Virgin Media UK Notifies Broadband and TV Users of Price Hike
Customers of cable broadband ISP Virgin Media UK (Liberty Global) will, from today, start receiving a new notification letter that informs them of a forthcoming price hike on their internet, TV and fixed-line phone services, which will see the average price of their services increase by around 4% or £3.63 including VAT.
The move was somewhat expected as it follows last year’s welcome decision by the operator to freeze their prices for the latter half of 2020 (here), which they say meant that “the vast majority” of their cable customers “will not have seen their contracted prices increase in the last 18 months.”
On top of that Virgin Media spent much of last year giving customers a range of upgrades and new services at no extra cost to help during the COVID-19 crisis. Not to mention their on-going network extension work, TV improvements and the upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 technology, which by the end of this year will have made top broadband speeds of 1Gbps+ available to over half of the UK (c.16 million premises).
The provider normally hikes prices annually by around 5% (average), thus sooner or later the scales would inevitably have to be re-balanced and in that respect it’s pleasing to see that they’ve not baked above-inflation price rises into their customers’ contracts, which is something that BT and other UK ISPs have done (e.g. CPI plus an additional 3.9%). On the other hand, VM’s latest average increase of 4% is still an above-inflation rise.
What’s Changing and When (VM’s Statement)
· Prices will change with most of our UK cable customers receiving an increase of between £2.50 and £4.50 per month.
· The average increase is £3.63 (inc VAT), equivalent to 12p per day.
· The average price increase is 4.0%.
· We’re currently writing to our UK customers to explain these changes and will continue to make sure they can experience even more from their services with Virgin Media.
· Customers will see their March bill change – the price change is effective from 1 March 2021 and this will be made clear in the communication sent to customers.
· Vulnerable customers – including those on our new Essential broadband package for people receiving Universal Credit, as well as Talk Protected landline customers – will not see their prices change.
A Virgin Media Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:
“Through continued investment, improvement and innovation we’re committed to providing great value and a top service for our customers.
Over the last year our customers have used their connectivity more than ever before, with data use increasing at the fastest rate we’ve ever seen. We’re already investing more than £1bn in our network each year and consistently give our customers more megabits for their money, but to help meet this demand we do sometimes need to review our prices.
Changing prices is never an easy decision, which is why, unlike other providers, this is our first cable price change in 18 months. We are currently writing to cable customers to transparently communicate these changes and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure we deliver for our customers and keep them connected at a time when it has never been more important.”
As touched on earlier, prices tend to rise because operators are frequently adding all sorts of new services, developing new systems and consumers are also gobbling significantly more data every year. Suffice to say that service improvements and rising demand cost money, which means that ultimately customers will end up paying more and all the biggest ISPs seem to follow that same trend.
Providers are also under pressure to adopt all sorts of new rules, such as having to cater for the hugely expensive new system of automatic compensation (here) and Ofcom’s revised broadband speed code of practice (here), as well as any future changes that might be implemented.
However, Ofcom does have a rule against mid-contract price hikes that go above-inflation, which means that existing customers may be able to exit their contract penalty free (you need to do this within 30 days of receiving Virgin’s formal notification letter/email). Just remember that other major ISPs will also be increasing their prices in 2021, although this is often mitigated by special offers when you switch provider.
Alternatively customers could try contacting the operator directly and haggling for a lower price (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill).
UPDATE 1:19pm
We asked Virgin Media about the impact upon recent sign-ups to their service. According to the provider, “customers who are already on one of our new bundles (as of 29 June last year) will not receive a cable price increase.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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If only their abysmal customer and technical support had improved 4%.
I know right, currently eyeing up moving and double checked the area for gfast, city fibre, 5G and VDSL2 so I’m fully sure I can leave this unstable broadband for good.
I have left them a couple of months ago. A wait of 90 mins on the phone when they messed up my order sealed their fate. Would not have them for free.
Just told VM to take their equipment, the worsted service intenet cutting 50 times a day and awful custome service.
We have a full TV, Broadband and fixed line contract. I’ve worked in customer service related businesses for over 40 years. We have been with Virgin since 2005, the engineers over that time have been brilliant, the back office/customer service over the last few years however has been the worst I’ve ever experienced in either a professional or personal capacity. Break in services, engineer’s given incorrect information, incorrect internal uploads, no return calls as promised and no response to complaints. The only thing that appears to work quickly is my payment. I will be voting with my feet!
Unfortunately for me I have another year with this lot to endure. Impossible to contact. Useless phone coverage. Abysmal broadband in 2/3 of the house . I’m thinking of reporting them to some body for breach of contract.
I have been overcharged by 31 quid every month for the last 8 months. Everytime you get through to the department you either get transferred or told nothing the phone agent could do but agree the correct amount had not been taken. They say they can’t do anything then say a manager will call back and correct the situation. I have now stopped paying them and the keep sending bills that are incorrect. I have also gone to ofcom who has contact Cidar to mediation and adjudicate. Virgin media have not submitted any defense so I have won my case. Anyone having issues please contact ofcom and cidar they will deal with it as regulatory bodies and penalise Virgin media with fines. Have been advised my fine to them could be in the 5k range due to all the hassle and inconvenience including how credit rating has been affected and how much financial stress placed on us.
They need to get rid of these agencies and hire direct, bring the overseas jobs back to UK and open up another call centre or two in different areas of UK
I know of bunches of people with customer service experience in need of employment now they’ve basically been made redundant by hospitality sector, they’re all very flexible too as they’ve never seen a fixed employment contract in there careers thanks for previous government’s.
The way Virgin Media treat old long standing customers is awful, the price increase is just something that’s gonna make me ditch them in time. Been trying with customer support for a better deal for along time now but it does not work for me. What i am paying p/m now and what services compared to these great deals/packages for new customers only i cannot get. 17yrs i’ve been with them going back to the Telewest days.
@John
Then you should have been asking your bank to recall the DD every month for the last 8 months.. The DD guarantee says you can as there is an error in the amount
Any mention of if this affects customers who’ve just signed ?
No, new customers are not affected by the changes, I wasn’t in my first year
Just posted an update from Virgin on this very question: “Customers who are already on one of our new bundles (as of 29 June last year) will not receive a cable price increase.”
In my experience of Virgin, they’ll say “no it doesn’t” then the following month add it and take whatever they like anyway.
I received letter Crome 22 only internet , to 40+ saying I had Discount and its end I need telephone number I am leaving, pleas any one send me how to Contact them to live because I have no idea why I don’t connect so easy hours in the phone for a long time and never been connected as they know why the call will end they never gave me the chance
I entered into a new contract with Virgin on 25 September 2020. This was an 18 month contract and I have just received notification that I will am landed with an 8.64% price rise. I was an existing customer and had phoned to notify them I would be leaving. They convinced me to stay by offering this new contract. Little more than 3 months after entering into this contract they are hiking my price well above the average they are quoting. Very very poor.
M – Give them a call I’m sure they’ll sort it, probably get a better offer too.
VM just phoned wanted to increase my monthly payment from £60 pm to £76 per month. I don’t think so. Plus can never get to my online account to see what’s going on. I had to ask to speak to another salesman S I couldn’t understand him. Another man came online but had trouble again. They talked over me and we’re not interested just wanted to sell me a package. Really spoilt my long term Association with VM
“On top of that Virgin Media spent much of last year giving customers a range of upgrades and new services at no extra cost to help during the COVID-19 crisis”
Not for me, they didn’t.
I paid my Bill in full through this whole nightmare and didn’t get a single thing off them that I didn’t pay for ?
As a TV customer I got a bunch of additional channels at no extra cost.
As a Virgin Mobile customer I got 10GB a month at no extra cost for months. Visiting NHS websites didn’t use mobile data either.
As for broadband: there was over a million customers on sub-100Mbps contracts who got free upgrades to 100Mbps.
@roger_gooner so charge the people who got “freebies” more.
as a broadband+phone customer, I got no freebies, and I hope my prices don’t rise on account of these so-called freebies :).
I was fully expecting broadband prices to rise in 2021 though. As we depend more on the internet, no surprise that service providers have an opportunity to charge more. Those “freebies” are just a smoke-screen.
Nor me. They also still haven’t dealt with my complaint from April.
I have a full TV package, home phone and Broadband, plus a mobile phone contract and the service has been dreadful. I was astonished, when checking their website to look for service issues (on yet another ‘on & off’ service day), to see a notification stating that they had suspended charging for the Sports package, due to there being no sport happening, but ONLY FROM THE DATE I SUBMITTED THEIR ONLINE REQUEST FORM (that I had no idea existed until that day in late June)! Why wouldn’t they either email their customers or, better still, suspend payments automatically ? I paid for over 3 months for absolutely nothing Their Customer Service is diabolical.
Same as me, I’ve been a loyal customer for over 15 years but if they put the prices up I warned them last time they did it that I’m off.
Same as me geoff, I’ve been a loyal customer for over 15 years but if they put the prices up I warned them last time they did it that I’m off.
Yeah no Virgin Media has been awful during the mid Coronavirus lockdown constantly no internet for weeks on end for everyone it was awful
“constantly no internet for weeks on end for everyone”
Everyone? How wide spread was it???????????????????
Didn’t notice the impact up here in Scotland. You’re actually trying to claim that an issue that wasn’t caused by Virgin and was handled based on priority as well as credits given back is somehow a cause of concern?
As if that couldn’t have happened to anyone else?
they did suffer a lot of issues, but it seems that it only makes it into the news when the knock Londoners offline. The rest of the country? seems the media couldn’t give a monkey’s. (present website excluded of course)
We had several people at work drop out, they were all on VM. They were more unstable in 2020 than I’ve ever seen them which has only reinforced my desire to leave them, especially with 5G in the area and a few months until openreach start laying fibre.
I must of missed that. funny how small some worlds are when they evolve around one person.
I left this useless company last year. Good riddance with their useless customer service.
Here we go, the usual over inflation increases from a greedy company. Still waiting on 1GB here and when it arrives it is half baked as no benefit of lower latency as docsis 3.1 on downstream and old docsis 3.0 on upstream and patch for latency enhancement not applied to CMTS.
Stuff em. If they don’t re-negotiate cheaper by ditching stuff I don’t need that they bundle, I’m off for a few months only to come back at the right time with new customer offers like cashback or free gifts and now an 18 month period of new customer offer pricing.
They gotta claw back for all the 49″ TVs they just gave out on the 18 month £89 deal! –
Half baked,
just like when Openreach launched FTTC and then years later added the improvements to take full advantage,
and like 4G was data only and then matured into a much faster and reliable service….
and how 5G is currently only being rolled out at reduced capacity and on downstream only and relies on 4G to work.
Docsis 3.0 was only a downstream only upgrade at first too, and in the last few years I’ve seen an moderate improvement in upstream and latency on across Virgin’s networks…
Frustrating as it is we’re all just waiting.
wohoo this means i can get out of my contract earlier, well, unless they cave in and decide to waive the increase.
I tried this approach too, Retentions caved, then they promptly took the increase the following month anyway.
omg. this is why i record all my phone calls with VM.
And I Was told there was not one coming in 2021 so I had to pay £270 Termination Fees when I moved to a house where VM were in streets around me but not in this street.
It rhymes with Stunts…
wait what ? VM cannot charge you if you move to a non-VM area.
Well they did – I told them there was no cable – they still charged me! They even checked on their system – the cables run about 6 feet from my house down the main road!
Anna you need to contact the ombudsman then. You can’t honestly be content to let the matter drop when you’ve had to pay that surely? They are not entitled to charge you a termination or early exit fee if you move into a property that they don’t service. It’s as simple as that, and it’s your money.
@Stephen Wakeman – You’re just factually incorrect on that stand, Virgin CAN and do charge fees for if you move property mid-contract and there’s no serviceability to said address.
Virgin have it clear in the terms and conditions, and repeat it twice during sign-up that you will be charged if you move to a non Virgin area.
While some so have success having early termination charges reduced or even waived completely you shouldn’t be advising people this isn’t allowed.
It is.
Disgraceful price hike again never give offers to loyal customers just take take take
Nothing in life is given, its sought and taken.
Try fixing the virgin go app for the Samsung a7 tablet
What for? It will be the same useless.
Around 2 years ago I received a letter saying the new TV box was being rolled out to all customers.After several phone calls still waiting I give up with them.
Consider yourself lucky, I got sent a 360 box..the new one….it’s a huge backward step. Records éverything,even if you’ve seen it! Delete is a joke, 3 button pushes and then find your way back in because you’re on TV not recorded stuff.
It’s clunky and poor, I understand the HD is smaller too….so fed up with it I’ve not bothered to find out.
I’m hearing you there Martin, I’m working on getting it removed, its sucks.
Paid my bills on time every month. Ive not had any free upgrades. So i dont know where that came from. Been a loyal VM customer for nearly 20 years now.
In the 20 years you will have definitely had free upgrades on Broadband, just probably not aware of them.
And sorry but there is no way you’ve been with VM 20 years and never had a price rise.. I would bet my house on it.
Anna they didn’t say they had or hadn’t had any price increases.
Only recently have I started to have problems with VM but changing is an hassle & piecewise not a lot of difference imo
Not to far from the truth in my experience of testing other options in multiple locations.
I get charged for a phone line I do not want and do not use but when you tell them to cancel it as part of my contract then say you have to have the phone line this is a complete RIP off from Virgin lin rental only is £18 a month
Yes the landline is a ruse to get extra money out of customers. Cant remember last time I used it. Why should I pay for something I don’t want or use
No you don’t have to have the phone line! – they do it over internet now it used to be a seperate system. I’ve never had a VM phone line they even advertise it as landline not required! – and that’s BB and TV as well! You are allowing them to rip you off so put a stop to it!
As Anna states you do not need a phone line with VM. I had VM for several years without a phone line with them. It is literally called broadband only.
That said, if you look you’ll see that the price difference is minimal. The 500 package costs just £1 per month more with the phone package included. Line rental at £18pcm is inline with what BT charges for line rental, so call it a rip off if you want, but it’s not off the mark for the going rate.
@Mark – You may require the phoneline as part of your package in order to keep a bundle discount.
As mentioned although the line rental shows as £18 a month, by removing it your other services will rise by at least £17 a month or more where TV is bundled or an offer exist.
I have just recently agreed a new deal with Virgin Media where I pay a fixed price for 18 months. Will this be honoured
Yes they said above no new customers will be affected. They have been giving away TV’s and also they are doing half price internet in a sale – a sale whilst price rises behind the scenes – disgusting people
Yes just started new contract for 18
months will not pay any more
Probably not they will say we will give you 3 months without the increase then charge you the increase, They did that with me a year or so ago now, I’m going to wait for the letter then if I don’t like the deal they might offer me I’m going with Zen the don’t ever put the price up, the internet speed isn’t as fast with Zen as Virgin here but I can live with it, We have just the internet and home phone no pay TV.
@Ray this is why I admire people like AAISP – you get 2TB a month yes but everyone pays the same and there are no new customer offers – A lot to be said about such a business model like that!
Hope CF reach me by march then so I can cancel. I hate them so much at this point I am tempted to spend some time on VDSL while I wait for CF to complete in Ipswich
Service is sub standard. Impossible to gain a response over an hour and a half for a recorded response. I have had no landline and only partial TV for three months despite being charged full price £74 + and they are aware. Advice to new customers find an alternative
Disgusting, I too have suffered with the terrible customer service over the past couple of years but this year has been the worst and blaming covid can’t why it started in October 2019.
Fed up with VM £57 each month and a rubbish service I am forever been told ‘your internet connection is unstable’ I am off as fast as I can get away.
Sounds like you may have issues with your wifi?
What I do object to is the £240 charged when you leave in your contract time when the place you are moving to does not even have cable
Terms and Conditions apply.
Many people used to abuse the ‘moving to a non cabled area’ policy in order to shake a contract without charges, so something had to be done to deter such behaviour…
Other providers have been doing this for a long time, I remember BT expecting me to pay early termination for BT TV package back in the day when I moved to an address they could only serve with 1mb broadband and the TV service wouldn’t work.
It took explaining the situation to a debt collector to be wiped.
Putting prices up it’s a joke ,should be going down with all the new customers, must be doing well when you can spend 1bn or so a year on up grades
Well the whole idea of increasing prices is to cover doing upgrades which are required to support existing customer based and bring faster and newer services.
If anyone wants to pay bottom prices for something with no care or upgrades being applied then sure there is a basic budget adsl service knocking around at the end of some old phone cable somewhere happy to take the money
Please note, as many new customers join, many old customers leave.
I must be the luckiest Virgin Media customer in the UK ,I have TV , phone and broadband and rarely have a problem with any of them . The last time was a loss of the broadband for roughly two hours about six months ago .
or a vm employee.. hmm.
My VM line never went down once in 10 years. I never had to call them either but I still left due to the speeds dropping in the evenings on the top package.
Oh no, I’ve just joined!! My initial experience has been mixed, good impression from the sales side, my contact Simon was helpful but I’ve been charged an activation fee when I was told this would not apply, and now having difficulty getting to speak to someone (anyone) who can help.
If you just started then you won’t be charged for it, go through their retentions/disconnections department or raise a complaint on their site
But this is the problem with them. They’ll tell you one thing and do what ever they want the next month. Told me I’d have a discount on my account cos they had hiked it with no warning I’m talking £40 a month extra so rang and was told a discount has been applied to my account for the extra charge. Asked if it was going to stay as a discount every month cos I’m not paying £130pm for vm and told yes it has been then next month they changed me £130 again. They also have a habit of cutting you off if you get a month behind cos they keep charging changed amounts then they’ll promise you everything as long as you clear the arrears but when you’ve paid it they don’t give a shit and are not willing y
To even listen to what you want. I’ve had late charges every month cos my pay date changed to 3 days after the bill due and they won’t let me move my bill date cos if I do they don’t get to charge me 7.50 for nothing. But they willing to put me into more debt cos they won’t change my payment date. Once charges come in I’ll be off. Can go to be and be will pay the leaving charge for you
@Phillip oh they did that with my brother – he had the top package for a year called up and was given another offer and then his first bill was something like £140 and they told him it was 1 discount per customer only – he cancelled under the 28 days on the spot
Phillip take it up with your bank! – the direct debit guarantee is there to STOP shit like this happening!
As you say some people will not get the raise in their bill i think i am one of those but i asked for a update on my recording machinery and I didn’t even get an answer could you tell me why
Can’t wait to leave.
They downgraded my service mid contract last month without asking us or informing us until it was done.
Customer services had been unsurprisingly horrible to deal with.
Spent 2 hours on the phone last week trying to get this resolved only to be hung up on.
2 agents could not help and passed me around departments. Could not tell me why it had been done. First guy was beyond belief that it happened.
I waved bye bye to the Virgin Media perpetual price hike clown show last September after years of playing their contract renegotiation game. I’m lucky to live in an area that never had major issues with their service but their customer contempt knows no bounds.
Im with virgin m350 for 41 pound a month as thats a 18 month contract price but standard price for m350 is £56 which is a rip off and now 5g is here virgin is no longer the best option
So I am paying for 350meg broadband , for the last year I have been getting 10 to 20 meg evey day, plus loads of complete shut downs of services , I do know whats been happening with covid but I think we should have money refunded.
Can’t even watch a 4k film without it just downgrading to 420p or 720p.
Nobody ever gets back to us about the crap service.
Now a price hike, I was told by virgin that no matter what happens my price will not go up. Not happy, been with them for years and always suffered rubbish services but have no other fibre to go with.
TERRIBLE.
Go 5g darren pal if its in your postcode and if you pass credit check if your credit rating shit like mine
Have you received confirmation you’re impacted by their increase? And if you’re getting shit speeds phone them lmfao
We will be ringing to cancel
There was a time I would have recommended virgin media. I’m sure there are plenty of lucky people who have not had the misfortune to need customer service. As a long time customer id say the level has determined very noticeably from adequate or mediocre to absolutely disgusting. I’ve tried to resolve an issue for 4 months now. Thats hours on hold and repeated disconnections only to be told rubbish or given platitudes of “itll be sorted by next week”. There is a serious problem at virgin at a senior management or organisational level. Most call handlers are fine but they just cannot resolve or action anything. Escalations and complaints are simply ignored. I will not recommend whilst it remains so dysfunctional for customer services and support.
If you are a long-standing customer (decades) it seems that the level of dissatisfaction and frustration rises in relation to your commitment to their sub-standard, unreliable, over-priced services! I can fully relate to much of what has been expressed! If a better supplier is out there (and there must be!) Common sense dictates waving goodbye to this increasingly toxic company! Could do better, Virgin!
Rip off need 2 improve service first
What’s wrong???
So Virgin are happy to just hike my bill, while at the same time refusing to take more money by giving me 500Mb as part of my non-Oomph bundle…
M500 Broadband is now available without Ultimate Oomph bundle, its standard price is £62 a month but you will no doubt get it cheaper than that, is Gig1 available yet?
They won’t sell me it. I even made a complaint. You can either have it standalone, or with an Oomph bundle, but you can’t have it with any other bundle even though their website allows you to configure it. In response to my complaint they slashed my 350Mb/Mixit + V6 Box/Phone bundle to £47 a month.
Gig1 isn’t available here yet
If mine goes up you will be going
My bill went up last year to £87
Now £107
Get on the phone.
We all need good internet speeds as well as good customer relationship…but this money making virgin media is a bloody joke ….I started off £35..a month .
It then went to £57 then £79 then £95…in a space of 2 years…I told them to come get thier stuff and change broadband supplier…I would never go back to them robbing thieving bastards..
Micheal – Sounds like you was on a bundle package with varying end times for various discounts.
Going up AGAIN, ABYSNAL SERVICE, overpriced we already pay £140 plus sometimes, regular very poor Internet loads of break downs. Biggest con easy money going, paying lots for rubbish, not far off a scam. All suppliers are ripping us off DISGUSTED.
140 pounds lol get yourself a vpn provider and iptv provider with amazon firestick jesus and join 5G broadband
All this is less than 40 a month
I pay 13 pounds for 5g broadband
8 pounds a month for iptv
Nordvpn 2 year sub for 67 pounds
Netflix 11.99 pounds
Hi Dennis, Retentions may be the place to look for a new offer on services, I’m guessing you have quite the bundle of services and channels, also try over on the virgin community forums for help with any issues.
Or just go outside and bang your head on the wall – that has the same effect as posting on the VM “community” forums!
Hi just read that the prices are goin up .I was told from virgin that they couldn’t lower my monthly bill so now I’m paying £38.00 mth . As I was looking at the price range theres one stream that’s goin up to £27.99 and hyprtoptic which is £22.00. So why did virgin say that they couldn’t lower there prices . I have the phone which I dont use and broadband
Hi Julie, did you go through to billing or did you select options to say your leaving.
If you call back on 150 or 0345 454 1111 and select options for leaving or moving (option 4 I believe) then continue as if your going to leave and you should get the UK based retentions who will be able to give you a better offer in exchange for a new contract,
If your out of contract currently and your not using the phone line then mention this and they may be able to offer you a better offer with or without it.
Good Luck.
Can’t wait to get the letter so I can cancel without termination fees. Joined in April 2020 and regretted it ever since. Problems at start with land line number and left to get it fixed myself. Given a contact number to resolve it and £12 in charges added to first bill for contacting the number they gave. I think their router must be knocked out in China at £1 a time it is so rubbish. When you cannot use the broadband they give you a link to contact them on the OUT OF SERVICE BROADBAND. Cannot wait to move.
“Problems at start with land line number and left to get it fixed myself.”
But that’s a breach of contract – VM are not allowed to do that – because who would you call to fix it? It’s their network and equipment and no one else is legally allowed to touch it – sorry but I think that’s made up.
I don’t like VM but even I can’t see how they would allow that.
Mugs plenty mugs already move away hit them hard been with virgin media for 10 years always been ripped off they love to offer your excellent prices for 12 months after that your bills double up…..
For example 2019 was offered 350 meg for 30 pounds for 6 months with phone line after six months has passed bill went to 42 pounds for 3 months last 3 months 52 pounds not even touched or made any phone calls.
Ditched virgin media now with 3 5G for 13 pounds a month people need to vote with their wallets BT and virgin are the most overpriced money grabbing company….
Till this day they still continue phoning my mobile offering broadband packages told them offer me 200meg for 15 pounds 12 months no price increase they said no way..
Getting 500 meg download and 160 meg upload with 3 broadband
People don’t need to vote with their feet, many don’t have the choice of doing so anyway (I will explain shortly)
People need to make sure they are getting on the phones and demanding better offers, really tying up their call centres and making it a problem for Virgin to keep up the price gouging.
The problem ‘I have’ with Virgin’s price increases ‘in the 11 years I’ve been a customer and managed up to 7 accounts concurrently is, they have no consistent pattern,
I’ve seen one account get an increase of £2.50 per month and another get £4.25 increase, both accounts where in contract with solus 50Mb Broadband Only services both taken at the same time on the same offer.
When I asked for an explanation I simply got “I don’t know why, but its normal”
In all cases though, across all accounts I’ve negotiated contracts, I’ve always come away from every call with retentions with a better deal than before, and I guess that is why the price increases are always so steep (make up for the losses from last time)
…Going back to my first point about voting with feet…
Many areas that have a dense Virgin Media uptake (monopoly) like areas local to me and where I’ve grown up are limited by multiple issues,
1. Long distance lines to exchange (below 2mbps) and no FTTC rollout
2. Where FTTC has rolled out, lines are of bad quality or long so not many achieve above 60mbps.
3. Poor/Very Poor Mobile coverage (specially 4G and 5G although starting to rollout is still limited to the mast locations so worse or not available compared to 4G)
4. FTTP has been rolled out for one exchange area local to me but as for now is limited to Overhead lines and new builds only leaving majority of properties unable to get access. (These properties being the furthest from the exchange and 4/5G infrastructure)
So with majority of existing customer having broadband service of at least 100mbps it will be surely noticed if they where to suddenly drop to sub 10mbps service and most these households being families.
“customers who are already on one of our new bundles (as of 29 June last year) will not receive a cable price increase.” This is FAKE news
I have a contract with Virgin entered into in September 2021 for 18-months and they have just decided to increase my charge by £3.50 per month. So much for a contract where the price is in bold reversed out which was supposed to be for 18-months. Call handlers do not tell the truth.
People don’t need to vote with their feet, many don’t have the choice of doing so anyway (I will explain shortly)
People need to make sure they are getting on the phones and demanding better offers, really tying up their call centres and making it a problem for Virgin to keep up the price gouging.
The problem ‘I have’ with Virgin’s price increases ‘in the 11 years I’ve been a customer and managed up to 7 accounts concurrently is, they have no consistent pattern,
I’ve seen one account get an increase of £2.50 per month and another get £4.25 increase, both accounts where in contract with solus 50Mb Broadband Only services both taken at the same time on the same offer.
When I asked for an explanation I simply got “I don’t know why, but its normal”
In all cases though, across all accounts I’ve negotiated contracts, I’ve always come away from every call with retentions with a better deal than before, and I guess that is why the price increases are always so steep (make up for the losses from last time)
…Going back to my first point about voting with feet…
Many areas that have a dense Virgin Media uptake (monopoly) like areas local to me and where I’ve grown up are limited by multiple issues,
1. Long distance lines to exchange (below 2mbps) and no FTTC rollout
2. Where FTTC has rolled out, lines are of bad quality or long so not many achieve above 60mbps.
3. Poor/Very Poor Mobile coverage (specially 4G and 5G although starting to rollout is still limited to the mast locations so worse or not available compared to 4G)
4. FTTP has been rolled out for one exchange area local to me but as for now is limited to Overhead lines and new builds only leaving majority of properties unable to get access. (These properties being the furthest from the exchange and 4/5G infrastructure)
So with majority of existing customer having broadband service of at least 100mbps it will be surely noticed if they where to suddenly drop to sub 10mbps service and most these households being families.
Didn’t expect them to actually do what they said Charles. Exactly the same thing happened to me a few years ago. I rang them to confirm and was told that I would not get any price increase as I was still in contract, following month saw the price increase on my bill. (All of it was not helped by over 10 long standing discounts on my account all with different end dates expiring during my contract apparently.)
I spent 6 months trying to sort it out with them, even speaking to head office directly, then the following month, same again. In the end I left because it got to the point where they’d just take whatever they wanted each month.
@Charles. It specifically said Bundle, not contract. If you took Mixit, Mix or Maxit, 50/100/200+ broadband tiers or landline then you are fine. The issue is that you most likely weren’t put in their new bundles but just recontracted on the old which means you are subject to the change.
I’m happy to invest in the service but not blindly.
Out of the 7 accounts I managed over the years I now only manage my own and 2 others with Virgin Media,
I moved 5 away from Virgin to alternative services as suitable and added two to Virgin Media over the past year.
Having used and abused all manner of connectivity options over the years (Virgin, FTTC, FTTP and 4G) I can honestly say that when operating correctly a Virgin Media cable connection operates about the same performance as the FTTP service I sampled with IDnet last year.
I’m therefore not biased against using the company for any other reason than cost and availability, however why the constant variables from one customer to the next.
I feel like the dishing out of massive discounts to some and gouging the prices of others needs to stop and the playing field levelled so everybody receives equal pricing and equal price rises ‘as required’ and gets a fair loyalty discount or deal when it comes to it.
the price of a customer not re-contracting shouldn’t be more than a standard set price for their service.
The introduction of a price increase cap needs to be set too and the price increase needs to be set again a product and not the bundle/offer/contract,
TV increase £1.00 means everyone with TV pay extra £1
Broadband increase £2.50 means everyone Broadband pays an extra £2.50
Maybe I’m jumping the gun this time round and they will actually follow the above but I’ve a feeling there will be unfair price gouging going on like normal.
most comments I’ve ever seen – this makes it 110!
I received an email stating that my broadband would go up I only took the contract for 18 months on Mon 4th Jan phoned up the person spoke to said nothing could do about it. It would go up I stated that it says on there Web sight if in a promotional offer will not go up till offer ends he said just spoke to my colleague. Where i only to it out on 4th will not go up I will be watching my bills as have had that said b4 took months to sort it out. I had to phone over and over got there in end. I only have it for my disabled son to play on his games console
Seriously not impressed, just had an email from them today. A 12.16% increase, that’s roughly 40 times the rate of inflation!
How is it that the rise in prices is 4%? VM is being unfair to the lower users because 3.50 announced the other day represents 14% rise and they are in the habit usually of doing this twice per year so 28%. How do you arrive at “average 4%”?
If you guys speak to Virgin the way you write here (immensely poor grammar and dreadful spelling), VM probably don’t understand what your issue is.
I agree Virgin internet has been unreliable recently. But for some the alternative is slow Openreach 40/10 connection due to distance.
As for the price..there is no reward for being loyal. Only language Virgin understand is when you serve 30 days notice after your contract/promotion period ends. Wait patiently for a callback from retention team. This team can give better deals than new customer offer.
My M100 would have increased from £25 to £49 if i did not give 30 days notice. A nice call back and was offered £16 for next £18 monnths…can’t complaint even with the occasional cutoff.
I think when there is a price increase it wont be 4% based on £18 but the original £49 but still way better Openreach 40/10 deals.
Don’t haggle just quit vm. 0800 952 2277
i joined vm in october 2020,just basic wifi package of £29.99 pm.last monday we included the lfc channel at £7.93.this months bill of £29.99 is due tomorrow then the next is 15th feb at a cost of £44.92..which includes the £7.93.it says new monthly bundle is £36.99.what i want to know if anyone can give me a clue is the 36.99 our monthly cost then have to add on the 7.93 or is the 36.99 the total..i have tried on numerous times to contact them by email but it comes straight back saying their in box is full this has been like this since before xmas.ive tried logging into my account and it says ye im there but password is wrong and out of date.i wish i never bothered,cant even find a phone number.or the correct one is it the 0800 number or 03454541111
My contract started on 5th October but I’ve had a price rise
HELP PLEASE – Has any got a copy of the Virgin Media letter informing them the about this recent price increase? I had one a few months ago but I read that the price increase would not be effect those customers until their promotion dates expired. I had 12+ months left on my promotion – so thought I wouldn’t be subject to this increase.
I’ve now noticed my new bill has that price increase – but have lost my letter.
I would be grateful if anyone could confirm the wording on that letter.
Thank you.