In a notice sent out today to select customers on a Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP) plan, Virgin Mobile announced it will raise monthly rates by $5. The email alerts customers that starting June 2016, the monthly cost of their package will increase, but does not provide a firm explanation on why the price is being a changed and which customers will be affected by the change.
In a question and answer section on its website, Virgin Mobile responds to the question of why Virgin is raising rates, stating: “With this price increase, your plan is still at a competitive value compared to anything else we have in market.”
The Virgin Mobile website notes that this price change may apply to you if you are on a BYOP month-to-month agreement and you’ve received a notification from the company in April. For Quebec customers that will be via letter or email (depending on their set preference), and in the rest of Canada, customers will be notified with a message on their bill.
One customer who received the notification told MobileSyrup that their current Virgin Mobile plan, which they recently signed up for, was subject to the price increase. It is a $34 plan that includes 2GB of data which the customer chose during a Black Friday sale. While MobileSyrup does not know the scope of the plans affected, it’s clear that the changes are not relegated to older plans.
The alert informs customers that, “Because of this increase, you can change or cancel your FREE fresh package in 30 days of your billing date in June.”
This sentence might be confusing to readers for two reasons, the first being the implication that customers can only cancel their plan at a certain time. Customers can legally cancel at any time before or after the change without incurring additional fees. The second is the emphasis that this change is free, which seems counterintuitive as it is a raise in the rates. What this likely refers to is that the carrier will not charge the customers any proration.
The change may be linked to the new rate model of Virgin Mobile’s parent company Bell, introduced in January of this year. Bell now prices BYOP month-to-month plans and smartphone-tier contract plans at the same rate, cutting the $10 discount that BYOP customers previously enjoyed. Concurrent with the Bell BYOP change, Virgin Mobile increased all of its new-customer rate plans by $5 in January. Perhaps today’s notice is a further move towards eliminating BYOP savings.
Related reading: Bell raises monthly share plan prices, eliminates BYOD benefits [Update: Virgin, too]
[source]Virgin Mobile[/source]
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