The price of TV / Phone / Broadband is just becoming a joke!

Jon

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Is it just me who is paying through the nose for services like these.

I'm with Virgin Media and we don't even have that much of a beefy package!

Low tier TV Package with maybe 10 HD Channels
150mb Broadband
Landphone phone WE NEVER USE

Yet I am paying £61 a month for this and it's just crazy! I also don't understand why you are penalised so much for unbundling the landline phone! Does anyone even use theirs anymore or is it just us who does everything via their mobiles now???

I feel sort of boxed in as well as the reason we moved to Virgin in the first place was because the BT/Sky solution is appalling and we were getting awful speeds which for a household with 3 adults in it is enough to drive you to drink!

I just don't understand why it is all SO expensive! I don't even pay for movie channels with Virgin because I use NowTV / Amazon Movies for all my film needs!

I think it's just spiralled out of control really..
 

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We are in a lucky position of not having to pay for broadband as we get it free as an employee perk.

A long time ago we took a step back to see if it was actually worth paying for Sky/Virgin/BT TV and decided it wasn't. We now don't watch live TV so don't even have to pay for the TV licence - since BBC included the iPlayer function in that fee we've stopped using that and don't miss it.

We pay for our line rental as we need that on BT @ £18.99/month, Netflix @ £8/month and Amazon Prime @ £39/year. We're never stuck for things to watch and Eban is a happy chappy with what he can watch (mostly Pokemon over and over and over and over).

At the end of the day Sky/Virgin ended up being the same repeats over and over which just seemed like throwing money away.
 

Jon

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The thing is it's not even the TV that's the real cost I don't think. It's the £20 on landline rental which we just don't need but the minute you take out the landline the price tends to go up and then you aren't buying all their services which they seem to REALLY want you to do!
 

Blackpepper1

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We never use and don't need the landline either so it is pure waste of money every month.
However we can't get cable where we are now it isn't available so we are stuck with it.
When we did have cable before with Virgin Media a few years ago at our previous place there wasn't much of a saving only £5 a month difference without the landline and then of course we did actually need/use it then as calls using the mobile were more expensive.
Now it is actually cheaper to use a mobile for calls than the landline so we never need to use the landline.
We are with EE for landline/broadband and they are good and worked out cheaper than anyone else for us.
We just use Freeview so no pay TV package and that is plenty for us and then record things for watching later on our PVR and that is great as it means we can just skip past the ads.
 
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Stims

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It is a complete joke and the result of a near monopoly from the big companies for years combined with people not questioning and just paying.

I do think however things are changing. People are leaving the package type sky/ virgin in favour of n demand services such a Now Tv and Netflix. As for broadband, just make sure you get a 12 month contract and negotiate the shit out of it when it comes to renewing.
 
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Topaz

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We've got a virgin TV box sat unused because it was cheaper to have a package which included it than to not have it! How? We rang them to complain about the prices once and threatened to leave - they gave us an offer too good to refuse if we stayed. It's definitely worth negotiating on price with broadband etc.
 
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The Funky Blue Dog

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Agree with all of the above. When you ring up there's normally a menu option towards the end along the lines of "if you're thinking of leaving xxxx choose option 4...". But do your homework first and find a really competitive quote from a rival. I did this last year with my provider Plusnet when the Post Office was offering broadband for peanuts. Plusnet more than matched them to keep my business, and I didn't have the hassle of a switch. I don't bother with a TV subscription - I just have Freeview through an aerial and top up with BBC iPlayer / ITV Hub etc on my lappy if I miss anything I desperately want to see (which isn't often).
 

Jon

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Agree with all of the above. When you ring up there's normally a menu option towards the end along the lines of "if you're thinking of leaving xxxx choose option 4...". But do your homework first and find a really competitive quote from a rival. I did this last year with my provider Plusnet when the Post Office was offering broadband for peanuts. Plusnet more than matched them to keep my business, and I didn't have the hassle of a switch. I don't bother with a TV subscription - I just have Freeview through an aerial and top up with BBC iPlayer / ITV Hub etc on my lappy if I miss anything I desperately want to see (which isn't often).

Cable Cutting is SUCH a big thing in America at the moment with more and more people leaving their regular entertainment providers and going it alone and sourcing their entertainment outside of being in a contract.

I imagine it will become big business here in the UK soon enough
 

Jon

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It is a complete joke and the result of a near monopoly from the big companies for years combined with people not questioning and just paying.

I do think however things are changing. People are leaving the package type sky/ virgin in favour of n demand services such a Now Tv and Netflix. As for broadband, just make sure you get a 12 month contract and negotiate the shit out of it when it comes to renewing.

Absolutely agree.

Look at the cost of football now it's astronomical and it's not been helped by BT coming up and paying even more for the rights

First BT Sport was free if you had BT Broadband but now you have to pay extra for it which I imagine was the plan all along!
 

Jon

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We've got a virgin TV box sat unused because it was cheaper to have a package which included it than to not have it! How? We rang them to complain about the prices once and threatened to leave - they gave us an offer too good to refuse if we stayed. It's definitely worth negotiating on price with broadband etc.

I've got a mate at work who's done the exact same thing. The Virgin TIVO box is literally a doorstop! Don't think they have ever plugged it in but they need it because otherwise it costs even more!
 

Jon

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We never use and don't need the landline either so it is pure waste of money every month.
However we can't get cable where we are now it isn't available so we are stuck with it.
When we did have cable before with Virgin Media a few years ago at our previous place there wasn't much of a saving only £5 a month difference without the landline and then of course we did actually need/use it then as calls using the mobile were more expensive.
Now it is actually cheaper to use a mobile for calls than the landline so we never need to use the landline.
We are with EE for landline/broadband and they are good and worked out cheaper than anyone else for us.
We just use Freeview so no pay TV package and that is plenty for us and then record things for watching later on our PVR and that is great as it means we can just skip past the ads.

The only way around that I suppose is to use a 3G/4G dongle which obviously wouldn't require a phone line for you guys to get access to the Internet.

I think Vodafone are the only provider that let you get broadband at home without needing a phoneline as well
 

Blackpepper1

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The only way around that I suppose is to use a 3G/4G dongle which obviously wouldn't require a phone line for you guys to get access to the Internet.

I think Vodafone are the only provider that let you get broadband at home without needing a phoneline as well

Well I looked before we switched to EE and nothing was as good as just having proper broadband. I will say that I am hugely impressed with EE the broadband speed is good best we had when we tried BT and Virgin Media just through the phone line they were absolutely awful. Slow and kept disconnecting.
Not had any trouble at all with EE and their Broadband so it is worth paying and taking the phone line just to get the reliable broadband speed. Even with all our devices connected it never slows down or at least if it does it isn't noticeably slow.
Maybe one day it will be possible to ditch the phone line easily and save money but not yet. That would be good.
I am sure phone companies are seeing a big drop in people using their landline to make calls.
Still they want as much as they can for it while everyone is stuck with it.
 

katykicker

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I tend to wimp out and do it all via LiveChat lol

I used to do the same, then I read that live chat and telephone are different people, at least with BT, so I started being bold and ringing. They are usually so nice. Think I'm due a phone call soon!
 

Terriixx

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We did have Virgin but because they were more than doubling the bill when we got to the end of the 12 month contract I said I'd cancel, expecting a good offer. All they offered was £5 off my next bill. No Chance!

So had to go 3 months without anything (luckily I've got a good 4g package on my phone!) because they don't let you sign up as a new customer sooner than 3 months at the same address..

That was in March, so still can't resign up until Mid June now :(

Don't miss the tv, but I do miss my wifi :(

Going to resign up for VM in June though on a new customer deal.
100mb, smallest tv package and landline (we don't use it, don't even own a landline phone) = £32/month

Keep looking for cheaper deals but we don't want a limited download package and want at least 50mb really.

Did look at just buying a HD recorder freesat box but because we live in a heritage area we wouldn't be allowed the Sat Dish or whatever that we'd need for it. Plus internet by itself is more than the package price!
 

stonecrows

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Sounds like we have the same package, Jon as we pay around £57-60 a month depending on landline calls made. The signal is frustrating on the wifi as it's always slowing down or cutting out. The advice to improve it is always rubbish. But when I've looked at competitors none of them can really match the bandwidth we need, as there's 6 of us and we have multiple devices. We rarely use the extra TV channels, I'd happily ditch that but as others have said, it doesn't really bring the cost down.
 

Sherliarty

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We just got rid of sky tv and moved to virgin wifi with no tv package. I think we will eventually be paying £41 a month which still isn't cheap but we kept the landline as we have elderly relatives that will only access us via normal phone. We, including the kids, don't miss the TV at all as netflix, freesat and amazon prime are more than enough.
 
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Jacquiesce

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We got rid of Virgin TV last year as they kept putting the price up, 3 times in 1 year, luckily around the same time Sky had a great offer on so we get all the channels for £25 a month (inc SkySports)
We stayed with Virgin for the Broadband and got rid off the landline phone and thats only £20 a month after we haggled with them to stay. I think we got lucky that its ended up a lot cheaper for us and we could get rid of the home phone which was never used.
 
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FrankMario

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Is it just me who is paying through the nose for services like these.

I'm with Virgin Media and we don't even have that much of a beefy package!

Low tier TV Package with maybe 10 HD Channels
150mb Broadband
Landphone phone WE NEVER USE

Yet I am paying £61 a month for this and it's just crazy! I also don't understand why you are penalised so much for unbundling the landline phone! Does anyone even use theirs anymore or is it just us who does everything via their mobiles now???

I feel sort of boxed in as well as the reason we moved to Virgin in the first place was because the BT/Sky solution is appalling and we were getting awful speeds which for a household with 3 adults in it is enough to drive you to drink!

I just don't understand why it is all SO expensive! I don't even pay for movie channels with Virgin because I use NowTV / Amazon Movies for all my film needs!

I think it's just spiralled out of control really..

Jon,

That seems pretty steep! I tend to go for the annual offers but it hits you usually in the 10th month with an increase so it is all about working out the average cost.

What I did find frustrating with Virgin is that because they are so good, after the initial offer you feel a bit boxed in at a +£40 deal.

Moved house recently and had to settle for Sky or BT due to the area. Went for Sky broadband only (with a deal) then using the existing satellite, from a previous resident, plugged in a Sky+ box I found on gumtree for £5 for standard channels.

I then bought a Chromecast for catch-up tv, youtube, Netflix etc.

I honestly now feel I have a better setup for minimal amount of initial and repeat spend (£18 a month). On top of that I got £75 to spend on pre-paid MasterCard.
 

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