WTF is going on with Virgin Media? Thieving shitebags!

[KenzoBaby]

I've been with them for years. Broadband only. My contract expired a few months ago and ever since then, every couple of months, they put my direct debit up - with no notice! It's now £39 a month. Was only £29 6 months ago.

Tried to phone them about it today. To sign up to a new contract perhaps to stop the payments being put up all the time. Spent an hour waiting. Then got through to someone unhelpful who was "transferring me to another dept", another 45 mins later I give up as the call would be costing me money!

Is anyone else having this sort of trouble? Will they just keep putting the direct debits up until they bankrupt me?!

Just the worst possible time as well to be taking money out my account I wasn't expecting.

We left for that very reason, they don’t show any loyalty to their customers 🙄 especially as their prices are some of the highest charged by broadband providers

There has always been an increase with VM broadband but that has only happened to me each year not every few months. Usually around Nov time for me. The very first year I was on a half price deal but that was only for the first few months so there was 2 increases that year but its only been yearly since then. I've never been able to get any money off with them but they've upped our speeds and installed high spec modems when complained about a payment error on their part.

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I had an awful experience switching gas & electric so I'm pretty loathe to switch suppliers for internet. Eurgh. I feel like I've been pick-pocketed.

When my contract was ending they wanted to double it. I told them I wanted to cancel, they offered me £10 a month off, I told them I still wanted to cancel and couldn't afford anymore than the original amount I was paying, they passed me to their retentions team and I got another year on the original amount. Worth a try? I didn't say I was going to switch, (I said I was just going to go without and didn't use any of the services anyway)

Sky does a similar thing and I finally left this year, I hadn't checked until I left and how much they were charging vs how much I thought they were charging, fucking floored me.

Now broadband has good deals on Broadband only. I nearly switched to them when VM increased my price hugely. But VM said they would match NOW BB and VM does have faster BB so I stayed with VM
I'm paying £24 per month for 50mb. That includes home phone too with free weekend calls (but I don't use that, it just came with the contract).

We switched to Vodafone broadband and reduced our monthly payment to £18 a month and speed of 40mbps.

You don't have to have a Vodafone mobile but if you do, you get £3 a month discount.

They are taking over £60 a month off me robbing bastards

Thanks everyone and sorry to hear of your rubbish experiences too! Yeah I should phone up and threaten to cancel but I dread the thought of another hour and a half on the phone! Why can't they just have a more transparent and fair system of charges? It shouldn't be this hard just to receive a service and pay for it. It does seem that they will take as much as they think they can get away with. £60 is mental!

I've found them very good when I've phoned up.
Only thing was when our broadband went down and I requested counselling for traumatised teens would be needed to, the manager laughed. He did give me 2 free months though.

They do this to get you to sign up to another fixed term contract. They always put prices up at the end of a contract and if you call them they will reduce them if you sign up for another fixed period.

They have continued to put mine up too. £59.60 now, whilst they are advertising packages for under £30 regularly to new customers.

We are leaving, which is a shame, as their engineers are excellent, and their broadband isn't bad at all where I am. I'm just fed up of them constantly putting the prices up. When I call, the best they offer is about £3 off.

We're just looking into it now, what TV to get, etc.

I called them this week and was surprised at how quickly I got through, I called at 1030 on a weekday if that helps? I always set a reminder in my phone for a month before my contract is due up and call them saying I am going to switch to BT and they give me a similar offer of what I was on before.

You have to literally sign up with someone else then they’ll offer a decent price. They did this when we were leaving to go with BT.

I’ve just been through this, here’s Martin Lewis’ advice:

• go on a comparison site and see what you could be saving if you switched
• call up and choose the cancellation option. They will put you through quickly to their “customer retention” team.
• be polite but firm to the person you speak to - tell them you want to switch because Sky is offering you XYZ price
• they will offer you a discount to stay, you have to decide if that is enough for you to want to (given hassle of getting engineer out etc to switch)
• if you accept new price they will apply it immediately

I saved £37 a month doing this!

You have to literally sign up with someone else then they’ll offer a decent price

If Ive gone to the trouble of doing the research and pricing up the change, then I'll move to a company that offered me that price, rather than one that refuses to offer me that price despite being a longstanding customer.
At least with car insurance, they send you an opening price, you phone up and they drop it virtually straight away,or, when they don't, it is an esy switch to another company.
Trouble with switching broadband is all the connections, then changing my e-mail, sorting out how to watch TV, etc. I suppose that's how I've let them get away with it for so long.

Omg they have done the same with me, I was paying .£36 just for internet and phone. The last few months it was £52, I keep saying I'm going to call them but haven't had a minute.

Got mine down £15, always worth a try and plead poverty

I left the contract 4 months early due to being wrongly charged for a phone calls, I was in a student studio flat, only used my mobile on a different network, didn't even request or own a land-line and when I left told them why (which included repeated loss of service) and the charge was only £40 they still tried to charge me for full term which breaks our initial contractual agreement, eventually I have up even bothering with them, bloody scammers. My plan is to move abroad post degrees anyway, it's been years and I've not heard anything from them just gave up even trying retained all evidence against them incase the worst happens and generally have lived a better life since then.

I gave up *

Another 1hr 14 mins on the phone tonight and I got it down to £30.50 for the next 12 months by asking to cancel. Apparently they were about to put my bill up AGAIN to £44 a month! JUST for broadband! So over the next year I will save 12 x £13.50 = £162!

Have put a note in my diary to phone next year before the contract runs out (like I do with insurance). But honestly it's a total rigmarole and waste of an evening. Mind you, presumably I get mine cheaper due to all the customers who DON'T bother to phone up so, er, thanks!

Thanks to all who contributed! I have felt less alone in my struggle! :-)

I absolutely hate this company, they are arseholes of the highest order. Cut my phone off fixing a neighbours and laughed in my face as they drove off leaving me phoneless, pretended to transfer the pH number to a new provider but secretly blocked it behind the scenes, constantly having shite service with no WiFi.

For the last 6 months we were stuck with them I answered every customer survey rating them the lowest possible rating and writing in great detail how loathsome they were. They tried to bill me for the remainder of my contract when I was moving to an area they did not supply. I swear I bought the house just to be unshackled from the term of that contract.

Thanks op I feel better getting my seething hatred for this group of arseholes out on the table. There is a special group of customer service chaps for the very angry clients, I spoke to them a lot... Only problem is that they promise you the earth and the actual Muppets on the ground can't deliver.

@KenzoBaby glad you've got sorted. I renegotiated mine today and got through in a few minutes during the day, must have been very lucky.

Got through to retentions and they offered me a cheaper price than what I'd been paying the previous 12 months even. For the price we've paid, I'd only get slower MB broadband elsewhere, no TV package.

Worth mentioning to anyone reading this thread, Martin Lewis has flagged that it is currently a bit harder to leave Virgin for a competitor at the moment. All other broadband suppliers use the BT network, and they aren't fully working due to social distancing. So, at this particular time it's better to haggle if you can.

Me too.