Virgin Media CEO says Brit broadband biz 'performed well' in Q2, which is a weird way to say losses almost tripled It was up, up and up some more for Virgin Media in its latest full quarterly numbers: UK internet customers increased, network coverage swelled and losses almost tripled. It's been a busy time for the broadband and TV provider, what with managing the pressures on its network caused by work-from-home traffic, the pending merger …
They'd have lots more customers if they didn't put their prices up two sometimes three times a year, by many pounds when you're out of contract. Introductory broadband only offers for new customers are bordering on illegal - £28/month for 18 months then FOURTY FOUR POUNDS A MONTH thereafter for the base 100 package?! Money grabbing Americans - there is absolutely no need for those magnitudes of price increases. To coin a popular American phrase: Screw you!
My bill was due to go up £20 this month. I called them expecting to spend an hour wrangling with a Filipino before getting through to retentions.
Instead I get through to the UK directly within 2 minutes. When I said it was too expensive they immediately offered to keep me on my current price for the next 18 months so I snapped their hand off.
I'm paying less that the cheapest new customer bundle for more than they get.
It will be interesting to see what the culture will be like after the merger. O2 makes a big deal about their transparent pricing, about treating existing clients the same as new ones and being able to easily shift your usage tier even before you're out of contract, Virgin's pricing is as clear as mud and once you're out of contract the online "offers" consist of upselling you to a very limited set of packages that are more expensive than those on their store for new customers.
I like Virgin's service, but having to play "the retentions game" every 12-18 months costs them and myself time and is frustrating. Charge fair prices and let me change my package online to the full range - it's not rocket science.
"largely driven by the net effect of a change in realized and unrealized gains (losses) on derivative instruments... an increase in losses on debt modification and extinguishment... lower depreciation and amortization... a decrease in foreign currency transaction losses... higher related-party fees and allocations."
I have absolutely no idea what that's supposed to mean in English; something to do with tax, maybe?
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