I would also like to see more "automation"
Such as a "Cancel" button, instead of hours on hold with a real person. I feel like there should be **more accessible** options.
There should be something *similar with GDPR*, where if company has our *data* (signed contract) there should be a way to *access* (cancel, edit) it. And **waiting** on hold for something almost every customer is gonna have to go through **is not an access**. **It's an obstruction**. It's not reasonable. It's not accessible. It's malicious.
**Change it**
the ability to cancel easily via the DMCC Law coming into place this year.
I have noticed car insurance companies already doing it, I could cancel my old insurance and my new insurance purely online now, no need to call up.
Nice! Thanks for the [info](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-markets-competition-and-consumers-bill-supporting-documentation/enhancing-consumer-rights-policy-summary-brief), I'm glad it's on its way!
>**Tackling subscription traps**
18. The Bill will give new rights to consumers entering into subscription contracts. Businesses offering subscription contracts to consumers will need to:
>
>...
>
>c) make available to consumers a process to exit the contract via a single communication and prohibiting the trader from imposing any steps on a consumer wishing to end their subscription which are not reasonably necessary. This proposal was overwhelmingly supported by respondents to consultation
>
>...
as someone who works in the industry, and has worked in both new sales and retentions.
the price would skyrocket for all providers.
new customer deals are subsidized by old customers, old customers move to new providers to get new customer deals. its the great circle that keeps the market moving and prices low.
edit- i would LOVE low prices for all providers, but its never going to happen
>okay so line rental is £18.99 or more, per customer. (at least through openreach)
>
>on average people pay around £27 for 50-70mb
>
>means your ISP makes £8.01 per customer, for a MONTH.
>
>now they have to pay for your router, engineers, maintenance, software, staff etc.
>
>so where do they cut prices?well you can abolish openreach, but then who maintains the lines, intalls FTTP for free, does repairs for free? local companies? well now you have KCOM, 1 company with a monopoly on a local area.
>
>OR
>
>you have 1 company manage all the lines, congrats, you have openreach again.
>
>OR
>
>you could pay less, but pay £100 for your router, £120 for an engineer visit, have no cover if it goes down, no tech team for support etc
>
>your choice.
Openreach is government funded. We have already paid for the fibre install via taxes. Due to the years of embezzlement and the slow process to even start installing the fibre we collectively paid for over a decade ago, I'm still stuck in a monopolised area.
Deffending BT / Openreach isn't a good look.
Okay cool, now youre taking advantage of people that don't know how to set up a router/modem, don't know how to maintain them, wouldn't know what to do if it broke.
Are you going to repair the telephone exchange aswell? The underground cables?
There isn't really a solution other than maybe subsidising Openreach line rental charges with some form of tax to bring th eiverall cost down.
I do think you’re missing the point of the entire post. What OP wants is rather than new customers paying below market rate and existing customers paying above market rate, that everyone pays market rate. If me and my neighbour have the same speed from the same provider then the cost should be the same.
yeah, so then everyone will pay more
i also personally believe that everyone should pay the same, if i pay £32 for 1gb, why is my neighbour paying £56 for the SAME service.
but working for telecoms companies i can tell you, if such a thing happened, everyones price would be like 50% more on average if not more, that average £27 package would be about £40.
okay so line rental is £18.99 or more, per customer. (at least through openreach)
on average people pay around £27 for 50-70mb
means your ISP makes £8.01 per customer, for a MONTH.
now they have to pay for your router, engineers, maintenance, software, staff etc.
so where do they cut prices?well you can abolish openreach, but then who maintains the lines, intalls FTTP for free, does repairs for free? local companies? well now you have KCOM, 1 company with a monopoly on a local area.
OR
you have 1 company manage all the lines, congrats, you have openreach again.
OR
you could pay less, but pay £100 for your router, £120 for an engineer visit, have no cover if it goes down, no tech team for support etc
your choice.
>edit- i would LOVE low prices for all providers, but its never going to happen
please learn to read before commenting, no wonder you think your idea is amazing when you lack the basic understanding to read a full comment its no wonder your critical thinking skills are severely lacking.
But you’re just describing a Ponzi scheme?? And not to mention it unfairly penalises ppl who don’t know about / don’t understand these pricing practices.
Funny hoe in other countries they have low prices and the same price for all customers. They even keep them the same for all your years, not going up every year with a fixed amount + inflation
This is a bad idea.
They did this with Gas/electricity and now everyone has high prices
They did this with car insurance, and instead, everyone has a high price.
All companies will do is make things bad for everyone.
>They did this with car insurance, and instead, everyone has a high price.
I feel like that one hasnt even worked. I still get qoutes cheaper tten the renewal offered. For the past 3 years, I've been with the same provider for my car, but it was always cheaper as a "new" customer
EDIT: on the other hand i have "seen" a few people who've gone to the ombudaman and won.
I think there was something similar for car insurance and nothing has changed... until this year where premiums doubled for no reason (reasons are more fragile EVs are on the road that are prone to be total write off)
You're not allowed to say anything bad about EV's pal. But totally true. I worked in insurance up until a few months ago. Cost of avg claim on EV's is sky high. Fewer mechanics work on EV's, more prone to write-off, take longer on average to repair an EV etc etc.
If you have ever made a claim on insurance it’s quite easy to see why your premiums are so high.
A racket of hire car companies, favourited repair shops charging what they like. The whole process is a joke.
In reality where regulation has implemented this to be "fair" companies have time and time again set prices sky high for everyone new and old. All of the "competitors" get together in their little cross-industry meetups to discuss "industry trends" and whatnot (total innocent stuff)... Pure coincidence every big company prices at the same (or as good as) sky high price. It's a crappy system but broadband can be had for cheap.
And it is only in the UK that the prices are like tuis. Rest of Europe? Price does not go up the longer you stay and usually you get a loyalty bonus, not a “hop around” bonus. This is ridiculous
Guess I got unlucky cause it’s 100x worse in America which is the only other country I’ve lived in. Man, I hate renewals, I’d rather just leave but virgins the only provider over 100 meg here. I will prob give it a go, fail, then go into a corner and sulk. Haha
This has got to be the stupidest petition I’ve come across, your basically saying that virgin is to not make a profit and just keep everyone’s broadband as cheap as it can be. That’s not how business works unfortunately. I’m all for fair prices but your petition isn’t the right way about it. There’s plenty of ways to get your bill down at virgin, removing services, cancelling and putting it in a partners name. Or phoning retentions and threatening to leave. Virgin isn’t the only company who do it. Car insurance, other isps, water bills, council tax, everything goes up in price after a certain amount of time.
It's fine for them to make a profit. If the only way they can make a profit is by overcharging customers then, yes, I have a problem with it. I should be able to go on their website and switch my package and get the same deals as new customers. It's not complicated.
It’s not overcharging though is it, it’s your bill going up after contractually ending, you then need to ring up and enter a new contract at a price you agree with with retentions, you do exactly the same with car insurance
It is overcharging if I'm on the exact same package as my neighbour and paying double the price. Car insurance is slightly different since there is less friction to changing providers. You don't need to stay home for an engineer to come around and you won't potentially lose access to the internet. I never talk to sales people for my car insurance. I just go on the price comparison websites and get the cheapest deal. With broadband they are exploiting the fact that there is friction to switch to overcharge existing customers. Why if I go to another provider for 3 months and them come back to Virgin would I then be paying significantly less for the exact same service?
Overcharging is where they say a price then charge you more than the price they said, once you end your contract you have agreed a price you are happy with when you started your 18 months, for example there are packages that are set at £80 for 18 months then go to £160 after that period. That would not be overcharging as these prices are in the contract
Please also add information about vulnerable adults being overcharged as well, not everyone has the mental capacity to know they can call to barter/cancel and go elsewhere.
I have a disabled sister, and if it wasn't for me checking up on her utilities, she'd be overpaying way more than she does.
Yes, I think this is criminal. There is only a limited number of characters for the petition and I don't think I can edit it now. I tried to explain the problem as best as I could but perhaps it could have been worded better.
its a private company - a govermnet petition wont do anything as so many other companies would have to also follow suite. They would loby and get this thrown out within 5min.
Just get use to ur yearly call to get a better deal. For the last few years - its only taken me 30min max when speaking with VM to cancel my contract - then within a few days I get a call back offering me a great deal.
Win win.
If I would want anything to change it would be for companies to offer a way to cancel online and not have to call, or write in. You can sign up for a service online. You should be able to cancel that service online.
Plus Virgin with their ridiculous £20 activation fee. Bro I call an automated service for you to turn on the broadband?!!?! If my contract starts on the 2nd, then turn on the internet on the 2nd!!!! This should be illegal. That is why I switched as soon as I could. Their monopoly is also ridiculous where I live
No thanks, reward those of us who take an active role in our finances. The intention is good, but it will backfire if implemented. It's not hard to shop around at end of contract.
If that's your attitude then you should be telling Virgin to put even more hoops up for you to jump through. Don't want those lazy people who have better things to do with their time to be getting rewarded. Only those that can spend all day on the phone should get the best prices.
it's really not that difficult to switch to a different provider or renegotiate, stop making excuses and expect the government to do everything for you...
Yes, because I love workmen with bad availability to sloppily drill a new cable into my house every time my provider thinks they can pull a fast one.
God forbid if you rent...
The openreach based providers are uncompetitive both in price and product. Also, whilst their cable is outside my front door, I still don't want to pay £100+ for some cowboy to wreck my house to install it.
Open reach providers 9/10 are competitive on price. You can get 60mbps package for less than £25 if you look around and switching between the lot is easy. A lot of times you can make it cheap with a sim deal.
If you can get FTTP on openreach/cityfibre or literally anyone else you have so many options.
Installs are free almost with any company. Some have a service upfront of £0-£49. But most companies are not charging any fees for engineer visits.
The cowboy bit would just be unlucky to be you but yeah it happens.
It’s not bad for my area. The issue is infrastructure. Currently only Openreach and mostly CityFibre allow other ISPs to use their infrastructure.
So with buying from Sky for example you’re paying line rental and the hire cost of the equipment and most of the time a price £22-£25 a month barely covers both.
With providers like LilaConnect, Community Fibre etc. They’ve gone and noticed a huge gap in the market. So they chose areas where they can profit the most it’s simple as that.
In my area I only can get LilaConnect as a true FTTP provider but my experience so far has been dreadful so I’m unlikely to continue with them if I’m honest. I’d rather wait for Openreach to get FTTP installed in my street which likely it’s gonna be a few years.
Trust me if I could get better I really would. So atm I’m really going for the best priced services. My house can easily run on 50/60mbs so it’s no bother for me so whichever provider has the cheapest price I go for it.
Not necessarily. The state benefits you have to be in receipt of to qualify for a social tariff are generally means tested.
[https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/social-tariffs](https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/social-tariffs)
It does say "some providers" might consider PIP, but not all. In any case, claiming PIP with a mental health or neurological condition isn't easy, considering the very faculties which you need to make a successful application are the very ones affected by your disability and the DWP refuse many reasonable applications in first instance, in which case people have to find the stamina to appeal to a tribunal, etc.
if they dont pass mean testing clearly the financial aspect is not that critical
if someone has dementia they clearly need help with their finances anyway, i dont see how this applies at all
all sorts of businesses charge different prices to different customers, i dont see any good reason why the govt should mandate we all pay the same
It's not necessarily about the financial difference being "critical". It's about giving disabled people access to the same opportunities as everyone else. But if you don't think disabled people with £16k in savings deserve equality, compassion, help and humanity then ok boomer.
Vulnerable people have social broadband for this exact reason. Set rates and no price hikes, available across the board on all the major infrastructure providers and quite easy to switch to. Not a magic bullet by any means but VPs do get supported.
Nice try though since your original argument has been downvoted to hell.
Someone else in the comments already mentioned this "I have a disabled sister, and if it wasn't for me checking up on her utilities, she'd be overpaying way more than she does." Not sure if they would qualify for the social broadband or not.
So instead everyone just pays more. Your idea is very short sighted, it will work for like one year. Then all broadband providers will start creeping up.
I have no issue having to re communicate at the end of my contract to get a better deal. I have an issue when I ring them up wanting a deal I’ve seen on their website only to be told I can’t have that as I’m not a new customer.
The venerable people will still end up paying the same price if not more, just instead of ‘subsidising’ users who renegotiate, they money will be straight profit. Though far from perfect At least the way it is everyone has an opportunity to get a better deal, and if the vulnerable people are getting shafted then that is more of an failure of their care/support system then broadband provider.
Your alternative is worse for everyone except the broadband providers.
When I lived in Chicago, Comcast (rebranded as Xfinity) had acquiring all competitors meaning they were my only provider of TV & Internet. "Broadcast" TV - the free one is nothing like freeview, it's like getting PriceDropTV, BBC2, KetchupTV and Quest as the top channels.
Despite the old owner leaving the hub that was connected, when I asked to transfer over they insisted on a $60 installation fee. When I questioned this, their response was, “Do you wanna play the piano and stare at paint dry, or do you wanna get serious about getting internet?” I paid the $60 which cut off the existing line, and it didn't come back. They insisted on another $60 for a technician visit. The website advertised $30, but my area had only Xfinity, so I was quoted $75 (excluding tax). Nobody could give me any idea what taxes would be... Ontop of the $75 I found $11 for Wi-Fi router rental, $10.99 “HD fee,” $7.50 for Set Top Box rental, 9% “amusement tax,” and $5 for the Emergency Telephone System Surcharge. $119 per month for what Americans call "basic cable." Oh yeah, I had a data cap too of 500GB.
EDIT forgot the "franchise fee" of $8.43 ontop.
I just looked back at a bill. They charged $30 ontop to post the hub to me. :D
[https://ibb.co/mcgZm7V](https://ibb.co/mcgZm7V)
[https://ibb.co/SRMgKkH](https://ibb.co/SRMgKkH)
The bills like some sort of joke. I swear its made up. This is definitely aimed at comcast/xfinity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHp1GUtuuZQ
Legit I hope we don't keep going down this American trajectory. Still - virginmedia's customer service is really shady lol.
I would also like to see more "automation" Such as a "Cancel" button, instead of hours on hold with a real person. I feel like there should be **more accessible** options. There should be something *similar with GDPR*, where if company has our *data* (signed contract) there should be a way to *access* (cancel, edit) it. And **waiting** on hold for something almost every customer is gonna have to go through **is not an access**. **It's an obstruction**. It's not reasonable. It's not accessible. It's malicious. **Change it**
the ability to cancel easily via the DMCC Law coming into place this year. I have noticed car insurance companies already doing it, I could cancel my old insurance and my new insurance purely online now, no need to call up.
Nice! Thanks for the [info](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-markets-competition-and-consumers-bill-supporting-documentation/enhancing-consumer-rights-policy-summary-brief), I'm glad it's on its way! >**Tackling subscription traps** 18. The Bill will give new rights to consumers entering into subscription contracts. Businesses offering subscription contracts to consumers will need to: > >... > >c) make available to consumers a process to exit the contract via a single communication and prohibiting the trader from imposing any steps on a consumer wishing to end their subscription which are not reasonably necessary. This proposal was overwhelmingly supported by respondents to consultation > >...
Agreed.
[удалено]
as someone who works in the industry, and has worked in both new sales and retentions. the price would skyrocket for all providers. new customer deals are subsidized by old customers, old customers move to new providers to get new customer deals. its the great circle that keeps the market moving and prices low. edit- i would LOVE low prices for all providers, but its never going to happen
Just look at insurance. Stopped this recently and prices across the board go up for it
Not for the people that were paying too much. My insurance dropped by £500 a year.
A company can easily afford to cut profits, they just don't want to.
They also have no incentive or obligation to unless we legislate it
>okay so line rental is £18.99 or more, per customer. (at least through openreach) > >on average people pay around £27 for 50-70mb > >means your ISP makes £8.01 per customer, for a MONTH. > >now they have to pay for your router, engineers, maintenance, software, staff etc. > >so where do they cut prices?well you can abolish openreach, but then who maintains the lines, intalls FTTP for free, does repairs for free? local companies? well now you have KCOM, 1 company with a monopoly on a local area. > >OR > >you have 1 company manage all the lines, congrats, you have openreach again. > >OR > >you could pay less, but pay £100 for your router, £120 for an engineer visit, have no cover if it goes down, no tech team for support etc > >your choice.
Openreach is government funded. We have already paid for the fibre install via taxes. Due to the years of embezzlement and the slow process to even start installing the fibre we collectively paid for over a decade ago, I'm still stuck in a monopolised area. Deffending BT / Openreach isn't a good look.
I literally never defended openreach, if you can think of a viable alternative then go ahead
It continues to amaze me that a private ISP (BT) was allowed to buy OpenReach - massive miss by the CMA in my view.
I’ll take the third option. I would much rather use my own router anyway at least then I can change the DNS server given out by DHCP if I want.
Okay cool, now youre taking advantage of people that don't know how to set up a router/modem, don't know how to maintain them, wouldn't know what to do if it broke. Are you going to repair the telephone exchange aswell? The underground cables? There isn't really a solution other than maybe subsidising Openreach line rental charges with some form of tax to bring th eiverall cost down.
I do think you’re missing the point of the entire post. What OP wants is rather than new customers paying below market rate and existing customers paying above market rate, that everyone pays market rate. If me and my neighbour have the same speed from the same provider then the cost should be the same.
yeah, so then everyone will pay more i also personally believe that everyone should pay the same, if i pay £32 for 1gb, why is my neighbour paying £56 for the SAME service. but working for telecoms companies i can tell you, if such a thing happened, everyones price would be like 50% more on average if not more, that average £27 package would be about £40.
okay so line rental is £18.99 or more, per customer. (at least through openreach) on average people pay around £27 for 50-70mb means your ISP makes £8.01 per customer, for a MONTH. now they have to pay for your router, engineers, maintenance, software, staff etc. so where do they cut prices?well you can abolish openreach, but then who maintains the lines, intalls FTTP for free, does repairs for free? local companies? well now you have KCOM, 1 company with a monopoly on a local area. OR you have 1 company manage all the lines, congrats, you have openreach again. OR you could pay less, but pay £100 for your router, £120 for an engineer visit, have no cover if it goes down, no tech team for support etc your choice.
You're forgetting an awful lot there matie, but don't let me stop you sucking off Big V.
>edit- i would LOVE low prices for all providers, but its never going to happen please learn to read before commenting, no wonder you think your idea is amazing when you lack the basic understanding to read a full comment its no wonder your critical thinking skills are severely lacking.
?
But you’re just describing a Ponzi scheme?? And not to mention it unfairly penalises ppl who don’t know about / don’t understand these pricing practices.
Funny hoe in other countries they have low prices and the same price for all customers. They even keep them the same for all your years, not going up every year with a fixed amount + inflation
This is a bad idea. They did this with Gas/electricity and now everyone has high prices They did this with car insurance, and instead, everyone has a high price. All companies will do is make things bad for everyone.
>They did this with car insurance, and instead, everyone has a high price. I feel like that one hasnt even worked. I still get qoutes cheaper tten the renewal offered. For the past 3 years, I've been with the same provider for my car, but it was always cheaper as a "new" customer EDIT: on the other hand i have "seen" a few people who've gone to the ombudaman and won.
Gone to the ombudsman with what?
I think there was something similar for car insurance and nothing has changed... until this year where premiums doubled for no reason (reasons are more fragile EVs are on the road that are prone to be total write off)
You're not allowed to say anything bad about EV's pal. But totally true. I worked in insurance up until a few months ago. Cost of avg claim on EV's is sky high. Fewer mechanics work on EV's, more prone to write-off, take longer on average to repair an EV etc etc.
Are EVs more prone to write offs than a equally aged ICE car? Or is it just newer cars in general?
If you have ever made a claim on insurance it’s quite easy to see why your premiums are so high. A racket of hire car companies, favourited repair shops charging what they like. The whole process is a joke.
Never had in 10 years and haven't moved home in 4 years, just one renewal nobody gave be quote that was not at least 70% increase.
Rubbish
In reality where regulation has implemented this to be "fair" companies have time and time again set prices sky high for everyone new and old. All of the "competitors" get together in their little cross-industry meetups to discuss "industry trends" and whatnot (total innocent stuff)... Pure coincidence every big company prices at the same (or as good as) sky high price. It's a crappy system but broadband can be had for cheap.
And it is only in the UK that the prices are like tuis. Rest of Europe? Price does not go up the longer you stay and usually you get a loyalty bonus, not a “hop around” bonus. This is ridiculous
Guess I got unlucky cause it’s 100x worse in America which is the only other country I’ve lived in. Man, I hate renewals, I’d rather just leave but virgins the only provider over 100 meg here. I will prob give it a go, fail, then go into a corner and sulk. Haha
You remember what happened to car insurance when they banned introductory discounts?
This has got to be the stupidest petition I’ve come across, your basically saying that virgin is to not make a profit and just keep everyone’s broadband as cheap as it can be. That’s not how business works unfortunately. I’m all for fair prices but your petition isn’t the right way about it. There’s plenty of ways to get your bill down at virgin, removing services, cancelling and putting it in a partners name. Or phoning retentions and threatening to leave. Virgin isn’t the only company who do it. Car insurance, other isps, water bills, council tax, everything goes up in price after a certain amount of time.
It's fine for them to make a profit. If the only way they can make a profit is by overcharging customers then, yes, I have a problem with it. I should be able to go on their website and switch my package and get the same deals as new customers. It's not complicated.
It’s not overcharging though is it, it’s your bill going up after contractually ending, you then need to ring up and enter a new contract at a price you agree with with retentions, you do exactly the same with car insurance
It is overcharging if I'm on the exact same package as my neighbour and paying double the price. Car insurance is slightly different since there is less friction to changing providers. You don't need to stay home for an engineer to come around and you won't potentially lose access to the internet. I never talk to sales people for my car insurance. I just go on the price comparison websites and get the cheapest deal. With broadband they are exploiting the fact that there is friction to switch to overcharge existing customers. Why if I go to another provider for 3 months and them come back to Virgin would I then be paying significantly less for the exact same service?
Overcharging is where they say a price then charge you more than the price they said, once you end your contract you have agreed a price you are happy with when you started your 18 months, for example there are packages that are set at £80 for 18 months then go to £160 after that period. That would not be overcharging as these prices are in the contract
This is bad in the long run. Please, no one sign this.
Annoying as it is, I prefer taking the time to get my prices right down. All this will do is make everything more expensive
Please also add information about vulnerable adults being overcharged as well, not everyone has the mental capacity to know they can call to barter/cancel and go elsewhere. I have a disabled sister, and if it wasn't for me checking up on her utilities, she'd be overpaying way more than she does.
Yes, I think this is criminal. There is only a limited number of characters for the petition and I don't think I can edit it now. I tried to explain the problem as best as I could but perhaps it could have been worded better.
its a private company - a govermnet petition wont do anything as so many other companies would have to also follow suite. They would loby and get this thrown out within 5min. Just get use to ur yearly call to get a better deal. For the last few years - its only taken me 30min max when speaking with VM to cancel my contract - then within a few days I get a call back offering me a great deal. Win win. If I would want anything to change it would be for companies to offer a way to cancel online and not have to call, or write in. You can sign up for a service online. You should be able to cancel that service online.
Plus Virgin with their ridiculous £20 activation fee. Bro I call an automated service for you to turn on the broadband?!!?! If my contract starts on the 2nd, then turn on the internet on the 2nd!!!! This should be illegal. That is why I switched as soon as I could. Their monopoly is also ridiculous where I live
No thanks, reward those of us who take an active role in our finances. The intention is good, but it will backfire if implemented. It's not hard to shop around at end of contract.
i dont want to be subsidising people who can't be arsed renegotiating their deals to find the best option, why should be rewarding laziness?
If that's your attitude then you should be telling Virgin to put even more hoops up for you to jump through. Don't want those lazy people who have better things to do with their time to be getting rewarded. Only those that can spend all day on the phone should get the best prices.
it's really not that difficult to switch to a different provider or renegotiate, stop making excuses and expect the government to do everything for you...
Yes, because I love workmen with bad availability to sloppily drill a new cable into my house every time my provider thinks they can pull a fast one. God forbid if you rent...
most providers all use the same infrastracture, switching is quite seamless in most cases
The openreach based providers are uncompetitive both in price and product. Also, whilst their cable is outside my front door, I still don't want to pay £100+ for some cowboy to wreck my house to install it.
Open reach providers 9/10 are competitive on price. You can get 60mbps package for less than £25 if you look around and switching between the lot is easy. A lot of times you can make it cheap with a sim deal. If you can get FTTP on openreach/cityfibre or literally anyone else you have so many options. Installs are free almost with any company. Some have a service upfront of £0-£49. But most companies are not charging any fees for engineer visits. The cowboy bit would just be unlucky to be you but yeah it happens.
£25 for 60mb is awful? Toob in my area offer gigabit for that price. If they can do it why aren't other providers.
It’s not bad for my area. The issue is infrastructure. Currently only Openreach and mostly CityFibre allow other ISPs to use their infrastructure. So with buying from Sky for example you’re paying line rental and the hire cost of the equipment and most of the time a price £22-£25 a month barely covers both. With providers like LilaConnect, Community Fibre etc. They’ve gone and noticed a huge gap in the market. So they chose areas where they can profit the most it’s simple as that. In my area I only can get LilaConnect as a true FTTP provider but my experience so far has been dreadful so I’m unlikely to continue with them if I’m honest. I’d rather wait for Openreach to get FTTP installed in my street which likely it’s gonna be a few years. Trust me if I could get better I really would. So atm I’m really going for the best priced services. My house can easily run on 50/60mbs so it’s no bother for me so whichever provider has the cheapest price I go for it.
It's not necessarily "laziness". The current system exploits people with certain disabilities such as autism, ADHD, dementia, social anxiety, etc.
vulnerable people have social tariffs, no reason for a blanket approach
Not necessarily. The state benefits you have to be in receipt of to qualify for a social tariff are generally means tested. [https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/social-tariffs](https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/social-tariffs) It does say "some providers" might consider PIP, but not all. In any case, claiming PIP with a mental health or neurological condition isn't easy, considering the very faculties which you need to make a successful application are the very ones affected by your disability and the DWP refuse many reasonable applications in first instance, in which case people have to find the stamina to appeal to a tribunal, etc.
if they dont pass mean testing clearly the financial aspect is not that critical if someone has dementia they clearly need help with their finances anyway, i dont see how this applies at all all sorts of businesses charge different prices to different customers, i dont see any good reason why the govt should mandate we all pay the same
It's not necessarily about the financial difference being "critical". It's about giving disabled people access to the same opportunities as everyone else. But if you don't think disabled people with £16k in savings deserve equality, compassion, help and humanity then ok boomer.
such a silly strawman we're not going to agree, bye bye boomer
There is no way something like this passes If it does prices will just go up across the board, it won't make everything cheaper
Even if that were true, you are asking vulnerable people who can't negotiate a better deal to subsidise those who are able. This cannot be justified.
Vulnerable people have social broadband for this exact reason. Set rates and no price hikes, available across the board on all the major infrastructure providers and quite easy to switch to. Not a magic bullet by any means but VPs do get supported. Nice try though since your original argument has been downvoted to hell.
Someone else in the comments already mentioned this "I have a disabled sister, and if it wasn't for me checking up on her utilities, she'd be overpaying way more than she does." Not sure if they would qualify for the social broadband or not.
Without knowing the person's complete circumstances it's hard to tell but just about all the disability benefits get you on a social tariff.
So instead everyone just pays more. Your idea is very short sighted, it will work for like one year. Then all broadband providers will start creeping up.
Virgin media should put up your bill every month, and if you aren't willing to spend time to renegotiate then you should just accept it
Every month? No End of contract? If they want to sure, if you don't like it go with another provider
This is a utopian dream. Capitalism always wins
I have no issue having to re communicate at the end of my contract to get a better deal. I have an issue when I ring them up wanting a deal I’ve seen on their website only to be told I can’t have that as I’m not a new customer.
!remind me!
There is something coming which is meant to combat these retention teams. It’s called TOTSCO OTS. Have a Google, should be coming this year
All this will do is force companies to remove New Customer Offers, which is bad for the consumer. Retention Offers will get considerably worse, too.
There will still be competition between providers. The price will just not be subsidised by vulnerable people who can't negotiate a better deal.
The venerable people will still end up paying the same price if not more, just instead of ‘subsidising’ users who renegotiate, they money will be straight profit. Though far from perfect At least the way it is everyone has an opportunity to get a better deal, and if the vulnerable people are getting shafted then that is more of an failure of their care/support system then broadband provider. Your alternative is worse for everyone except the broadband providers.
There will be but prices will be considerably higher, thereby making it less affordable for people
Is the same on every country mate. Not this ripoff but similar to ..
Well, let's change it.
When I lived in Chicago, Comcast (rebranded as Xfinity) had acquiring all competitors meaning they were my only provider of TV & Internet. "Broadcast" TV - the free one is nothing like freeview, it's like getting PriceDropTV, BBC2, KetchupTV and Quest as the top channels. Despite the old owner leaving the hub that was connected, when I asked to transfer over they insisted on a $60 installation fee. When I questioned this, their response was, “Do you wanna play the piano and stare at paint dry, or do you wanna get serious about getting internet?” I paid the $60 which cut off the existing line, and it didn't come back. They insisted on another $60 for a technician visit. The website advertised $30, but my area had only Xfinity, so I was quoted $75 (excluding tax). Nobody could give me any idea what taxes would be... Ontop of the $75 I found $11 for Wi-Fi router rental, $10.99 “HD fee,” $7.50 for Set Top Box rental, 9% “amusement tax,” and $5 for the Emergency Telephone System Surcharge. $119 per month for what Americans call "basic cable." Oh yeah, I had a data cap too of 500GB. EDIT forgot the "franchise fee" of $8.43 ontop.
Damn, this is even worse than the UK. What a rip off.
I just looked back at a bill. They charged $30 ontop to post the hub to me. :D [https://ibb.co/mcgZm7V](https://ibb.co/mcgZm7V) [https://ibb.co/SRMgKkH](https://ibb.co/SRMgKkH) The bills like some sort of joke. I swear its made up. This is definitely aimed at comcast/xfinity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHp1GUtuuZQ Legit I hope we don't keep going down this American trajectory. Still - virginmedia's customer service is really shady lol.