Virgin Media O2 uses the higher RPI measure of inflation to calculate its annual price rise, meaning its customers will face a price rise that’s more than double the main rate of inflation.
- The price rise will be enforced from April.
- Virgin Media O2 has introduced restrictions on leaving.
- Customers trying to leave have complained to Ofcom, accusing Virgin Media of making it difficult to leave.
Virgin Media O2’s annual price rise has been confirmed. Customers will pay 8.8% extra on average after the RPI inflation figures for January were released this morning.
The company uses the RPI (Retail Prices Index) figure as published in mid-February instead of the main CPI (Consumer Prices Index) figure published in mid-January used by most other utility companies.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed RPI at 4.9%. Virgin Media O2 also adds 3.9% to the figure.
With the main CPI measure of inflation at 4%, Virgin Media’s mobile, broadband and TV customers now face a price rise that’s more than double the main measure of inflation.
Difficult for customers to leave
Last year, Virgin Media made a number of contractual changes. This extended the use of penalties for customers wanting to leave early across a wider range of its products and services.
If your current contract with Virgin Media UK started prior to 4th April 2023, any Early Disconnection Fee will be capped at £288 (including VAT). The fee is potentially unlimited for new or re-contracting customers after 4th April as the cap was removed.
Customers out of contract can leave without penalty.
But customers who have tried to leave have reported massive issues trying to terminate their service.
Ofcom has seen a surge in complaints from customers who say they are being cut off when phoning to cancel.
Customers also reported having to repeatedly ask for their service to be cancelled, after Virgin Media staff failed to action requests.
This led to Ofcom launching a full investigation into Virgin Media’s processes last summer.
What are competitors doing?
- Sky is increasing prices by an average of 6.7% – though there is likely to be substantial variations depending on individual bundles.
- BT, EE, Vodafone and Three are increasing prices by 7.9%
- TalkTalk prices are going up by 7.7%
Price rises are being introduced in either March or April, depending on provider.