Hi.. what are you guys doing about this? I appreciate that prices are going up everywhere but Virgin have just told me that my £73 monthly bill will be going up to £94, a hike of 29 per cent. Not only that they plan to increase it annually by the RPI figure plus 3.9%... that is currently about 14.5% at today's rates.
I've spoken to Sky who will give me a very similar package for £81 a month on an 18 month contract. Downside is I might have to change my landline number. Has anyone got a better deal from anywhere?
Rob
Same here.
£62 /month inc sports package.
Rising to £120 in July.
They had the cheek to mail me to say prices are going up £21/month before my contract ends.
In doing so I have the right to cancel without penalty.
I cancelled.
I’m looking around for deals at the mo.
Apparently, Virgin have called home numerous times while I was working away… maybe they’ll make me a better offer ?
It’s a PITA to play this game every 18 months.
z
I would look at any of the below options to see if they’re available in your area
Zen internet, community fibre, hyperoptic.
Others will chime in with other decent recommendations
I’m still on a cheap Virgin package for TV and broadband at £30pm. They wrote to me
saying it was going up to £39pm. I phoned them up to question this and they just immediately said “oh don’t worry, we’ll keep the price at £30”….didn’t even need to threaten to cancel.
My “introductory” package is due to end in November and I expect them to try to put this up when it comes to renewal. I’ve been lucky in the past where they’ve let me start a new contract on a reduced rate. In fact my original contract was £33 and at the renewal they wanted something like £50. I phoned them up and they offered £30 a month for another 18-month contract.
My experience with Virgin is they seem to have a very weird business model/way to deal with customers.
If this doesn’t work at my next renewal, I’ll be switching to Community Fibre.
We switched to Vodafone, installed by BT.
Everything is through fibre (Voice over Internet for the "landline", we kept our number, and all TV via cable, so no aerial or dish).
£30 a month
We've added everything (Apple TV, Netflix, Disney and Prime) and the total is still less than we were paying to Virgin.
I will not be darkening their door ever again
Long running thread over on Pistonheads.
The main takeaway is complain/threaten to leave they will cut you a deal.
I would agree with going the full fibre route if available. I’ve just had a 300 Mbs service installed by Cityfibre/Zen and my first impressions are that it’s great. 10x download/upload speed at about 60% of the cost of my BT service, and that’s before BT’s forthcoming 15% price increase.
This is what I’d did for performance after I switched everything over to it yesterday…
Phone Virgin and explain you're thinking of leaving because of the hike. See what they offer. This will usually still be higher than your current deal and they'll try to add bits on as 'value'.
If you're not happy, ask to go through to the cancellations department, then see what they offer. If it's still not acceptable, ask to terminate the contract.
It's a bit squeaky bum time for a week or two before your service gets cut off, but 99% of the time they'll get back in touch with the deal you want.
Just been through it but got the deal at stage 1. I suspect this was because my contract is up in July and I'll have to play the game all over again.
Absolutely agree. It's extremely disconcerting from the customer's point of view. Just adding stress and angst to people's lives in order to screw them out of a few extra quid. Destroys any sort of customer loyalty and goodwill.Originally Posted by Christian
My Virgin contract expired and they put it up from £74, which was eye watering enough, to £99.35. Phoned them and told them no way was I paying that. Put me through to some guy who said he'd offer me a deal but I'd have to take it there and then. Told him he had one chance to keep my custom and this was it. He came up with £68 a month for the same deal as I had at £74. Just a bunch of chancers like most big companies these days.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Years ago virgin used to do a deal to keep you when I’ve complained about the price in the last couple of years they’ve just said that’s the price go somewhere else if you don’t like it
Not my experience. As above they did do a better deal, but weren't exactly pleasant on the phone at the time. It was a case of this is the best new deal we can do, take it or leave it.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
No price rise here unfortunately. Would love to get out of my contract and move over to Zen but looks like I’m stuck until next April.
Hi Barryboy
I understand from my neighbour you can 'port' over a landline number - he just done from BT to Virgin.........
L-K
I'm sick of Virgin Media - Although I'm not sure the alternatives are actually any better.
We had no landline for 4 days recently, impressive service for the extra money they now demand.
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Virgin "landline" is now a con, it's simply a VOIP service. Not only do they save money from not paying for the actual phone network connection but prices go up too? The only ones who ever ring the landline is my dear old Mum and spam/Virgin themselves trying to upsell me.
I'm off to CityFibre, who are going live in my area soon. Cheaper, plus because we will no longer have "live broadcast" programs no need to buy a TV license either saving yet more. Virgin TV was "nice to have" but not worth the extra money and having to argue for a discount every 18 months now that I can get a comparable/faster internet connection.
I was on a negotiated £30 rate for my 250 mbps fiber, and got the letter about the big % increase. I took the opportunity to jump to a 900 up, 900 down with Giganet for £40 per month. Took AGES to cancel via WhatsApp live chat with lots of attempts to dodge my request, then a very nice lady called up the next day to try to win me back (I've been a disgruntled customer for nearly a decade, but only recently have FTTP options become available at my postcode). Maybe don't increase prices by so much in the first place?!
The irony being that Virgin Media are currently eyeing a £3BN takeover of Cityfibre :-)
Is that correct? You can still watch "live Broadcast" programmes live online via iPlayer, ITVX, Ch4 etc. therefore I was under the impression that you still needed a TV license.
I also had the price increase letter so called them, well my son called them and they put me back to the £25.25 per month for a landline, 125mbs internet and a virgin mobile sim.
Update.
VM called me this week & I was around to pick up. They offered me a massive bundle with Sky sports, Sky movies, 1000mbps fibre, unlimited calls for £43 (£22 less than before !!!)
Only caveat is that I now have a bundled O2 SIM card with unlimited calls, SMS & data which brings me to +£68 (+£3 from where I was) - running for the next 18 months.
I don’t really need the SIM, but it’ll be useful for the wife or one of the daughters.
Result for me as I need not change anything - but bonkers business model from virgin media …IMHO.
z
I got a similar discount a few months ago during my usual merry dance with VM. I had to take an O2 sin contract too which I have to my Dad who could make use of it.
I will commence my merry dance again shortly given my in-contract price rise, but now I have the O2 sin, who knows what they will come up with to avoid me leaving.
I have been with VM for 12 years on the trot, but I have always done battle with them at least every 18 months. Only benefit is I like a good battle.
For what it's worth, I had my Giganet fiber installation yesterday -- took about half an hour for two workmen to bring a cable from a nearby post, fix it to my roofline, run it down the wall and drill a hole through, install boxes and set up. Zero mess, very polite, turned up bang on time, and the resulting connection is giving me a reliable 500+ mbps up and down just from a broadband speed test on my phone. Very happy to be rid of Virgin.
There's the 'added value'. That's £28 per month for a SIM readily available elsewhere for about £12.
I would have held my ground and insisted I didn't want it or I'd leave.
To get my chunky discount from VM, I had to take an O2 sim for £6 per month (12 month contract). That represented a fraction of the VM discount.
Plus you can probably cancel the sim in your cooling off period, but I decided to keep mine as that was the deal I agreed and my Dad needed the sim.
Great!
For me I have a Virgin SIM as opposed to an O2 sim, when I last haggled they tried to move me over to an O2 SIM which increased the price by another £6 but I declined so they kept me with the “free” Virgin SIM but did warn me that come next renewal having the Virgin SIM would make it a lot harder to get a good deal.
They tried to offer me an
ooduuuzimmm?
When I said I'm not sure what that is and he explained I declined.
End result was I ended up with a £1 per month increase instead of £7 for the remainder of my contract
You need one for live streaming services (ITVX, All 4 etc) and any iPlayer content.
Obviously if not interested in those you don’t need to pay.
Had a letter from them last week , current monthly cost will increase from £28pm to £42pm when the current broadband only contract expires. We are not heavy data users so Im thinking of setting up a home MiFi system as i can get 60-80mbs on my phone. With an external aerial & router i should be able to improve on that.
Got the increase letter last week, adding £21.50 from 1st May to our current cost £70.12 per month. Contract doesn't lapse until August this year. Read the small print and they can increase prices at any time during the contract, if the change materially affects you it can by cancelled with no early cancellation fee (Thank you)
Quick call to give them short shrift, after a 10 minute call monthly reduced to £52.92 per month for same service. Package consists of M250 Broadband, TV package Sky/BT sports, 2 x Tivo boxes. Line rental and free calls.
Well that was easy. Had my email a while back to increase my price by £12 pcm in my contract period, and squared up to do the merry cancellation dance, and wait for a better offer.
When I called an automated bot gave me a discount of £6 pcm for 6 months (my contract still has 12+ month to run). Press 1 to accept, press 2 to speak with an operator.
Pressed 2 and spoke to the operator who immediately offered no price rise until the end of contract.
That was the easiest merry dance I have done with Virgin in the 12 years I have been with them. They rely on inertia.
Just spoke with virgin media and haggled away with a charming lady for 20 minutes or so (think the haggling scene from Life of Brian). She eventually came back with a reasonable offer which was about the same as last time's contract price.
I think I could have got a lower price if I'd gone nuclear with the 'disconnection move', but didn't fancy the stress. Capitalism can be a right pain at times.
Last edited by A440; 14th May 2023 at 12:50.
After slacking off for 3 years, finally got around to the obligatory "I'm leaving" threats. Reduced from £92 (plus an impending price rise) to £58 for 350mbps, Full House (except Sports) TV, phone. I was hoping that CityFibre would go live and to change to them as we mainly watch Netflox/Prime, but they seem to have gone quiet despite installing cables in the area 3 months ago.
One plus point for the rep - they did remind me to phone up before the 18months is up and "promotional" price expires, hopefully CityFibre will be up by then.
I am out of contract. Would i have to enter into a new contract for any discount,
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Yes you would in pretty much all cases. Though some can be shorter than others.
Just rang them and got the price rise removed so bill stays the same with 1 month rolling contract
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Yes. I've not seen a discount otherwise. Usually 18 months.
Was paying £55 for Max TV, telephone line and 500 Mb Broadband, this is now £70.
I have Volt which helps with their offerings, but will consider options when the contract ends.
B
Opposite here - out of contract and waiting for City fibre to finally light up the fibre they installed in the road last year.
Brother in law just got Community Fibre for something like £30pm and sent this over yesterday. In laws have it too but when it breaks you're screwed. They don't even have a status page to let you know which services are up/down.
Hopefully City Fibre are better and chop chop
I saw a cityfibre engineer yesterday fiddling in a junction box here in Trinity. I asked him when connections would start and rather frustratingly he couldn't say. But I was encouraged to see an engineer out and about. Virgin needs competition.
David
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
Trinity? Hehe, we're neighbours then.
Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
You get what you pay for … that said when virgin is down they really are no better !Brother in law just got Community Fibre for something like £30pm and sent this over yesterday. In laws have it too but when it breaks you're screwed. They don't even have a status page to let you know which services are up/down.
Hopefully City Fibre are better and chop chop
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Today I am within a month of the end of my virgin media contract. I am currently paying £68.75 a month for 1gig broadband and phone. I phoned to give a months notice of cancellation and was asked to wait while the nailed a new offer together for me. Well, the offer was £69 with a new 18 month contract! Picking myself off the floor at their stunning generosity in offering me 25p MORE than I am currently paying, I just told them I was giving a months notice and I am now OFF!
Currently musing between Sky(I already have Sky Q) and Vodaphone and would welcome any thoughts on that. I accept I am going to have slower broadband but I am prepared to accept that for the enjoyment of kicking the greedy virgin media into touch!
KavKav, I've been using Vodafone since April last year and despite taking their Superfast 2 offering I seem to be capped at 46mbs here north of Portsmouth. The guaranteed speed has also dropped from 61 to 55 to now 38 in the year so I don't know if it is number of FTTC connections load sharing or what, but it's handled multiple streaming with no issues. We've only had one period of outage in the last 12 months, for less than a quarter of a day.
My dad only takes fibre broadband from Virgin and is outside his introductory period so was being quoted something like £46 a month instead of the £37 it had been come last year, well above the £26.50 introductory offer.
He called their bluff, he called and asked for the best price, and when they only offered a £5 a month rebate for 18 months he said no thanks. They called a week later and offered to keep it at the £37 he'd been paying, again told them he wanted more or less what a new customer would be getting and that he'd been happy with his 50mb and felt they were pulling a fast one by upping the speed and price 'for free' mid cycle but then lumping a massive increase on come April. Again, sorry sir can't do that and can't get management to authorise that so here are your details of your last day with us.
Dad goes ahead and books in with Sky Q at £34 a month, and one day after the installation date is confirmed Virgin call back and offer £29 a month. Sorry, too late I'm going elsewhere. But sir, we're still cheaper? No, you messed around and found out, so now you don't get my business.
The stupid thing is, when Sky inevitably can't offer him what he wants for the price he wants, he'll likely be back with Virgin at their basic speed fibre again. It's just so galling to be made to actually go through with threats to leave instead of giving longstanding customers the best deals that they obviously can, but are told not to.
Did the dance today. My bill will more then double next week.
Phoned them up and had a not very helpful bloke first. Wouldn’t give me any reduction on current plan, but said he could do something if I upgraded my package. Which turned out to be a crap offer.
I declined and asked to proceed with cancellation. He told me he would transfer me and then cut me off.
Called again and this time spoke to a more helpful lady who offered a reduction on my current plan, but I declined and asked to proceed with cancellation.
She then transferred me to ‘tier 2’ retention department.
This chap offered pretty much same price what I pay now. But said he could do me a better discount if I upgraded.
The offer for the upgraded package was pretty reasonable. I pressed and asked if I could pay what I pay now for the upgrade, but he said he couldn’t go to that price. After more haggling we reached a price I was satisfied with for the upgrade.
I reckon if I was more ballsy and asked to be disconnected they may have come back to me with even better price. But I couldn’t take the chance as in my area only Virgin offer super fast broadband.
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I tried to call today and give them the 30 days notice as contract and deal ends next month.
The first person offered a deal for £3 more than I pay now, so rejected that. He said he'd talk to his boss and get back to me. Yeah right.
I phoned back 2 hours later and conveniently the systems were all down so they couldn't help.
Tried again 3 hours later and was on hold for 30 minutes.
It's like they knew I was going away tomorrow and wouldn't be able to chase them up.
I got a deal with Community Fibre today with first 6 months free so unless Virgin get within a farthing of that I'll be off after nearly 10 years with them.
Unfortunately was stuck with Virgin as they do the fastest fibre in the area £65 a month for 500Mb down and barely 50Mb up. Ping time isn’t the best either .
Moving house so got EE through my company as I use them for all the mobiles .
£35 a month. 1Gb up and 500Mb down they reckon .
Canceling Virgin took a 45minute phone call. At the end of which I was passed to retention despite telling them not to bother .
Later that day they called me back jumped me through the security questioms . I told them not to bother making me offers or trying to retain me as I’d spent enough time on the phone with them. They tried anyway .
Next day I get a phone call whilst I’m just stepping out of the shower , thinking its a cluent calling I answer to find its Virgin again… This time I’m not so polite . I refuse the security login questions and tell them not to call me again . I’m not interested .Guy gets reactionary on the phone , says I’m “disrespectin” him. I hang up.
Just got an sms from Virgin from retention offering me an “unbelievable” deal . I can opt out of further messages but I have to txt another number .
I had. VIrgin media about 6 years ago at another place . Same deal fastest in the area . After cancelling they charged me for a year . When I noticed I called them up only to be initially met with extremely rude individuals who denied I’d even cancelled until they bothered to look at the account and then they begrudgingly admitted they had messed up.
They said they would send a cheque to refund . I told them I was out of the country for 6 months and they should pay it into my account . They refused . I escalated it by emailing to the MD of virgin media and funnily enough I got the money directly paid into my account .
I wouldn’t use Virgin unless I had to . I also had hyperoptic in London 1Gb up and down and £29 a month .
My Virgin service has been appalling since mid May. It’s down as often as it’s up. I’ve had zero from their auto compensation system and raised complaints. Was assured early June all the issues in my area would be fixed by the following week.. which was true, for about 2 days. Then they gave another date.. again fixed for about a day.
They offered me £30 credit to my account to come off my next bill, which hasn’t materialised, and I’m still paying for a service I’m not receiving with any sort of consistent service and it makes working from home almost impossible. Also affects my TV and landline.
Currently having to tether my laptop to my works mobile phone (which only gets 2 bars of 4G in my house) just so I can do some sort of work.
Unfortunately I’m locked in until November but have contacted them again on Sunday to say that they are not fulfilling their obligations and that in my opinion I should be given the option to exit the contract without penalty… no response.
I think my broadband/TV/phone have been up/down about 8 times today so far. Even although they are the fastest broadband supplier in my area, I’d happily take a slower speed elsewhere that is more reliable.
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