My virgin broadband package (useless)

limeyboosk

I recently signed up for 12 months on a virgin broadband package with 8mbs speed and unlimited downloads. I have since had my speed cut down to around 80kbs speed because apparently 'I download too much'. Isn't that the point of unlimited downloads? My internet browswer is now nearly useless and it takes a minute for pages such as HMV to come up.

Here is the letter they emailed me....

Hello there,

We’ve noticed recently that you’ve been using your Virgin Media Broadband connection to upload and download a lot more than we’d expect.

While we’re pleased that you’re enjoying using our broadband service, when someone downloads an unusually large amount of information over a long period of time, it can slow down the internet speed for other users. So, to make sure our service is fair for everybody, we’ll need to moderate the speeds of your service as mentioned in our Acceptable Use Policy.

If the amount that you’ve been downloading is affecting other Virgin Media users during peak times, we normally only reduce your speeds to 512Kbps for the rest of the day, and this is usually enough to help us make sure that everyone can enjoy a speedy broadband connection. But, if your use is higher than normal during the peak times of the week, and doesn’t seem to be getting any less even with the reduction to 512Kbps, we’ll eventually reduce your broadband speed during peak times to 80Kbps – and that’s for the rest of the week.

[SIZE=+0]How this affects you[SIZE=+0]
[/SIZE]Because we have seen prolonged high usage on your account, we’ll be moderating the internet use during peak times for the rest of this week (until Sunday night).
This means that from 4pm to midnight from Monday to Friday, and 10am to midnight on Saturday and Sunday your broadband service will be 80Kbps (that’s just faster than a dial-up connection). During these times you might want to stagger your use, so that you’re not doing everything in one go. Outside of these times, you’ll be able to use your service as normal, with speeds of up to 8Mb. If you’d like to find out a bit more about why we do this just click here.
[/SIZE][SIZE=+0]
Keeping track of what you’re using
To avoid this happening again, you can cut down on the amount you’re downloading at peak times and, after Sunday, we’ll put things on your account back to normal. To help keep track on this, there are lots of handy tools available on the internet which can tell you how much you’re downloading over a specific period.
If the next time we look at our users we notice that you’re still downloading more than we’d expect, we’ll just apply the usage restrictions again and let you know what’s happening.

Want to know more about our Acceptable Use Policy? Just click here to read the whole thing.[SIZE=+0]

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[SIZE=+0]The Virgin Media team[/SIZE]


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DatabaseError

didn't you research VM's acceptable usage policy before signing, its quite well known, a couple of seconds with google brought this? oops!

you could ask them to explain "..it can slow down the internet speed for other users", ask them whether this means 'the internet will slow down for everybody' or whether it means that VM are not providing sufficent capacity to provide an 'unlimited' service to its subscribers, but it probably won't get you anywhere

limeyboosk

I never noticed the (*) next to the packages box when you read the advert which sends you to a small clause below which tells you about their policy. I have subsequently noticed this clause.

Rather pathetic really. I has put me dead against buying anything with the 'Virgin' brandname anymore. Richard Branson has lost my business. I am locked into the contract for another 10 months, but after that, I am off.

Virgin should improve their servers. Do other broadband providers do this?

globalds

Turn off your torrents.
I don't know of another reason why you would be down/uploading enough for them to cap you .

limeyboosk

Caping shouldn't happen at all. When you read their advert '8mbps and unlimited broadband', you think it does what it says on the tin.

Anyone know a good broadband provider that doesn't do this?

espresso

limeyboosk wrote: »

Caping shouldn't happen at all. When you read their advert '8mbps and unlimited broadband', you think it does what it says on the tin.

Anyone know a good broadband provider that doesn't do this?

You obviously didn't read the small print before you signed up!

Broadband speeds We'll make sure that you receive the highest broadband speed your phone line can handle, however the actual speed you receive can be affected by factors such as phone line quality or distance from your local exchange. This means that you could actually receive up to 4 Mbps, 5 Mbps, or 6 Mbps - basically anything up to 8 Mbps.
Acceptable use policy Virgin Broadband offers unlimited downloads, which is great if you like to download music and movies or just don't want to worry about monthly allowances or caps. However, you need to know that we operate an Acceptable Use Policy which also enables us to manage our heaviest users' traffic during peak times. This enables us to continue to offer top quality services at great value to our customers.

limeyboosk

I HATE small print. You need a degree in law to understand half of it.

Anyway, Branson has lost me as a customer. And when I see him, I will pop his balloon.

espresso

limeyboosk wrote: »

I HATE small print. You need a degree in law to understand half of it.

Anyway, Branson has lost me as a customer. And when I see him, I will pop his balloon.

You need to go here

:rolleyes:

DatabaseError

limeyboosk wrote: »

Anyone know a good broadband provider that doesn't do this?

there's a few, maybe ask in 11 months when your present contract is up?
is your vm connection cable or adsl, whats your postcode?

ianian99

limeyboosk wrote: »

Anyway, Branson has lost me as a customer. And when I see him, I will pop his balloon.

Only after the 12 months is up.

Sponge

For arguments sake, let's say you are downloading/uploading lots of data, e.g. torrents - just configure your software to do it all overnight, outside of the hours where VM will throttle you. That should prevent it from happening.

I agree it's annoying, unlimited isn't unlimited, etc, etc, but until such a time as they change their T&Cs, or you take your business elsewhere, you have to modify your usage to take into account their limits. :beer: