Why does VM want £55 for an "install and activation charge" for me to upgrade to 50MB

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mrk

mrk

mrk

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I phoned to upgrade and was quoted £8 extra month from my 20MB at £28 a month, awesome.

But then they said there is the above charge and at £55 !!!!

A client of mine recently upgraded and said all the "engineer" did was come round, plug the new modem into the wall and leave them with a wireless router.

I don't want the router and I can do the former myself but they said they had to send someone round and that would cost me £55?

I decided not to upgrade now because of the ridiculous charge.

Why do they do this?

Oh yeah, I'm tethering from my phone at the moment as 20MB has an outage issue in the Portsmouth area right now according to their phone line. This happened the other day too which was quite rare for my connection :/
 
It's because your current NTL 250 modem only supports 20mb and Docsis 2.0, whereas 50mb platform runs on the newer Docsis 3.0 framework which requires a new modem.

But yeah - phone them up and complain, say you'll leave Virgin when your contract is up if they dont waive the fee.

It's not a hard process to set the modem up really, £50 is excessive by any means considering you are giving them more money.

Stil...wish i was back on Virgin instead of sky crap.
 
IIIRC part of the charge also covers the router (which on it's own is worth about £100).

However in theory the engineer should be checking signal levels on the line as 50mb uses slightly different frequencies and is, I believe less tolerant of weak/noisy signals.
 
I know it requires a new modem and know it's on docsis 3 but that doesn't answer why they want £55 to just send someone round.

When you sign up the first time they never charged anything but they charge £55 to existing customers...

"Brand New Customers Only"
 
Have you called retentions on 150 where the girl says "if your thinking of leaving us"?
They can do a good deal.
 
There is another thread going on called 'Virgin 50mb Router' in this section. Some people getting their upgrades for free inc the router. That includes me too, have a read.
 
I had problems like this earlier this year. You need to get to a supervisor, they will sort it all out for you, honestly. I went through retentions first.
 
i rang up to day to upgrade from 20mb to 50mb, got the charge waved with out much effort at all really got the first 3 month for 18quid then 28quid after that as i complained about being a customer for 8years+ and cant get as good deal as a new customer! instalaltion date is next friday( the 13th) oohh :D
 
I just phoned up to try the same but the indian sounding guy spoke to his supervisor who said the fee would be waved if I took on another service as well....

I will phone a final time in the daytime in an attempt to speak to someone more local but if they still don't budge then screw them.
 
mrk said:
I just phoned up to try the same but the indian sounding guy spoke to his supervisor who said the fee would be waved if I took on another service as well....

I will phone a final time in the daytime in an attempt to speak to someone more local but if they still don't budge then screw them.
Click to expand...

What number are you using? Every time I've talked to them it's been in scotland, even when they called me today.
 
the engineer shouldn't just be plugging in the router and leaving, he's supposed to check and alter signal levels as required and run a speed test, if its above 36mb then its classed as acceptable.
 
I've got a dude coming round soon for this and am getting the same charge despite the additional V+ box I'm also getting. Apparently £20 is the 50Mb activation, and £35 the installation and V+ box, so I presume they're full of poo. Can't complain though as I'm only paying half price anyway (one of the few benefits of working for DSGi), but can't help feeling like I'm being jacked.
 
if you called some one out to fix your boiler or change a part you would expect to pay no matter how long youve been with them?

I cant really see the difference?
 
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