Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

VM flash sale; https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...broadband.html

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

All it would take is one provider out of the tens out there to undercut and everyone would flock to them.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Don't TalkTalk do that? I don't see people flocking to them.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

That's because there's plenty of competition and plenty of offers on from different providers. If they all (bar TalkTalk) agreed a fixed price, then people would move to TalkTalk.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Virgin might have its critics but many would not touch Talk Talk with a bargepole at the end of the day even if they were cheaper.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Has anybody NOT had a price rise notification yet (apart from me) ?

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Would it not be a good idea if you could switch entertainment providers just like changing energy companies... I wonder if this would be feasible.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

It's not really the same. Generally for gas and electricity, where the supply comes to your home and the infrastructure in your home is exactly the same. That's not true of any broadband provider - even if the 'last mile' shared for BT based providers.

There was a project from BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to share a technology platform for content. It was blocked by the competition commission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_(video_on_demand)

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Sky tried to bring discounting to an end in early 2016, but had to abandon it.

It's better to retain/attract customers who can't or won't pay the full price and make less profit than losing them altogether, plus it costs VM less to discount and keep someone than processing the effects of churn.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

The key for Sky is that their costs are generally "fixed" in terms of TV. That is to say the cost to them to provide the service to say 1m extra customers in retentions is small. The extra cost is only that paid to third parties for content and we know that is small.

Phone and broadband on the other hand has infrastructure costs.

Virgin the opposite is true - extra subs results in more money out to Sky/BT/others for content.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

I have not had notification, so I rang up about it, was told I am not getting an increase. Have Full House, 200meg BB. Phone.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Ours turned up today: From November.

Got the TV XL pack but we hardly use it and the land line is a rip-off so it looks like a call to retentions is in order.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Mine finally came today a rise of £3.99, coincides with losing a £4 and £3 discount over the last couple of months so a total of £11. We have 100 MB BB, XL tv and free w/e landline (big kahuna i think). I think i'll be on to retentions as well.

---------- Post added at 19:09 ---------- Previous post was at 18:35 ----------

Good result for you. ;) I thought the increases were across the board.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

Just thought I would warn others planning on leaving VM to be wary of what they are told by VM operators. I phoned today to advise them that I had signed up with a new provider. The news was not particularly well received but when the operator finally accepted that I had made my mind up he advised that there would be a cancellation charge of £82.77. When I questioned this he said it was because I was in contract till next May. At this point I resorted to quoting from their price rise email giving me till 31 October to change or cancel my package without penalty. He then conceded that the cancellation charge would not apply in my circumstances.

It also came to light that VM had already heard from my new provider about changing the phone number over from 26 October. The operator then turned to broadband which he said I needed to give 30 days notice for. I was given a date to cancel the broadband of 25 November. Again I had to query this by asking why the 30 days was starting from the phone changeover day rather than today when the notice was being given. He again had to concede that he was wrong and corrected the date to 11 November.

I should say that I have been a VM customer since 1999 and am not leaving lightly but like a lot of others have grown tired of the frequency of price rises whether direct increases or caused by expiring and reduced discounts.

Re: Virgin Media prices are going up again...
 

If you are on the minimum phone, that's exactly what I have and before I complained, it was due to go up by £3.99.

If you spoke to the offshore call centre, i'd ignore anything that they said and do what I do and make sure that you speak to someone in the UK.

---------- Post added at 20:43 ---------- Previous post was at 20:36 ----------

Was this the offshore call centre or in the UK (Re: my post above)?

I do find it odd that VM are prepared to lose long term customers like yourself, just as there's never been more competition for the services that they offer. Freeview & Freesat have never been better in terms of availability of free channels too.

This seems to have started since LG took over...