Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Fed up with Virgin price hikes
Year on year, my Virgin Media services go up by at least 10% - this year was a double whammy as I'd negotiated a £5/month discount which expired in November, so it's gone up over £10 a month. I've rung and tried to talk them down, but the best they can offer me is to switch to a much more basic package which would see me paying virtually the same as before for significantly less.
Because there seems to be no competition for VM in the cable market (why not?) my only other option would be to switch to BT or similar. I'm wondering how much hassle this might be (VM services have been pretty reliable for me over the years) and what I stand to lose in terms of broadband speed/quality and access to TV channels etc. The phone I barely use, though I like to have an incoming line and in any case it seems to work out cheaper to have all three.
I'd value your suggestions.
Tags for Forum Posts: virgin media
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by 0l7ft44vlytse on
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Don't know what speed you have now but I've always had perfect service with BT and Sky, a few years back when I had Virgin the speed was always variable and the price hikes reliable. My line speed is 52Mb down and about 8 or 9 up. I don't use a landline so don't plug one in.
When I first joined BT I took their basic TV package, but after the year was up I just use freeview along with the DVR box they provided. TV works fine but didn't really watch any of the extra channels.
Every year I switch between Sky and BT as they have discounted offers that last a year. Have a look on moneysavingexpert.com for the offers.
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Permalink Reply by Vikram Dodd on
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I had exactly the same issue with Virgin, and was loathe to move, but got fed up and did.
The final straw was them pushing out deals for new customers at a lot less than the price they wanted to charge me. When I said to the Virgin person on the phone, "why don't I just quit and come back as a new customer", their rep said that I would not be allowed to for three months.
So I moved to BT in May/June. It was a good deal and half the cost of Virgin. I got almost all the TV channels I ever watched - the one I miss from time to time is CNN. Otherwise the BT most expensive TV package is pretty decent, and includes sport, the internet maximum advertised speed is lower than Virgin. But the hub is better, I now get wi fi throughout the flat and the worst speed I have had when I have tested it would allow me to stream in 4k with enough left over to stream in HD, if I ever wanted to do both at the same time.
The landline phone is better.
The BT service TV service has gone wrong twice - not great - but seemed fixable. If you watch a bit of Netflix, not sure how Virgin justify their prices any more. Internet wise hoping hyper optic hurry up and move into the area.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Do you have to pay an installation fee to transfer - we still have an ancient BT phone line, but definitely not fibre optic?
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yes.....but it was still a lot cheaper and at the time I signed up they offered cash back which dwarfed the sign up fee. It was nearly £400 a year cheaper than Virgin.
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here is a guide from Netflix as to the internet speed you need to stream various things
Internet Connection Speed Recommendations
Below are the internet download speed recommendations per stream for playing TV shows and movies through Netflix.
0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed
1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed
3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality
5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality
25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality
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Permalink Reply by KP on
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I am also fed up with Virgin price hikes. The service has gone downhill quite considerably over the years. I have been ready to leave for a while but have stayed because I was worried about the alternatives. I hardly ever use my landline. Also the salespeople have managed to persuade by telling me that BT, Sky etc charge to get people to come out and fix things, or my TV might not work etc. Reading this though I am tempted to move to BT when my contract runs out.
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Permalink Reply by Nanz on
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I just re-negotiated my contract last night and now am saving £20 a month on what I used to pay.
I barely watch the freeview TV, dont have a phone (so don't use the landline) and watch most things on either Netflix or iPlayer so I have the 200Mb connection.
So they removed my phone line and put me on basic TV package and it dropped my monthly cost by £20.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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What were your dropouts? iPlayer just freezing and you need to restart it or the whole connection? When the whole connection goes it's a power issue, too many people on your shared kit. I think the iPlayer/Netflix dropouts are akin to traffic shaping which is very naughty.
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Yeah, that's the classic Virgin hardware issue. It's caused by the sub-contractors that are paid a fixed price to add connections and sometimes take shortcuts. Eventually, but not immediately, the power becomes insufficient for all those connections and they need to add extra capacity but that's done by a different part of Virgin and usually involves no less than three calls and a visit.
Everyone else uses the phone lines so they never have this issue.
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Permalink Reply by Clare Heal on
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Lured by promises of "superfast" broadband speeds, we left BT for Virgin nearly a year ago and have regretted it almost ever since. There have been countless outages, often for days at a time (disastrous when you work from home). We'll be hotfooting it back to BT as soon as the contract is up. They weren't perfect but they were far, far better than Virgin and the customer service was always excellent.
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