Branson in a pickle

Richard Branson sent me a letter. He told me that his company had stood up to Sky TV and had refused to “rip off” his customers by passing on the extra they wanted Virgin to pay for their premium channels. Thank you ever so much for looking after me Sir R!

However, Sir Richard forgot to inform this consumer (and the thousands of others his form letter was posted to) just how much naughty Baron SkyTV was asking Virgin  for the privilege of broadcasting his prem channels. It was “around 3p per-day, per-customer” according to an official  BSkyB source, which would have cost Virgin around £36.1million per year. Expensive, but passing this cost to the customer would only have resulted in a 45p rise on a monthly bill! 

I miss the SkyTV channels and would be prepared to pay the extra 45p per month. I can’t swap to Sky because, as do many ex-Telewest customers, I live in an area where satellite dishes are banned. So I am stuck with Virgin’s re-branded rickety old rope.

Still brave Sir Richard has stood up to yet another “large corporation,” who he insists, attempt to “manipulate markets, stifle competition and rip off consumers.” Hurrah for RB looking after the little fellow, the poor defenceless consumer, once again!

However, I suggest RB look at what his company is doing to its ex-Telewest customers and their phone bills. For instance, another recent missive from  Virgin , sadly not signed by Sir Richard, told me in huge, easily to read, text that the cost of each of it’s phone packages was being reduced. Great, I hear you say, nothing to complain about there. True, the reductions were small, but as another company likes to tell us, “every little counts.” Unfortunately, in smaller text, near the bottom of the letter, I was informed that in future phone calls would be charged, not as previously, to the nearest second, but to the nearest minute! You don’t have to be a multimillionaire with a knighthood and a huge global company to work out what that will mean to most people’s bills. Gosh if only we had someone important, powerful and caring to help us poor consumers with this “rip off.” Suggestions anyone?