Virgin prices rises

I've just had my price increase email from VM, was shocked to see that I've been hit with a 12.16% price increase, roughly 40 times the rate of inflation.

Having seen the news item on ISP Review I knew an increase was on the way, but was not overly bothered as the average increase was 4%, with rises ranging between £2.50 and £4.50 per month.

Well it seems they hit me with the £4.50 rise, but I was on a very good deal for M350.

Anyway it seems my monthly discount expires in March as well, so I'll be hit with another huge rise then.

So I can look forward to the battle of dealing with VM customer services again, but in the mean time I'm going to look into my only other option for decent broadband, and that's 4G.

FTTP is being rolled out in our area, but because our estate is DIG (direct in ground) it will likely be left until towards the end of the roll out for our area, so is going to be some time away before that option arrives.

Mine is going up circa 10% for M100 & telephone line.

In reply to a post by Brunel:

Mine is going up circa 10% for M100 & telephone line.

Mine is going up by 7.4% for M200 without phone or TV. I only just finished a 12 month discount at the start of Jan.

Shame I can't get City Fibre, I'd switch to Zen's 900/900 service for £40 tomorrow, it'd be cheaper than my current package after the price increase, far superior speeds, and I'm absolutely sure the support would be better.

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

Shame I can't get City Fibre, I'd switch to Zen's 900/900 service for £40 tomorrow, it'd be cheaper than my current package after the price increase, far superior speeds, and I'm absolutely sure the support would be better.

I'd be happy with Openreach FTTP to be honest. I suspect neither of those for a long time given we have Virgin Media coax.

I called to cancel, auto voice offered me a 6mth discount of £3.50.

Waited for a human to answer, a long wait.

Eventually spoke to a lady who stated that the system is not showing any discounts.

So I told her to cancel the contract, which she duly did.

Three days later was contacted by phone and was offered an 18 Mth. contract, at a lower price than I am now paying.

Offer accepted. If they increase it, I will cancel as previous.

Thanks, do you have phone and TV as well?

I only have broadband, and they usually seem a lot more reluctant to discount that, there's obviously not so much margins in it.

I'm just working on a back up solution before I threaten to leave, just in case I have to go through with it.

I only have M100 plus VM Voip line. No TV,

Interesting, thanks.

This hassle over cost is the reason I left Virgin some time ago. The service was fine, technically, but I really dislike their pricing strategy. It seems that they don't have any standard prices and simply charge whatever each customer will bear without complaining too much, They will always at least match their current new-customer offer but often only after giving notice to leave. It just became too much hassle.