VirginMedia Broadband Price Increase

They want to send you a bill electronically - costs them less. So they charge you for paper, same as for many other places. Sign up for the electronic one and you don't get that service charge.

An electronic bill is OK, until you get some debt collecting agency asking you two years down the line for payment for a service you know that you have already paid for, as has been happening to several viewers of Watchdog recently. If you have an original paper receipt, it would be easy to produce that in court as evidence of payment, but a computer printout is not the same, and could be easily doctored, or lost due to a computer crash, and yes, I do keep these type of receipts for at least 2 years.

The bill isn't the original paper receipt. So it wouldn't help.

If you're worried about that sort of thing, yes, you get to pay a premium for it. Your problem. But you don't actually need to if you take appropriate care with the electronic equivalents.

Bloody hell, do they send you a bill for viewing Watchdog now?

Only two years? IIRC if HMR&C decided to have a good look at your accounts (even as a employee on PAYE) they would expect to find records going back

| >> They want to send you a bill electronically - costs them less. | >> So they charge you for paper, same as for many other places. | >> Sign up for the electronic one and you don't get that service | >> charge. | >>

| > An electronic bill is OK, until you get some debt collecting | > agency asking you two years down the line for payment for a | > service you know that you have already paid for, as has been | > happening to several viewers of Watchdog recently. | | | Bloody hell, do they send you a bill for viewing Watchdog now?

How else could old mother BBC afford it??

This is true but the next bill normally shows any payments made between the two billing dates. I'm on electronic billing for a few untlities, they are stored away on the server that is automagically incrementally backed up every night and a full backup every week with those (and the associated incrementals) kept for a rolling 3 week period.

The best strategy in this sort of situation is to ask to speak to the cancellations department. Tyically staff in that department have more authority to offer you a better deal.

Hmm. I've just been advised that the TV component (we have the XL package) is going up by a quid; but none of the other components of my deal are affected. Except they are reducing by 2.75 GBP my 'loyalty discount', which I negotiated a few months ago with the retentions department. That seems a totally bizarre method of increasing the overall amount they are charging me; you'd think almost designed to make me see red and pull my account? And I might just do that...

David

They've been giving a 1 GBP discount for customers with electronic billing for some time now, so in reality nothing much has actually changed; they've tried the carrot and now it's time for the stick!

David

I think they're disbanding the 2Mb option. They actually rang me to say that the speed was going up but the price was coming down (£27 a month phone and bb). I really can't be arsed to shop around. On balance they've been pretty good, the devil I know etc

Some hope. Most employees on PAYE who have very straightforward tax affairs, will never have been told about the record keeping requirement for individuals, indeed they'll be lucky to even get a notice of coding if nothing changes year on year. OTOH any number of people will have taken all those identity theft warnings to heart and will be busy shredding everything they get, and then the banks are also encouraging their customers not to bother with hard copy statements...

Paul

But you would have the bank statements providing proof of payment?

The more proof the better if a debt collecting agency comes calling :-)

From their pov, if the loyalty discount you negotiated is unprofitable for them, allowing you to "pull the account" may be preferable to keeping your custom. Letting a customer escape is not something that businesses would normally do but the present financial climate is not normal and their survival might be more important.

I hear that ITV, for that very same reason, are considering moving some, or all, of their channels to Sky.

A couple of questions spring to mind: was a time period specified and did you get the agreement in writing - on paper and not just email - or was it just word of mouth?

I have a broadband-only service from Virgin. It was originally taken out with NTL. When they first started their broadband, it was not available as a separate option. After a while, they got the idea that it would be better to sell just broadband to people that wanted it that way, rather than not have them as any kind of customer. Over the years, I have been pretty happy with the level of service and automatic speed upgrades - which are *way* beyond anything that competing technologies can offer - and have stuck with them.

When Virgin took over, it all changed. The prices for a broadband-only service have crept up, and it is now possible to get a deal including TV and phone, for less than I am paying for my fast broadband service. They are forever writing to me and calling me to try to get me to convert. Thing is, I don't want their TV or phone. If I had, I would have taken them, or upgraded to a package with them, on my own.

I like the broadband service that I have with them, and don't want to downgrade to a BT-level one. I suppose that I could convert to a package, and just not use the additional services, but it is annoying that to get a decent price, without having to get on the phone to their cancellations department and have a rant and 'negotiate' a deal of dubious long-term validity, I would have to change the simple service that I have, and have always had ...

Arfa

Fortunately it coincided with a house move and sh*te Freeview for me so changing from broadband only to broadband +TV (and then, on a subsequect move) to B/band +TV + phone made sense - as you say, a competitive package! I too have had excellent service from them. You could revisit whether you want their phone or whatever, I guess - there's no point paying and *not* using them, after all!

If you're an employee on PAYE not working from home, your home telephone/television bill will have precious little to do with your tax affairs.

Neil

For those wanting an unlimited but lower speed broadband package for not too much, Tesco offer one for about 18 quid (plus BT line rental, obviously) for 512K. And I find Freeview more than adequate for television.

Neil