Virgin media

Mr_Lahey

I had NTL for years without a single problem. The i get a call from Virgin who took over NTL a while back telling me that the modem etc i have is so old they need to replace my gear and give me a nice new shiny 12mth contract. I agreed and the kit arrives in the post. I set it all up and instantly notice a drop in my speed. I used to download movies etc at about 2mbps, suddenly im struggling with 20kbs which is about 400% percent slower.
Added to that my supposedly always on cable broadband keeps disconnecting. That means unplugging the modem for 30 seconds, then unplug the router for 30 seconds. It all works then 20 minutes dies again.

So i phone the 0845 10p a min number, 26 minutes later and some guy who has a ridiculous grasp of the English language answers:

I explain the fault... after repeating myself a few times he finally gets it. I explain what ive already done - Thats not good enough for him, i have to do it all again in real time for him. 82 minutes later and he says i need an engineer - What i was telling him from the start.

The amazing this was, when i was having it all sorted it was a free phone call and answered by an English guy within minutes.
Have a problem and you get some guy who barely speaks English and an hour an half at ten pence per min trying to sort it out.

Avoid Virgin Media like the plague is my advice.

£8.20 in a phone call, an hour and half wasted getting stressed with some fool who spoke less English than my 2 year old and i get to take another day off work waiting in for an engineer who i asked for in the first place.

truthman007

Better when you speak to someone who is not having first language is English, speak slowly and clearly, they are really helpful than anyone here i've come across many times.

dawyldthing

also go on to www.saynoto0870.com for getting landline numbers, as any number starting with 08... on a mobile or even landline = huge bill. Play them at their game, and you'll get through quicker

wornoutmumoftwo

If you have a genuine broadband poblem they will refund the cost of the call. I clocked up £20 a couple of years ago and when I complained that it was a genuine set up problem as I know my way around a computer quite well they refunded the cost of the call.
I think they put the 0845 number to stop people phoning if say they'd forgotton to plug the computer in etc etc.
Give accounts a call on 150 and ask them.

spike7451

Mr_Lahey wrote: »

I had NTL for years without a single problem. The i get a call from Virgin who took over NTL a while back telling me that the modem etc i have is so old they need to replace my gear and give me a nice new shiny 12mth contract. I agreed and the kit arrives in the post. I set it all up and instantly notice a drop in my speed. I used to download movies etc at about 2mbps, suddenly im struggling with 20kbs which is about 400% percent slower.
Added to that my supposedly always on cable broadband keeps disconnecting. That means unplugging the modem for 30 seconds, then unplug the router for 30 seconds. It all works then 20 minutes dies again.

So i phone the 0845 10p a min number, 26 minutes later and some guy who has a ridiculous grasp of the English language answers:

I explain the fault... after repeating myself a few times he finally gets it. I explain what ive already done - Thats not good enough for him, i have to do it all again in real time for him. 82 minutes later and he says i need an engineer - What i was telling him from the start.

The amazing this was, when i was having it all sorted it was a free phone call and answered by an English guy within minutes.
Have a problem and you get some guy who barely speaks English and an hour an half at ten pence per min trying to sort it out.

Avoid Virgin Media like the plague is my advice.

£8.20 in a phone call, an hour and half wasted getting stressed with some fool who spoke less English than my 2 year old and i get to take another day off work waiting in for an engineer who i asked for in the first place.

You need a service tech out,sounds to me like a signal level/return path issue.
Spike,ex NTL/VM Service Tech

The_Pedant

I admit, their front line staff are absolutely useless when it comes to quickly identifying the cause, or realising when it is blatantly obvious that most of the usual 'unplug it, stand on your head, hold whilst I eat my lunch'... will not improve the situation, no matter how many times you try.

You can state technical details observed from the built in diagnostics that would explain your situation and confirm the need for an engineer ... but no ... they think that if you switch it off a 4th time ... the connection pixies might magically fix things when you switch it back on!

For me, it took a 4 week wait and a new cable from the house to the street cabinet to fix the issue.

Out of interest, is that connection over the cable network, or phone/ADSL?

Helix

Mr_Lahey wrote: »

I had NTL for years without a single problem. The i get a call from Virgin who took over NTL a while back telling me that the modem etc i have is so old they need to replace my gear and give me a nice new shiny 12mth contract. I agreed and the kit arrives in the post. I set it all up and instantly notice a drop in my speed. I used to download movies etc at about 2mbps, suddenly im struggling with 20kbs which is about 400% percent slower.
Added to that my supposedly always on cable broadband keeps disconnecting. That means unplugging the modem for 30 seconds, then unplug the router for 30 seconds. It all works then 20 minutes dies again.

So i phone the 0845 10p a min number, 26 minutes later and some guy who has a ridiculous grasp of the English language answers:

I explain the fault... after repeating myself a few times he finally gets it. I explain what ive already done - Thats not good enough for him, i have to do it all again in real time for him. 82 minutes later and he says i need an engineer - What i was telling him from the start.

The amazing this was, when i was having it all sorted it was a free phone call and answered by an English guy within minutes.
Have a problem and you get some guy who barely speaks English and an hour an half at ten pence per min trying to sort it out.

Avoid Virgin Media like the plague is my advice.

£8.20 in a phone call, an hour and half wasted getting stressed with some fool who spoke less English than my 2 year old and i get to take another day off work waiting in for an engineer who i asked for in the first place.

You phoned the wrong number, should have used 151 which is free. Still get an indian call centre most of the time but at least you don't have to pay.

Pound

When my Virgin ADSL broadband stopped working I had to phone a premium rate number even though it was their error. They couldn't seem to sort the problem out meaning I had to keep calling their premium rate number over and over and it cost me a small fortune.

Eventually I told them just to cancel the contract. Someone called me back later and said if I didn't cancel they could offer me 1 month free but I'd be tied to a new 12 month contract. I couldn't believe they wanted to tie me in to a 12 month contract for something that didn't even work!

There way of resolving the fault was just comical. It was purely a problem with ADSL but they kept raising a fault with BT to say my phone didn't work... BT would do a test on my phone line, confirm it worked OK and Virgin would usually close the incident without telling me. They did this about 3 or 4 times and eventually sent out a BT engineer who said "So your phone's not working then?" and apparently didn't have anything to do with broadband.