What annoyed me is how badly written the letter is. It just says £4.50 increase but then talks of how that wont show fully straight away "if" you have linesaver etc deals... i.e their system is so confused they cant even break down their price increase to specifically say what goes up and when.
The way it is written in not being able or wanting to show what tariff you are on, what it will become (which is likely what the price increase figure is based on) and then what you actually pay now and how that will actually change (allowing for the savers etc that have been paid upfront) smacks of VERY SHADY MARKETING with something to hide rather than honest open dialogue with their customers.
Actually it is rather stupid marketing.
In our case we have line saver already paid for 6 more months - so - assuming this is NOT included in the headline figure that they have made prominent in the letter - then they are emphasising to us a 10% price rise that may well not actually be 10% for another few months.
Had they said, your current bill is £47 pm and will rise from 1 February to (say) £49.99 as you have paid line rental in advance. Then in June it will rise to £51. 69. Though, of course, you can keep it at £49.99 if you pay line rental in advance once again.
That actually sounds way more reasonable than a bald letter 24 hours after we have just seen our payments rise by £20 pm stating in 6 weeks they will go up by another £4.69.
Many will miss the later reference suggesting that it might not be that much of an increase, or even if they do see it, have no way of knowing how much less it will really go up - or - indeed - if the figure they make prominent in the letter includes or does not include the sum you might have already paid.
I guess they basically cannot be bothered sending individual breakdowns to people. But as a consequence they may well lose customers needlessly by creating a false impression of how much the actual price rise will be.
So in my view less Shady and more sloppy and potentially to them costly. Unless they hope you will ring them up, they then do calculations and pretend to be giving you a new deal by citing a lower increase that you would have been getting anyway had they included the figures - or you had a maths degree.
Incensed with the letter of a £4.50 increase (5%) today, I have finally jumped from Virgin to Sky for TV and Sky Sports. I'm still with Virgin for broadband.
Gormagon, this is really for you ref your posts yesterday.
I just spoke to Virgin about the rise in the same friendly way you did. They said that the rise was for ALL customers and there were no exceptions if you are a new customer still under contract. So I hope you were not given the wrong impression.
I asked them to confirm the exact situation with our bill as it was confusing with the reference to a £4.69 increase then mention of it maybe not being that much.
He agreed it was in fact only a rise of £3.69 (to £50.69) because £1 pm was covered by the already paid in advance line rental sum. Still a big increase, of course. Though not 10% right away.
His advice was to cut down on our phone package - which is a reasonable option. He also would not extend the right to cancel beyond 31 January. I told him it was this conflict (ie you would not know your real increase until after 1 Feb yet you have to cancel before then) that made me call and ask for clarification of the actual rise.
He added I could ring retentions if I wanted to discuss altering the package.
Overall I was quite happy with this handling of the call. No wait. And it was free. And they answered my questions fully and reasonably.
I have had Sky for years and rarely had anything like this kind of an easy call to them!
I've got 50mb bb, xl tv and xxl phone, was paying just under £70 a month, which was going up to £75 with the increase. Phoned Retentions and have now got 100mb bb, xl tv downgraded to just the xl phone and free Netflix for 6 months for £64 a month. Also got a £30 discount off my next bill. Quite happy with that, didn't really want to leave.
I wonder if they will be using the extra money to invest in boxsets? Because they might have "had" the best delivery system for on demand content but the current selling trend is what is actually being offered. BT & SKY are both pushing box sets as a reason to buy their service and looking through VM XL on demand the offerings are absolute tosh.
I wonder if they will be using the extra money to invest in boxsets? Because they might have "had" the best delivery system for on demand content but the current selling trend is what is actually being offered. BT & SKY are both pushing box sets as a reason to buy their service and looking through VM XL on demand the offerings are absolute tosh.
Sky's on demand and box sets has expanded greatly of late and is certainly better than Virgin's. Virgin need to beware of getting left behind I agree.
Makes me laugh when I read things like this people moaning over something from as little as £4.00 -£6.00 increase per month come on how much money do people waste over a month on impulse buying and not think twice about it ? Yet for things like virgin, sky, bt etc things that people want and need expect no increases ?
Do people really expect a decrease in price or the price to stay the same come on thats not going to happen is it, and why does it come as a suprise to some people that the costs are going up slightly other companies do it virgin are no different to any where else.
Makes me laugh when I read things like this people moaning over something from as little as £4.00 -£6.00 increase per month come on how much money do people waste over a month on impulse buying and not think twice about it ? Yet for things like virgin, sky, bt etc things that people want and need expect no increases ?
.
if everything you bought went up by 10% a year you would soon complain....
the question then is if the rate of inflation in the uk is about 1.3% how virgin can have costs that increased 9x as much as "everyone" else had their costs rise by.
-especially as the content is largely repeated stuff too!
Only just got my letter, £5.89 increase (VIP package).
Made me laugh (in an ironic kind of way) only a few days ago got an e-mail offering me a 'free' BB speed upgrade if I requested it, which I did, not having seen this thread. Not sure if that committed me to a new contract, need to check the small print.
if everything you bought went up by 10% a year you would soon complain....
the question then is if the rate of inflation in the uk is about 1.3%
According to the Govt ...
You check your weekly regular shopping bill; there's quite a few items creeping up in price week by week; either actual cash increases or weight decreases. Real inflation - the sort that affects our pockets - is much higher than 1.3%, and some foods have increased by about 10% over the last year or so.
Food prices are falling now largely due to increased competition in the marketplace, something this media industry could do with a good dose of, if you ask me.😳
They don't need to put the price up every single year.I wouldn't half mind if we had any decent new channels recently but we haven't.
To be fair, where else would they get the money for investing in the broadband network, etc. They're hardly going to say "oh we don't need to make as much money this year" are they?
I'm not sure anyone realises this but in accepting the pay hike you are accepting a NEW Virgin contract of 12 months.
I phoned Virgin today as I was told the above by a friend and I told her she was being daft. She told me to look at my price rise email and quote the part about the time of cancellation to Virgin Media's help centre.
So I did just that quoting this bit in particular - We really hope you want to continue enjoying all the great value entertainment you get from us. But if you wish to, you can cancel your contract any time before 31 January 2015 without paying any cancellation fees.
I called Virgin who told me that yes I could cancel my entire contract before the end of January, but if didn't then indeed a NEW 12 month contract would start from that date.
Where does it say that in the small print of your price rise emails??? It certainly doesn't say that in mine?
I'm not sure anyone realises this but in accepting the pay hike you are accepting a NEW Virgin contract of 12 months.
I phoned Virgin today as I was told the above by a friend and I told her she was being daft. She told me to look at my price rise email and quote the part about the time of cancellation to Virgin Media's help centre.
So I did just that quoting this bit in particular - We really hope you want to continue enjoying all the great value entertainment you get from us. But if you wish to, you can cancel your contract any time before 31 January 2015 without paying any cancellation fees.
I called Virgin who told me that yes I could cancel my entire contract before the end of January, but if didn't then indeed a NEW 12 month contract would start from that date.
Where does it say that in the small print of your price rise emails??? It certainly doesn't say that in mine?
Completely wrong. No new contract with the new prices. Still 30 day rolling contract.
Of course if you do a deal with Retentions then you do have a new contract.
Does anyone know if the option to cancel is only applicable for the whole of your package, or can you cancel individual services?
For example, I am 13 months into an 18 month contract and have TV, BB, and Phone. Could I cancel the TV and phone but keep the BB?
Thanks.
Cancellation would be for all services as you have contracted for a bundle of services but your cancellation is effected through Retentions and you can negotiate with them for a BB only service. It will, however, re-contract you for, at least, a further 12 months.
Totally fed up with the relentless price increases and decided to stop moaning and do something about it.
Phoned to terminate my services and was offered a laughable retention deal of nearly £74 which is more than I am currently paying. The only real difference was a higher broadband speed (100mb which I don't need) but what's that all about!
My current package is XL TV / XL PHONE (with talk unlimited and free 08 Nos and 30mb BB. I only have one V+ HD box (Not Tivo despite the repeated asking) and an older router. I am paying £64.60 per month which includes an £8 per month loyalty discount. I don't think this is a particularly great deal but I'd appreciate some thoughts.
I've now formally cancelled my services and I will go through with it if I have to, but on the off chance that they might contact me to try and change my mind, what do you reckon would be a fair price for what I have got?
Totally fed up with the relentless price increases and decided to stop moaning and do something about it.
Phoned to terminate my services and was offered a laughable retention deal of nearly £74 which is more than I am currently paying. The only real difference was a higher broadband speed (100mb which I don't need) but what's that all about!
My current package is XL TV / XL PHONE (with talk unlimited and free 08 Nos and 30mb BB. I only have one V+ HD box (Not Tivo despite the repeated asking) and an older router. I am paying £64.60 per month which includes an £8 per month loyalty discount. I don't think this is a particularly great deal but I'd appreciate some thoughts.
I've now formally cancelled my services and I will go through with it if I have to, but on the off chance that they might contact me to try and change my mind, what do you reckon would be a fair price for what I have got?
Come to Sky. I cancelled VM last Friday and Sky installed TV on Monday. Everything about it is better. The quality of the picture is better than VM ever was, the box is miles faster than the yawningly slow Tivo. Lots more channels, Sky Atlantic....
Got my letter in of something like 4.05 increase. I have tv only on xl. It was 39, so taking me well into 40s.
After the xmas period im weighing up my options as it's becoming a lot of money.
Comments
Actually it is rather stupid marketing.
In our case we have line saver already paid for 6 more months - so - assuming this is NOT included in the headline figure that they have made prominent in the letter - then they are emphasising to us a 10% price rise that may well not actually be 10% for another few months.
Had they said, your current bill is £47 pm and will rise from 1 February to (say) £49.99 as you have paid line rental in advance. Then in June it will rise to £51. 69. Though, of course, you can keep it at £49.99 if you pay line rental in advance once again.
That actually sounds way more reasonable than a bald letter 24 hours after we have just seen our payments rise by £20 pm stating in 6 weeks they will go up by another £4.69.
Many will miss the later reference suggesting that it might not be that much of an increase, or even if they do see it, have no way of knowing how much less it will really go up - or - indeed - if the figure they make prominent in the letter includes or does not include the sum you might have already paid.
I guess they basically cannot be bothered sending individual breakdowns to people. But as a consequence they may well lose customers needlessly by creating a false impression of how much the actual price rise will be.
So in my view less Shady and more sloppy and potentially to them costly. Unless they hope you will ring them up, they then do calculations and pretend to be giving you a new deal by citing a lower increase that you would have been getting anyway had they included the figures - or you had a maths degree.
I hope you saw this link before you switched! http://www.sky.com/shop/offers/switch-to-sky/
I just spoke to Virgin about the rise in the same friendly way you did. They said that the rise was for ALL customers and there were no exceptions if you are a new customer still under contract. So I hope you were not given the wrong impression.
I asked them to confirm the exact situation with our bill as it was confusing with the reference to a £4.69 increase then mention of it maybe not being that much.
He agreed it was in fact only a rise of £3.69 (to £50.69) because £1 pm was covered by the already paid in advance line rental sum. Still a big increase, of course. Though not 10% right away.
His advice was to cut down on our phone package - which is a reasonable option. He also would not extend the right to cancel beyond 31 January. I told him it was this conflict (ie you would not know your real increase until after 1 Feb yet you have to cancel before then) that made me call and ask for clarification of the actual rise.
He added I could ring retentions if I wanted to discuss altering the package.
Overall I was quite happy with this handling of the call. No wait. And it was free. And they answered my questions fully and reasonably.
I have had Sky for years and rarely had anything like this kind of an easy call to them!
Sky's on demand and box sets has expanded greatly of late and is certainly better than Virgin's. Virgin need to beware of getting left behind I agree.
Do people really expect a decrease in price or the price to stay the same come on thats not going to happen is it, and why does it come as a suprise to some people that the costs are going up slightly other companies do it virgin are no different to any where else.
if everything you bought went up by 10% a year you would soon complain....
the question then is if the rate of inflation in the uk is about 1.3% how virgin can have costs that increased 9x as much as "everyone" else had their costs rise by.
-especially as the content is largely repeated stuff too!
Made me laugh (in an ironic kind of way) only a few days ago got an e-mail offering me a 'free' BB speed upgrade if I requested it, which I did, not having seen this thread. Not sure if that committed me to a new contract, need to check the small print.
According to the Govt ...
You check your weekly regular shopping bill; there's quite a few items creeping up in price week by week; either actual cash increases or weight decreases. Real inflation - the sort that affects our pockets - is much higher than 1.3%, and some foods have increased by about 10% over the last year or so.
Which VM has ZERO control over.
I phoned Virgin today as I was told the above by a friend and I told her she was being daft. She told me to look at my price rise email and quote the part about the time of cancellation to Virgin Media's help centre.
So I did just that quoting this bit in particular - We really hope you want to continue enjoying all the great value entertainment you get from us. But if you wish to, you can cancel your contract any time before 31 January 2015 without paying any cancellation fees.
I called Virgin who told me that yes I could cancel my entire contract before the end of January, but if didn't then indeed a NEW 12 month contract would start from that date.
Where does it say that in the small print of your price rise emails??? It certainly doesn't say that in mine?
Completely wrong. No new contract with the new prices. Still 30 day rolling contract.
Of course if you do a deal with Retentions then you do have a new contract.
For example, I am 13 months into an 18 month contract and have TV, BB, and Phone. Could I cancel the TV and phone but keep the BB?
Thanks.
Cancellation would be for all services as you have contracted for a bundle of services but your cancellation is effected through Retentions and you can negotiate with them for a BB only service. It will, however, re-contract you for, at least, a further 12 months.
Phoned to terminate my services and was offered a laughable retention deal of nearly £74 which is more than I am currently paying. The only real difference was a higher broadband speed (100mb which I don't need) but what's that all about!
My current package is XL TV / XL PHONE (with talk unlimited and free 08 Nos and 30mb BB. I only have one V+ HD box (Not Tivo despite the repeated asking) and an older router. I am paying £64.60 per month which includes an £8 per month loyalty discount. I don't think this is a particularly great deal but I'd appreciate some thoughts.
I've now formally cancelled my services and I will go through with it if I have to, but on the off chance that they might contact me to try and change my mind, what do you reckon would be a fair price for what I have got?
Come to Sky. I cancelled VM last Friday and Sky installed TV on Monday. Everything about it is better. The quality of the picture is better than VM ever was, the box is miles faster than the yawningly slow Tivo. Lots more channels, Sky Atlantic....
With much frequency.
After the xmas period im weighing up my options as it's becoming a lot of money.