Move all eggs to Virgin basket or diversify to O2/BT/Sky?

Digiteer

Hi - am currently on the Virgin 20Mb cable BB service but have become very concerned over its cost (£37 - dropped to £29 by Retentions dept.

Compared to O2's 16Mb (which is what I can get distance-wise) for £10 as an o2 customer, it should be a no-brainer to change.

However, my trusty old Humax Freeview PVR coughed its last recently so Virgin's V+ now seems a good idea, but it is only economical if you throw all your services in with Virgin.

The deal they've offered is BB XL, TV XL, phone line and "unlimited" 01 & 02 phone calls for £56 pm.

The problem is that we had an NTL phone some years ago and were one of the many families who suffered terrible service and customer service with the phone and vowed never to go back.

The friendly folk at Virgin now assure me that they are completely different to deal with and have sorted out all their predecessors' service and customer service shortfalls - hmmmmmmn.

The irony is that by diversifying the same services out to Sky+, O2 16Mb and BT's talk unlimited I can get a similar package for about £10 cheaper! When I ran the figure past Virgin retentions, they agreed but were unable to lower their offer, so I've probably got the best they can provide.

I confess to really liking the current Virgin BB however and the V+ Iplayer option would be very useful compared to Sky+, so am willing to be convinced that going all-Virgin is the best (although not the cheapest) way ahead. They are also offering a 28 day cooling off period which is good.

The cons are: risk that Virgin's service has not improved, bit more expensive, having to use a complicated access number for our International service as against dialling 1899 over BT and a risk that our current 4 BT Diverse DECT phones may no longer work on a cable line.

I have a lot of respect for MSE members' opinions so would ask those of you who have thrown in your lot in with Virgin - is it the best way to go?

All advice gratefully received.

many thanks in advance

Digiteer.

Niemand

Digiteer wrote: »

Hi - am currently on the Virgin 20Mb cable BB
I have a lot of respect for MSE members' opinions so would ask those of you who have thrown in your lot in with Virgin - is it the best way to go?

All advice gratefully received.

many thanks in advance

I haven't used services other than Virgin Media, so I can't compare, but I can relate my recent experiences.

I have all my services with Virgin Media. Over the past few weeks I had a complaint with them due to a phantom account they set up for which I was getting non-payment reminders. After several phone calls the phantom account was closed and the fictional amount owed by me (£57) was credited to by real account. Whether that was done as a gesture of goodwill or was a mistake I don't know or care. The fact remains it was sorted out.

On one of the calls I complained that I was seeing offers for new customers that were cheaper than I was paying. "How do you think I feel when I see how little new customers are paying compared to me who has been with this service since the days of Anglia Cable and NTL?" is how I put it. The Customer Service rep then made me an offer to upgrade my Broadband L service to XL, and reduce my monthy payments by £9. I accepted - I still have the option of chasing cheaper deals with them and other providers.

The problem with that was I couldn't get the 20 Mb/s download rate. After a call a new modem was sent to me - my current one couldn't support 20 Mb/s. I still couldn't get the full 20 Mb/s, so a technician came around and swopped the new modem with another new modem, which seemed to be slower (c. 4 Mb/s) so he swopped it out again. While there he upgraded some of the wiring which he said needed doing anyway.

Another call, another engineer. He had another modem, I said it wouldn't make any difference, he tried it and he spent over an hour there. He swopped it in, slower as before, so swopped it back out. He said it may be the cabinet in the street. So he said he'd talk to his manager.
Another visit, this time from the area technical manager. He spent an hour or so at my property, but had no record of checking the cabinet. He hooked up a laptop and confirmed that the modem was receiving 20 Mb/s. It seems like the problem was with my PC.

A friendly chap, he gave me his mobile phone number - "any time you need help, give me a call and I'll come round and try to help, it'll save you going through Customer Services." I was wondering whether to auction that number on eBay.

Anyway, I installed a new NIC a few days ago and the speed had definitely improved, peaking at 13 Mb/s. I think I may still have some hardware problems (it's an old PC).

So what did all this tell me?

It told me that Virgin Media did try to help me as much as they could, both by trying to diagnose my problem over the phone, and sending out engineers. Although I was very annoyed initially, with hindsight if it was indeed my PC that was the problem, there was actually nothing they could do (aside from the new modem, which I got in two days). My calls were answered fairly swiftly - five minutes at the most, (I used to wait 45 min. for NTL) and I can't really complain too much.

I have no problems with Customer Services.

In regards to the services, the phone and TV have been fine, as has the broadband, as it turned out.

I hope this helps.

Out of interest, these are the sites Virgin Media use for speed tests:

speedtest.net - click on the yellow pyramid
Robin Walker's Cable Modem Simple Speed Test - take the average of the four rightmost numbers.

Digiteer

Niemand,

Very many thanks for your kind and comprehensive response.

It look like VM have improved on their partner.

I too had been with cable a long time - started with Mercury because they offered fully itemised billing and monthly bills wheres BT wouldn't itemise and would only bill quarterly - remember those days?

I went on to C&W (incl their Internet) with their buyout then was forced to go with NTL at the next buyout!

Cheers

Dig