Virgin not taking speed complaint seriously

mrsbunntobe

Hi everyone,
I hope this is the right place to put this. To cut a long story short, I've been paying for Virgin Broadband 100MB+, TV & Phone for about 2years now. Around 12mnths+ i started having bad connectiong problems and had numerous engineers out who basically said there was no issues and everything should be fine.

I managed to fix it myself with lots of researching on the VM forums, and it turns out upgrading to the latest SuperHub fixed my issues. Cut to around May/June this year and every evening the Internet would struggle to playback any Netflix/YouTube content on 1080p. Speedtests would reveal anything from 1MB to 4MB connections speeds. Now this has been the story for month after month, it's always evenings and weekends. I know this is obviously "Peak" times but you don't exepct around 1% of what you pay for.

I've put in several complaints but they don't seem to take me seriously. They've credited my BB for the last 6months to make it cost £0.00 and said it would be fixed by September. Phoned up last week as still have issues daily, to be now told its the end of December.

I heavily rely on my Internet connection at home, and switching to Sky would only give me 6MB, I want the 100MB+ I am paying for and would happily pay more money if there was a competitor that could offer faster speeds.

What can I do for VM to take my complaint seriously, all they've said for the last 6months is "we are upgrading our services in your area" but surely it shouldn't last from May to December, every single day i suffer from no internet pretty much in Peak periods.

Sorry for the Rant, i've made that many complaints and stayed in the house on numerous occassions for VM engineers and i'm completely at the point of losing my mind. Its almost bringing me to breakdown point having to pay them monthly for TV & Phone which i never use.

Cycrow

How are you connected to the router, wi-fi or cable ?

if via wi-fi, have you tried connecting it via a cable and checking the speed?

mrsbunntobe

Speedtest done via both WiFi & Ethernet Cycrow, this is accross multiple devices, iPhones, Laptops etc.

If i check the speeds at say 4am, I will be pulling 95-100MB on any device

onomatopoeia99

Then it sounds like VM have insufficient capacity in their network in your area, and it's not something you can fix. This is the "contention" that people talk about on ADSL, but happening on VM cable.

They need to do an infrastructure upgrade to sort it out and your choices are switch to a service over a BT line, or wait.

Since they don't offer wholesale connectivity through their network to anyone else, you can't move to an alternate provider with their line. You can only use a BT line for a different provider, which will give either ADSL or FTTC throughput from a wide choice of providers, depending on what the local BT network supports. BT are obliged to offer wholesale connectivity into their network which is why with a BT line you get a big choice.

mrsbunntobe

Yes, they've apparently been upgrading their infastructure for the last year, they shouldnt keep selling BB in the area if they are "over capacity" as its not exactly great people signing up for 100MB Fibre Optic, and all they receive in "normal" hours when people use the internet is 1-4MB....

Im slightly shocked as to how they can sell a 100MB package, and as long as its them speeds at say 1am-5am, then its okay. As the rest of the time all i receive is a few MB

Retrogamer

When the speed goes slow try this.

Turn off all other devices connected to the network or disconnect them (tablets, phones, tvs, consoles etc)

Get a windows computer and whilst it is connected via ethernet, boot it into safe mode with networking.

Perform a speed test from speedtest.net and see what the results are
This is the best way to get an accurate figure on your throughput speeds

Sometimes other devices on the network might be syncing data or downloading patches and updates without you knowing which will eat into the available bandwidth.