Virgin Media blatant misrepresentation

mumpig

A few months ago I was on the 20meg service & got the "detrimental use of your broadband connection" letter. Yes, my household is a heavy user, so not wishing to risk my connection, I upgraded to the xxl 50meg service. Virgin clearly show on there website that this service is exempt from ANY restrictions.
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/tm-table-su-large.jpg
So no fear of limits or threats of disconnection?
Yesterday I receive another "detrimental use of your broadband connection" plus it is dated 24th Feb so any monitoring of my service looks like I have completely ignored the warning for 3 1/2 weeks!
I phoned the number on the letter (long hold on an 0845 number) to be told that when I signed up to the 50meg service I should have been told a fair use policy applies! How can they say this when they openly advertise NO limits WHAT SO EVER on 50meg service??? and for many heavy users this must be a major selling point! How can they get away with this ? Beware!

custardy

it has no limits but stall has an acceptable useage policy

what sort of level are you downloading/uploading at?

I used to run a lot of downloads on the 20 meg before they shaped the daytime traffic,and never got any letters

Oliver14

mumpig wrote: »

I phoned the number on the letter (long hold on an 0845 number) to be told that when I signed up to the 50meg service I should have been told a fair use policy applies! How can they say this when they openly advertise NO limits WHAT SO EVER on 50meg service??? and for many heavy users this must be a major selling point! How can they get away with this ? Beware!

You must have been living in a cocoon if you didn't realisre ISPs have a fair usage policy.

For you to actually be getting those sort of letters you must be downloading Huge amounts.

George_Michael

You must have been living in a cocoon if you didn't realisre ISPs have a fair usage policy.

But the link that the OP supplied clearly shows that there is no fair usage policy or limit on the 50Mb package.
All of the lower speed deals do have this policy in place, but it states N/A for the deal that the OP has signed up to.

custardy

George_Michael wrote: »

But the link that the OP supplied clearly shows that there is no fair usage policy or limit on the 50Mb package.
All of the lower speed deals do have this policy in place, but it states N/A for the deal that the OP has signed up to.

yes because the OP isnt linking to the full page

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.html

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html

the image relates to traffic shaping

Esoog

Yep, nothing wrong here except a company hiding stuff in the small print (imagine that)


You must be downloading a fair few games/films The next letter might be a piracy one hehe :A:D

George_Michael

yes because the OP isnt linking to the full page

But that full page still doesn't show any fair use policy for the 50Mb service, and it also shows that the traffic shaping will not affect the 50Mb service. (there are figures shown for all the lower packages, but there is clearly an N/A for the deal that the OP has signed up to)

custardy

George_Michael wrote: »

But that full page still doesn't show any fair use policy for the 50Mb service, and it also shows that the traffic shaping will not affect the 50Mb service. (there are figures shown for all the lower packages, but there is clearly an N/A for the deal that the OP has signed up to)

thats right,traffic shaping doesn't affect the 50MB service
a letter is not traffic shaping

all packages are subject to acceptable use

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/acceptable-use.html

What is an Acceptable Use Policy?
It lets you know how to use our internet service safely and legally. All internet service providers have usage policies of some kind. Here's where you can read more about ours.

Our Acceptable Use Policy covers a range of prohibited activities, but it mainly focuses on the most severe misuse of our services. That's activities that are:
Illegal
Unlawful
Or inconveniencing other internet users.

To put it simply, it's there to protect our customers and make sure everyone gets the best broadband experience possible.

Our Acceptable Use Policy is all part of our terms and conditions which you accept when you join.

What happens if I breach the Acceptable Use Policy?
If we find that our internet service is being misused, we'll get in touch with you to let you know we're aware of what's going on. If we need to, we'll work with you to resolve the issues without taking any further action as much as possible, but we reserve the right to do so, if necessary.

paddyrg

ADSL connections are *contended* which means shared between lots of people, hence they have AUP's to be fair so that one bandwidth hog (say someone doing a lot of p2p piracy, or similar) does not ruin the internet experience for everyone else. What it sounds like you are after is *uncontended* access - it will cost a lot more, but then you can use it as you please without affecting anyone else, so no AUP to worry about.

http://www.viatel.com/v/page/uncontendedbroadband.php
http://www.businessdirect.bt.com/articles/services/ict/btnet---dedicated-internet-6258.html

Hope this helps.

To-poor

There is traffic shaping on ALL conncetions throughout the Virgin Network even the 100mb service. They reduce the speed of any download they class as file sharing at all times. This is managing traffic/shaping traffic.

I have to say Virgin are an absolute disgrace with the way they sell their broadband and they really dont need to be. I called them in Jan to cancel my 20mb line as the traffic shaping meant I was getting 500k a sec at times I needed more, they told me that I should upgrade to 50mb as this had NO traffic management applied at all. So I did.

The day it was installed I tested my regular downloads and low and behold I was getting 2mb instead of 50mb. The reason? Traffic Management. I rang them up to cancel and three different advisors told me I was wrong and no traffic management existed on the 50 mb line!

I have since researched this and found the terms regarding file sharing restrictions on the website and pointed out to them how this IS traffic management.

So I tried to cancel and was told that as I had agreed to a 12 month contract for ALL services and they had only mis sold the broadband I was liable for cancellation charges. Honestly, if only these people had half a brain they could see the drivel they come out with doesnt even make sense. I wonder how many people they rip off or extort money from with this kind of behavior?

custardy

To-poor wrote: »

There is traffic shaping on ALL conncetions throughout the Virgin Network even the 100mb service. They reduce the speed of any download they class as file sharing at all times. This is managing traffic/shaping traffic.

I have to say Virgin are an absolute disgrace with the way they sell their broadband and they really dont need to be. I called them in Jan to cancel my 20mb line as the traffic shaping meant I was getting 500k a sec at times I needed more, they told me that I should upgrade to 50mb as this had NO traffic management applied at all. So I did.

The day it was installed I tested my regular downloads and low and behold I was getting 2mb instead of 50mb. The reason? Traffic Management. I rang them up to cancel and three different advisors told me I was wrong and no traffic management existed on the 50 mb line!

I have since researched this and found the terms regarding file sharing restrictions on the website and pointed out to them how this IS traffic management.

So I tried to cancel and was told that as I had agreed to a 12 month contract for ALL services and they had only mis sold the broadband I was liable for cancellation charges. Honestly, if only these people had half a brain they could see the drivel they come out with doesnt even make sense. I wonder how many people they rip off or extort money from with this kind of behavior?

probably more than the number of people who bother to read the T&Cs of the services they are taking