Pricing Increase | Agree and dis-agree

[katburglars]

Did your firm ever consider to make the cost increase effective March 1 but to only charge the cost difference effective April with an accrual in charges for the month of March 1? This gives people time to move to another provider without holding a gun to their head. VMedia's only advantage was that it was cheaper. For 10 dollars more I can move to Rogers and have 150 mbps instead of the 60 with Vmedia.

that would have been too risky for them..remember they are a PREPAID company..they dont have the resources to run after delinquent accts..

[MrBee007]

The increase is putting them closer to the cost of bell and rogers. Doesn't look good, I could see them folding in 6 months. I sent many emails and said I will give to June to see if TV and Internet improve, if they don't I will more on.

[Sarum]

I dont think anyone likes the price increase...
i am quite upset at the incumbents for making me pay more money per month as a penalty for leaving their "cash cow" ISP monopoly

[Slyde]

I dont think anyone likes the price increase...
i am quite upset at the incumbents for making me pay more money per month as a penalty for leaving their "cash cow" ISP monopoly

Sarum, do you honestly think that if Vmedia was delivering a solid service and gave honest replies to issues that the price increase would lead to so many people canceling with them. I don't, it's the skating around issues, short notice, bad business practices and poor delivery of product that people were expecting to get. "Upto" delivery speeds should at minimum be able to provide you with iptv if your a subscriber. If you can't deliver even one evening of uninterrupted television, how can you possibly even charge your customers let alone increase the price. Your a shill. I have hung in for a very long time, hoping for something to improve, but months and months go by. I could probably make due without tv for the summer anyways but the internet for both DSL and cable have issues which makes it not worth staying with Vmedia. You'll wake up one day like the rest of us and realize the dream has ended months ago. Your just throwing your money away now. I can't even get an installation fast enough from Rogers, they are completely booked up I'm assuming from people leaving here.

[synack]

Wasn't there another thread where people noticed the price increase and ASKED if it would affect current subscribers?
I don't buy the "oh we wanted to do it sooner, but we couldn't get our admin shot together"
No comment from vmedia on that one... they knew, but chose to keep it to themselves.

[Slyde]

Wasn't there another thread where people noticed the price increase and ASKED if it would affect current subscribers?
I don't buy the "oh we wanted to do it sooner, but we couldn't get our admin shot together"
No comment from vmedia on that one... they knew, but chose to keep it to themselves.

Agreed. Just leaves everyone scrambling at the last minute to switch. I guess they were hoping for one more influx of cash, but that won't happen from me.

[Slyde]

Everything I've said in all my posts are my true feelings, I do wish Vmedia the best and all the luck to survive in this market because they really could have something worth paying for if it actually worked. Unfortunately for customers like myself that aren't looking to save $30 a month, reliability is more important to my family and myself at this time. Maybe one day I will be back as many other might be as well...

[Gillian]

I neither agree with the price increase (a whopping 25%) nor the short notice, especially considering the fact that the last five months I was dealing with download speeds less than half what I was paying for, AND I do not have an IPTV package that would greatly inflate my bandwidth usage. What the hell were you thinking, VMedia? Is this the kind of message you want to send out? That you can just arbitrarily price gouge customers without due consideration and legal process? I'm not being pissy here. I genuinely want to know.

[Swift]

AND I do not have an IPTV package that would greatly inflate my bandwidth usage. What the hell were you thinking, VMedia? Is this the kind of message you want to send out?

Gillian, we now subscribe to Premium Internet.

VMedia has been campaigning for fair internet pricing due to the spiralling cost of CBB, Capacity Based Billing.

https://www.vmedia.ca/blog/tag/cbb/

VMedia rightly identify video usage as the key driver of demand growth and the need to deliver capacity. "VMedia hopes that in the course of these proceedings there is a recognition that: ... b. video distribution over the internet is the ultimate "killer app", and is an integral part of the process of determining wholesale internet access policies ..."
https://www.vmedia.ca/support/documen...inal_dupli.pdf

VMedia tells us
"Part of the cost of acquiring that bandwidth relates to usage, and is commonly known as capacity based billing (CBB). ... it is at least as important, especially if Canadians want choice and fair pricing in BOTH internet and TV services."

As an IPTV provider VMedia's CBB internet costs have been spiralling out of control due the heavy IPTV internet usage under the VMedia brand and business model.

VMedia believe that they are entitled to Fair Internet Pricing but are now expecting their internet only customers to pay extra to UNfairly cross-subsidize and bale out their failing combined IPTV/Internet customer business.

Our internet service is exactly the same service as an IPTV customer, but now we have to pay Premium Internet rates to subsidize the extra capacity of the IPTV customers.

We need to cry foul! - "especially if Canadians want choice and fair pricing in BOTH internet and TV services."

I do not believe that this is the message that VMedia wanted to send out. VMedia have explicitly undermined their own CRTC submissions with this unfair pricing. I have no idea what VMedia were thinking.

[MrBee007]

Everyone look at your billing as I found a discrepancy that could have resulted in being billed for premium Internet without IPTV, and a $5 overage charge. Looks like they aren't ready for this process, and looks like lots of mistakes are being made.

[MrBee007]

Case the discount, my bad!!!

[MrBee007]

Found the discount, my bad!!!

[sradonic]

I have priced out the alternative for 60/10. TS is more $ 69.95 400GBs or $94.95 for unlimited.. I use on average 400GBs
RC is $ 87.99 for 320GB and $ 113 for unlimited or 250/20 $ 103 for 500GBs
When asked about discounts - neither are willing to give any, not to mention new install fees..
yes, it sucks to pay for service that you only receive 50% of but at this rate $58 for 45/4 - I am on a strict budget and doomed ..

[wearysky]

Our internet service is exactly the same service as an IPTV customer, but now we have to pay Premium Internet rates to subsidize the extra capacity of the IPTV customers.

You're not just paying to subsidize IPTV customers (and frankly, I'm not convinced that's VMedia's biggest problem, personally), you're also paying to subsidize the people who wanted to download hundreds upon hundreds of gigabytes every month without any limits. And you're paying to subsidize folks who exclusively watch Netflix every night for a couple in HD instead of watching TV, which I imagine actually uses MORE bandwidth than IPTV does, or at least no less. Basically, you're paying to subsidize unlimited internet usage, and if you don't need unlimited internet, you can definitely find cheaper providers. For unlimited packages, I don't imagine you'll find anybody cheaper than VMedia.

[Hacksaw2085]

You're not just paying to subsidize IPTV customers (and frankly, I'm not convinced that's VMedia's biggest problem, personally), you're also paying to subsidize the people who wanted to download hundreds upon hundreds of gigabytes every month without any limits. And you're paying to subsidize folks who exclusively watch Netflix every night for a couple in HD instead of watching TV, which I imagine actually uses MORE bandwidth than IPTV does, or at least no less. Basically, you're paying to subsidize unlimited internet usage, and if you don't need unlimited internet, you can definitely find cheaper providers. For unlimited packages, I don't imagine you'll find anybody cheaper than VMedia.

I think you are spot on with this. Using the traffic monitor on my router I can definitely say watching 2 hours of TV uses a lot less bandwidth than a 2 hour 1080p movie from Netflix. Netflix uses 3GB per hour of HD and 7GB per hour for Ultra HD, VMedia is about 1-2GB per hour. I can't track it accurately because it is a variable to an extent based on the content you're watching. The price increase has everything to do with subsidizing the unlimited users. VMedia would probably see higher traffic per user due to IPTV than someone with traditional TV but I wouldn't say it's IPTV alone that's the cause of the increased costs.