Virgin Media: Haggle down your costs.

Lady_K

BexTech wrote: »

Is this their cable broadband service or their ADSL service?

If cable broadband are you using a cable modem or via the TV Set Top Box?

Has windows decided to download a tonne of updates and taken you over the limit?

It could be a fault, if a cable customer then best to post in the support newsgroups, where support staff will check for you, maybe ask to post some details from the modem. See: www.virginmedia.com/newsgroups - the broadband support group is: virginmedia.support.broadband.cable

Support isn't as quick as it used to be since they got rid of dedicated support staff for the newsgroups. Don't post personal details or account numbers, just you alias - the part of your email address before the @ let them know if xNTL or xBlueyonder. These are newsgroups that can only be accessed by Virgin Media customers and staff, they aren't available to non-customers, so no worries about the world seeing the posts, just other VM users. Staff are there from 08:00 until 22:00.

I've just been having a look for that broadband support newsgroup, its a bit complicated to sort out or is it just me. I thought it would be some kind of forum but do I have to set up outlook express because I don't use it plus I don't think I have an ntl email anymore. Is there a direct link to the forum?

BexTech

Lady_K wrote: »

I've just been having a look for that broadband support newsgroup, its a bit complicated to sort out or is it just me. I thought it would be some kind of forum but do I have to set up outlook express because I don't use it plus I don't think I have an ntl email anymore. Is there a direct link to the forum?

No direct link to a forum as it's not a forum but a good old fashioned before www was invented newsgroup.

Just a case of setting up outlook express to use newsgroups, via that link they give a step by step guide (you don't have to use a real email address or name when setting up newsgroups). Though when posting for support it's quicker to state at the end of the post what your alias / first part of email address before @ is.

You should have at least your first issued email address, if not they might be able to find you from your IP address.

barnabee

I have had a letter from Virgin Media saying that on checking their accounts they have not been charging me for my telephone. It does not say for how long or if they mean the line rental or usage.
Ther further state that as its their problem they do not intend to claw back the monies just ensure that i pay from my next bill.
HOWEVER i have checked my last 4 months bills on line and i have been paying for both line rental and usage

Had exactly the same letter. It is nothing to do with telephone rental or usage. I suspect like me you may have had two discounts by mistake, given out when everyone was contacting retentions about losing Sky One and Sky Sports News channels.
Have just checked my bill and they have backdated the adjustment to the date they discovered the error. My bill is increasing by £10 a month.

AlanUdale

I have had virgin from when it was first telewest and have never had cause for complaint.

I have also had Tiscali in the past which was poor.

I also now have TalkTalk which displays 4.6 however loads slower than my 2meg virgin.

I just complained about my cost and for TV and Broadband got a discount from £36 to £25 I made a further complaint per the repeats and said I was thinking of going over to Sky then was offered TV Broadband at 4meg free wireless router and free phone line with weekend calls free for £32.

roddydogs

Lady_K wrote: »

Is it normal that my 2mb broadband connection shows up as just over 1mb?

I dont download music, films, movies or games so there is no reason they should throttle me. It seems unfair that I'm a low user anyway and they do this. I only checked it because I'm fed up of pages loading soo slowly.

Wiill they do anything if I phone up?

You will never get the full download speed, its "Up To" not the average u will get, im on the max 20, im lucky to get 8.

Lynda_Smith_2

Hi
My Virgin bill is the following:
Tv XL £22.00
BB M 18.00
Line Rental 11.00
talk unlimited 7.95
Caller disp/billing 2.75
Extra V box 15.00
Total service £76.70
discounts applied £26.50
Total bill £50.20

I have rung this am to see if there is any way to reduce these costs and told that the best that can be done is to ofer me the Talk 200 (don't know if that is the right name) for an extra £2 month. It gives free weekend/evening calls and up to 200 mins to all daytime numbers inc. mobiles and 0845 numbers

Anyone know of better deals?

gerturdeanna

I desperatly need to get my bill down also - bill came today and this is what I'm being charged:
Telephone line rental: £11
Talk Unlimited: £7.95
Loyalty Pack bb/phone/tv c: -£23.00
free vocemail: £0.00
TV size XL: £22.00
Broadband size M: £18.00
Payment handling charge: £5.00
Total service charge: £40.95
Calls for this month total £34.45!!!
Toal bill: £75.40!!!
No way I can afford this any longer - am now a single parent on IS!!
What can I do?

Alias_Omega

gerturdeanna wrote: »

I desperatly need to get my bill down also - bill came today and this is what I'm being charged:
Telephone line rental: £11
Talk Unlimited: £7.95
Loyalty Pack bb/phone/tv c: -£23.00
free vocemail: £0.00
TV size XL: £22.00
Broadband size M: £18.00
Payment handling charge: £5.00
Total service charge: £40.95
Calls for this month total £34.45!!!
Toal bill: £75.40!!!
No way I can afford this any longer - am now a single parent on IS!!
What can I do?

From a few posts ago..

Phone (free weekend calls to landline)
XL Tv Package
2MB BB

Free V+ box (usually £75) & installation, inc free HDMI cable
Free Wireless Router
Free Telephone installation

12 month contract

£29 per month

I simply cancelled the account, and they rang me back from the retentions office with the above deal.

gerturdeanna

Alias_Omega wrote: »

I simply cancelled the account, and they rang me back from the retentions office with the above deal.

So did you actually cancel or did you threaten to cancel? What if I'm not up for renewal on the contract at the moment?
Cheers

BexTech

roddydogs wrote: »

You will never get the full download speed, its "Up To" not the average u will get, im on the max 20, im lucky to get 8.

If you are on Virgin Media CABLE network then you should be getting extremely close to your purchased speed. If you pay for 2Mbit then you should be virtually hitting 2Mbit, if you pay for 10Mbit then you should be virtually hitting 10Mbit, if you pay for 20Mbit you should be hitting 20Mbit - except when you download too much and the throttle you for a few hours - back to 1Mbit on 2Mbit, 2.5Mbit on 10Mbit and 5Mbit on 20Mbit.

If you are on CABLE broadband and are only getting 8Mbit then there is something seriously wrong with your connection and you should post in the Virgin Media newsgroup: virginmedia.support.broadband.cable - see https://www.virginmedia.com/newsgroups for set up details if new to the old before www method.

If you are only getting 8Mbit then it sounds like either;

1) You are connecting to your cable modem with a USB cable instead of the recommended and only set-up option given in the last couple of years or so - Ethernet cable.

2) The modem you have is not capable of providing the 20Mbit service and needs to be replaced by one that is, VM will send you a replacement modem out free if it is the modem.

3) You are using a router that isn't capable of sustaining 20Mbit throughput - it might be stated 54Mbit on wireless (the connection from the router over the air to your PC) and / or 100Mbit on the hardwired side (the connection from the router to your PC) and may well be the speed it connects - however only a very few routers can actually transfer the data within itself at 20Mbit, many max out at 8Mbit, 12Mbit or 16 Mbit.

There are really the only instance where as you state lucky to get 8, as if it was an over-subscribed issue or other network issue then your speeds would be up and down and would at times reach almost 20Mbit.

I'd definitely get in touch with support as for cable users you should be getting 20Mbit. This is cable network, not ADSL where distance matters and the speed varies depending on how far you are from the exchange or quality of the line.