O/T Is Richard Branson a tightwad?

[bhoywonder]

He may have a few things on his plate right now what with his train crashing on the west coast main line


but i got this email ,I'm with NTL,,,,this is plain ridiculous....


talk about a smokescreen or shooting yourself in the foot

If i were SKY i'd sue

n if they lose these channels I for one am leaving

I dont believe a word of this propaganda,there must be something else behind this

p.s for those not in the know NTL has been re branded to virgin  and they have already hiked the prices up already






Dear customer,

Let’s face it. Things would be pretty boring if choice didn’t exist. There’d be just one kind of airline to fly with. One type of car to drive. And if Sky had their way, there’d only be one place to get TV.

We thought we’d let you in on a few tricks they’ve been trying to get their way.

While we’ve continued to make Virgin Media channels like Living, Bravo and Challenge available to all Sky customers, Sky may withdraw their non-premium channels from Virgin Media’s service – in order to force you into switching service.

Virgin Media were willing to pay an increase in costs in order to get the complete range of Sky content and channels.

However, Sky have consistently demanded an increase that bears no relation to the channels’ market value.

We have refused to accept this increase, since it would mean absorbing significant costs ourselves, and passing the kind of price increase on to our customers that is simply unfair. We are not prepared to rip off our customers.

So Sky have picked up their ball and gone home.

As a Virgin company, we’re well used to the attempts of large corporations trying to manipulate markets, stifle competition and rip off consumers.

Luckily, we don’t think Sky’s the limit.

We think the future’s full of fresh entertainment and communication possibilities. And we’re looking forward to bringing them to you. With all the freedom and choice you deserve.

We’ve launched Virgin Central, a revolutionary type of TV channel, where programmes start and stop when you say so. This is only available on Virgin Media, since Sky don’t have the technology to be able to transmit it. What’s more, it’s available to every single one of our digital TV customers.

And there’s our unique on demand library. A giant collection of over 500 films, 1000 music videos, 100s of TV shows – all at your beck and call. You can access them at any time.

We’re not scared of competition, we welcome it

[boldie]

He is a tightwad..my girlfriend has a Virgin Credit card and paid off 8.37 extra sometime last year..This created a credit on her CC. this week she got a letter telling her they would startcharging her 10£ a month for being in credit.
This ofcourse would mean she would go in debit again on the CC and then they can charge her interest.

she asked them to just stick the 8.37 into her bankaccount but was told.."No you have to use your CC to spend it" lol

[Newmanseye]

I for one think the guy has made a great decision, a risky decision but a good one none the less, Sky unfortunately NEED the Virgin revenue, Sky are trying to muscle around their customers ( yes virgin are a sky customer and vice verca ).

Let me put this another way, SKY tried to use their programming power in order to force a smaller market player to make a bad business decision, which would only force more customers to sky in the long term.


I applaud the guy for making the decision, If more people would tell Rupert Murdoc where to shove his network TV would be a lot better these days, and before anyone say its his daughters network, Please pull the other one, Rupert still has a huge interest in the company.

In short not a tightwad, just a good businessman.

[bhoywonder]

Billy

in the middle of lost series 3 on sky 1



methinks he shot himself in the foot


Branson wants to be the new murdoch...he's into everything,poker,mobiles,planes,trains,cars to name but a few


but i do applaud his move,i dont think it will work though,ppl will leave ntl/virgin now

[Nakor]

I probably won't notice the sky channels leaving ntl/virgin as the guide/remote/volume/decoder/signal/on demand/customer service all work so infrequently I can seldom actually watch it anyway.

I can't wiat to move, come back sky all is forgiven.

[byronkincaid]

Billy

in the middle of lost series 3 on sky 1



methinks he shot himself in the foot


Branson wants to be the new murdoch...he's into everything,poker,mobiles,planes,trains,cars to name but a few


but i do applaud his move,i dont think it will work though,ppl will leave ntl/virgin now

Sky may withdraw their non-premium channels from Virgin Media’s service

sky 1 is premium no?

[Div]

Sky are trying to shut Virgin out of the market - not only by making it harder for them to use the basic Sky package, but by buying a major share in ITV to stop Virgin Media proposing a merger.

Quite simply Rupert Murdoch (and his son) want to monopolise the market, and don't want competition from someone who is as marketing savvy as they are.

My own opinion of Branson is that he has achieved an amazing amount and should be commended for it, though I can understand why his love of the cameras doesn't endear him to everyone.

I think he's handled this train crash situation very well, and as someone who uses the train a fair bit for work, I'd rather travel on one of the new Virgin trains than the grotty old GNER 125s any day of the week! (Is that the sound of Tikay rushing to this thread?)

[Eck]

He plays a good game, recently when Sky and Virgin came into closer competition Sky received a call asking why they had stopped their staff using Virgin airline's. No such decision had been made and Sky/NewsCorp would allow their staff to have the same choices of travel as always and they had no problem with using Virgin.

Wonder who made that call hmmm.........

[Rod Paradise]

Having worked for NTL I know how much trouble they've had with Sky, also ask any Celtic fan how many away game in Europe are on the channels NTL can't show - to screw with NTL in Glasgow.

It's business and I understand it, but it doesn't make me feel any loyalty to Sky.

[Newmanseye]

Billy

in the middle of lost series 3 on sky 1



methinks he shot himself in the foot

Lost is a pile of Crap anyways, I am still waiting for bobby Ewing to come out of the shower and tell us it was all a dream!!!!!

[bolt pp]

He is a tightwad..my girlfriend has a Virgin Credit card and paid off 8.37 extra sometime last year..This created a credit on her CC. this week she got a letter telling her they would startcharging her 10£ a month for being in credit.
This ofcourse would mean she would go in debit again on the CC and then they can charge her interest.

she asked them to just stick the 8.37 into her bankaccount but was told.."No you have to use your CC to spend it" lol

I'm not quite sure this qualifies him as being a tightwad unless you think his latest board meeting went something along the lines of........

"what the f**k happend with the train? what a disaster!!! get everybody on it, full investigation, I want the WHOLE of the PR team on the case working exhaustively to make this look like its nothing to do with us,NOW!!!! And what the f**k are Sky doing? this venture is turning into a billion dollar disaster, knowone wants our crap TV because you idiots haven't marketed it properly, I'm surrounded by morons, go away and completely revise the advertising scheme, i dont care what the cost is, DO IT!!!!! also if i hear one more time about that woman from Scotland being £8 in credit you're ALL sacked, SORT HER OUT NOW!!!!

[Newmanseye]

He is a tightwad..my girlfriend has a Virgin Credit card and paid off 8.37 extra sometime last year..This created a credit on her CC. this week she got a letter telling her they would startcharging her 10£ a month for being in credit.
This ofcourse would mean she would go in debit again on the CC and then they can charge her interest.

she asked them to just stick the 8.37 into her bankaccount but was told.."No you have to use your CC to spend it" lol

I'm not quite sure this qualifies him as being a tightwad unless you think his latest board meeting went something along the lines of........

"what the f**k happend with the train? what a disaster!!! get everybody on it, full investigation, I want the WHOLE of the PR team on the case working exhaustively to make this look like its nothing to do with us,NOW!!!! And what the f**k are Sky doing? this venture is turning into a billion dollar disaster, knowone wants our crap TV because you idiots haven't marketed it properly, I'm surrounded by morons, go away and completely revise the advertising scheme, i dont care what the cost is, DO IT!!!!! also if i hear one more time about that woman from Scotland being £8 in credit you're ALL sacked, SORT HER OUT NOW!!!!

 

Bolt does it again, thanks mate, i need to dry out the ;appy, more tea over the screen.

[boldie]

He is a tightwad..my girlfriend has a Virgin Credit card and paid off 8.37 extra sometime last year..This created a credit on her CC. this week she got a letter telling her they would startcharging her 10£ a month for being in credit.
This ofcourse would mean she would go in debit again on the CC and then they can charge her interest.

she asked them to just stick the 8.37 into her bankaccount but was told.."No you have to use your CC to spend it" lol

I'm not quite sure this qualifies him as being a tightwad unless you think his latest board meeting went something along the lines of........

"what the f**k happend with the train? what a disaster!!! get everybody on it, full investigation, I want the WHOLE of the PR team on the case working exhaustively to make this look like its nothing to do with us,NOW!!!! And what the f**k are Sky doing? this venture is turning into a billion dollar disaster, knowone wants our crap TV because you idiots haven't marketed it properly, I'm surrounded by morons, go away and completely revise the advertising scheme, i dont care what the cost is, DO IT!!!!! also if i hear one more time about that woman from Scotland being £8 in credit you're ALL sacked, SORT HER OUT NOW!!!!

lmao

[yellowmagic]

I suspect he is anyway, but his links to the Virgin branded companies are arm's length.

I had a gap job working in Virgin Trains customer services, dealing with written complaints and claims, eye-opening and often eye-wateringly funny. I assure you that Richard Branson does not get to see the letters addressed to him. Also, "Dear Mr Branston, your trains are in a pickle" loses its punch after the first few dozen sightings. And complaints from MPs, Lords, and "I am a close personal friend of Chris Green" (chief exec.) pulling rank all get the scrutiny they deserve.

My sympathies to all involved in the derailment this week-end.

[Rhu]

Sky put out adverts saying Virgin were removing Sky 1 and the other channels from there service while the negotiations were still going on. Virgin consulted their lawyers and Sky removed the ads.

Sky have dramatically upped the price not in correlation to their value. This 'propaganda' as you put it is what has happened, so Sky may have trouble suing.

Virgin are about to announce a deal that will see Lost available with their on demand service from the summer. The first two series are available through Telewest already.