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Given my notice to leave after the latest round of price hikes and signed with Giganet (still in the 14 day cooling off period).
However I have just got an email from Virgin offering 264Mbps broadband (Giganet is only 100Mbps) and a boat load of additional channels (Maxit TV) for £44 a month for 18 months on an 18 month contract (Giganet is £40 a month without a contract and three months free (but I would have to spend £200 on a new set-top box/recorder).
Current Virgin is 'old' fibre (copper to the house) whereas Giganet would require connecting to the new true fibre (right into the house) which means digging up the garden. Sticking with Virgin would mean I simply sign a new contract and all is good but, but, it's still Virgin with their dreadful customer service.
Might as well change the title to "Generic Broadband Provider price hike rant" and make this a sticky.
Everyone's pricing are going up by inflation plus x%, I got my email from BT earlier and my mate's virgin is about to go to £85 a month.
In your position and on the assumption that all telecoms providers cust service is mixed at best, I would stick with Virgin.
I haven't told Virgin yet, but I'm considering a similar switch to YouFibre. If Virgin can drop their price I'll likely stay with them, especially as they do cheap(er) O2 mobile contracts if you link your Virgin and O2 accounts. But I don't have (or want) a TV package (which would favour Virgin) and I don't need fast uploads (which would favour YouFibre).
I'd leave Virgin and go to a generic OpenReach provider - same service, lower price and much easier to swap around come renewal time. The problem with Virgin or dedicated Fibre providers, is there is no competition using that connection.
My Virgin contract has gone up by more than 50% so also looking to leave when my current contract expires at the end of the month.
OP how does the new offer compare with what you were giving them previously?
Also how did you contact them to say you are leaving? I find it difficult to hold long enough to speak to their customer services during working hours and get frustrated at the lack of breakdown of the services that I currently get from them.
OP how does the new offer compare with what you were giving them previously?
Also how did you contact them to say you are leaving? I find it difficult to hold long enough to speak to their customer services during working hours and get frustrated at the lack of breakdown of the services that I currently get from them.
My contract was £69, about to go up to £83 so told them I was leaving. It went something like this - click on the 'I am leaving' option on the keypad when I phoned them up and got an automatic 'we'll give you £6 off'. which I ignored and went through the process of speaking to them and just said I wasn't interested in any offer, I was going. I then got a call the next day from 'retentions' which I also ignored (I was in a meeting when they rang so just told them to go away). I assumed that would be it but then received this offer by email over the weekend.
It is very tempting as it really is a path of the least resistance but Virgin. 😐
Thanks, I am currently paying £99/month for broadband, two boxes, the Maxit TV package, free evening and weekend calls plus SD Sky sports and they want to increase it to £156.
Their Volt offer gives all that bar the second box plus free NetFlix, an O2 SIM and faster speeds for £85. I think the second box would add £15 so it would be about what I am paying now but I would save on Netflix plus one of the kids PAYG mobile contracts.
I will have a chat with them and see if I can get that package. I would like to downgrade but too many wails from spouse and offspring about losing stuff if I did so.
Ohh yeah, this offer gets weekend calls too, but not bothered bout that - I don't even know if our phone works. We have Netflix, Disney and Amazon Prime anyway so not really bothered about additional TV channels but it is a very tempting offer - damn them.
I decamped from Virgin to Zen about a year ago. Theoretically my broadband speed is lower, but it has been far more consistent and reliable and still supports what I need (WFH, streaming, kids etc). Don't miss the TV or calls package, and not having to deal with Virgin any more is frankly a constant source of joy.
Currently chugging along on a 3 unlimited data sim from scancom - £300 for 3 years up front with no contract - so less than £10 a month.
I’m in a 5g area so the typical speeds are 500-700Mbps download and 100-170Mbps uploads
In the last year the service has been rock solid - no loss of service and literally a handball of slow network warnings on Ms Teams that lasted a few seconds each time.
By contrast our previous contract was with Virgin - constant outages of 12-24 hours, slow regional network issues and a whopper of 5 weeks without service before I really lost my proverbial with their endless lies.
Been on Virgin since the millennium I think, through all the name changes.
Their "price creep" is a pig though.
I binned the land line (never use it) and got an aeriel fitted so we only have virgin for BB. They've always been great for BB to be fair but now I only have that service with them it's far less hassle to change provider. Something I fully intend to tell them when I call their bluff on leaving. Again.lol
I’d leave Virgin and go to a generic OpenReach provider – same service, lower price and much easier to swap around come renewal time. The problem with Virgin or dedicated Fibre providers, is there is no competition using that connection.
Not true.
Yes VM don’t share there coax or fibre infrastructure.
Other fibre infrastructure providers do, do all of them do this, no.
@johndoh Don't forget that £44 a month is only good until the rpi+3% price hike in April when it will become around £49!
Regarding speed 264mbps vs 100mbps, unless you really are hammering the download speed then you should be fine on 100mbps. We have 80mbps via Zen on an openreach line (20mpbs up), and it's fine for two of us WFH with team calls, RDP, and the kids playing the usual games (COD, Fortnite, Minecraft, TF2 etc.) as well as hammering YouTube.