Au revoir to VM from me. Thanks all.
I’ve been lurking in this sub for quite a while keeping an eye on things, but as I appear to be exiting soon, I thought I’d drop an actual post before I go. So, up front, thanks to everyone who posts and shares their info and stories as it has all collectively been helpful in decision making.
My 1GB Virgin Broadband has been largely strong and stable in the last few years (problems historically) so I won’t knock the current product per se, but I’m at the end of my contract and, as expected, the default “offers” are atrocious. Increasing bill by 27% once current contract runs out unless I lock in again. Offering a 5% discount on half a year-ish if I lock in now, with April increases that are ~6% and then jumps 30% when out of contract again. As has been said many times before here - there is no sniff of a longtime customer discount or accounting for paying over the odds compared to many. It would be truly fascinating to see the distribution chart of their customer charges for the same services.
I’m going to move to Community Fibre, where I estimate I’ll effectively be getting an 80% cost reduction on the next 2yrs as a new customer (3 Months free, a period of discount, base prices are just significantly lower anyway and (for now) annual increases are estimated a lot lower). I’m not sure if the same maths would work for others but that just indicates how high my VM bill has become over the years by not paying enough attention and assuming what I was being offered as a price would be reasonably competitive (It wasn’t).
I know the “retention team” may be there with some form of offer (although that appears to get mixed results) but in all honesty, for now, I just have a bad taste in my mouth around how VMs pricing practices have been over the last few years and I’m hoping somewhere the collective impact of our exits gets them (and other ISPs) to change them.
Anyhoo, thanks again all and here’s hoping the grass is genuinely greener on the other side…