Virgin Media 'Free' Broadband speed upgrade

basically_bankrupt

Morning,

Has anyone else been disappointed by Virgin Media's recent 'free' broadband speed upgrades that they have been rolling out?

My (previous) broadband speed is supposed to be up to 50Mbps and since the upgrades should have been doubled to be up to 100Mbps.

I was having problems at the weekend with very slow upload and download speeds, especially trying to upload to Youtube, so I rang up their 150 number. I was on the phone for nearly an hour, most of which was spent on hold.

The second person that I spoke to was in their technical team (sort of) but said he wouldn't be able to help me because I hadn't had their new superhub since my speed upgrade. I was put through to their customer service team who informed me that in order to receive my 'free' superhub to get the benefit of my 'free' upgrade I would have to pay £20 for it to be delivered.
I made the point that by introducing a charge, whatever it was for, it no longer became free and I felt their advertising and literature was misleading.
Anyway, I managed to get that charge waived on Monday of this week and in theory today I should be receiving the new superhub, sometime between 12 and 8pm.

Imagine my surprise today when I get a letter in the post from Virgin Media, detailing my new minimum 12 month contract that I am being entered into!

So this 'Free' upgrade that I am yet to see the benefit of, has a £20 delivery charge, requires a day of my time to stay at home and wait for a delivery (fortunately I am working from home today anyway but that's not the point) and ties me into a 12 month contract for a service that isn't working properly and I'm not happy with?!

Has anyone else noticed this new 12 month contract tie in following an upgrade and don't you think it's a bit of a con on Virgin Media's part?

Mr_Thrifty

Just purely out of interest, what on earth are you doing such that a 100Mbps line provides any significant benefit over and above say, a 5Mbps line?

Don't get me wrong, I think fast internet is great and on that basis why not have it, but unless you're a business with multiple users or you're doing off-site backups or something, what is the real benefit in 2012 of having such a fast line?

visidigi

I'm trying to understand how you could have a 50mb line previously with a normal modem in the first place...

My understanding was that service required a superhub, so something doesn't seem to make sense here?

Pikeyp

No , 50Mb doesn't need a new superhub , mine works fine on the old one!

I should be getting my upgrade after July so I'm not sure of the ins-and-outs of it yet! I don't think it triggers a new contract though ..

to the OP ... did you fall into the trap of trying to get it early and phoning up VM?

banger9365

instead of ring the call wasters ,go to my virgin media ,sign in

there a big green box ,you cannot miss ,it use that ,to check your modem and get a superhub

basically_bankrupt

No, I didn't request the upgrade it was something the VM have been rolling out. I was on 50Mb previously and have been for the last couple of years or so without the need for a superhub.

I live in a shared house and there are 3 of us here. We are heavy internet users so download, upload and latency are important to us.

I was perfectly aware of the ability to login to myvirginmedia and request the superhub, my point is (and I guess I didn't make this clear in my first post) that this supposed 'free upgrade' that is something VM are rolling out, not something I have asked for caused a degradation to my service because I didn't have the superhub.
In order to get the superhub I was told I had to pay £20 for delivery and then before it arrived I got a new 12 month contract that I had apparently, implicitly entered into by getting the upgrade.

victor2

I had the old 10MB "medium" broadband and the modem died, so VM sent out an engineer with a new Superhub, at no cost to me. The engineer did comment that I would need it anyway for the speed upgrade, which is due in our area this September. Following month they billed me for the "large" broadband package (still 10MB) backdated to the engineer's visit. Phoned them up, asked why, and they couldn't say why they'd done it. But they couldn't put me back onto medium as large is their current smallest offering. Expressed my displeasure and they agreed to credit me each month to offset the extra charge they had applied. No new contract as far as I know. Of course, they've increased their already expensive telephone charges in advance of the "free" broadband upgrade. BT infinity is available in my area, slightly more expensive overall, but not much in it.

Robertj22

Yes you can go online and accept the "free" speed upgrade offer at which point you find you are ordering a new super hub and free installation. By doing this it turns out you are implicitly accepting a new 12 month contract. I only found this out after waiting in all morning for an engineer who did not turn up, and received an automated call 10 minutes before the end of my allotted time telling me my installation was rescheduled for next week. I was so irate I went through layers of customer service blockers to the retention line where they finally dropped the 12 month contract bombshell in the midst of negotiations. Also told they heavily overbook the installation slots.

VM do not make this clear and the guy in the retention department was also critical of the vm approach. Basically it stinks. Any extra contractual commitment is not free, and this is an issue I have with vm before. Beware of their "free" offers.

Buzby

It is still free even with the higher speed - you are not forced to use the SuperHub and still benefit from the speed increase.

IF you want the SH, then it will add a minimum term commitment to assist them recover the cost. I do not think this is misleading or unfair. For years I had my own 3Com cable modem and upgraded this at MY cost until the SH came out.

As for not making it 'clear' - it is on the website, and the upgrade letter - so that's who's fault for not reading this?