Virgin the cheek of them.

[postman]

We got a letter today informing us our monthly tv broadband and phone is going up by over £4-50 per month.
What it does not say is what extra we are getting for this outlay.
Well on monday they are getting a call,i have said for ages the sh... can go.my kids watch up in their rooms on computer whatever they watch.I have been fed up of watching repeats this year i even think there are more commercials than progs,some poor sop is going to get a right earful on monday.This has just pushed me over the edge with Virgin,i now watch catch up tv no breaks and i watch what i like,
sorry rant over.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

We got a letter today informing us our monthly tv broadband and phone is going up by over £4-50 per month.
What it does not say is what extra we are getting for this outlay.
Well on monday they are getting a call,i have said for ages the sh... can go.my kids watch up in their rooms on computer whatever they watch.I have been fed up of watching repeats this year i even think there are more commercials than progs,some poor sop is going to get a right earful on monday.This has just pushed me over the edge with Virgin,i now watch catch up tv no breaks and i watch what i like,
sorry rant over.

Tell them your going to leave and they will probably halve your bill to get you to stay.

 

[Brandane]

Tell them your going to leave and they will probably halve your bill to get you to stay.

Probably, but I hope postman still tells them to shove it. Virgin/Sky push all these carp channels at us as if our lives depended on watching TV. I have free Sky (i.e. had a dish and box installed for £150 but do not pay any subscription so get basic channels only) and it is very rarely that I find anything worth watching. Even when I check out the subscription channels out of curiosity, there is nothing worth watching. The occasional sporting event, maybe, but that is all.

I once worked in a SKY call centre. Lasted 3 weeks, it was the second worst job ever. (Worst was another call centre for a Telecom company, cold calling trying to get people to switch their business to them. We've all had calls from the pests, - so you can imagine what it was like!).

 

[Black Sheep]

keep an eye on your bank statements, my father in law found that virgin had set up and been billing him monthly after he'd cancelled and moved out of the house!

 

[derrick]

We got a letter from sky saying my payments were going up, we now have freesat.

 

[vernon]

We got a letter today informing us our monthly tv broadband and phone is going up by over £4-50 per month.
What it does not say is what extra we are getting for this outlay.
Well on monday they are getting a call,i have said for ages the sh... can go.my kids watch up in their rooms on computer whatever they watch.I have been fed up of watching repeats this year i even think there are more commercials than progs,some poor sop is going to get a right earful on monday.This has just pushed me over the edge with Virgin,i now watch catch up tv no breaks and i watch what i like,
sorry rant over.

Virgin can not be held responsible for the content. There's also the matter of quality of viewing experience. Watching TV on a computer monitor is antisocial and lonely. I can't imagine my family gathering around a computer monitor to watch a program that can not be viewed on the television.

As for price rises ask the supermarkets what extra are giving you for the elevated prices at the tills and the utility companies if there's more energy in the more expensive gas and electricity that we are being asked to pay for.

We are contemplating dropping Virgin too but not because of price rises but because of a change of viewing habits in the house now that we are nearly empty nesters. I'm looking forward to a household free of 'America's Next Top Model' and similar 5hite.

 

[pplpilot]

Tell them your going to leave and they will probably halve your bill to get you to stay.

Nope. I had the same letter, rang them told them i wasnt happy and was looking to jump ship, no way would they budge. So ive dropped the tv and resurrected my freeview box. Kept my bband as its a necessity for 'working from home'

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Nope. I had the same letter, rang them told them i wasnt happy and was looking to jump ship, no way would they budge. So ive dropped the tv and resurrected my freeview box. Kept my bband as its a necessity for 'working from home'

Well worked ok for Postman, it seems to depend on who you get through to but I have seen a lot of people get their bills halved.

 

[marinyork]

Well worked ok for Postman, it seems to depend on who you get through to but I have seen a lot of people get their bills halved.

Did it though? If you analyse the newer packages vs the legacy ones a lot of people were on you will find that if some people sign up for certain new packages they'll save money. The 'problem' being that it locks you in again. If you're already on one of the newer packages you won't save any money.

And generally speaking since the time of great falling out they haven't offered anywhere near so many retentions deals because it hurt them really badly. Not heard of too many retentions deals recently at all - several years ago and the time of the great falling out there were shedloads.

Everyone knows what the price rises are for anyway. I think what is annoying people is how badly wrong the broadband upgrades have gone - months behind schedule and no upload upgrade for an unknown amount of time. I got mine on time for the download but no upload so far. A lot of other people nowhere near so lucky.

 

[Norm]

Someone's price has gone up without increasing the service. Isn't that just called inflation?

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Did it though? If you analyse the newer packages vs the legacy ones a lot of people were on you will find that if some people sign up for certain new packages they'll save money. The 'problem' being that it locks you in again. If you're already on one of the newer packages you won't save any money.

And generally speaking since the time of great falling out they haven't offered anywhere near so many retentions deals because it hurt them really badly. Not heard of too many retentions deals recently at all - several years ago and the time of the great falling out there were shedloads.

Everyone knows what the price rises are for anyway. I think what is annoying people is how badly wrong the broadband upgrades have gone - months behind schedule and no upload upgrade for an unknown amount of time. I got mine on time for the download but no upload so far. A lot of other people nowhere near so lucky.

I cant comment on that myself as I wouldnt touch virgin with a 10 foot barge pole I dropped them and went to sky for my TV 8 years ago and I use plusnet for my telephone and BB, all I can go on is that some of my customers have done.

 

[Bman]

Virgin can not be held responsible for the content. There's also the matter of quality of viewing experience. Watching TV on a computer monitor is antisocial and lonely. I can't imagine my family gathering around a computer monitor to watch a program that can not be viewed on the television.

As for price rises ask the supermarkets what extra are giving you for the elevated prices at the tills and the utility companies if there's more energy in the more expensive gas and electricity that we are being asked to pay for.

We are contemplating dropping Virgin too but not because of price rises but because of a change of viewing habits in the house now that we are nearly empty nesters. I'm looking forward to a household free of 'America's Next Top Model' and similar 5hite.

You're doing it wrong.

I only ever watch media on my PC if i am the only one watching it. Otherwise I'd put it on the TV.

 

[colly]

We got a letter today informing us our monthly tv broadband and phone is going up by over £4-50 per month.
What it does not say is what extra we are getting for this outlay.
Well on monday they are getting a call,i have said for ages the sh... can go.my kids watch up in their rooms on computer whatever they watch.I have been fed up of watching repeats this year i even think there are more commercials than progs,some poor sop is going to get a right earful on monday.This has just pushed me over the edge with Virgin,i now watch catch up tv no breaks and i watch what i like,
sorry rant over.

A Victor Meldrew post if ever there was one.

But you are right. We ditched Virgin a couple of years ago and sadly made the error of taking up with Sky. Once chrissy is out of the way I am of a mind to give them the heave ho too.
I'm sure I can pick up a decent Freeview set up of some kind in the sales.

Anyone have any advice on what to look out for ?

 

[EltonFrog]

So am I right in thinking that some folk are paying between £300 and £500 a year for extra tv programmes?

 

[marinyork]

I cant comment on that myself as I wouldnt touch virgin with a 10 foot barge pole I dropped them and went to sky for my TV 8 years ago and I use plusnet for my telephone and BB, all I can go on is that some of my customers have done.

I don't particularly like virgin, I think paytv is a waste of time for so many people that would be better off with freeview or freesat or FSFS + some sort of PVR. But that's for them to decide, a lot of people seem to keep on paying it anyway. But I don't quite get some of the bundle complaints that seem to be so common with particularly virgin customers.

Virgin isn't the company it was 8 years ago. Post-merger. Analogue switch off, billing systems merged, high definition PVRs. I think it's just people are getting bored of tv, which I understand as it is happening in this household too.