What are my options regarding an ISP?

Well you can either have really crappy internet, or you can move to a proper country who can provide such simple services.
I honestly don't know as everything here is run from a virgin or BT line. Go with BT though as while both are ****. Nothing will ever be worse than virgin media.

They do use separate lines btw.

OK great, good to know I'm not the only one ripping my hair out over the ****ty service of Virgin Media.

So they are different lines, so any problems Virgin face over their SNR issues wont necessarily occur with BT?

Nope, my mom has 2mb old bt line and it is a million times better than my "50mb". You watch one YouTube video and they class you an excessive user and slash your speed about 90%• then do it again if you try to use it more. It's called a fair use policy. Reminds me of that south park episode...

Posted from TSR Mobile

You need to watch more than one video... The fair use age is fair good with them, most of the people I know has 4 to a house and never really go over it. if they do it is never 90%, i cant remember off the top of my head but i think its 40% then 60% if you don't stop. In my house we have 2 very heavy internet users and we don't go over often (or things like today happen where I download over 160gb in one day and don't get throttled once)

Posted from TSR Mobile

I've been arguing with them for a while, we have 4 users and our usage is average yet we go down to 0.3mb and similar speeds, in november it was every day off peak and on peak. VM tried to justify it and said they will do the necessary repair work (digging roads apparently) maybe in August but no guarantee (after my lease is up anyway). All they did was fob us off with half price line rental, I'd rather pay through the nose and get what I paid for personally.

Call and say you would like to cancel your subscription. They will say you're under contract you can't, say you are not getting what you paid for and you shouldn't have been sold a package which they KNEW was faulty in the first place. You have spoken to other people in the area and they see the same issues, and VM have acknowledged the fault and refuse to rectify it (digging up roads). You have also visited the Virgin Media forums and see people talking about the same issues.

I said that ^ with my own circumstances. Was put on hold for a minute, they came back and said sorry we will let you out of your contract, then offer you half price deals etc. Say no. VM will be cancelled in a month, in the meantime get a new provider.

I switched back to Sky, they have fiber optic now. BT is another option, so is EE.

Is there any legal proceedings I can undertake to get this installation fee back from them? Considering the facts, it does sound like I have a genuinely good case, no?

As long as you can prove that they've breached the contract (read all the small print) you could take them to the small claims court. As to whether they'll actually pay up (assuming you win) is a different matter - But it will show up against them and could impact their ability to get other business (at least if lots of people took them to court like that).

Personally I'd probably write (not email) to the CEO's office or Complaints office first. Stating that they've breached the contract (giving details) and that you want compensation to include the installation fee (and potentially a small amount extra to cover any related expenses). It may help to name a value (and approximate breakdown if not obvious). You can also tell them you want a reply within a reasonable time frame (give them a couple of weeks) and state that if you haven't heard you will take the matter to the small claims court. Then send that via registered post (means you get a signature to say it's been received). Keep a copy and details of the recorded delivery as that gives you extra evidence if you need to take it further.

Virgin is not a BT whitelabel, they operate on separate infrastructure, moving to a BT based service would require the installation of a new phone line which can be expensive. EE will run off BT's infrastructure and therefore a phone line installation will also apply. I would definitely recommend against EE, they are the worst rated particularly in customer service.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Well you can either have really crappy internet, or you can move to a proper country who can provide such simple services.
I honestly don't know as everything here is run from a virgin or BT line. Go with BT though as while both are ****. Nothing will ever be worse than virgin media.

They do use separate lines btw.

I switched back to Sky as they now offer Fiber optic in my area (they didn't a few months ago that's why I switched to Virgin). Getting the same speeds, for £10 a month (if you call they offer £10/mo for 12 months on a 12 month contract).

Also Virgin didn't require a specific line I don't think. They just sent me a hub and I plugged it in and was ready to go.

They do. They run their network independently of the BT network which most other ISPs operate over.

They sent me a hub and didn't say anything about a phone line. I had a NTL line before it seems so I plugged it into that.

My 120Mb Virgin Media line sticks to 120Mb like a fly on a lantern. My BT connection back at home, however, drops to .5Mbps very frequently (from a supposed 6). It depends entirely on where you are and how your Internet is being served to you. For instance, back at home for me there is no LLU, so it is all BT's monopoly. Up here I have choice, and Virgin have to provide the best service.

Where are you based? 50 is the max we can get here. It makes sense that location makes a difference. If virgin was as bad everywhere else as they are here. The law would have to step in and shut them down.

Posted from TSR Mobile

West London/Surrey area. The rule is: Virgin inside London (because their best stuff is more reliable than BT's), BT outside London (because you don't have much choice).