Virgin Media

Funkydaz

Hi. I renegotiated a new deal with VM on 3rd Aug 2018 after the UKTV debacle. I have now recieved a letter saying my bill is going up in this current price hike. The email says I can leave without penalty before 30th Sept. I get and understand that part but was concerned seeing as I only renewed 3 weeks ago. I just phkne them and after a 40 min wait lol was told the price hoke doesnt affect me, and that I can't cancel as the cooling period has gone. I feel duped as the guy who I renegotiated with I lied to me about Broadband speeds. I only found this out today. So I really want to leave. My dilemma is if I stay and dont make an issue about it they could be lying.....again....and I get hit with the new price in october but then it would be too late to cancel penalty free as per the email. Or do I complain and try an exercise my right to cancel as per the email they sent me. The assistant today told me that the email I received today must have been generated before I renewed......3 weeks ago!!!!!!!! And that it must have been sent in error. Fed up of this BS!!!

Cornucopia

If you want to leave, you'll need to identify a sound basis on which to encourage them to let you.

It sounds as though the email was an error - that your price isn't going up, and you can't therefore leave for that reason.

If you have been misled about BB speeds, then that could be a reason. In what way do you think you were misled?

AndyPK

Yeah was the speed issue?

It's the fact I don't trust what they tell me about my contract is why I have cancelled with them.

Funkydaz

They said I couldnt get nowhere near tbe speeds I get with Virgin elsewhere as everyone else uses Bt lines. Turns out a friend of mine gets the same speeds as I do and hes on BT lol. We both carried out speed tests and both get the same result. Yet Im supposed to be on a much higher speed broadband.

Cornucopia

Funkydaz wrote: »

They said I couldnt get nowhere near tbe speeds I get with Virgin elsewhere as everyone else uses Bt lines. Turns out a friend of mine gets the same speeds as I do and hes on BT lol. We both carried out speed tests and both get the same result. Yet Im supposed to be on a much higher speed broadband.

VM overall offers higher speeds than other providers - generally. A lot of VM customers have speeds much higher than they really need, though. I think if you wanted to use this as a reason to cancel, they would either need to be providing an actual speed a lot less than what was promised, OR they would have needed to suggest that you needed a particularly high speed when that wasn't true.

Otherwise, you might have to wait until they raise prices again, which is probably no more than 6 months away.

ChuckMountain

What actual package are you paying for in terms of speed?

Most new VM packages are faster than what can be offered by BT but there are some existing ones that are only 50Mbits that BT will be able to compete with.

The other thing is that how are you testing it. Are you using WiFi to do so?

Speedtests effectively test the slowest link in the chain. If you're WiFi connection is the slow point which is often the case now then this will be reported even if you actual Virgin connection is faster.

If you try it with a wire connection from a reasonably modern PC then you should be able to get the speed of the package you are paying for.

Most people don't really need speeds more than 100Mbits these days.

[Deleted User]

Anyone who started a new or renewed contract in August won't be affected by the upcoming rise (there will be another one along shortly no doubt though ).

The fact that your friend gets similar speeds to yourself isn't a reason for leaving penalty free either regardless of what the agent told you. In fact there are people who would laugh at your BB speed but you have to live in specific areas to get them (1GB fibre optic lines). Generally speaking though Virgin would have the highest average speeds excluding Hyperoptic for instance.

JJ_Egan

BT speeds are fibre 1 up to 52 meg and fibre 2 up to 76 meg .Other BT OR ISPs are often less .
Speeds are very variable depending upon the quality and distance of the cable between house and cabinet .


Any speeds tested over wifi are not true speeds of the incoming service.

Funkydaz

Its the fact that I was told I couldnt get speeds anywhere else that you can get on Virgin. Thats a lie because you can. I know you cant match their higher speeds, but I was tild the speed I was on couldnt be matched, IT CAN. Not only that the service has become so unreliable its unreal. Paying for a service Im not receiving. Looks like Im stuck though unfortunately. Next price hike that affects my bill which allows me to leave or when contract is up im outta there!!!!

Cornucopia

If your service is unreliable then that's another reason why they may let you leave. However, in that case, you need to be sure that it's their service that is unreliable and not local factors affecting Wifi. If you talk to them about it, they should talk you through diagnostics.

JJ_Egan

OP needs to say what package they are on and how they are measuring speed.Also if its unreliable what equipment is connected and how .