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30meg upgrade starts 1st Feb!!
[Deleted User]
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Hi guys
i rang retentions today, wanted to upgrade from 10 to 20 meg, the lady on the phone told me the new 30 meg starts tomorrow and took my number and will call me back as the new code that they out on the system in valid from 8am 1st Feb, she said I had to pay a £30 connection fee.!
i rang retentions today, wanted to upgrade from 10 to 20 meg, the lady on the phone told me the new 30 meg starts tomorrow and took my number and will call me back as the new code that they out on the system in valid from 8am 1st Feb, she said I had to pay a £30 connection fee.!
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what drugs are virgin staff on?????
I am on a 10mb service and pay £25.25 a month, minus £7.00 loyalty discount, the virgin website says the 30mb without phone is £28.50 a month without phone (£23.50 for 3 month), yet after speaking to the drug crazed staff they want to charge me £38.50 a month for the 30mb and not the £28.50 as stated on the website.
So does anyone that work for virgin visit this thread and explain this one?????
I can't understand their pricing structure. I thought one price would fit all (except introductory offers and no phone line of course) but this does not seem to be the case.
The website quotes that XL (30Mb) broadband is £18.50 with a Virgin phone line (note: blimey the price has gone down since the last time I looked a few days ago!)
However on our triple play package we are showing as being charged £37.00 a month with some discount to knock this down some, however I am still not convinced we were paying the quoted price on the website of £20 per month with virgin phone line for 20Mb before the decrease.
Rather than have this stupid "discount" rubbish why don't they just simply show the true cost on the bill? Rather than allowing each person to spend a while working out how much it costs them each month.
You don't need to work out a componentised price because your ultimate price is not componentised. Look at the overall price shown as the service charge total. That's all that matters.
The website shows the standard price which is applicable to all.
Older customers are likely to be on the standard price in effect at the time that they joined or upgraded if they have not spoken to VM with regard to getting the standard price. VM will only give you the current website standard price if you ask for it, it is not automatic.
Customers who have spoken to VM have either
a) asked for, and been granted the standard price
or
b) been given a loyalty discount to keep them as a customer (when they say that they are thinking of leaving) which might have taken their cost below that of the standard price
Customers can only take advantage of the 30meg upgrade if they are on the standard price - so those on loyalty discounts might find that they have to move to standard pricing (with maybe a small increase in charge).
So it seems that the loyalty discounts (the discounts applied as a result of threatening to leave) could be the things that are giving the wide variation in actual quoted upgrade costs
Either some confusion between staff on a product that came out today only or that price includes some other service you're taking that you've not mentioned.
The last time I looked at a bill (a couple of months ago) we were paying around £62 a month or XL Broadband, TV, Line rental. and Talk Unlimited. On the website the bundle now shows as "£26.06 a month for six months (new customers) then £47.56 a month thereafter"
If we are still being charged £62 a month when I look at this months bill I won't be best pleased.
It doesn't matter when you joined (after the introductory period of course) as their systems sould be able to automatically adjust the price without the need to contact Virgin at every opportunity.
Blimey when I worked for NTL many years ago they were using two antiquated DOS systems, one for telephone billing and another for analogue CATV and Broadband, with a third newer package (for the year 2000) for Digital TV. I understand since i left 8 years ago they have upgraded the system merging all three former systems to one new system, However it seems this newer system is still unable to get the pricing right or done automatically without customer intervention. :mad:
Surely as goodwill if you have been overcharged they should upgrade you for free (or at the very least a reduced cost by the overpayment amount) onto the new 30Mb service with billing rectified going forward.
It's not a case of being overcharged, you are paying the agreed price (which might or might not be the standard price at the time). It's not right, and I would of course prefer to see automatic repricing, for all customers regardless, but that's the situation that we face.
Is it not against the law to overcharge on an advertised price? Especialy if the 12 month ainitial agreement has ended. Surely they could get sued for such actions?
All that I will say above and beyond that late edit is that this is the situation as I see it, and that it might explain some of the odd discounts and pricing that some here have quoted.
Their rentions department could see their workload reduced overnight if they started automatically repricing products rather than allow customer to get fed up with being overcharged then threaten to quit only to be offered a new deal to stay. The cost in terms of manpower and revenue base for customer who decide to leave must be huge.
As they say it is cheaper to retain existing customers rather than recruit new ones.
No, it was just the BB I am on and was asking about.
I dont need phone, tv or mobile.
You would think the prices would be made out in simplest possible mode, to pay an extra £10 on top of price listed is not acceptable, all I asked them was what is the cheapest possible price they could give me.
BTW it was customer relations dept i spoke to.
I believe the phone service is the most profitable part of the VM services, hence the reson why they try to get you to take a phone line with Broadband. Call data is relatively cheap to transport as it is usually Kb/s data rates as opposed to Mb/s rates of Broadband.
Byt they insisted that the £38 was broadband only, they did try to sell me phone but i dont want it and told them that. She kept saying if I take phone price would only be £23.00
so either they know nothing about prices or just trying to fiddle me.
I have no other services on my account.
If you are paying £38 a month just for broadband then ironically you could be paying slightly less than that with a phoneline.
The website states:
http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/up-to-30mb.html
Or without a Virgin Phone line
£23.50 a month
for 3 months
then £28.50 a month*
So how come you are paying around £10 a month over the odds? Even with a phone line it would be around £31.50.
I do think Virgin offer a superb broadband service, the only thing thaty lets it down is the inconsistant pricing, escpecially those like myself and others who have been their bread and butter for a large number of years.
Standalone XL broadband had been £30/month for a couple of years now. XL + line rental was £32. Sounds like you've been overcharged.
@Markjuk - the price they are charging you is different to the currently advertised price but it is the price they agreed with you. You don't automatically change unless you re-agree a price with them.
Take the mobile phone world: often a tariff will be offered with a brand new handset. You take it out then 3 months later, it's much cheaper to get the same handset and minutes/texts/data than before yet you will carry on paying your originally agreed price. Also sometimes firms discontinue tariffs etc but can't move you to a new one without your consent e.g. VM still has customers on BB:M. They can give a higher speed but can't really charge as much for it as BB:L though they would like all of those customers on BB:L.
It's like people on US AT&T's unlimited data plans sticking with them so they don't lose it (similar with T-Mobile's Flext plans). In the same way they don't move you, you don't get their new prices until you try. This also lets people who don't pay attention to such things keep paying more for less.
Well after seeing on the website that we are paying £62 a month for a package advertised as £48.50 we will certaily be getting onto Virgin to save some money, and possibly upgrade the broadband with some of the saving made.
Saying that though, the same could be said with gas and electric companies. You take out a service with them, tariffs may vary depending how long you have been with them, however prices do go up and down.
With Virgin, they are quick enough to increase the price (without you having to call them) but not lower it.
http://shop.virginmedia.com/bundles/tv-broadband-and-phone/phxl-tvxl-bbxl.html
XL Phone, Broadband and TV for £26.06 a month
for 6 months, then £47.56 a month.
Yet when I get the same package up in "create your own bundle" the price is over £60! Are they trying to seriously confuse (and rip off) people?
I'm on BBXL, Phone XL and took the M TV a few years back (which has only been switched on once - in a spare room) as it enabled them to give me a reasonable deal at the time. (BB XL still shows as £37) less the discount.
With the new structure I am now paying more than new customers will be (that's after the initial cheap few months) and only receiving 20meg broadband to their 30meg.
I've tried to talk to Virgin, about the fact that I'm paying more and was told that it will be a fee for the superhub (ok I accept that, sort of accept, given you don't own it!) but as I already have a much higher spec router so wouldn't use it as such, just a modem... anyway, I was basically told that the only way I can go onto the correct pricing for my package would be to pay the £30, get the superhub and go onto a new 12mth contract.
I can't even get them to take the TV off me as that would lose the discount, putting the price right up... They even had the audacity to say I'm already getting it cheap... and bearing in mind that the new BBXL and phone XL is slightly less now than I'm currently paying I'm not a too happy bunny!