Virgin media are an awful ISP
Hi,
Been with Virgin Media since they baught out Telewest (was with Telewest for many years before then), and since then have seen a gradual decline in customer service to abysmal levels - and most recently, an accute decline in internet services.
We have always had the joint TV, Phone and internet on the highest possible package (XL). The internet is supposed to be 20mbp/s and the bandwith is supposed to be unlimited. I use the internet heavily, and rely on it greatly for gaming, HD media and heavy internet browsing.
As I said before the internet was great up to say the last 5 months (seems to coincide when they braught out their 50mbp/s premium service).
Their "traffic shaping" policy is also quite overt - and you can expect speeds of about 200kb/s at peak times.
They're simply not offering value for money. If they're not prepared to invest in the infrastructure to support it's customer base, then it's time the consumer downsize them.
Been with Virgin Media since they baught out Telewest (was with Telewest for many years before then), and since then have seen a gradual decline in customer service to abysmal levels - and most recently, an accute decline in internet services.
We have always had the joint TV, Phone and internet on the highest possible package (XL). The internet is supposed to be 20mbp/s and the bandwith is supposed to be unlimited. I use the internet heavily, and rely on it greatly for gaming, HD media and heavy internet browsing.
As I said before the internet was great up to say the last 5 months (seems to coincide when they braught out their 50mbp/s premium service).
Their "traffic shaping" policy is also quite overt - and you can expect speeds of about 200kb/s at peak times.
They're simply not offering value for money. If they're not prepared to invest in the infrastructure to support it's customer base, then it's time the consumer downsize them.
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Original post by PrettyBored
Hi,
Been with Virgin Media since they baught out Telewest (was with Telewest for many years before then), and since then have seen a gradual decline in customer service to abysmal levels - and most recently, an accute decline in internet services.
We have always had the joint TV, Phone and internet on the highest possible package (XL). The internet is supposed to be 20mbp/s and the bandwith is supposed to be unlimited. I use the internet heavily, and rely on it greatly for gaming, HD media and heavy internet browsing.
As I said before the internet was great up to say the last 5 months (seems to coincide when they braught out their 50mbp/s premium service).
Their "traffic shaping" policy is also quite overt - and you can expect speeds of about 200kb/s at peak times.
They're simply not offering value for money. If they're not prepared to invest in the infrastructure to support it's customer base, then it's time the consumer downsize them.
Been with Virgin Media since they baught out Telewest (was with Telewest for many years before then), and since then have seen a gradual decline in customer service to abysmal levels - and most recently, an accute decline in internet services.
We have always had the joint TV, Phone and internet on the highest possible package (XL). The internet is supposed to be 20mbp/s and the bandwith is supposed to be unlimited. I use the internet heavily, and rely on it greatly for gaming, HD media and heavy internet browsing.
As I said before the internet was great up to say the last 5 months (seems to coincide when they braught out their 50mbp/s premium service).
Their "traffic shaping" policy is also quite overt - and you can expect speeds of about 200kb/s at peak times.
They're simply not offering value for money. If they're not prepared to invest in the infrastructure to support it's customer base, then it's time the consumer downsize them.
They are quite open about their traffic management policy:
http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html
That said, on the 20Mb package, speeds should never drop below 2.5Mb from traffic management alone - lack of capacity is another issue, but is meant to be eased by traffic management!
I've got Virgin, and always get near enough the advertised speed, apart from when I download too much
Original post by alex-hs
They are quite open about their traffic management policy:
http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html
That said, on the 20Mb package, speeds should never drop below 2.5Mb from traffic management alone - lack of capacity is another issue, but is meant to be eased by traffic management!
I've got Virgin, and always get near enough the advertised speed, apart from when I download too much
http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html
That said, on the 20Mb package, speeds should never drop below 2.5Mb from traffic management alone - lack of capacity is another issue, but is meant to be eased by traffic management!
I've got Virgin, and always get near enough the advertised speed, apart from when I download too much
I know they make public their "traffic managment" policy. I'm sorry, but if a business aims to provide and sell a service to the end user, it should be exactly that.
The notion of "Traffic managment" is simply a masked "We want to save money, we could easily and profitably give you what you pay for, but we'd like to make more money"
And as I said, I no longer get the internet performance you cite.
Had nothing but problems with them.
Keep waking up to find no internet, and they are less than helpful when we ring them to find out why.
So getting Sky in January
Keep waking up to find no internet, and they are less than helpful when we ring them to find out why.
So getting Sky in January
I've got Virgin Media at my Uni house and yes, they are an awful ISP.
Glad I'm home for now, as I have Sky.
Glad I'm home for now, as I have Sky.
Original post by Miss_Rachel
Had nothing but problems with them.
Keep waking up to find no internet, and they are less than helpful when we ring them to find out why.
So getting Sky in January
Keep waking up to find no internet, and they are less than helpful when we ring them to find out why.
So getting Sky in January
To be honest and as I have said in the OP, I have observed a continual decline in their customer services over the years. However, I'm experienced in fixing basic to advanced clientside networking issues - So the decline in Customer Services has been "tolerable". Often they'd send out a tech due in a weeks time and I'd have to cancel it because I'd already fixed it within 5 mins of phoning them and arranging a tech.
However, the actual quantifiable internet services have really gone down the pan as of late. It's a joke, it's like going back to a 56k.
They seem to patronise their consumers too, I understand they have a lot of computer-illiterate customers, but when you can build and program computers, and they're telling you to do things you already did (after you told them you already did it) it's really annoying.
I'm with plusnet at the moment. Although it ends up costing me quite a lot, at least my speeds are consistent and I never have problems. Until i can get BE in my area I'm pretty much stuck with 300Kb uploads though 
The only problem i have with virgin is when they lower my internet speeds for downloading alot.
very reliable though, and i've had nothing but good customer service.
The thing that does piss me off with virgin is the tv packages, we had to downgrade to M, because we can't afford XL anymore, and all the channels that were promised have moved to the M+ and L pack.
knobs.
very reliable though, and i've had nothing but good customer service.
The thing that does piss me off with virgin is the tv packages, we had to downgrade to M, because we can't afford XL anymore, and all the channels that were promised have moved to the M+ and L pack.
knobs.
(edited 13 years ago)
I think it's a little unfair to blackname Virgin Media just down to your personal experience, as I've heard nothing but good about them. Personally, our house gave them a go for our Internet+phone+TV and they've been spot on. Haggled some discounts on the phone, they installed everything the next day even though they said it would be up to 5 working days, and when I asked to have a few line settings changed, they wore more than happy to do so. Likewise, they've been very understanding in us changing account details to split the payment 5 ways.
I'm on the slowest package with virgin and I usually download at a few mb per second. That's pretty good. I'm in central edinburgh.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by DarkWhite
I think it's a little unfair to blackname Virgin Media just down to your personal experience, as I've heard nothing but good about them. Personally, our house gave them a go for our Internet+phone+TV and they've been spot on. Haggled some discounts on the phone, they installed everything the next day even though they said it would be up to 5 working days, and when I asked to have a few line settings changed, they wore more than happy to do so. Likewise, they've been very understanding in us changing account details to split the payment 5 ways.
So... You're a new customer, as opposed to someone who'd been with them since long before their very existence as a company?
You're very good at proving my point, Virgin media has no interest but growth beyond it's means to provide the service it promises.
Original post by PrettyBored
So... You're a new customer, as opposed to someone who'd been with them since long before their very existence as a company?
And I've heard nothing but good about them, even from people who have been with them as long as you have. Nevertheless, the problems you're encountering in terms of policy and such will be the same for almost everyone.
If you can't resolve your problems through contacting customer services, remind them that you can take it to OfCom (who will point you to one of two companies to file your complaint with).
Original post by DarkWhite
And I've heard nothing but good about them, even from people who have been with them as long as you have. Nevertheless, the problems you're encountering in terms of policy and such will be the same for almost everyone.
If you can't resolve your problems through contacting customer services, remind them that you can take it to OfCom (who will point you to one of two companies to file your complaint with).
If you can't resolve your problems through contacting customer services, remind them that you can take it to OfCom (who will point you to one of two companies to file your complaint with).
Nah, I think money talks much more astute.
Virign Media are fucking excellent. 1 MB (10Mb) per second for £5 a month is a pretty fantastic deal. very reliable and fast internetz.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by ?!master?!mini?!
Virign Media are fucking excellent. 1 MB (10Mb) per second for £5 a month is a pretty fantastic deal
Location: London.
Seems they're abbandoning their original customers, Telewest (NW England). Going for the denser traffic regions.
Original post by PrettyBored
Location: London.
Seems they're abbandoning their original customers, Telewest (NW England). Going for the denser traffic regions.
Seems they're abbandoning their original customers, Telewest (NW England). Going for the denser traffic regions.
VM are a profit making organization in the end
Original post by PrettyBored
Nah, I think money talks much more astute.
Care to elaborate on that?
I had Virgin Media 2 years ago, ended up leaving them and switched to Sky.
Sky was the best broadband service I've had until a few months ago when they decide to upgrade the speed to 20Mb, which I was really happy about but it turned out to be complete shit.
The highest speed I get is about 4Mb
even though I used to get 6-7Mb on the 8Mb package.
I'm fed-up with UK broadband anyway, it's just pathetic. I was at Abu Dhabi and they have freakin 42Mb for MOBILE broadband, their phones get higher speeds than our PCs
Sky was the best broadband service I've had until a few months ago when they decide to upgrade the speed to 20Mb, which I was really happy about but it turned out to be complete shit.
The highest speed I get is about 4Mb
even though I used to get 6-7Mb on the 8Mb package.I'm fed-up with UK broadband anyway, it's just pathetic. I was at Abu Dhabi and they have freakin 42Mb for MOBILE broadband, their phones get higher speeds than our PCs
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