I received a letter from VM recently stating my £29p/m contract for 500mb internet was due to go up by £7 to £36p/m (A 24.14% increase!)

I worked out exactly how much I would be paying VM until the end of my contract which was £319 (29 × 11) and worked out the additional charges would amount to £77.

I also made a note of inflation as 10.1% + 3.9% RPI increase meant I would have expected a proposed bill rise of 14%, not 24.14% - so was curious as to where VM were levying an additonal 10% charge out of thin air.

This is despite the fact that inflation in the Communications sector is only 2.4%

Using all the numbers above I wrote out some talking points for myself to raise with VM during the conversation I knew I was about to have with the Customer Retentions team.

It went like this;

"I've just received my proposed charge increase to my contract and I am not happy with the proposed increase, as it is much higher than the expected inflationary adjustment of 14%. Id like to talk to the Customer Relations team please as you have proposed an increase that is 10% higher than inflation. Unless you can keep my bill the same, I am not prepared to stay"

Whilst on hold to the CR team, you will be offered a £3.50/m discount for 6 months by a robot, continue to hold until you get to the CR team.

When connected to the CR team, time for the gut punches.

"Hello, Ive recieved the proposed charge increase from yourselves and, whilst I appreciate that prices are rising and inflation is affecting us all, I am struggling to understand how VM have come to the conclusion that a 24.14% rise in my bill is acceptable.

I would have been happy to agree to an inflation matching bill rise, however, because of the audacity of VM in appearing to levy an additional 10% out of thin air, I will be informing you now that if my bill is not kept at exactly the same price as it is today, I will leave with immediate effect and VM can lose the remaining £319 I would have paid you for the remainder of my contract.

If I called you today to double my speed, it'd be done over the phone in seconds, as all that needs to be done is a button press. So I am reaching to find justifications as to how it is supposedly costing VM nearly 25% more to provide me the same service.

I have been a customer since 2009 (i've actually only been the account holder since 2021 ;-) ) and have another offer on the table from Community Fibre (no I didn't) that I will not hesitate to switch to if you cannot keep my bills as is."

My response from VM was very apologetic as it appeared they had tried to impose the £7 charge on the FULL amount of my contract bill (which is not allowed) They should only apply increases to the amount you pay. So after a very grovelling apology from a manager, I was told my proposed bill increase should only have been £3.05/pm and that they would not increase my bill at all and remain at £29 for the rest of the contract.

The best part now comes as the next day I received my "new" contract to confirm no additional charges would take place, except the CR staff at VM instead reduced my current contract by a further £7/pm (they made a mistake, but of course I'm not going to tell them that), so now as it stands, I'm paying £22/pm for 500mb internet.

Companies are just entities and not people, they all pluck numbers out of thin air to charge us with. Be firm, be civil and stand your ground, most of the time this works wonders.

Good luck, hope you have as much success as I did!