Virgin Media Discussion Thread

[Caged]

I don't want regulators wasting their time getting into the weeds with what pricing models companies are allowed to adopt, I just want them to have to make it clear (which they do) and to prevent a minimum term automatically rolling into a new one (which they do, for consumers). I personally don't like the practise which is why I won't be a VM customer if I can avoid it, but you have to understand that all the cashback deals, free install offers, Black Friday pricing, introductory prices etc. are paid for by people who forget they are out-of-contract and keep paying the rolling rate.

Social tariffs are a sticking plaster for people's incomes being too low to afford an essential service, I have no idea why the ISPs agreed to it. If the government wants to provide low-cost connectivity to households meeting their criteria for various income levels then they should have signed an agreement with a wholesale provider and started providing service directly, not begged BT, Virgin Media, Sky etc. to have loss-making plans on their rate cards.

The problem of people who aren't in a position to manage their own accounts getting ripped off could be resolved with a piece of legislation that says every service provider in the country needs to give the option of delegating account control to a named third party, this way elderly relatives can still own their account but every change goes through this delegated contact, they can access support on behalf of the account owner etc. It's only going to become more of an issue with an ageing population so you might as well fix it now.

 

[Avalon]

When your mobile contract is up with ID mobile the prices goes from £8 to £10 a month until you rearrange a new contract not £25 to £64 a month, and this is just the basic broadband and house phone package no TV.

Virgin Media's out-of-contract price ramp-up is one of the most aggressive in the industry,

Virgin Media has ~5.69 million UK broadband customers (Q4 2025 figure).

Ofcom reports 8.8 million UK broadband customers are currently out-of-contract and paying higher "standard" rates.

Virgin holds ~20% market share → roughly 1.7–1.8 million Virgin customers are likely on these inflated out-of-contract rates at any time.

Conservative estimate for Virgin:

• Extra revenue per passive customer ≈ £25/month (£300/year)
• Total extra annual revenue from do-nothing customers ≈ £450–£540 million
• Hundreds of millions of pounds in extra annual revenue often from vulnerable elderly customers or those with learning difficulties or mental health problems.

You seem to know a lot about how this works, do you work for Virgin Media?.

Did you really just compare an MVNO with the UK's second-largest network operator who is actively building and overhauling its network? Because that's just silly. In fact, you seem to have pulled a lot of reasonable fact based information and draw some reasonable conclusions, only to then start pulling things out of thin air. £25/m average increase, do you have a basis for that? Your summary of 'vulnerable elderly customers or those with learning difficulties or mental health problems' seems a sweeping generalisation and to ignore social demographics and accepted standards - in general terms the groups you describe usually have access to adult social workers, carers or friends/family members who assist them, and providers have processes to accommodate that without POA. Perhaps consider that you've ignored social demographics, neither VM or any other provider is targeting the groups you have highlighted as 'often' being out of contract, it doesn't tie in with reality.

Simple truth: VM don't want you to call them or interact with them, it costs them money, they just want you to stay in contract as that allows them a level of advanced forecasting that is desirable. They would much rather you just re-contracted, with a modest price bump, which is why the online renewal process is now a thing, and that is essentially what it does with a little manipulation.

To answer your final question, no, I don't work for any ISP at this point, I did work in the industry for a number of years, including for VM doing data analysis and processes development amongst other things, but your incorrect statements about social tariffs and inability to understand simple concepts like how a contract works, and pointing out your convenient omission of why you were charged doesn't need any of that, it's the kind of thing that's obvious to anyone who reads it who's ever had a contract and bothered to read it.

 

[Quad_Ch4nn3L]

I don't want regulators wasting their time getting into the weeds with what pricing models companies are allowed to adopt, I just want them to have to make it clear (which they do) and to prevent a minimum term automatically rolling into a new one (which they do, for consumers). I personally don't like the practise which is why I won't be a VM customer if I can avoid it, but you have to understand that all the cashback deals, free install offers, Black Friday pricing, introductory prices etc. are paid for by people who forget they are out-of-contract and keep paying the rolling rate.

Social tariffs are a sticking plaster for people's incomes being too low to afford an essential service, I have no idea why the ISPs agreed to it. If the government wants to provide low-cost connectivity to households meeting their criteria for various income levels then they should have signed an agreement with a wholesale provider and started providing service directly, not begged BT, Virgin Media, Sky etc. to have loss-making plans on their rate cards.

The problem of people who aren't in a position to manage their own accounts getting ripped off could be resolved with a piece of legislation that says every service provider in the country needs to give the option of delegating account control to a named third party, this way elderly relatives can still own their account but every change goes through this delegated contact, they can access support on behalf of the account owner etc. It's only going to become more of an issue with an ageing population so you might as well fix it now.

To be fair other companies do it to, but sorry no, Virgin making half a billion off venerable and elderly customers is not OK by me, they use that money to build and improve their network? that's why they are still using coax lines from their fibre cabinets that serve a small street or cul-de-sac even when the residents offer to pay towards upgrading the equipment in the box and buy their own few metres of Fibre cables Virgin ignore them, investment ? loyal customers are ignored until they tell Virgin they are going to leave.

Thankfully Open Reach got their act together and
people can vote with their feet. Maybe if Virgin had made the investment they could have retained those customers for life, now they
have probably lost those customers forever.

 

[Broken Hope]

Virgin are upgrading their existing network at pace, in Nottingham at the moment every single day I see new FTTP cabinets being installed next to existing virgin cabinets.

 

[Caged]

Virgin making half a billion off venerable and elderly customers is not OK by me

They aren't though are they, you've made that number up. Lots of elderly customers are perfectly capable of managing utility contracts, providers aren't allowed to and shouldn't assume that just because someone is old that it makes them vulnerable or not able to perform certain tasks. I know a 95 year old that I used to help out with computer stuff probably 20 years ago and she's got more about her than my own father who is 25 years younger.

 

[Quad_Ch4nn3L]

They aren't though are they, you've made that number up. Lots of elderly customers are perfectly capable of managing utility contracts, providers aren't allowed to and shouldn't assume that just because someone is old that it makes them vulnerable or not able to perform certain tasks. I know a 95 year old that I used to help out with computer stuff probably 20 years ago and she's got more about her than my own father who is 25 years younger.

Read my older post.

"Virgin Media has ~5.69 million UK broadband customers (Q4 2025 figure).

Ofcom reports 8.8 million UK broadband customers are currently out-of-contract and paying higher "standard" rates.

Virgin holds ~20% market share → roughly 1.7–1.8 million Virgin customers are likely on these inflated out-of-contract rates at any time.

Conservative estimate for Virgin:

• Extra revenue per passive customer ≈ £25/month (£300/year)
• Total extra annual revenue from do-nothing customers ≈ £450–£540 million
• Hundreds of millions of pounds in extra annual revenue often from vulnerable elderly customers or those with learning difficulties or mental health problems."

I've spent a lot of time with pensioners 70 to 80 year olds its not uncommon for
them to maintain their own finances and independence, but over 80 year olds?
theres more that need some sort of help then don't.

 

[Caged]

That's the post I was referring to. You have no idea if any of your numbers are real, you've just taken their market share of the out-of-contract customers, assigned an arbitrary monthly value to the price difference, and then tried to appeal a bit to people's emotions about the affected people being old or disabled in some way.

The Ofcom number you're citing is old and from this publication https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets...-customers-get-better-deals-2021.pdf?v=327229

The number of customers who were out-of-contract in 2020 fell by around 1.3 million
people from the previous year. In September 2020, 35% (or 7.4 million people) were out-
of-contract compared to 40% (or 8.7 million people) in September 2019, amounting to a
five-percentage point reduction. In November 2018, the comparable figure was 41% or
8.8m.

They also address the price premium for OOC as an industry average, and specifically detail vulnerable customers, the numbers are nowhere close to yours:

As set out in Section 2, our July 2020 broadband pricing review found that that around 40%
of broadband customers were out-of-contract and paying around £4.70 more per month
than their provider’s average price for their service. Vulnerable customers paid a lower
price differential than the average for all out-of-contract customers (£3.90 compared to
£4.70), however, they tended to stay out-of-contract for longer.

We estimated that the impact of price differentials on all out-of-contract broadband
customers was just under £500m per year, and for vulnerable out-of-contract customers it
was just under £80m per year.

 

[Tavis75]

I recently switched back to Virgin after being with another provider for a few years, one thing that was advertised was that they will pay disconnection fees from the previous supplier, but does anyone know how you actually claim that? A few internet searches and hunting round the VM site is not showing any obvious instructions and their help forums are currently shut down. Only due about £45 but obviously would rather have it than not.

 

[aaronyuri]

I recently switched back to Virgin after being with another provider for a few years, one thing that was advertised was that they will pay disconnection fees from the previous supplier, but does anyone know how you actually claim that? A few internet searches and hunting round the VM site is not showing any obvious instructions and their help forums are currently shut down. Only due about £45 but obviously would rather have it than not.

Not sure that's something you would be able to obtain retrospectively. It should be agreed up front and in your offer.

 

[Tavis75]

Not sure that's something you would be able to obtain retrospectively. It should be agreed up front and in your offer.

The offer was advertised with up to £250 of disconnection fees refunded. Everything I've read suggests that after signing up you then submit the disconection bill for the refund, I just can't find out the process to submit it.

 

[MarkeR]

The offer was advertised with up to £250 of disconnection fees refunded. Everything I've read suggests that after signing up you then submit the disconection bill for the refund, I just can't find out the process to submit it.

Once you’ve placed your order, we’ll be in touch with how to claim your switching credit

Just googled virgin switch credit and it is the top link.. That is what it states..

 

[Zenduri]

They’re still going to find ways to scam us.

Got my renewal email to say my deal for only M500 broadband is rising to £74 in May, but if I renew now it’ll be just £31 a month.

Bullcrap.

That’s just copying Tesco’s BS claims that a non-Clubcard price is £5, when I’ve been buying the item for 30 years and it’s never been anywhere near £5. Lying through their teeth.


£31 also just happens to be the price I can get Vodafone’s 900mb for - minus whatever gift card/cashback is available at the time.

My 500mb is ending and its going to £66 I'm currently arguing with them. They offered £42 on their webchat, while i could just press the renew button on my online account for £31.......... I pointed this out to them and they tried to tell me £31 was a new customer price, despite it being a renewal price i can do myself!

Yesterday i checked my account and the renewal price i can do myself dropped to £28.50........... so i rang them up, got quoted £27 is the lowest they can do. Lodged my termination notice as Vodafone are doing 900mb FTTP for £25 and so are Rise and even Sky. Like clockwork had a call from them today offering £26 and netflix, told them to call me back in a few hours as i'm going to "speak to" vodafone and rise. Lets see what they can do.

Anyone renewed 500mb if so what prices have you had?

 

[Zenduri]

Ended up agreeing £25 for 500mb, 1st month free, so effectively £24 a month and free netflix for 2 yr

 

[uscool]

Ended up agreeing £25 for 500mb, 1st month free, so effectively £24 a month and free netflix for 2 yr

£29 from April 27 ?

 

[Zenduri]

£29 from April 27 ?

Yeah, no increase this April and £29 in april 2027 but effectively £28 a month since i have 1 month free

 

[Cob]

Tbh I’m wanting to dump O2 more than Virgin. It’s absolutely dog-water around here and I’m fed up waving my phone around trying to get a signal just to use Apple Pay in the newsagents.

And since there’s no way I’d have one without the other, I’m going to be dumping both once my notice period begins at the end of next month.

 

[ChrisD.]

Tbh I’m wanting to dump O2 more than Virgin. It’s absolutely dog-water around here and I’m fed up waving my phone around trying to get a signal just to use Apple Pay in the newsagents.

And since there’s no way I’d have one without the other, I’m going to be dumping both once my notice period begins at the end of next month.

Apple Pay doesn’t need an internet connection.

 

[aaronyuri]

Apple Pay doesn’t need an internet connection.

It would be like your debit/credit card needing Internet connectivity... The POS terminal probably has Internet access as the days of ISDN lines for POS are dying.

@Cob the NFC chip is just an antenna that transmits your card info to the POS terminal. It's then on the POS supplier to do the payment processing.

 

[Cob]

Apple Pay doesn’t need an internet connection.

TIL.

 

[HighlandeR]

Are you guys still haggling to get prices down big time? Not sure I got the energy to go through it again

I see new customers VM site, 1gig bb + Netflix with ads, phone, mega TV pack and 02/£10 per month sim only and TNT sports hitting £103 per month, that is not far off from what I am currently paying.

I take it people on here are paying £60 for it