New virgin customer - feel like I have been conned!

Mark_In_Hampshire

Actually, the iPlayer and 4OD on demand stuff was good - parents have cable and I made use of that whan I stayed up there.

But then I only ever do watch the BBC and C4, and instantly tune out from any American sitcoms and dramas, I find them far too culturally dissimilar to us to relate to.

I keep meaning to get one of those "rig the TV up to the PC" wireless kits so we can watch iPlayer on the TV downstairs but having it all "built in" with a few clicks of the remote is a lot easier.

Skeenfleent

Flyboy152 wrote: »

There is a myriad of reasons not to be with Sky. Losing a channel full of repeats and shows no one watches anymore, is no reason to stay either.

The broadband is one of the reasons not to go. With Virgin, you pay for 30mps of broadband, down fibre-optic cable and you get 30mps of broadband, most of the time (generally, the worst I get is 20mps at peak periods). With Sky, the most you can get is up to 20mps, down copper wires. If I paid for that amount, the most I would get would be 8mps (I would be lucky to get 1mps at peak periods).

Sky Broadband at my cousin's was connecting at about 600m-1km from the exchange at 16Mbps/768kbps at least. The down/upload ratio could have been better, but it was a good connection.

I was on Virgin Media and the speed was awful, connection dropped out and it was because they were over-subscribed, and the ratio was 20:1 which is unusable at 10MB/500kbps in a shared house. With research the over-capacity of the VM network is a common issue, and Virgin LIE (basically) about it. Or make it so hard to find out the truth it has to be intentional or incompetent.
They could automatically refund you as soon as they see the network is over-capacity, or your modem signal is wrong. No, instead you have to ring up, run around trying to get some truth, and then if you're lucky, they state "oh this has been flagged as over-capacity and will be fixed in TWO MONTH'S time"! What a p--- -take! :mad:

The thing is, I was on Telewest with the EXACT same kit and network cabling and it was fine, the very best connection in the country at the time. Virgin are disgraceful for over-marketing and under-investing in the network to this level. They know what they're doing.

If you use the Samknows site, you can get a good prediction of the speed your line supports. Like the last part of the Virgin network it is ALSO copper. Virgin just give you a quoted speed, which at peak times will NOT be the speed you get, unless you're lucky to live in an under-populated VM cabled area. Why gamble with your money, it's hardly the point of this site, is it?

Flyboy152

Skeenfleent wrote: »

Sky Broadband at my cousin's was connecting at about 600m-1km from the exchange at 16Mbps/768kbps at least. The down/upload ratio could have been better, but it was a good connection.

I was on Virgin Media and the speed was awful, connection dropped out and it was because they were over-subscribed, and the ratio was 20:1 which is unusable at 10MB/500kbps in a shared house. With research the over-capacity of the VM network is a common issue, and Virgin LIE (basically) about it. Or make it so hard to find out the truth it has to be intentional or incompetent.
They could automatically refund you as soon as they see the network is over-capacity, or your modem signal is wrong. No, instead you have to ring up, run around trying to get some truth, and then if you're lucky, they state "oh this has been flagged as over-capacity and will be fixed in TWO MONTH'S time"! What a p--- -take! :mad:

The thing is, I was on Telewest with the EXACT same kit and network cabling and it was fine, the very best connection in the country at the time. Virgin are disgraceful for over-marketing and under-investing in the network to this level. They know what they're doing.

If you use the Samknows site, you can get a good prediction of the speed your line supports. Like the last part of the Virgin network it is ALSO copper. Virgin just give you a quoted speed, which at peak times will NOT be the speed you get, unless you're lucky to live in an under-populated VM cabled area. Why gamble with your money, it's hardly the point of this site, is it?

Well, I have never had a speed issue with VM. I have had several with other LLU providers though. I think if you look through the various forums, such as CableForum etc. you will see a broader range of experiences. The consensus is that FTTC is better than copper/LLU and the only viable FTTC provider is VM.

kwikbreaks

osborn99 wrote: »

You mentioned broadband. Bt is installing fibre optic in virgin's area around the country, so soon sky will have the same speeds as virgin. Also Virgin throttles speeds at peak times.

Not all areas will be getting BT fibre. I have cable but there is no planned date for Infinity.

The only throttling on VM is if the download allowance has been exceeded - http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-faster-uploads.html Add to that VM throttling lasts for 5 hours. If you breach the BT Infinity FUP you get throttled for all of the following month.

VM can be criticised for plenty of things but their traffic management on current products rather than the old 2Mbps ones which have only had automatic speed upgrades and are no longer sold isn't one of them.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Skeenfleent wrote: »

Sky Broadband at my cousin's was connecting at about 600m-1km from the exchange at 16Mbps/768kbps at least. The down/upload ratio could have been better, but it was a good connection.

I was on Virgin Media and the speed was awful, connection dropped out and it was because they were over-subscribed, and the ratio was 20:1 which is unusable at 10MB/500kbps in a shared house. With research the over-capacity of the VM network is a common issue, and Virgin LIE (basically) about it. Or make it so hard to find out the truth it has to be intentional or incompetent.
They could automatically refund you as soon as they see the network is over-capacity, or your modem signal is wrong. No, instead you have to ring up, run around trying to get some truth, and then if you're lucky, they state "oh this has been flagged as over-capacity and will be fixed in TWO MONTH'S time"! What a p--- -take! :mad:

The thing is, I was on Telewest with the EXACT same kit and network cabling and it was fine, the very best connection in the country at the time. Virgin are disgraceful for over-marketing and under-investing in the network to this level. They know what they're doing.

If you use the Samknows site, you can get a good prediction of the speed your line supports. Like the last part of the Virgin network it is ALSO copper. Virgin just give you a quoted speed, which at peak times will NOT be the speed you get, unless you're lucky to live in an under-populated VM cabled area. Why gamble with your money, it's hardly the point of this site, is it?

For an alternative outline:

Lived with parents, ntl cable 512kbps

Moved out - got own place. Not cabled. ADSL line too long/too poor quality @ 3.4km from exchange (Welwyn Garden City). Back to dial up.

Moved a mile to get cable again. ntl 1Mbps then ntl 2Mbps.

Moved to Harlow. No ADSL - sub-exchange not enabled. Cable again. 2Mbps (cutting edge at the time!)

Moved to Blackpool. Home - no cable. 300 yds from exchange. ADSL sync'ed at 7Mbps. Office - no ADSL, line too long/too poor quality @ 4km from exchange. Telewest cable 4Mbps.

Moved to where we are now. No cable. 2.5km from exchange. 1.5Mbps via ADSL, 3Mbps via 3G.

Cable - always delivered what it said it would. Always installed on time.

ADSL - most of the time delivered nothing, or nothing useful. Never installed on time. DACS line fitted when ordered explicitly for broadband, took 3 weeks for them to do the job properly. Here, line length about 3km and totally useless - poor quality again.

*If*, and it's a big if, you live near enough to the exchange (what percentage of people live within 1km? Maybe 5% perhaps? 10% at a push?) you might get speeds which can just about hold up against a properly working cable connection on a cheap package so in your example, Sky can and does compete.

However Sky would not be able to compete anywhere I've ever lived where both services have been available.

It's like 3G - very hit and miss. Here it's great. I go out and about with my smart phone and it's useless in some places.

lad22

Hello! I am totally confused, and have been for ages, which has meant I've not switched providers. I'm with Virgin and pay for a TV, phone line and broadband package which has just gone up to £38. We don't use the telephone at all, but I think we need the line for broadband? (sorry to be dim). We don't want Sky as we don't want the dish, and we actually don't watch much tv, so are on a basic package. Are Virgin the only ones who do this 3 item package? I'm with O2 for my mobile and I know line rental and broadband with them is therefore cheaper, but what do I do about the TV? Surely if I just have the TV with Virgin, it will all end up being more expensive; they only do a cheaper deal if you have all 3 in the package.

Can anyone tell me how to get a better deal? Should I steer clear of a mixture of different providers? One of the reasons why we wanted to change things was that our router is rubbish and wireless is intermittent, and Virgin will give us a free router if we stay with them. This would apparently work better as it would match the tv.

Any advice gratefully received!

JayCal_2

I have had the exact same experience with Virgin. I have also found the service / quality etc to be one big disappointment. I honestly do not know anyone who has has a good word to say about them.

Flyboy152

JayCal wrote: »

I have had the exact same experience with Virgin. I have also found the service / quality etc to be one big disappointment. I honestly do not know anyone who has has a good word to say about them.

You do now.:)

But seriously, who is better out there? Not Sky, that's for sure. I have had a few run-ins with VM, but on the whole they have been resolved satisfactorily. Their off-shore call centres are absolutely rubbish, but there are ways to get through to a UK one, if you try hard and often enough. The majority of their products (I can't speak for all of them, as I haven't used them all) are undoubtedly very good value for money and the quality, in my experience, has been very good as well. I pay just over one hundred pounds for VIP30, that's all the channels (including ALL HD channels), not forgetting all the OD services as well, unlimited calls anytime and upto 30mpbs broadband.

The "upto" is a bit misleading, I suppose, because I really only get about 25mpbs to 27mpbs on average, depending on peak usage and I get 30mpbs only occasionally. But still it's better than paying for 30mpbs and only getting 10mpbs.

latecomer

lad22 wrote: »

We don't use the telephone at all, but I think we need the line for broadband? (sorry to be dim).

If you have cable then you dont need to take the telephone but bundles are normally the best value.

lad22 wrote: »

I'm with O2 for my mobile and I know line rental and broadband with them is therefore cheaper, but what do I do about the TV?

trouble with this is that you'd be paying abour £11+ for the line rental on a BT line to get their ADSL so its unlikely to work out that much cheaper.

Have you considered just using Freeview for the TV if you dont watch that much?

Flyboy152

latecomer wrote: »

If you have cable then you dont need to take the telephone but bundles are normally the best value.

trouble with this is that you'd be paying abour £11+ for the line rental on a BT line to get their ADSL so its unlikely to work out that much cheaper.

Have you considered just using Freeview for the TV if you dont watch that much?

You do if you want broadband.