Virgin Media are quaking

Just rang Virgin Media - they are attempting to put my £30/month Volt package up by £9 mid-contract. To my mind 30% is way above inflation +3.9%. Anyway, as soon as I got through to the 'to tell us you're leaving us' option, an automated voice offered me an immediate discount of £4.50 a month for 6 months, no strings attached.

So...why not try your luck

 

Threaten to leave and trust me, you'll get better than £4.50.

 

Exactly this. I had a very similar "your bill is going up by £7 message". The automated voice offered me a reduction of £3.50 - so it would still end up going up by a net £3.50. Stayed on the line and threatened to leave* and I got an immediate reduction of £7 to offset the rise and a further £3.50 reduction.

*we're now in a fibre to the home area so it was easy to compare Virgin to Vodafone and tell them that unless they could get their price down to something near to Vodafone's I'd be off.

 

Has been standard practice with VM for a few years. Unlike the others, though, VM can hike their rates by RPI +3.9%, not CPI

 

I've just accepted their full Volt package for £66.
Now I'm wondering how long it will be before they put it up and by how much.

 

We usually phone VM when our contract ends to negotiate a discount. Our last call to them was in June 2022, when we secured another 18-month contract at a discounted rate of £72/mth (not as cheap as our last discounted rate of £64/mth but significantly less than the £97.75/mth they were intending to charge us!)

We're now in new territory as our current contract does not end until November 2023, yet we received an email on 14th February 2023 informing us that our bill will be increasing by £15/mth, i.e. 20.8%, from 1st May 2023.

With the changes to their T&Cs coming into effect on 1st May 2023, is it still possible to call them just now and negotiate a new contract that is excluded from the 1st May price increase, or are their fixed-term contracts no longer immune from mid-term increases? In other words, should I wait until after the 1st May to haggle a cheaper price so that the next mid-term price rise won't happen until 1st May 2024?

PS - Out of interest I logged into my VM online account and clicked 'Change My Package'. This is usually where you can 'pimp' your current package by adding extra benefits for extra cost. The interface has changed since I last logged in, and I think (or rather I hope) that I've spotted a potential loophole... By keeping my package as it currently is and clicking 'Checkout', does this mean that I've effectively replaced my existing £72/mth contract with another 18-mth contract at £72/mth starting from today? I haven't taken this any further in case it kiboshes my chances of negotiating a discount over the phone but it would be good to know if this can indeed be done as simply as this through my online account as the phone calls to CS can be tedious.

 

Hi ToTo, I’ll dig my letter out in a bit, but pretty sure in the small print if you’ve got a deal that ends this year the new price doesn’t apply, I’ll get my letter and check again.

Found letter quicker than I thought

 

I’m amazed anyone here got through to them on the phone! I was on for hours over days and still didn’t get a human. I ended up cancelling in writing via special delivery on two different contracts.

 

Thanks for sharing this, Phil. This is what our email said:

 

I'm off once mot contract is up in September.

City fibre are in the process of digging up half of Glasgow including my area, G76, so hopefully they'll be here in my road shortly, well they were, just up the road from me but they've missed out my part of the road so far but they're down in Clarkston road and round at my daughter's so hopefully they won't be too long.

Virgin are decent but the price rises are murder it's like a arguing with cats every single year.

I've had enough.

 

I just spent 3 hours on wotsapp with VM and got nowhere. They want to increase my deal from £65 by £21.50, a ridiculous increase. After suggesting inflation at 10% is £6.50 so how is £21.50 justified they started on about something called Volt and Viaplay, changing my tv package and even my phone.

I'm going to look for alternatives then cancel.

 

Check out City Fibre Brian, they're currently in Glasgow and Edinburgh digging up the roads.

https://cityfibre.com/availability

 

We've been with Virgin, and before that Telewest for something like 20 years. It's clearly their business model to rely on the inertia of most customers when they put their prices up. Whenever they either propose a price rise or I get to the end of my current discount I phone them up (always phone) and select the 'I'm thinking of leaving' option, I can't remember a single time when I didn't come away with at least some price reduction. Our current deal is £43 for 350mbs.

The rollout of fibre to the premises means that many places now have a genuine alternative. Vodafone 500mbs is £30/mth. Same with 5G, we get a pretty solid 100mbs using the phone as a hotspot, which really does become a decent alternative to true fibre to the home. [Smarty 5G unlimited data is £20/mth].

The only reason we haven't jumped ship is that we'd lose our 'blueyonder' email address, and we have just so many logins associated with this. But it's only a matter of time, decent broadband is a totally generic product and the only basis of choice is the price. The next time Virgin whack up their prices I really will be off, I've had enough of the 18-monthly "phone VM for discount" reminders in my calendar!

chers
Phil

 

I’m exactly the same except replace 20 years for 25 and blueyonder for @btinternet.com.

I need to start using my Gmail address more often but after 25 years the @bt is a hard habit to break. I’m not having 12%+, in my case, price rise though so I need to lose some inertia.

Rob.

 

Well funnily enough CityFibre are about to dig up our street so they shouldn't be long setting up the service once that's done , think I can cancel Virgin before the end of May because they've increased the monthly charge mid contract.

 

I only moved to full Virgin in February but in that time a Virgin install guy suggested going for the Volt package.

He said you get a o2 sim with the package.

It turns out that this sim is charged on a separate o2 account and can be cancelled within the 14 day second thought clause.

So I cancelled the o2.
It was no use anyway, PAC code didn't work, Customer Service were useless and it was more expensive than my current provider.

I've ended up paying less than before but with more TV channels and 8 times Broadband speed.

 

My mobile is actually with Virgin mobile right now and I have no desire to change it. I was surprised when they started banging on about changing my phone deal given I was contacting them about my home broadband/TV and the price rise.

Anyway, this ‘Volt’ and ‘Viaplay’ are things I would have to investigate as I know nothing about them. Of the deals available I think Now is probably what I’ll end up with.

 

I gave up trying to negotiate with VM years ago.

Now I just choose a similar service online at an acceptable price, then click accept.

The new provider then have to inform VM that you are joining them.

Guess how quickly VM then contact you, and offer the same or similar package price.



Pain in the butt having to do this, but hey.

Broadband and landline.

 

Every year, regardless of your contract.

The increases are effective early April, I believe and they can and do increase charges mid contract. I was told I had until April to cancel, but was offered the virtually same 18 mth contract in Feb. and was told that because this is a new contract, it wouldn't change in April. Sure as Hell it will next April though. VM increases are based upon RPI +3.9% whereas the others follow CPI +

I cannot understand Ofcom not intervening in these annual hikes, although they're more interested in rolling out more fibre and say that there's plenty of competition. No there isn't if all of them hike their rates annually in line with Ofcom's price guidance. Okay when IRs were at rock bottom; not now or, i.m.o., the medium term.

 

Aye your correct Mike, here's what the say in relation to cancelling.

What are my options now
We understand these are tough times. And if you’re struggling, we’ll do everything we can to help you. That could be giving you extra time to pay your bill, reviewing your package, or working out a payment plan.

If you're not happy with any of the changes announced in this email, including those to our out of home WiFi hotspots and pricing terms and conditions, you can change or cancel your package, any time before 24th March 2023, without paying any cancellation fees.