Virgin Media costs balloon by MEEELLIONS in wake of Brexit

Me. And as soon as various negotiated deals I had with them expired and they refused to renew them (they didn't have the capacity for a phone line to accompany the TV & Broadband, so I was unable to get certain deals through no fault of my own), the costs started creeping up and up and up.

" is anyone not on a promotional offer with them?"

Unfortunately yes. Their half price for the first 6 month type offers are only available to new customers.

Also I don't know if it's the case with call customers, but following the end of my contract with them they offered me a loyalty discount to stay however it was not for the full term of the new contract only about half of it and doesn't isolate me from price increases I guess because it's a discount and not a promotional offer strictly speaking.

Same here so I just cancelled the TV subscription.

They tried their best to "persuade" me to keep it...

All I need is the broadband. After all you can get most of your viewing pleasure from Freeview and On Demand services.

And I never had the telephone from them.

Re: They are a media company

Don't forget all the customer hardware, phones, cable modems, set top boxes etc. They're just about to start handing out their shiny new 4k STB which has probably just become 10% more expensive.

Re: They are a media company

Fibre cable, coax, headend equipment, ...

Re: They are a media company

Virgin Media Business are also Tier 1 resellers for some of the big IT names.

Many companies hedge their dollar rate but VMB don't. So as soon as the sterling/dollar rate tanked, VMB passed the price rises straight onto their customers.

Anon 'cause in my day job was buy kit through VMB.

Re: They are a media company ( import costs )

I believe their main investment is importing the tons of paper that they use to spam every single household as often as humanly possible. Including those that are already with Virgin Media. That must come from abroad.

Also, the guy on their ad on the telly who can move his feet really fast must be paid in dollars, so that must have gone up too...

Re: They are a media company

Most likely that as well as cable equipment. The pound went down quite a bit for a while, so if there were payments due for either, they got royally screwed on the exchange rate.

Re: They are a media company

...but some/most of the network stuff - much of the £5Bn investment - is bound to be made in Europe.

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Why the hell is any employer trying to tell its employees how to vote?

That's just rude, condescending, and surely must be against the rules, no?

What next? Are HR digging through all the people who DIDN'T vote in the companies interest for some "special attention"?

Personal politics and being an employee or employer have precisely nothing to do with each other.

Re: If Brexit means that the UK goes to the back of the queue to have TTIP imposed on it

I think it has promoted us to the front of the queue, because the cheerleaders for the treaty are basically our government. The rest of the EU didn't like the loss of national sovereignty, and without us pushing it, it is dead in the water.

Now our government will be free to use the TTIP as a template. (Or go back to square one and negotiate something else for seven or eight years.)

My guess we will have our own UK-US TTIP signed before the ink is dried on the Brexit decree absolute, unless pressure from us stops them.

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

"If Brexit means that the UK goes to the back of the queue to have TTIP imposed on it then so much the better"

Assuming TTIP doesn't get imposed before Brexit I'd guess we'd be in front of the queue. All this thrashing about to negotiate new trade treaties is going to leave us vulnerable to being screwed like this. It wouldn't surprise me if we were lumbered with TTP as well, just in case there are bits in TTIP which are less disadvantageous to us.

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Unfortunately for that theory the EU's TTIP negociations with the US are collapsing as I type making it more likely that we will jump to the front of a non existent queue. Boris and the Brexiteers are TTIP fans.

But don't worry there is are two rather bigger issues to resolve first. Firstly we have to leave the EU, then secondly we have to re-establish our WTO quotas and tariffs, we have none at the moment and joy of joys that will require us to start negotiating with the EU immediately after having finished the first round. We will need to extract our share of the quota allocated to the EU as a whole from the EU. Oh and we will need to re-negotiate our tariffs with the WTO, who as a highly political consensus based organisation are tricky at best to to deal with. The "experts" dont expect us to get any change out of 5 years with a decade being a more likely timeline,

Then and only then can we start negotiating all those amazingly lucrative trade deals Fox and Davis want us to think are just around the corner. By that time most of the people who voted to leave will be dead anyway which will be some sort of delayed justice.

"I get about 4-5 very large bits of junk mail from Virgin. Every month!"

We seem to be off their list now. I think they've finally realised that they have no cable or fibre near here not any likelihood of installing any (last time some work was done on the gas mains the team doing it were horrified when they discovered how tough the rock was just below the road surface). It seems that our neighbours who had Virgin boradband were encouraged to leave.

Me too.

Ironically, I do HAVE Virgin media for TV, broadband and (never answered it) phone.

I file it in the recycling bin directly.

The amount of money printed and wasted and then moved directly to my recycling bin must be enormous when you scale it up to the rest of the country. Local papers is another source of kindling. And unaddressed "IMPORTANT WATER INFORMATION" envelopes which I've reported a couple of times because they are basically trying to defraud little old ladies into thinking their water softeners are something official supplied or required by the water board or similar.

That said, I like to pick out the ones for the local tuition centres, correct their English (one of them misspelled "Introductory" in the sentence "Introductory Lessons In English" - I was pissing myself) and post it back to them or splat it over Facebook.

"I get about 4-5 very large bits of junk mail from Virgin. Every month!"

Hmm. Liberty Global in my bit of Europe charges a quid or two a month for printed invoices.

Re: following Brexit????

Next year before anyone has said they'll push the button.

Two year process AT BEST after that.

Just in time for the next elected sucker to deal with the consequences.

Coincidence?

Re: VM Television is fairly pants

The mother-in-law-to-be has Virgin, and has the TiVo box. I don't understand how they could put this in to the home of people? It's slow to load the guides, it's hard to navigate the listings. It's just an awful, awful experience. Then you get the whole "There's been an unexpected problem with this channel".

I have, reluctantly, signed up to BT Infinity as they were a few quid cheaper than Virgin for the same service. The internet is good, it hasn't gone down in the 9 months I've had it. But the YouView box is actually really nice. It's easy to use, responsive, it's everything that the Virgin TiVo isn't. Plus it's handy that the extra channels I pay £10 a month for are sent via the internet, meaning I can plug in a YouView box upstairs and watch the same channels at no extra monthly cost.

Re: VM Television is fairly pants

VM TV offering isn't that bad, neither is the TiVo, though it is true that UI responsiveness has slowed ridiculously in recent months and is getting quite annoying now.

The price increase is just over 8% for my package. The cost of USD priced items have risen around 15%. I expect 'VM UK' will be paying for using 'VM US' sourced services. I don't know if that's a fair increase or not but it's still cheaper for me than what others offer.

At least they didn't spin the latest increase as if it were 'great news' for customers which they have had a tendency to do in the past.

Re: Note to editors

Thanks for reaching out.

Re: You never let a serious crisis go to waste

Brexit may not have happened yet but there has been a definite shift in the economy as the world gears up ready for it. Those increased costs are happening now, not in 2 years time, and need to be passed on now where appropriate. Any company that has to import from abroad is affected by this, how many companies do you think manufacture in China? Every shipping container now costs 7% more and unless your margins are high enough (like Apple) then that cost needs to be passed on or businesses suffer. And those costs will increase again post-Brexit once import tariffs get added on for anything imported from the EU, as well whatever tariffs are then imposed as a result of having to renegotiate with every single other country out there.

Re: I call bullshit on this

So the pound hasn't dropped?

Though to be fair, if when article 50 is invoked, it is made clear that EEA membership is the target and the pound recovers, I bet the savings won't be passed on.

Re: I call bullshit on this

"Until article 50 is invoked there is no change to Britain's position in the EU"

I call bullshit on your bullshit. The pound was affected straight-away and that's what raises costs.