Are Virgin media allowed to do this?

[tigercametotea]

I noticed an increase in about £8 since June - my Virgin media tv, broadband and line rental contract started last July roundabouts. When I called up to ask, they told me there was a price hike. I said I was not notified of it and if I was, I would not be happy with it and would have cancelled my account with them. They said I'm sorry, we have the right to increase prices as we deem reasonable. I said I wanted to cancel my account then. And they said I would have to pay a £16 roundabouts termination charge if I do it now as the T & Cs state I have to be on the contract for a minimum of 18 mths in order to cancel. They were totally inflexible on this, and very take it or leave it.

Surely they can't insist on the cancellation charge though? They just decided to do a price hike in the 18 mths of my contract term and now they want to charge me for cancelling because of it?
Hmmm.... am not sure what I should do now at the mo'. They told me if I wait till December to cancel I won't pay termination charges.

Would agree in general terms with PlusNet but since cost is also under consideration and 20 quid was the cost of Broadband and Phone line ('cos Virgin bumps up the cost of having 'only' Broadband to a very similar fee like 18 quid if you have no phone service), before an 8 pound increase, it would seem better to consider ADSL at 11.49 a month for the internet and then perhaps Primus for line rental (at under 8 quid, from a link on MoneySavingExpert or similar).

I've not put a spreadsheet together to see the exact totals for year 1 and year 2, but an alternative is to take PlusNet for both broadband and line rental, at least for the first year (because there's an online signup deal for 6 months broadband at half price, and waiving the 25 pound setup fee for the broadband if customer takes the line rental, but the line rental is either 12.99 per month (just gone up) or about 9.49/month if customer pays the whole year up front.

OP doesn't want to pay 28 quid for what VM offers, speed isn't top of the list (so long as it can cope with streaming and 60 GB hopefully covers demand), and getting a low cost for setup and line rental then comes into the equation.

FTTC at near 20 quid would push her overall spend up to where she is now. With the 250 GB allowance and high speed, it might be something to consider after 6 months on half price broadband when consumption from YouTube, iPlayer, 4onDemand and 5 might increase!!

I'm guessing OP has no plans for a TV and licence so my early questions on FreeSat/ Freeview were redundant, but many using VM might also be expected to consider the TV service too...

PS Nick - am green with envy at speed you are getting. I did go from 1.5 to 10 Mbps by moving to Merseyside, just that the house I'm in (nicest of 15+ that I saw with my sister as driver) is on a street with no VM so no 50 or 100 Mbps internet for me. Found out only after offer had been accepted for the house (partly my fault, was ill and tired and the hunting for properties was taking time plus my sister would give me a list of places to view, then find others online and arrange to see those instead!).

My exchange in Bootle is due to get FTTC at end of September (around same time as where I was in Wales, which had some other advantages too - like hardly a week goes by without a shooting or two over here), so if nearest cabinet is enabled, I will get a second line from PN and transfer my account from ADSL to FTTC, while using Three to keep on top of work for clients.

I put together a spreadsheet and found the O2 is cheapest for me. I have decided to calculate based on an unlimited data plan as I don't want any nasty bill surprises at the end of the month.. I was considering Plusnet as well but the 60 mb cap may just not be enough now after I saw someone online say one hour of BBC Iplayer is about 0.7mb which means we can go over that just by watching say, 3 or more hours of streaming online (I don't know how many mbs to watch Vimeo or Youtube) instead of 2 hrs some days. Well actually Sky is cheapest but I read enough bad stuff to be wary though when I did have Sky TV before (in a previous residence, as my current landlord would not let anyone install dishes so no Sky tv for me) I found it much better than VM cable TV's poor picture quality and frequent transmission problems. But apparently Sky is bad for broadband so...

By next year I will have been on O2 mobile for more than 2 years so will qualify for their lower broadband prices for long term mobile customers. The contract is 1 yr long so by next year I can then switch to Primus for home phone and either keep O2 for broadband or switch to the wide choice of ISPs for BT-phoneline-based numbers. I am tired of staying in the clutches of VM and being limited to just using them for everything. They don't bother to make me a happy customer so why should I stick with them... at least with a BT line I don't have to. And by the way VM keeps saying up to 30mbps of speed online for me but my internet speed ests always tell me my download speeds are about 256kbps so it's not even that great for me. I have not noticed a difference in speed since getting these flyers about them upgrading my cables for faster download speeds. I don't know why that is. Is it because I live 118 metres from the local exchange??

I have signed up for O2 landline (BT-based line) and broadband today... I am keeping my fingers crossed. Hope they don't bugger up. The BT engineer is coming next month ...

Oh yes and after going to O2, I calculated I will still save about £20 for the next 12 months after taking into account the penalty charge VM is charging me for terminating my landline with them now and the cost of £43 to have a BT line installed at my property.

*60 GB cap I meant

PlusNet charges 49 pounds for a line, in case you were expecting it to cost nearer 130 from BT (95 I think, from Primus).

From what I've read, VM broadband speeds do vary, and I guess if there are lots of others also using it for broadband in your area, it could just be congested. Glad you've invested the time in doing your own spreadsheet and can see a route forward.

I was also considering Primus for phone and broadband but having read what some people say about it on ispreview... and there weren't that many because it might not be as popular and well known as other isps... but they were all negative comments so I hesitated about switching to them for broadband. If I went with them for phone line it would be £59 for installation plus £10.19 a mth for line rental which is not that cheap compared to the £8 a mth deal advertised elsewhere... so I'm not sure how that works.. I think I will switch over to their £8 a mth deal after switching to a BT line with O2 first.

If you download iPlayer material overnight with PlusNet it doesn't come out of the 60 GB. My monthly traffic on just PlusNet is normally 150-200 GB (but only 60 GB in 'peak' hours 0800-0000) plus 15 GB on Three USB dongle plus all-I-can-eat (30? GB/month) on my Three mobile.

PlusNet 6.25 deal (for 6 months then 11.49) plus line rent at 9.49 (?) (based on 12 months paid up front) may compare with O2 (plus 49 pound PlusNet line install). Anyway, if O2 fits the bill with comparable prices... go for it.

Have to say I have always (7+ years) found the Yorkshire crowd at PlusNet (now on 0800 number) to be friendly and efficient (esp recently when I was asking about second line, compared with duff info and outright lies I got from Sky reps online and via the phone).

Just got on the phone to cancel my Virgin contract. The guy was trying his darndest to convince me that Virgin is best and all others are crap lol. Well the phoneline proved how crap it was by crackling big time a few minutes after the conversation started and I told him he would have to call me back on my mobile to speak further as I couldn't hear him well any more. Then he called me and said he would send an engineer out next week to fix my phoneline and broadband speed issues as he says the speed I am getting is like way below what should be expected for Virgin broadband. And he was happy to cut me a £20 a mth deal for just phone and broadband alone and he would guarantee the price would be fixed for 2 years. He also said that they have a rule where if VM raises their prices for more than 10% of the original price then the customer can choose to terminate without incurring termination charges. However he said that the deal I took out last year was for half price landline for 12 mths only hence it has increased since June and I won't be eligible for leaving without incurring charges now because the half price landline was only for 12 mths although the min. landline contract duration is 18 mths. Now I have to say, nowhere was I ever given specific details of these things when I first started this contract. Last year I called VM as I was thinking of leaving their TV service and their rep cut me a deal where I get tv, phone and broadband for arouns £20 which costs lesser than just a broadband and phone subscription on any isp typically, which was why I decided to stay with them another year. Because I was a previous customer I never received any new t and cs after they renewed my contract with the new deal. Or indeed any letter stating specifically about this landline rental being half price for only 12 mths.

I said I would think about it only if the phoneline and broadband are sorted out. He said no problem so lets see how it goes. I think I would still go with O2 though. I have already signed up today and not sure if I can cancel. And don't think it would be a big loss for me even if VM managed to sort it out as I have been thinking of leaving VM for a long long time.

I used to have O2 broadband and it was fine where I am. I switched to PlusNet because FTTC became available and O2 was not able to offer their service over FTTC (is O2 still a resell of BEthere? BEthere FTTC update, alas they won't be doing FTTC in 2012)

O2 however was great when I had it, though sometimes iPlayer buffered for no apparent reason.

Oh already minor hiccup today... nothing to do with o2 maybe but still. Got a text message saying my broadband equipment from o2 is going to be delayed on the courier's side. They are a company called UK Mail. The text gives me an 0845 number to call to enquire. Well am not gonna call as I get charged both on my VM basic landline and my o2 mobile to make 0845 calls (another reason why I should really ditch VM for the landline. At least..)

I did manage to get an alternative number for UK mail on the say no to 0845 website though but the phone just kept ringing and nobody picked up which makes me wonder if they will only pick up if I call 0845... which is crap. I found an email address on UK Mail's website and have emailed them this morning but have heard nothing. On the positive side my package's status says it has now been picked up by the courier so hopefully it will arrive today or tomorrow.

For the record, they wouldn't know if you called 0845 or not as to them they'll just received the call. The reason these types of numbers are used, believe it or not, is to benefit the customer as it means that you don't have to call long distance if you don't live right next to their office.

I see... well the package arrived today thank goodness. The courier couldn't find my place.

re phone calls... the 0845 numbers came into use in the mid-90s/late-90s (my ISP had an 0345 number, and 0845 became the generic 'local call' rate later, because 0345 was used by BT and 0645 by Mercury [Cable and Wireless]) to allow for local call rates.

Back then, local and national rate calls were charged differently, so it did mean a saving. (I know, because in the 80s I had to write phone billing software, taking account of lots of different charging methods!)

These days, 0845 is no cheaper (indeed often more costly) as there's no longer a distinction between local and national calls, whether dialled from mobile or landline, as far as I know.

From a mobile, 01/02/03 should all be included. 0845 and 0870 might be included. 0870 is more often than not, but 0845 is not included on most mobile networks.

Some landline services include 0845/0870 at weekends, or at off-peak, or all the time if you pay for an 'anytime' package deal.

It's cheaper therefore to dial a truly geographic number than one of these 'more convenient' 08xx numbers, unless you are dialling an 0800 [/ 0500 / 0808 ] number from a landline, which is perhaps the only type of guaranteed free call !

I have 5x 0800 numbers and 5x 03xxx numbers (which can be called from 'included minutes' on contract mobiles, and at a lower cost than 0800, from PAYG mobiles, and of course the 0800s can be called for free from a phone box [for anyone with only a PAYG]).

Nick - 'Be Unlimited' and O2 are owned by Spanish firm Telefonica, and disappointed a lot of their existing customers when it became clear they were behind the rest on offering anything using Fibre.

*> BT line rental to rise above £15 from January 2013

It is definitely cheaper for me to dial a geographic number from my mobile. All geographic numbers are included in my free minutes.
Not at all if I dial 0845 or any of the 08... type numbers.
And with VM's basic phone line rental, these sort of calls aren't included in weekend calls either so I am stuffed if I have to call 08... whatever. Except for 0800 numbers.
So yeah in my case, 0845 is not cheaper for me.
That will change once I've got an O2 line though.. as I seem to recall seeing that 0845 and 0870 are included under the free minutes.

Just out of curiosity, is FTTC faster than VM cable broadband? Ornsimilar? I used the uswitch comparison to see how fast the average speeds are for the different isps in my locality and it seems VM is faster than BT by a bit and faster by O2 too. But them three VM, BT and O2 are the fastest in my area according to the uswitch chart (not sure how accurate that is).

The thing with Virgin is if you phone them they will often upgrade your service for less money than you are already paying. BUT they don't advertise this, so you phone to complain/enquire about special deals and you get upgraded and pay less, if you don't ask you don't get though.

BTW when we had trouble with our phone line it was because an animal had chewed through the cable, but they fixed it easily.

FTTC until a few months ago was generally an "up to 40 Mbps" service (depends how close/far from the nearest BT cabinet, the green or grey boxes in the streets). More recently BT Openreach have tested and launched an "up to 80 Mbps" service.

Virgin Media has been offering 50 or 100 Mbps. When I looked at parts of Liverpool before moving here, some parts were shown as having 50 Mbps (eg near Everton and Liverpool grounds) while Croxteth was supposed to have 100 Mbps. Actual speeds depend on time of day and how many others in the area are using VM, which is why some users get far lower speeds.

There's a speed map on the www.ThinkBroadband.com site which shows speeds in an area around a postcode, based on people in that area who have used the TBB speed test. Looking at speeds around Lime Street station, I can see anything from 48+ Mbps down to (at the very worst, and probably why they ran the speed test) a couple of locations recording around 0.3 Mbps (remember back in 2000/2001 0.5 Mbps - ie 500 kbps - was standard, so 300 kbps is rather poor) and even 0.12 kbps (which was with EntaNet, a major reseller and hundreds of customer have been generally happy with the ISP).

FTTC is new to many areas, so there may be no/few tests where someone is connected using fibre/FTTC. If you visit the *> Openreach Superfast Fibre mapping page disaster in Cardiff almost 18 months ago