The annual Virgin Price increase

IQO

It's that time of the year again!

Just received the following email on my Broadband only 250mb package:

The price of your broadband is going up in July 2022

We're getting in touch to let you know that from July 1st 2022 the price of your broadband will increase by €4.00 a month.

Share your negotation tactics below! :D I will probably change my contract to my partner's name, or considering switching to Sky.

jspuds

I rang to cancel and got a better deal...

DaveyDave

Happily paying €35 for Vodafone, using my girlfriend's name to keep the new customer discount for the second year :)

Only people with Virgin I imagine are those without fibre since you can get new customer discounts with Vodafone, Eir and Sky for the same fiber service.

I'm still paying €60 a month (which is fair enough). Everytime I ring after an announced price increase, I'm very honest and tell them I'll happily pay €60 per month, but not any more than that.

Once it goes above €60, there are other providers who are better value. I simply explain this to them and they, generally being fairly reasonable, honour a €60 price. Some people probably get better deals than me, but I am happy with my price/plan/approach.

raxy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058934#Comment_119058934

I'd say they're delighted too. You could cancel & have someone else sign up & get it for 39/month. They usually offer 15/month off for 6 months & then 60 either.

It is a pain having to do it every year though but they're the only decent Internet where I'm living. Eir offered me up to 12mb "fibre".

Lasai

I just gave them a call there too. I'm paying 68 a month for 360mb only broadband. Told them I wanted to ask about the process of cancelling and they offered me the 500gb pack for 56 euro for 9 months and 71 euro thereafter

o1s1n

Christ, broadband really has crept up in price for a lot of providers hasn't it?

Just checked and mine is still on €40 a month with Virgin, looks like I'm still on whatever deal I signed up for a few months ago!

LoGiE

Things are going to get a little tricker for Virgin now. OpenEir/Siro both offer better speeds and better prices and you could flip between both of these and pay for 40EUR a month for 1000/100 for the next four years if they serve your area.

VM need to address the poor upload on their top package 1000/50 if they are looking for more money out of me.

Mister Gooey

Cancelled VM 500mb last week. €76 euro per is ridiculous. Changed to Sky for €35 per month. The best VM could offer was €56 per month.

IQO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119071599#Comment_119071599

Nice! Can you share the speeds (https://www.speedtest.net/) that you are getting on Sky now? Considering the same.

jeffk

Eir Speeds of up to 12Mb are available at your home

eir fibre broadband is currently unavailable at your address

Virgin 1Gb

Dublin 15 for YEARS

Wheety

I received a letter from Eir saying that fibre is now available at my address. When I check on their website it also says this. Up until recently it only said 12MB.

I didn't see them upgrading any cables around here, maybe they do it at the exchange end?

At least I have options now. Vodafone offering up to 2GB here now. What other companies use the same lines?

Also, is it worth switching to Eir? I know they have a very bad reputation for customer service.

petronius

VM squeezing out a few extra euro from people!!! again!!

I thought technology should get more advanced and cheaper? VM and others seem to ignore this.

The thing is we do not have enough competition - some places you have very few options

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=33

Wheety

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119074113#Comment_119074113

Eir say "From April of each year, the monthly price of your plan (excluding discounts) will increase by the annual Consumer Price Index published in January of that year plus an additional 3%."

They're all at it. Energy companies too. Wages aren't going up that quickly.

Snake Plisken

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119074062#Comment_119074062

So I left Virgin late last year due to constant price increases. I went with Eir and have had some dealings with their customer service and to be honest for broadband I have found them easy to deal with and service has been rock solid with their 1GB fibre package. So very happy with move

Perhaps the issues with helpdesk relates to Mobile phone customers?

Wheety

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119074167#Comment_119074167

The 2 year at €40 a month seems good to me for 500MB.

Snake Plisken

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119074208#Comment_119074208

Yeah seems like a Decent deal. At the time I went with the 1GB package for 49.99 over 2 years and noticed no drop in speed even during peak times. Their infrastructure seems more stable then say Vodafone which over sold their product.

I think you have a 14 day cooling off period as well so if service isn't good you can cancel with Eir

raxy

When I bought my house eir said I could get "fibre" with speeds up to 14MB. Every time I check it goes down. Doesn't mention fibre anymore & I'm at 7MB now & they want me to sign up to a package up to 500mb?

I'd hoped NBI would be available next year but checked my address & they say it won't be included so I'm stuck waiting for SIRO whenever that will be. Until then I'm stuck with virgin & yearly cancel & re subscribe to get a better deal.

I might try 5g mobile broadband out to see if it's acceptable. I don't do anything demanding so probably be fine.

dingoxh

just rang them up there to complain about the 4eur increase. currently paying 86.50 for BB (240mb),TV (horizon)and phone. Would go 90.50

1st offer was to upgrade tv to 360 and BB to 500mb. they would do that for 83 for 9 months and 98 for 3 months. i rejected that.

Got passed to loyalty team. Their first offer was 49 for 6 months and 98 for 6 months. Rejected that too! They revised their offer to 49 for 9 months and 98 for 3 months. Took it.

Happy out, BB increased and newer tv product as well as saving 300 annually!

tom1ie

Got 250MB BB only for €45 for 9 months and then €60 for final 3 months. Had to push a bit for that.

Anyone get any better?

raxy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119125592#Comment_119125592

You should just cancel & sign up in someone else's name. Then you would get €39 for 12 months

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119125611#Comment_119125611

I’m within my 14 day cooling off period so I might do that.

But to be honest I haven’t got the time to faff around with them.

Siro are surveying the esb mini pillars in my estate with a view to be providing a service next year so I’d say I’ll be looking at that.

newmember2

Somebody talking about €60 a month for just broadband? That's over €700 a year and way too expensive for me. I continually told VM this when I was with them and the most I wanted to pay for a broadband service was around €350 a year. I had said to them also that I didn't even want the high speeds 😎. They had been giving me 9 months half price and 3 months full price all along but wouldn't repeat it last year so like Snake above I switched to Vodafone 1 GB fibre for €30 a month Actual speeds are 500Mb at the router and anywhere from 70Mb to 350Mb on wifi - which is what I'm using.

DaveyDave

I really wish there was an affordable broadband option. €30 a month for 100-200Mb. Not everyone needs 500Mb or wants to be paying over €60 a month. Our gas and electricity for has averaged €59 a month for the last 12 months, to put things into perspective.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119126661#Comment_119126661

You can get 250 for €39, nothing wrong with that.

DaveyDave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119129811#Comment_119129811

Seems to be a new customer thing, it's €60 after 12 months.

Fortunately I still haven't been a customer with Sky or Eir so I can still avail of their new customer deals for the next few years.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119132190#Comment_119132190

Just sign up with a slightly different name the day your contract ends and when the new router arrives ring them for an immediate cancellation of the old account.

Rowley Birkin QC

[Removed]

newmember2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119126044#Comment_119126044

Correction...its the 500Mb package I'm on for €30 a month.

Sam the Sham

I never got notification of this year's Virgin price increase. First I heard of it was when I got my July bill and it was higher.

Thing is: I've looked at the contract and there's no clause of any kind (not even in the links to Terms and conditions) that says that they can increase the price if they give me notice. And they haven't given me notice.

Customer service were useless. Took 20 minutes on hold to get through to them. Now holding another 20 minutes at least to get through to Loyalty.

Not impressed with this carry-on.