills before committing to anything extra.

kenoliver
28-06-2011, 14:05
Hi Ken i think vm have 2 levels of 08 packages your old one is talk 08 £2 which includes 0845/0870 as well i think,and there is also talk 08 £5 which includes numbers such as 0844 and 0871 i think as well as 0845/0870.

Oh Thanks for that Info

I didn't realise there was two levels, think I'll check it out

That was a really helpful post :tu:

hansi
29-06-2011, 07:45
I didn't realise that either. So, now that my 0870 calls will be in my call package (Anytime) from August, does that mean that if I pay another £5 per months, all calls to 0870, 0871, 0844, 0845 numbers will be free ( 250 minutes per month?)

richard1960
29-06-2011, 09:27
I didn't realise that either. So, now that my 0870 calls will be in my call package (Anytime) from August, does that mean that if I pay another £5 per months, all calls to 0870, 0871, 0844, 0845 numbers will be free ( 250 minutes per month?)

Yes within your call plan ie talk weekends =weekend only,talk evs weekend,= evs weekend ,talk unlimited you would get to use the inclusive 08 add on anytime. Hope this helps.:)

hansi
29-06-2011, 09:33
:D:Yes within your call plan ie talk weekends =weekend only,talk evs weekend,= evs weekend ,talk unlimited you would get to use the inclusive 08 add on anytime. Hope this helps.:)

Thank you.:D That's great, as it only takes a few minutes to rack up £5 on an 08 number. Do I just ring 150, go to Billing and ask them to add it from August or can I do it online?

richard1960
29-06-2011, 09:37
:D:

Thank you.:D That's great, as it only takes a few minutes to rack up £5 on an 08 number. Do I just ring 150, go to Billing and ask them to add it from August or can I do it online?

Hi yes i agree racking up large amounts on those numbers does not take too long!:shocked: ring 150 option option 4 they will add them for you.:)

japitts
01-07-2011, 17:56
I couldn't believe it when I saw it, but indeed the £5 option includes all 08x numbers - so 0843, 0844, 0871, 0872 & 0873.

The silly thing, the wholesale termination rates on quite a few of these number ranges are at least 2p/minute - several 0871 providers offer 6-8p/minute revenue-share.

- VM are hoping not everyone uses the full 250 minutes. Quite possible.

- VM are willing to take a loss on this. Can't quite believe this.

- Someone somewhere hasn't done their sums. Keep an offline copy of the VM website!

I still maintain that we should be dealing with the underlying causes of the whole 08x ripoff regime (i.e. refuse to deal with firms who use such numbers, avoid them, campaign for take-up of 03x ranges etc) rather than sticking-plaster the symptoms as this package is... but as a PR exercise, I have to admit it's not bad!

muppetman11
04-07-2011, 00:34
Why wouldn't people just use

www.saynoto0870.com I've never failed to find an 01/02 or 0800 number to replace 0844/0845/0870 numbers.

kenoliver
04-07-2011, 09:35
Why wouldn't people just use

www.saynoto0870.com I've never failed to find an 01/02 or 0800 number to replace 0844/0845/0870 numbers.

Exactly my experience as well :)

faze
05-07-2011, 14:50
how can they increase prices when you are on a contract?

Stephen
05-07-2011, 15:28
how can they increase prices when you are on a contract?
The contract is for the service and not the cost of said service. It is covered in the T&Cs I believe.