Virgin media price increasing yet again

Dasherdoyle

Just received an email from Virgin Media with yet another increase, another €4 per month. It's €112 a month at the moment with no sports or films package. Thanks VM, I'll now be bidding you farewell. There are a number of cheaper offers out there and I've just got Lazy and stayed with VM so thanks for the wake up.

jack presley

Be interested in hearing the justification they're using for price increases this year after the Eir Sport debacle. What did they say?

L1011

jack presley wrote: »

Be interested in hearing the justification they're using for price increases this year after the Eir Sport debacle. What did they say?

"this year" - was the last increase not this year too?

jack presley

L1011 wrote: »

"this year" - was the last increase not this year too?

I don't know. I can't remember. Maybe they announce them around now but they don't kick in until January?

Dasherdoyle

jack presley wrote: »

I don't know. I can't remember. Maybe they announce them around now but they don't kick in until January?

It's an increase of €1.50 for tv and €2.50 for broadband because we're getting a better service ????

jack presley

Dasherdoyle wrote: »

It's an increase of €1.50 for tv and €2.50 for broadband because we're getting a better service ????

Better service, seriously?

GreenFolder2

You'd think it would be going down at this stage with Sterling going down the pan relative to the Euro, since most of the content is bought in the UK.

L1011

1.50 "fewer channels convenience fee"; 2.50 "wifi frustration fee" I presume?

galtee boy

They are loosing subscribers by the thousands and yet they are increasing prices ? Unbelievable.

GreenFolder2

Doesn't really make much sense.

JTMan

In an environment of zero inflation, these constant price increases by Virgin Media for their legacy TV bundles of crap are not justified. Hopefully, yet more consumers walk via switching to free-to-air or go broadband only.

For those that don't pay for premium sports, how can one justify 360 euro+ per year to Virgin for channels that are nearly all free-to-air.

7upfree

Absolutely crazy move.

7upfree

Dasherdoyle wrote: »

Just received an email from Virgin Media with yet another increase, another €4 per month. It's €112 a month at the moment with no sports or films package. Thanks VM, I'll now be bidding you farewell. There are a number of cheaper offers out there and I've just got Lazy and stayed with VM so thanks for the wake up.

How is it €112?

BB+phone is €50.
Max TV €40.

Am I missing something?

L1011

2x multiroom I guess

GreenFolder2

Maybe they have too many customers and feel they need to get rid of some?

Or I suppose it could be that problem many companies face : too much income.

Redfox25

Have a look at the Eir offers and the Sky offers and see if you can get a better deal.
I got the same email and I suspect I will leave them too as the TV is slow as anything to change channel, rarely records when it should and the BB is great when it works but can be hit and miss. The WIFI is a joke too which is a pity as the new generation of routers are supposed to be good. (they only offer them with a 360mb package)

Thomas

Redfox25 wrote: »

Have a look at the Eir offers and the Sky offers and see if you can get a better deal.
I got the same email and I suspect I will leave them too as the TV is slow as anything to change channel, rarely records when it should and the BB is great when it works but can be hit and miss. The WIFI is a joke too which is a pity as the new generation of routers are supposed to be good. (they only offer them with a 360mb package)

Just been on to cancel and got renewed for 6 month half price. I'd just finished a 6 month promo term when the email issued so happy enough.

Hilarious when she told me I shouldn't leave because eircom's network has been hacked and all Virgin's competitors are susceptible!!! 😂

GreenFolder2

Thomas wrote: »

Just been on to cancel and got renewed for 6 month half price. I'd just finished a 6 month promo term when the email issued so happy enough.

Hilarious when she told me I shouldn't leave because eircom's network has been hacked and all Virgin's competitors are susceptible!!! 😂

Misrepresenting your competitors is pretty low!

Also, eir's network was not hacked. There was a weak security issue in a ADSL router model.

Thomas

GreenFolder2 wrote: »

Misrepresenting your competitors is pretty low!

Also, eir's network was not hacked. There was a weak security issue in a ADSL router model.

I know that and you know that but I can assure you that many of the people I know would accept the statement verbatim.

GreenFolder2

Thomas wrote: »

I know that and you know that but I can assure you that many of the people I know would accept the statement verbatim.

Which is why it's highly unprofessional for a sales person to do that.

Usually you just don't talk about your competitors at all.

TallGlass

Has anyone with a consession attempted to renegotiate contract with them?

My bill is sky high even with the consession, which is telling us alot about there pricing. If I had my way I would be dropping the TV side of things but the oul lad likes the recording and I am not sure what free to air box will be up to the same task.

GreenFolder2

You'd think their prices would be falling though given that the majority of the content they're buying for TV is priced in £ sterling and we are paying bills in €.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Got reduced to 65 for 6 months, and 84 after that. Gonna cancel in June anyway when I move so happy enough.

Redfox25

I got 6 months half price, a price freeze for the last 6 months, ie no price increase and a 12 month contract rather than the 18 the offered at the start.
I also blagged a new router as my old one was rubbish and they admitted that it was a poor router. I asked why their tech team had told me it was fine and had refused my request for the new compal router without paying for an upgrade.
They also told me on a different call that I shouldnt move to SKY or EIR as their BB speed was very low. They didnt run down the competition but they did mention them.

The Cush

GreenFolder2 wrote: »

Which is why it's highly unprofessional for a sales person to do that.

Usually you just don't talk about your competitors at all.

Sure aren't they all at it, let's hope they get a "stern warning"

ION08

Hi All,

Just off the phone to VM

I'm currently on the "240Mb Anytime World + Horizon Max TV" package at €85 per month

They offered me half price for 6 months (€42.50) and a price freeze for the remaining 6 months (€85) which overall I am happy with.

The girl mentioned something about sending me a New Router as the WiFi will now be split form the Horizon TV Box for all new customers? .. to be honest though she was a little bit hard to understand so I'm not sure I fully grasped this.

Can anyone possibly clarify?

Redfox25

ION08 wrote: »

Hi All,

Just off the phone to VM

I'm currently on the "240Mb Anytime World + Horizon Max TV" package at €85 per month

They offered me half price for 6 months (€42.50) and a price freeze for the remaining 6 months (€85) which overall I am happy with.

The girl mentioned something about sending me a New Router as the WiFi will now be split form the Horizon TV Box for all new customers? .. to be honest though she was a little bit hard to understand so I'm not sure I fully grasped this.

Can anyone possibly clarify?

Good stuff

The wifi from the horizon box is dire, beyond dire in fact. They will install a router, probably beside your box and it will give you much stronger wi fi in your home.
Good job.
Pick a spot to put it and let them cable it to there, or they will just put it beside the tv out of lazyness.

coylemj

Redfox25 wrote: »

The wifi from the horizon box is dire, beyond dire in fact.

Only if you listen to the moaners who make a lot of noise on boards complaining about the wi-fi on the Horizon box. Believe it or not, there are satisfied customers out there. This is what I'm getting upstairs, connected via wi-fi to a Horizon box downstairs....

Redfox25

coylemj wrote: »

Only if you listen to the moaners. This is what I'm getting upstairs, connected via wi-fi to a Horizon box downstairs....

Nice
your doing better than 99% of the moaners so.
go you

ION08

Redfox25 wrote: »

Good stuff

The wifi from the horizon box is dire, beyond dire in fact. They will install a router, probably beside your box and it will give you much stronger wi fi in your home.
Good job.
Pick a spot to put it and let them cable it to there, or they will just put it beside the tv out of lazyness.

I haven't had any issues with WiFi through the Horizon box (the TV user interface is dire imo but thats a whole other subject)

I liked having the wifi come from the Horizon box as it was a much neater set up.

Just wondering why they are providing me with a separate router now

Wondering if it is some sort of "downgrade" or if its across the board to all VM customers?

coylemj

ION08 wrote: »

Just wondering why they are providing me with a separate router now

Wondering if it is some sort of "downgrade" or if its across the board to all VM customers?

Possibly to handle bigger bandwidth and/or to support Gbe Ethernet. The network ports on the Horizon box only do up to 100 Gb/sec so on a wired connection you can often get slower speeds than over 5Ghz wi-fi.

Redfox25

ION08 wrote: »

I haven't had any issues with WiFi through the Horizon box (the TV user interface is dire imo but thats a whole other subject)

I liked having the wifi come from the Horizon box as it was a much neater set up.

Just wondering why they are providing me with a separate router now

Wondering if it is some sort of "downgrade" or if its across the board to all VM customers?

From chatting to the customer service 2 weeks ago, they had had a number of complaints and issues with the wifi on the horizon boxes and the were rolling out seperate routers to anyone who complained or who went to 360mb speed.

From my pov, its a massive upgrade as I went from dire wifi to great wifi.

Wabbit Ears

coylemj wrote: »

Possibly to handle bigger bandwidth and/or to support Gbe Ethernet. The network ports on the Horizon box only do up to 100 Gb/sec so on a wired connection you can often get slower speeds than over 5Ghz wi-fi.

Network ports on horizon are Gig ports, not 100 base.

Horizon only has enough tuners built in to do 240 meg, the new ones can do a lot more plus the wifi is better on the externals.

coylemj

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Network ports on horizon are Gig ports, not 100 base.

I'm pretty sure they're 100 Mb, I have a laptop with a Gbe port, when I wire it up to the Horizon box it tells me the speed is 100 Mb/sec. When I disconnected the cable and enable wi-fi, it connects to the 5 Ghz SSID and says the speed is 135 Mb/sec.

Wabbit Ears

They are gigabit ports. If you are only seeing 100 meg you're not using a gigabit capable cable, your duplex settings are wrong or your adapter isnt actually a gigabit adapter (So many times its the adapter not actually being a gigabit adapter)

coylemj

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

They are gigabit ports. If you are only seeing 100 meg you're not using a gigabit capable cable, your duplex settings are wrong or your adapter isnt actually a gigabit adapter (So many times its the adapter not actually being a gigabit adapter)

+1 It's not a gigabit adapter. I bought a premium laptop in November direct from a well known manufacturer, the webpage for that specific model said it was a Gigabit Ethernet port and I now realise that the long list of specs. in the order confirmation e-mail omitted any mention of the adapter speed (i.e. it never said 10/100 Mb) so they tried to pull a fast one. Won't be taking this lying down.

coylemj

Is there number you can call to speak to an Irish customer agent? I called 1908, pressed '1' to confirm that I was calling from my own mobile number which they recognised, then I pressed '1' for 'accounts and billing', then '2' to 'speak to someone about your bill' at which point I got someone in the Asian helpdesk but I had a serious problem understanding some of the stuff he was saying.

He denied that there was any problems with the network, despite the fact that we were down on the southside for several hours on an evening last week and I have had to switch the Horizon box off and on once a day for the past few days when it froze up. It also did nothing for about 5 minutes there this afternoon. I was clearly getting nowhere with him so I said I'd call back on Monday, I have until Dec 29th to close my account. How do you get talking to the loyalty people?

The e-mail I got about the price increase said that I could call 1908 option 1 to cancel my account, all I got was a virtual dead end with a guy who stonewalled me.

mikeym

I presume the purchase of UTV Ireland has something to do with the price increase.

DerekM1974

I've cancelled. TV box etc is being collected in early January. Went round the houses discussing the details of my account but invariably came back to the issue of me not paying €91 a month. Was essentially informed I won't get a better offer with higher broadband speed from any competitors. I'm willing to sacrifice that if it means a lower monthly tariff. Anyone moved elsewhere? Currently looking at bundle offers from Vodafone at half the price.

baconsarnie

Sorry for this completely dumbass question...

I've always been pretty happy with the UPC/Virgin broadband but like many here am non-plussed with the TV hike; especially when i don't really watch too much TV. Was thinking of cancelling the TV and just getting broadband.

Now, I have a Samsung digital TV. I assume I can use the TV aerial cable that UPC installed many years ago to hook up to the back of my TV and use this to get the SAOR TV stations? I'm a bit of a Luddite so if i am way off base, i would appreciate some direction!

Many thanks!

icdg

Not Saorview, no. It's not connected to any aerial. If your TV still has an analogue tuner (it might) you should be able to pick up about 14 analogue stations.

baconsarnie

icdg wrote: »

Not Saorview, no. It's not connected to any aerial. If your TV still has an analogue tuner (it might) you should be able to pick up about 14 analogue stations.

cheers, so if i want to have a decent selection (i'm based in Dublin) i'm looking at a freetv/saor TV combo job. Thanks