I was looking up our broadband provider to see the benefit of upgrading. But I came across this in the prices

*Subject to annual price increase of CPI +3% in April each year. Learn more

WTF, every year the price will increase. Why is this not a bigger deal. There are news articles it about but it went under my radar.

Does this mean, that in order to keep the price down, you have to switch provider every year? Or is this a permanent increase across the board?

See three.ie for an example, https://www.three.ie/broadband.html

  • mea_rah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Does this mean, that in order to keep the price down, you have to switch provider every year?

    It’s even worse than that. The increase also happens during your (pretty commonly 2y) contract if you have that. So effectively you’re signing contract where you don’t really know how much you’re actually going to pay, but you’ll be fined if you decide to end the contract early. 🤯

    But wait, there’s more!

    For example Eir increases the base price while keeping the discounts the same. So in a typical bill you might have €100 base price for all the services and let’s say €40 is discount that ends up being €60 - which is what you see as your bundle price. After the price increase by - let’s say - 8% you’ll have €108 base price with €40 discount. So your bundle ends up being €68. In practice that means, that the “8%” price increase is actually 13%… If they decide to increase price by 10% it actually amounts to 16%, you get the idea.

    But wait, there’s more!

    The price increase is done yearly in a specific month. So it’s not after a year of your contract, but could as well be right after you sign a contract. So If we assume the “8%” (13%) increase right after contract start and then yet another for the second year of 2y contract, you’re at this stage paying €127 base - €40 discount = €87. So almost entire second half of the 2y contract is going to be 45% price increase compared to the advertised bundle price for which you initially signed up.

    Obviously different bundles will lead to different prices, but the above is illustrative and IMO very realistic scenario.

    Why is there not more public outcry about this, I have no idea. Perhaps in grand scheme of things and with ever increasing cost of living this is in absolute numbers not a huge monetary difference however scummy the practice might be.

    Or is this a permanent increase across the board?

    AFAIK this is not permanent, but the longer you stay with the company the more you’ll pay. It makes no sense to punish loyal customers, but here we are. You pretty much have to change companies or in some cases call them and sign new contract that will hopefully reset the price back to advertised amount. (until next increase) I’d advise finding provider that does not do this.

    • sregger@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’d advise finding provider that does not do this.

      This sounds sensible. A damn pity all the largest providers are doing it. There’s a chance they’ll get away with it, when they deserve to be burnt.