[mega pixels]

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/help/changes.html


How will the cost of Virgin Media services change?

Here's what's changing from 1st June:

The price of TV XL will increase by £1.50 per month

TV Choice on Demand will increase by £2 per month (though if you're on TV XL, it's included free)

If you make calls during the day to UK landlines (that's numbers starting 01, 02 and 03), they'll cost 4p a minute, instead of 3.25p a minute from the 1st June. However, if your call plan already includes daytime calls, this change won't affect you at all. You'll pay the same great monthly rate


How are the bundle prices changing?

From 1st June, your bundle will cost £1 more per month. But if you switch to paperless bills, you won't pay a penny more. We're doubling the discount you get for using our ebill service. So switch today and start saving.



What happens if I was guaranteed a promotional bundle price when I joined?

You'll pay the same price we promised you until the promotional period runs out, just as long as you switch to paperless billing. So for example, if you snapped up this offer: '£4.50 Broadband for 12 months when you take a phone line', switch to paperless bills and you'll still pay just £4.50 a month and help save the planet while you're at it.



Switch to paperless bills and pay less

Why not be kinder to the environment and get your bills on-line with paperless billing? We've doubled the discount we give our ebilling customers. So sign up before 2nd May and we'll take £1 per month off your bill every month from 1 June.

[BenMcr77]

Everyone will also get a letter before the 1st June confirming what the change will be for them

[Dav2205]

Just as a heads up, the loyalty pack discounts are changing too. It's not a standard change and depends on what one you're on.

All I know is it's going to be a fun few months in CMC .

[Formula1Mad]

Do the people who are already on paperless billing (i.e. already subscribed to it) get the full £1 discount?

[BenMcr77]

Not at the moment but it will be increased for all existing e-billing customers in May to take into account the June charges

[Ginger Nut]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

Not at the moment but it will be increased for all existing e-billing customers in May to take into account the June charges

So on balance I get a 50p increase?

+£1.50 XL increase
-£1.00 e-billing discount

As far as I am aware I'm not already getting any disco for being on e-billing?

[BenMcr77]

Originally Posted by Ginger Nut

So on balance I get a 50p increase?

+£1.50 XL increase
-£1.00 e-billing discount

As far as I am aware I'm not already getting any disco for being on e-billing?

No, cos the £1.50 XL increase is in addition to the £1 bundle increases

So if you are on 3 for £30 with XL and paying £39 it will go up by £2.50 to £41.50

Swap to e-billing and you get only a £1.50 increase so would be £40.50

All e-billing customers should currently get 50p off their bill

[r2d2d3d4d5]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

No, cos the £1.50 XL increase is in addition to the £1 bundle increases



So if you are on 3 for £30 with XL and paying £39 it will go up by £2.50 to £41.50



Swap to e-billing and you get only a £1.50 increase so would be £40.50



All e-billing customers should currently get 50p off their bill

I'm hopping that if your pack includes XL TV though the price will still only go up by £1.

[TheFirstCut]

Why can't cable go back to the days when their phone service was competitive - granted that was 6 years ago, but following others like sheep won't increase their customer base, I know there a lot of unhappy people out there, and this may just push them over the edge and switch.

At least with a BT line you can choose many a call provider and make huge savings compared to having a cable line.

VM need their heads looking into.

I hope it doesn't screw my discounts up too much, as my letter from VM does state that the offer I am on will stay with me for as long as I am a customer - that should mean it doesn't increase in cost, but knowing how shady VM are, I wouldn't be surprise if they tried it on.

VM could have taken this opportunity to gain customers from other providers by having lower prices than the competition, use it as a reason to switch to them, not make some charges the same as competitors and others a lot more expensive. I know cable lost the plot years ago with the phone service and they had started to gain a few customers instead of losing loads, however I can get it swinging back to losing customers again, as people who simply took up the phone to get the package cheap for 12 months will dump the phone and if they can't get a deal on the rest of the services will dump them too.

[goomba]

Originally Posted by Dav2205

Just as a heads up, the loyalty pack discounts are changing too. It's not a standard change and depends on what one you're on.

All I know is it's going to be a fun few months in CMC .

So have you any idea what these will be?

I apologise in advance to the customer service person who gets me if my "for life" deal goes up

[Ginger Nut]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

No, cos the £1.50 XL increase is in addition to the £1 bundle increases

So if you are on 3 for £30 with XL and paying £39 it will go up by £2.50 to £41.50

Swap to e-billing and you get only a £1.50 increase so would be £40.50

All e-billing customers should currently get 50p off their bill

I'm a bit confused now Ben. I'm on XL historically. I've never been on any of the x for £x bundles.

Is the e-billing discount normally itemised on the bill, because I'm not getting it?

So my XL will increase by £1.50.

But I should already be getting a 50p e-bill discount, which I am fairly sure I'm not getting(e-billing is down at the moment so I can't check).



Edit: OK I'm into e-billing now. I'm paying £20.50 for XL tv. No discount is listed.

[BenMcr77]

Ok XL tv will go from £20.50 on the bills to £22

There should be a seperate e-billing discount. This should be applied starting the bill after you activated your e-billing.

It currently shows as 50p. from 1 June it will go to £1

So as an example 3 for £30 with XL tv now (with 50p e-billing discount):

XL tv £20.50
Phone £11
Broadband £18
Phone TV and BB bundle Saving -£10.50
E-billing discount -50p

Total = £38.50

3 for £30 with XL tv from 1 June (with £1 e-billing discount):

XL tv £22
Phone £11
Broadband £18
Phone TV and BB Bundle Saving £9.50
E-billing discount - £1

Total £40.50

[bignoise]

Looks like that whole page needs to be re-written so as to be truthful.

How are the bundle prices changing?
From 1st June, your bundle will cost £1 more per month. But if you switch to paperless bills, you won't pay a penny more. We're doubling the discount you get for using our ebill service. If you're already getting paperless bills, your bill will rise by 50p per month.

What happens if I was guaranteed a promotional bundle price when I joined?
You'll pay the same price we promised you until the promotional period runs out, just as long as you switch to paperless billing. If you're already on paperless billing then the price we promised you will increase by 50p per month. Sorry about that.

[TheFirstCut]

Originally Posted by Ginger Nut

Edit: OK I'm into e-billing now. I'm paying £20.50 for XL tv. No discount is listed.

On my bill it shows the discount as:

E Bill Discount 09 April - 08 May -£0.50

[BenMcr77]

Originally Posted by bignoise

What happens if I was guaranteed a promotional bundle price when I joined?
You'll pay the same price we promised you until the promotional period runs out, just as long as you switch to paperless billing. If you're already on paperless billing then the price we promised you will increase by 50p per month. Sorry about that.

But then the promotional price didn't include the e-billing in the first place

e.g. the £15.50 bundle is only £15 at the moment on e-billing.

Yes it will go up by 50p back to the originally advertised price of £15.50. It will not go above that

[Ernie_C]

Originally Posted by Ginger Nut

Edit: OK I'm into e-billing now. I'm paying £20.50 for XL tv. No discount is listed.

Ginger Nut, You had the same problem as I had.

I have been on e-billing since the start but never received the 50p discount which SHOULD have been applied automatically.

I wasn't too bothered as it was only 50p but the coming price increases have made me re-consider.

I phoned VM. I asked them to confirm that I was indeed on ebilling and where was my discount?

I was told that I should have been receiving the discount.

I asked for the discount to be applied retrospectively.

Can only go back three months, sir. I'll apply a credit of £1.50 now.

I'll have to de-register you for ebilling, sir, and then you will need to re-register to get the discount in the future.

What a great system!

The least he could have done was apply a reasonable 'goodwill' credit of say £20 for my bother.

[bignoise]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

But then the promotional price didn't include the e-billing in the first place

So you didn't get a 50p discount if you took up e-billing on a promotional bundle?

[TheFirstCut]

Originally Posted by bignoise

Looks like that whole page needs to be re-written so as to be truthful.

How are the bundle prices changing?
From 1st June, your bundle will cost £1 more per month. But if you switch to paperless bills, you won't pay a penny more. We're doubling the discount you get for using our ebill service. If you're already getting paperless bills, your bill will rise by 50p per month.

What happens if I was guaranteed a promotional bundle price when I joined?
You'll pay the same price we promised you until the promotional period runs out, just as long as you switch to paperless billing. If you're already on paperless billing then the price we promised you will increase by 50p per month. Sorry about that.

What about people like me who are on a deal for as long as we remain a customer? That mean as I am already an eBill customer* I will continue paying the same I am now forever?

*I switched to eBilling as the paper bills were not arriving through my letterbox until at best 2 weeks after the billing date, started getting pathetic like this when cable switched to using a different postal service. Don't know if VM hang on to the bills or it is postal service VM use (forget which one now) that are so slow at sorting and sending them on to Royal Mail to deliver.

[TheFirstCut]

Originally Posted by Ernie_C

I wasn't too bothered as it was only 50p but the coming price increases have made me re-consider.

50p is 50p, even if it was 10p I would have been chasing it up. I don't like to spend more money than I have to.

[tvtimes]

Originally Posted by TheFirstCut

50p is 50p, even if it was 10p I would have been chasing it up. I don't like to spend more money than I have to.

My god! You're stricter with the purse strings than me mrs!
You don't have OCD do you mate? Only jossing

[bignoise]

Ah, but saving 50p a month for the next 50 years.. with compound interest of course.. gives you... £1,602.27. Which by the year 2058 will probably be enough to buy you a nice box of Kellogg's Cornflakes. Or if you hold onto it until the year 2161 you'll have a cool half-million.

[BenMcr77]

Originally Posted by bignoise

So you didn't get a 50p discount if you took up e-billing on a promotional bundle?

Yes you did but the promotional price didnt include e-billing.

The promotional price of £15.50 for BB M and phone doesnt include any e-billing discount.

so if you signed up to e-billing you got an EXTRA 50p off your bill. I.E you pay £15

The £15.50 offer will be going to £16.50 after 1st June if you don't sign up to e-billing. But will be £15.50 if you do

[bignoise]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

Yes you did but the promotional price didnt include e-billing.

Fair enough, but you can't have that both ways and say "your price won't change if you take e-billing" because if the promotional price didn't include e-billing before then you can't start including it now just to make it look like the price isn't going up.

"Hello, Mr Smith? This is Rick's Autos, you rent a car from us? Yes, just a courtesy call to let you know about some changes to our prices. You know that contract you signed, with the price on it that we promised? Well, we're breaking that promise and putting up the price unless you come to our offices on every second Tuesday of the month, pull your pants down in reception, and have your arse smacked by no less than 50 of our employees. What's that? Breaking our promise? No, the price is the same as long as you report for your arse-smacking. You could take the view that we've unilaterally altered the contract [which by the way is illegal unless we give you the chance to terminate it early] but we'd never break a promise, never ever. Now when would you like to come in?"

[bignoise]

On the plus side, however, due kudos to VM for not taking the obvious opportunity to increase line rental along with BT... and actually the extra 50p off e-billing is nice, and at least welcome here.

(Bignoise thinks of all the extra cornflakes he can buy now)

[Formula1Mad]

Originally Posted by bignoise

"Hello, Mr Smith? This is Rick's Autos, you rent a car from us? Yes, just a courtesy call to let you know about some changes to our prices. You know that contract you signed, with the price on it that we promised? Well, we're breaking that promise and putting up the price unless you come to our offices on every second Tuesday of the month, pull your pants down in reception, and have your arse smacked by no less than 50 of our employees.

Sounds like Max Mosley will be using Rick's Auto's from now on then