The rising cost of living

[Brumstopdogs]

6 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

I'm not one to defend these companies, but they do need to quote Britsh Gas profits on there own, not Centrica who own them, they own alot of other companies 1 also being the AA.

Sold them back in about 2004....

[Genie]

16 minutes ago, jones1328 said:

Virgin Media have decided to increase my monthly broadband package by £7 a month, a tidy 44% increase. 

Ring them up, threaten to leave, you’ll get it lower than you were paying before.

[Demitri_C]

39 minutes ago, jones1328 said:

Virgin Media have decided to increase my monthly broadband package by £7 a month, a tidy 44% increase. 

Not suprising  call them cancel and they will reduce it back to what it was that's what they did.  Cheeky bastards 

[foreveryoung]

2 hours ago, blandy said:

If you want to (you really don't - trust me) see their accounts and the figures etc. then you can view them as a pdf.

They've done exceedingly well, this last year and their share price his risen on the back of these figures. Not sure where the 75m comes from. They raked it in, but accounting has then done its magic. I think via including contracts they have to provide future energy (gas, lecky) of so many units at such and such a price - that's counted, I think, as a Negative and brings the figures down, which is nice for them. Probably needs an accountant to explain the complexities. But essentially their own report says adjusted EBITDA (earnings before tax etc.) measures business performance and they have seen a major leap.

Anyway, here's a snippet

 

Cheers for clearing that up, I have actually called them out on many occasions on here, but have been shot down by being told it's not there fault they are making shit loads of money as the energy prices are set by the market not actually the energy companies. So apparently we can't call them disgusting corporate words removed for making billions while the poor and disabled wonder weather to keep warm or eat.

[blandy]

2 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

told it's not there fault they are making shit loads of money

Exactly.  That’s the whole thing.  It’s something almost totally outside their control or influence.  They ( and others) haven’t earned extra money from smart choices or actions, they just got lucky, basically. Very lucky.

[Genie]

Hence the term windfall.

I agree it’s not their fault. Government’s around the world have the power to either 1) change the calculation which creates the price either permanently or temporarily or 2) tax it down, and hand the money to be people who need it.

They didn’t, any anger should be directed at them (governments).

Edited February 17, 2023 by Genie

[Genie]

I just cancelled my vodafone broadband early. Whilst it’s been decent service it is expensive, and going up by about 13 or 14% next month (inflation plus 3.9% the robbing bastards). The early termination fee is less than half of what I’d pay over the remainder of the contract.

I have VM broadband but previously it was so shit I couldn’t count on it for 2 of us WFH. Since then however they gave me a new hub and a couple of pods which provide me a good signal across the house. 

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Genie

[tinker]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

I just cancelled my vodafone broadband early. Whilst it’s been decent service it is expensive, and going up by about 13 or 14% next month. The early termination fee is less than half of what I’d pay over the remainder of the contract.

I have VM broadband but previously it was so shit I couldn’t count on it for 2 of us WFH. Since then however they gave me a new hub and a couple of pods which provide me a good signal across the house. 

 

Virgin just hit me with the inflation plus 3.9% increase, told them to cancel as I have a 5G router I'm going to use. They cancelled the increase completely.

[Davkaus]

4 minutes ago, Genie said:

I just cancelled my vodafone broadband early. Whilst it’s been decent service it is expensive, and going up by about 13 or 14% next month (inflation plus 3.9% the robbing bastards). The early termination fee is less than half of what I’d pay over the remainder of the contract.

 

 

Funny, just yesterday I got a letter from Vodafone letting me know that as a Virgin Media customer, my bill would be going up by about 14%, and I could leave and join them for a much better deal.

Robbing bastards all round.

[Follyfoot]

8 minutes ago, Genie said:

I just cancelled my vodafone broadband early. Whilst it’s been decent service it is expensive, and going up by about 13 or 14% next month (inflation plus 3.9% the robbing bastards). The early termination fee is less than half of what I’d pay over the remainder of the contract.

I have VM broadband but previously it was so shit I couldn’t count on it for 2 of us WFH. Since then however they gave me a new hub and a couple of pods which provide me a good signal across the house. 

 

EE  same, just had an email advising me of the good news

[Genie]

Yeah, most companies are on the inflation plus 3.9% con.

My VM is fixed at an excellent price so I should be ok with them for the next year or so.

350mb broadband, TV with all the base channels and BT Sports, landline (never plugged in) for £37 a month. I also got an O2 sim with 12gb of data as a VM customer for £6 a month which my son uses. 

[Genie]

1 minute ago, Follyfoot said:

EE  same, just had an email advising me of the good news

It might be worth doing the sums to see if it’s worth paying up to end it early then getting a new deal with someone else.

[Genie]

I wonder if the inflation plus 3.9% thing is another dividend of Brexit? It seems like the kind of thing the EU would not allow. Mid contract rises of inflation maybe, but why are they slapping another 3.9% on top? It just fuels inflation even more. Our government are very quiet on the subject.

[sidcow]

27 minutes ago, Genie said:

I just cancelled my vodafone broadband early. Whilst it’s been decent service it is expensive, and going up by about 13 or 14% next month (inflation plus 3.9% the robbing bastards). The early termination fee is less than half of what I’d pay over the remainder of the contract.

I have VM broadband but previously it was so shit I couldn’t count on it for 2 of us WFH. Since then however they gave me a new hub and a couple of pods which provide me a good signal across the house. 

 

Haha.  I've just had a letter through the door from Vodafone asking me if I've just had bad news from Virgin media and advertising their services, yet they're doing exactly the same thing.

Strange you've had issued with VM, mine is usually pretty much perfect.  Had a bit of downtime early in lockdown but it rarely lasts for a few hours, and not had any downtime in months now.

[sidcow]

24 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Funny, just yesterday I got a letter from Vodafone letting me know that as a Virgin Media customer, my bill would be going up by about 14%, and I could leave and join them for a much better deal.

Robbing bastards all round.

 

Just now, sidcow said:

Haha.  I've just had a letter through the door from Vodafone asking me if I've just had bad news from Virgin media and advertising their services, yet they're doing exactly the same thing.

Strange you've had issued with VM, mine is usually pretty much perfect.  Had a bit of downtime early in lockdown but it rarely lasts for a few hours, and not had any downtime in months now.

[Genie]

Just now, sidcow said:

Haha.  I've just had a letter through the door from Vodafone asking me if I've just had bad news from Virgin media and advertising their services, yet they're doing exactly the same thing.

Strange you've had issued with VM, mine is usually pretty much perfect.  Had a bit of downtime early in lockdown but it rarely lasts for a few hours, and not had any downtime in months now.

The connection is always fine, the issue we had that the router lacked grunt and didn’t give a decent signal in the corners of the house. 
The new hub combined with one of their pods have sorted that issue out.

[Davkaus]

8 minutes ago, sidcow said:

 

What I'm interested in is, in a world with GDPR, how do they know I'm a Virgin Media customer, and what lawful basis do they have to send me targeted advertising without any kind of relationship with me. Seems like the kind of thing they shouldn't be allowed to do anymore.

[sidcow]

2 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

What I'm interested in is, in a world with GDPR, how do they know I'm a Virgin Media customer, and what lawful basis do they have to send me targeted advertising without any kind of relationship with me. Seems like the kind of thing they shouldn't be allowed to do anymore.

Mine just came addressed at "to the occupier" so was untargeted just guessing I expect.

[chrisp65]

Just contact your supplier and say you like the bill to be smaller. You don’t need any other reason, you just want to pay less.

The first person will say there’s nothing they can do, you say its a shame but you’ll have to look at other service providers, they connect you to someone that can knock your bill down enough for you not to bother switching.

You should really have that as an annual event in your calendar.

 

[Rds1983]

8 hours ago, Genie said:

It might be worth doing the sums to see if it’s worth paying up to end it early then getting a new deal with someone else.

@Follyfoot if they're putting your bill up you should be able to cancel your contract without paying a penalty:

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/guides/cancel-broadband-contract-early/

"Sometimes, your provider may increase the cost of your monthly bill – even if you’re mid-contract. They should let you know about any price hikes in writing.

Luckily, thanks to Ofcom rules, once you’ve been notified of a price change, you’ll have 30 days to cancel your existing contract without paying a penalty.

It’s quite common for providers to increase their prices at least once a year. So, you can use this as an opportunity to leave your contract early."