Virgin Media - pay for 8MB, get 0.11

turnbull

We're with Virgin Media and having paid for an 8MB connection, it has never seemed much quicker than dial up. Tonight I found an on line tool to measure the speed and it records 0.11MB which sounds about right.

I've written to Virgin twice to no avail and finally sent in a complaint via Recorded Delivery. It's been tracked as delivered 6 weeks ago but we've heard nothing from them.

I'm tempted to stop paying them, but is it Vrgin who are likely to be the problem or our phone line? We actually live in a 15 years old house (so modern wiring) behind a BT exchange building (50 metres), so I wouldn't have thought this would be a problem.

Has anyone had a similar dire performance issue and got a better speed by changing provider?

http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/speed-test.asp?partner=bc~cu

We're on a direct RJ45 network connection to the router/modem (combined unit) and all cables are approx 3 metres long.

normanmark

Have you called Virgin to log a fault of poor speeds?

gorblimeyguvnor

Post your router stats, attenuation, snr margin, sync rate - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm

Check out wiring/filters and try plugging directly into the test socket if you have one and see if stats change (snr margin in particular) http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/troubleshooting.htm

Enter details here - http://speedtester.bt.com/ and post result (often busy so keep trying)

Virgin Media notorious for poor speeds - new post on the Virging ADSL forum at https://www.thinkbroadband.com from punter who has just sued them.

If it's a problem with your line or wiring changing ISP won't make a difference.

deanos

turnbull wrote: »

We're with Virgin Media and having paid for an 8MB connection.

You are paying for UP TO 8mb , i dont think anybody in the UK gets 8mb, anyway not sure if it will help but look at this thread


http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=virgin_adsl&Number=3100008&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=1&vc=1

mrJ_5

Just because you are 50m away from the exchange, doesn't mean your phoneline is 50m long (as the crow flies) . . . it could be that you phone line is 0.5-1km long (as the phone wire follows a few roads), but still you should be able to get around 5Mb with that ....

londondulwich

If you visit www.samknows.com you can check the maximum speed which your exchange will support. Click on 'availability checker' and follow the instructions.

griff.

I was with Virgin for 2 months. Like you, I found the speed poor.

I had a 2mb line with pipex, which was generally about 1.5mbps.

I signed up with Virgin in April 2007 on an 'upto 8mbps' and the speed dropped to 0.7mbps.

I complained to Virgin, and they stated that they had tested my line, and that it could only do 2.5mbps.

My local exchange (which I am less than 0.5 mile from me) was enabled for ADSL Max in March 2006.

I switched to Zen Internet in June 2007 and since then I am getting 6mbps.

Virgin have passed the matter to a debt collection agency, claiming I should pay them £200 as a settlement fee (for the remaining 10 months of the contract.) They are pointing out that I didn't go through their fault procedures.

So, if you want an easy life:

a) check with the sites already mentioned what your local exchange should provide
b) make sure your internal wiring is correct
c) go through the rigmarole of Virgin testing your line
d) after 2 months hard work of chasing them up to do the testing, and it still resulting in no improvement, ask them for their recommended site for adsl speed tests - they should tell you which one they use
e) test your line speed using their recommended site
f) wait another month
g) move to another internet provider and see your speed improve
h) send them the results of from their recommended speed test site
i) prepare to go to court


j) ermmm....

normanmark

They wont use a 'recommended speed' site that you as a customer would have access to. They would have the line test results that BT Wholesale would generate & they would determine what the most stable speed for the line is.

As for going to court over how quick your broadband is, is a little OTT.

franklally

This is exactly what I am finding with Virgin - very slow and keeps throwing me out - I've spoken to customer support several times - some at 10p/min other at 25p/min but they give me the same old flannel - now stuck with them until August 2008 as won't pay the settlement fee of £200+.

I woulden't touch Virgin again with a bargepole.:mad:

roddydogs

Ive never got even 1/2 the speed with Virgin, the let out is "up to 20Mb" see the "Cable Hell" website theres stacks of stuff>

turnbull

Virgin are gits. I phone them up to look into this. They sent me to BTs proper speed testing site:
http://speedtester.bt.com/
It returns 412k. Virgin put their speeds below:
100kps or more - acceptable on 512kbps products
200kbs or more - acceptable on 1Mb products
400kbs or more - acceptable on 2Mb, 4Mb & 8Mb products

GREAT!
Pay for 8MB, get 400k (1/20th)and VIrgin say this is acceptable.
I'm moving supplier!