Virgin Media Broadband Faults

aardvarkuk

They should really transfer you, also for that number its 25p per min, also you dont want to speak to tech support but faults, basically just phone back and speak to someone again and tell (no insist) and engineer come to you to fix the issue.

If you get through to the indian call centre just say you cant understand them and by Virgins contractural obligations they have to transfer you to the UK call centre, this servers to speed up repairs as the UK centre have all the cancellation times.

Ring this number for BB faults 0800 1831986

Oh yeah and try resetting the TCP/IP stack, how to do this is easy.

Start, Run, then type netsh int ip resed resetlog.txt and hit enter.

freddylocks

Thanks aardvark.

Engineer booked for Wednesday Morning.

btw the Netsh command makes no difference... I have tried it on several different computers (individually, with all others turned off). I even tried doing a reinstall of WinXP on a spare laptop and still the problem did not improve.

Hopefully all my problems will be sorted on wednesday (ok ok ok can stop laughing now! I know the only answer to that is to get a BT line installed! :-) )

mrochester

Hello.

I had a Virgin Media ADSL internet connection for 2 months during the summer of 2006. It was one of their 1 month rolling contract deals.

The connection was absolutely terrible, with the speeds slowing down to dial-up like pace everyday at peaks times (exactly the time I would be using it) and websites would more often than not fail to load because of the snail like connection speed.

So, I rang up and requested my MAC code. On the same day, I wrote a letter of complaint, and sent it to them.

Weeks and weeks later, I still had no had a response. All of a sudden, Virgin Media debited £50 from my account, the reason being I had ended the contract within the first 12 months, so they charged me a disconnection fee.

The very reason for leaving Virgin Media was because of the pitiful connection speeds, which I believe went against their T&Cs which state that 'from time to time, your connection may be slower than your advertised speed', or some wording to that affect. I believe every single day to be more than 'from time to time' and such I believe they were in breach of contract.

Anyway, so this £50 appeared on my bank account, and no response to my letter of complaint. I immediately called both Virgin Media, who explained the above, and then I called my bank, who did a chargeback.

A few days after, I received a threatening letter from Virgin Media saying I owed them £50, but still no reply to my original letter of complaint.

I sent yet another letter of complaint, and this time sent it by recorded delivery so that I could see that it had been delivered. This letter was also ignored.

I then started receiving phone calls from Garlands debt collectors on behalf of Virgin Media regarding the £50. I explained that there was nothing I could do since Virgin were choosing to ignore my letters of complaint. The lady at Garlands advised that I write another letter. I did so, and also sent this one by recorded delivery.

Once again, Virgin Media have completely ignored this letter of complaint. Today I have received a letter from Garlands stating that this is my final notice to pay the £50, or they will take me to court.

So now I'm stuck. I have been trying to resolve the issue with Virgin Media, but they have simply been ignoring it and throwing legal threats my way. Not only did they break their T&Cs regarding my internet connection, but they are also going against their own 'Code of Practice' for dealing with customer complaints.

I shall speak to Garlands tomorrow, provide them with all of the Royal Mail tracking numbers I have, and state that there is nothing I can do regarding this matter until Virgin Media respond to my complaints. The way I see it, the ball is in their court, and has been for over 6 months now.

I just wanted to get that off my chest. And thoughts on the matter, please feel free to comment.

Many thanks,

Michael.

Mixtrixx_2

Hi Mate
Not really experienced what you have when it comes to Virgin Media & Their Customer Service (Or Should That Be "Lack Of").
However, for 7+ Years I was a Customer of Telewest Broadband & had Phone,TV & Internet through them over that Period. Luckily I cannot remember ever needing to contact their Customer Service Deptartment, as the Quality & Stability of Service was 95% Satisfactory. There was the Odd Occassion where TV Channels Froze Up. But apart from that Internet Speeds were Very Good, and Almost always above the Quoted Advertised Speeds.
Then came the Merger with Virgin Media, since that day, the Quality of Service has become Totally Crap to be Honest.
Firstly, it would not surprise me with what you say about them Breaching their so called "Terms & Conditions", as a clear indication of this would be the "Traffic Management System" they (Silently) introduced in the Early Months of 2007). So to me, not only are they Contradicting what they Advertise as "No Download Restrictions", as users Download Speeds are Restricted if they Download more then what VM Specify in this "Traffic Managent System" FAQ which mysteriously appeared from no where last year, but Customers on existing contracts before VM came along, then introduced this "Traffic Management System", have (In My Opinion) had their contracts changed without warning and acceptance from customers like myself who have been customers with the original supplier of the contract for nearly 8 years.
So, yes, there are possibilities that they are Breaching Contracts Left, Right & Center, and no doubt many more Loopholes Remain if People were to sit and Siv through their Terms & Conditions & other such material like their "Fair Usage Policy".
The thing that kept me with Telewest before the Merger was Download Speed & Reliability, and never suffered any sort of "Speed Cap" (Speed Decrease) regardless of wether I downloaded 7 MB or 7 GB a day, and when you have enjoyed such speeds for so long, it's very noticable when all of a sudden Speeds begin to Decline. I can remember "Googling" this when it happened, and low & behold it suddenly became like an epidemic for VM Customers, and they were stumped as I was as to what may of been the cause of the Speed Decrease. Then several weeks later after another Google on the Issue, one of the Top Ranked Results read "Virgin Media To Introduce a Traffic Management System". So it did not exist anywhere in their T&C's or "Fair Usage Policy" before.
Out of curiosity, while writing this. I google the Term "Virgin Media To Introduce Traffic Management", and the Top Ranked Search Result was this :

"Virgin Media revamps broadband traffic management policy
11th December 2007

Virgin Media has announced plans for a revised traffic management policy for its broadband service to be introduced next year.

Previously, customers were subject to cuts in connection speed between 4pm and midnight, in a bid to prevent subscribers who were downloading large amounts of data slowing down the system excessively for those who were simply accessing email.

The new policy has cut the timeframe defined as peak period so that restrictions now only apply during 4pm and 9pm.

A statement from Virgin said: "We found that this small minority of customers were actually downloading or uploading enough information to significantly affect the service for other customers’ broadband service.

"To put it another way, just three per cent of uploaders and downloaders were affecting the service for the other 97 per cent of uploaders and downloaders during peak times (that’s between 4pm and 9pm)."

News of the amendments to the policy comes as Virgin gears up to release its super-fast 50Mbps broadband service during 2008.

Posted by Alex Buttle in Broadband Providers"

That Article can be viewed here >

http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/news/2007/12/11/virgin-media-revamps-broadband-traffic-management-policy/

So once again Contracts of Customers are effectively being changed. as this is what I consider to be a "Download Limitation" which otherwise contradicts (or atleast) appears as Misleading/False Advertising on their Package Description Page!!!

So, it's now 2 years on since you had your Problem, and Virgin Media and Still as S**T as ever Mate. Over the last Month I've had 2 Seperate Occassions where I've been without Both TV & Internet for 18-24hrs, with no notification of this being an issue on their "Live" Service Status Page.
Girlfriend had same problem & she lives 70 Miles North of me, but she was more unlucky in which she could not even access the Usual 5 Terrestrial TV Channels. I myself have 15 years of experience with PC's from Building them, to Troubleshooting every single Windows Error, imaginable, so if they think I'm gonna spend Additional Call Charges on Phoning Tech Support, who cant even Read their own Name Badges, let alone clarify that there is a problem in the area. What's real bad about it is the fact that they dont apologise to customers for the loss of service more visibally to the customers who were affected. IE No mention of it on those Lovely Paperbills they send out each month (Which also includes several information tips on how to subscribe to more services or other additional add-on's that they can squeeze money out of you with), but yet nothing explaining the reason for Service Outtage or Offers of Apology and/or Compensation to the Equivalent Value or Timeframe of Service Lost.

The Real Issue that is getting right on my nerves at the moment is that VM state that Subscribing to the (M) Size Package is Ideal for those who just wish to Check Email or Occassionly Surf the Net for a Cost of £4.50 per month if they take a Phoneline which is an Additional £11.50 per month.
So new Customers Get upto 2MB Broadband for paying £16 Per month.

I am a customer of TV,Telephone & Internet, where I Terminated my TV Package, as the Starter Package offers nothing but Crap ever since they had the Dispute with SKY and lost the Sky One Channel. So that's Freeview now, so nothing Spent on that. However I pay £11.50 per month Telephone Line Rental, Approximately £15-£20 on Call Charges per month, then a Further £25 for the (L) Size "Upto 4MB" Internet. So I'm paying approximately £55-£60 for all services (which includes paying Full Whack on the "Upto 4MB" Internet as I was already an Exsisting Customer), yet I am now being subject to Speed Restrictions for between 4pm & Midnight if I exceed my Download Limit, so that users on "Upto 2MB" Internet, that have exactly the same Services as Myself (perhaps with exception to TV, but that's free anyway) can enjoy an equal level of Speed as myself although I am paying nearly £45 A month more, out of a Wage Packet that I get from Working between Times that these Speed Restrictions are not in effect.

Anyway buddy, enough of me Rambling on :rotfl: Just that your post has motivated me a whole lot more to make a Major Complaint about their overall service since the Merger.
I know that whenever my Brother in Law has Phoned & Complained about something wrong with their service/services, that he rarely comes away without a Freebie, wether it be Sky Movies Free for 30 Days, or Free Internet Upgrade for a Month, but in fairness he's hard on them, takes no for an answer, and always mentions other Broadband Providers or ISP's that offer Far better deals then what he pays with VM at that time.

So, if your still with them mate, it's worth complaining, especially if you have 3 or 4 of their services, and have been a long tern customer with them.

I've just gone to SKY's Website, picked out a Package that's equivalent to what I am paying currently with VM, and for Paying £29 a month I'd get Sky TV (Over 100 Channels), Sky Talk (Free Evening & Weekend Calls within the UK) & "Upto 16MB" Internet with "Unlimited Downloads". Obviously Like VM, SKY also have a "Fair Usage Policy" in which speeds will be restricted once a specific amount of data has been Uploaded/Downloaded. However, judging by the next package down, you are limited to 40GBs of Download Bandwidth Per Month, so I guess Anything around or above that mark in which files are downloaded, will then be at a "Restricted Speed". The thing is, is that I'd rather be "Restricted" on downloading files at 14MB as apose from Downloading at 2MB, which is half the speed of the Connection I am on with VM. Paying £25 to download files at that of a 2MB connection for a period of 8 Hours a Day, at a Time where I am most likely going to be at home, is Bang out of Order. So to go with SKY and go from 16MB down to 14MB, (Based on VM's Speed Caps" would not really be big loss, hell, even if SKY Restricted me to 8MB or 6MB and they were Enforced 23 Hours a Day, it's still better then what I'm paying for with VM.

One last thing, how did you get on with the £50? Did you end up getting that back, or did you have to pay it in the end?
If you did have to pay it, Can you roughly remember when it was? Also were you Subscribed to a TV Package from them at the time?

If So, and going on what dates you specified in your Post, if you were a Customer of the TV Package when SKY One & SKY News Removed their channels from being viewed on VM, then you would of been in a period where as you could Cancel Your Contract regardless of Length Remaining on it, without incurring any £50 Cancellation Costs, as VM were in Breach of your Contract the Minute SKY Pulled the Channels from their TV Service. So you could of just pulled the plug on VM and walked away without Cost :rotfl:

If you were a TV Subscriber & had a Package with those 2 above mentioned Sky Channels, then if you cancelled your contract anywhere after 28th February 2007, (Which is the first day I Noticed Both Sky Channels Were Gone) then your well within your rights to Terminate your Contract as Stated Here by VM >>

"Some services (for example, television channels that form part of our television services) are supplied by other organisations. As a result, we may, due to matters outside our reasonable control or for commercial or contractual reasons, change all or any programming, programming services, channel allocations and channels, or cancel, postpone or alter the details of any advertised Pay-Per-View or programmes on demand or interactive services without notice. We will give you reasonable notice of any withdrawals and changes where it is possible to do so. You will be entitled to end this agreement if the changes are significant, as described in paragraph J3."

Obviously, the only thing sbout the above, is that it states "Television Services", although all you say then is (if it was not actually the truth), is that you took both TV & Internet as a Bundle Package, which I very much doubt they would ever be able to Track back and Check on to see if this is indeed True :rotfl:, as I've chopped and changed services to my Financially Benefit Me, over the years in which such deals were only made available to New Customers only :rotfl:.

Although, I guess it's how much you want to get back at them really, and wether you took that £50 as a Substantial Cash Loss IE (Where you could of Partied the Night Away with it in the Local Boozer .)

There's plenty of Reasons not to be a Customer of VM, plenty of Forums discussing how bad VM really is. Just Google them, dish the dirt on them, hell make a website slagging their overall Service Down with Screenshots of Major Speed Drops in Service, Screenshots of Packages they Advertise on the Site as "No Download Limits" then post their "Traffic Management System" Text directly Underneath :rotfl: with the Heading "Not Limited My !!!!" :T

My do it myself actually. Shall try and see what I can get out of them first though :rotfl:

Cheers Gav

Mixtrixx_2

Hi Again,
Just did a quick check about actual dates as to when SKY were removing their 2 Channels from Virgin Media Cable TV, Here's a Statement I Found

"However, following an intensive series of meetings over the last week, we now anticipate a withdrawal of these channels by Sky at the end of February. "

So best thing to do if you did have TV with your Internet, and the Package with the Sky Channels included, would be to say you took both Internet & TV Package as a Special Offer at the time. Then go on to say that you were under the impression that the package you took as a Bundle or Special Offer came under 1 Contract. Therefore you are fully obliged to Terminate this contract with VM without incurring a £50 Cancellation Charge, as stated in
Virgin Media's "Terms and Conditions:" (correct as of 28th February 2007.)

So then you'll hsve until the end of Feb 2008, to possibly come up with a story to get out of paying that £50, if you have the TV aswell.

Hopefully you have got the TV, as you atleast stand half a chance of getting out of paying the money, but then again, if you have got the TV, it would mean Csncelling your TV Contract in order to save yourself £50.
So I guess it's all down to how you value their TV Service if you have it.

If it's any consolation, You'd be better off in the Long Term getting SKY's See Speak & Surf Combination for £29. Where you'd get Telephone with free UK Evening & Weekend Calls, "Upto 16MB" Internet with Unlimited Downloads, (though a Speed Cap will apply on anything over 40 Gig downloaded in a month), and also get a free SKY TV Digi Box with over 100 TV Channels.
There's a one of Installation Fee of £30 to consider for that though, and Obviously you'd need a BT Line which you'd pay whatever Line Rental they charge per month, but it's only gonna be what your paying VM anyway.

So if your willing to go through that to join Sky, your gonna be way better off when it comes to TV and amount of Channels, and an Internet Speed which is 4x times faster then VM's £25 Upto 4MB Service, (which you download at half that speed if you download more then 700MB in one day, and stays at "Upto 2MB Speeds" for 8 hrs a day at a time where your Most likely gonna be at home using it.
What's better still is that if you did save that £50, you probably would of otherwise ended up losing, is that it pays for the Standard One time Connection Fee of £30 for the TV & atleast 2 Months Line Rental On Phone.

So nothing lost and more gained really .

Good Luck

normanmark

Just out of curiosity did you go through the faults procedure in finding out why you was getting slow speeds on your line? I know hindsight is a wonderful thing in these situations but going down that route rather than wading in and terminating everything could have brought less ball ache in the long run!

darwin-rover

The thing that kept me with Telewest before the Merger was Download Speed & Reliability, and never suffered any sort of "Speed Cap" (Speed Decrease) regardless of wether I downloaded 7 MB or 7 GB a day,

"Traffic Management" , Throttling , call it what you like , was a Telewest idea and was trialled by them long before the NTL buyout .

darwin-rover

normanmark wrote: »

Just out of curiosity did you go through the faults procedure in finding out why you was getting slow speeds on your line? I know hindsight is a wonderful thing in these situations but going down that route rather than wading in and terminating everything could have brought less ball ache in the long run!

Agreed . Quite a lot of speed problems on ADSL are a BT issue and there is a lengthy , drawn-out procedure to go through between your ISP and BT before you can really point blame .

normanmark

darwin-rover wrote: »

Agreed . Quite a lot of speed problems on ADSL are a BT issue and there is a lengthy , drawn-out procedure to go through between your ISP and BT before you can really point blame .

Seen as though majority of ISP's use BT Wholesale for services then it's not surprising. However the process isn't that lengthy nor drawn-out. I used to work for BTW on ADSL Faults and once a fault is raised its dealt within a few hours. The problems occur on trying to focus on what is causing the problem, stuff like slow speeds could be a multiple of things from an incorrect speed profile to the line, or something physical at the property.

berbatov10

I am fed up with this lot. Is thee a cheap way to run myPC without a phone line??