Virgin Media has just announced a number of changes to its call charges from 1st November 2007. In particular they are abolishing the weekend rate for non-geographical numbers;  such calls in future will be charged at either daytime or evening rates, seven days a week.  According to their current tariff evening and daytime rates are 33% and 66% higher respectively than the weekend rate.

This is what we have come to expect in the telecoms market. The big players follow each other like sheep. BT now only have daytime and evening rates for mobiles/0845/0870, but still have daytime/evening/weekend for 0844/0871.

Also: The connection charge is now to be 7p

I may be missing something here and I admit I did change my Virgin call plan without too much thought, but I did find that mobiles were being called rather frequently so I changed to Talk Anywhere 800 at £40.00 per month.

Is that not a good package as it includes

Landline UK numbers (they usually start with 01 and 02)
Mobile phones (starting with 07)
Non-geographic numbers (starting 08 except for 0800)
International landlines and international mobiles (all countries)

Is there a better package out there :)

Baz

does anyone have a link 2 their tarif page?

kk wrote on Sep 30^th, 2007 at 12:36pm:

Also: The connection charge is now to be 7p

????
10p



Quote:

does anyone have a link 2 their tarif page?

Sorry no, but the best of luck trying to find anything on their site nowadays.

According to http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=10258 (their Size: XL Talk Unlimited package) the connection charge is 6p.

Plus, it wasn't that difficult to find... virginmedia.com -> Our Products -> Phone -> pick product

The only way to get around the 7p connection charge is to opt for an all inclusive talk 200 400 or talk unlimited as far as I can make out.

I have opted for the talk 800 besause it includes mobiles.

Baz

jgxenite wrote on Oct 5^th, 2007 at 7:45am:

According to http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=10258 (their Size: XL Talk Unlimited package) the connection charge is 6p. Plus, it wasn't that difficult to find... virginmedia.com -> Our Products -> Phone -> pick product

> connection charge is 6p.

Wait until next month, sorry I forgot the exact date. "10p"

Hi oldfogy

If you opt for the talk unlimited as far as I understand it the connection charge per call is waved that is how it was explained to me and if there is a connection charge per call on my next bill somebody will have a lot of expaining to do


Baz

bazzerfewi wrote on Oct 6^th, 2007 at 10:31am:

If you opt for the talk unlimited as far as I understand it the connection charge per call is waved that is how it was explained to me and if there is a connection charge per call on my next bill somebody will have a lot of expaining to do

That will only apply on the 'inclusive' bits though, usually only 01/02 numbers.

Calls to mobiles and 084/087/09 numbers will still attract a "connection charge".

Do we have any more information on this?

Any official information from Virgin Media or discussion elsewhere like MSE?

I have been in contact with Virgin Media and they assure me that the only numbers excluded from the plan are 09 numbers

I have also been informed that if a divert calls to 01,02,07,08 numbers they will also be included in the monthly allowance.

Please let me know if you find out anything differant. :)

If you are on any of VM's TalkAnywhere Plans then calls to 01x, 02x, 03x, 077/078/079 (mobiles), 08x and international calls are included within the plan and therefore not subject to any connection charge.

These call plans, however, are NOT unlimited as they all have specific limit of maximum number of minutes per month and range from 200 mins (costing £20) to 800 mins (costing £40).

If you are on VM's TalkWeekends (Size: M), Talk Evenings & Weekends (Size: L) or TalkUnlimited (Size: XL) then these plans only include calls to 01, 02 and 03.  Calls to other number ranges like 07x and 08x are excluded at all times and attract their own charge as well as the connection charge.

If you make calls to numbers outside your inclusive allowance or have gone over any inclusive limit (where applicable) then calls are chargable and will attract the huge connection fee.

VM call charges for calls to 0845 and 0870 are the highest out of all the other landline providers as is their connection charge (from November).

I suggest you clarify what is the name of the price plan you are on and then refer to the above.  Ignore if they say calls are included or the connection fee does/doesn't apply because the information they tell you is sometimes wrong (and this wrong information increases when you are through to someone not from the UK).

More information on VM's price plans can be found here but for the record VM's TalkUnlimited is only unlimited for calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers and therefore all other calls are excluded and attract the connection fee charge.

Thanks very much that is a great help, this site is just fantastic and everybody is such a great help. I should have signed on to this forum years ago as I first became a member when I saw it on working lunch ?? years ago

Thanks again  :)

Not wanting to detract from the OPs topic, but also another little bit of info with regards Virgin Media.

Telewest "AUTOMATICALLY" blocked ALL premium rate numbers to any new telephone customer until you ask for the block to be removed.
Since Virgin Media took over, these blocks are still in place.
(Although you can circumvent the block by pressing "Hash followed by your pin number" but that does not work all of the time.

This I discovered recently when I needed to contact Virgin Medias' premium rate internet help-line (of which is also the only way to get internet help from VM) and could not get connected.
So I phoned Virgin Media to complain that I could not access their help-line (and I have been a customer of Telewest/Virgin for 9 years without even knowing it)
As this was on a Saturday evening and it would take 48 hours to remove the block I ended-up using my mobile which then cost £4.35 for 70 seconds.

http://survey.ccsurvey.com/virg0701a/survey22.pl?bpbmh633969537ezens

I have just contacted Virgin Media via this link and given them a verbal belting in regard to the apalling service I received from technical support and the fact that the number is an 0906 number. I do not have anything against anybody but when a person reading from a script attempts to solve technical issues and will not transfer your call I think something needs to be done.

"I was told to replace all my cabling as it was causing the problem" obviously that was not the case.

Can more of us express our feelings as I know there are more out there that feel the same way
I threatened to withdraw my service and let them know that I was a member of a very powerful forum and if they didn't do something people would be migrating by the thousands.

Baz >:(

bazzerfewi wrote on Oct 7^th, 2007 at 6:53pm:

http://survey.ccsurvey.com/virg0701a/survey22.pl?bpbmh633969537ezens (

Survey results when trying to access it.

Quote:

Thank you. You have already completed this survey. Your feedback is appreciated.

Yes I completed that survey some time ago only for the automated reply to tell me that the page "No longer existed" so it also seems that should you ever want to change your mind "either way" you can't.

As for migrating elsewhere, "I just can't wait" even with some sort of restrictions that other ISPs may stipulate, they most certainly can't be any worse than the "Over Priced and Under-rated" service that Virgin Media are dishing out.

Virgin = £25:00 p/m for a 4 MB internet connection which is throttled back by 50% for 25%+ of the day because I am a heavy user.

BeThere.com = £14:00 p/m for a 8 MB connection.
Either way I would have a land-line phone line, so that does not enter into it as an extra cost.
A faster connection also means I would not have to be on-line as long as I am at present, therefore saving bandwidth and headaches.

Actually, thats how I came to be here in the beginning, following-up a link looking for another service provider.  ;D

All I did was ring 150 from my virgin phone and they logged the complaint and I received the link.

LETS GIVE EM HELL >:( >:(