Keep an eye on your bill !

Be very careful with your bill. They just hit me with a price increase not priorly informed of.

I have just a broadband package which states a set price for 12 months with an installation fee. There was a general price increase on November 1st which I did not receive confirmation of nor is it in my contract that my introductory plan was subject to any increase. Low and behold, my latest bill goes up by £2.99 a month.

Their online chat service is never available, there is no availability of the previous contact with customers online nor could I find any such confirmation of an increase.

I called Virgin media today - the lady talked over me, told me a confirmation had been sent but she could not provide that email confirmation to me and then told me to stop being rude. I have lost my voice, so was unable to raise my voice in any way; I was explaining my situation when she just cut me off saying 'I'm going to just put through to THE TEAM'. I was already on hold by the time I got through to what was actually the retention team.

I spoke to the person I dealt with there, who rectified the problem and gave me a credit of the £2.99 per month until my contract expires; so all worked out in the end - I assume a glitch in the system that means even us 'new favoured' customers get stung and they cash in on those who don't notice or check that they shouldn't get an increase.

With this in mind, what they're doing here is illegal. A notice must be given of any increase and it must be stated in the T&Cs that price increases are allowed on introductory offers, neither of which happened here.
Had I have not checked my bill regularly and noticed this discrepancy, contacted them myself and specified my knowledge of the law, I would have just been charged more - who knows how much more I would have been charged going forward.

This company has the monopoly in my area, I was with a previous provider when I moved here and couldn't get more than 1MB download speed so I do not have a choice but to go with VM. This makes it very difficult to be a consumer and action my right to pay to be with a fair and trusted company.

If you have a problem with your bill, don't call the normal number, they won't help you. The retention team can be called.