Backed into a corner with Virgin media and desperate to leave

CharlotteElizabeth92

I am hoping somone can help me or offer some advise please.

Excuse my long email:

 I live in a very built up populated area of Poole in a small 2 bedroom house, when I moved in 4 years ago I used comparison sites to join virgin internet. I have in the last 4 years spent many hours on the phone with them as our internet connection has never been 100% and we are defiantly paying for more service than we receive.

I bit the bullet around 2 years ago and spent 4 hours on the phone to them, ending in me asking to leave the gentleman’s reply was “yes, you can leave but you’ll be back as we are the only provider of any strong internet speed to your address”. Long story short he was right I ended up having to reconnect with them a week later and we are absolutely stuck.

I’m desperate to leave Virgin media, their customer service has been disgraceful towards ,myself and husband, not sure if that because they know we have no other option but to be with them. They have recently also contacted us to inform us our bill will be rising.

 

I have tried other providers but no one seams to be able to offer us anything other than a couple of MB download speed on a basic package and as a family of 3 with two now working from home and streaming TV ect it just wouldn’t be enough.

 

Is there anything I can do?

Any help at all would be gratefully received.

[Deleted User]

You'll need to be clearer on what your connection issues are, and also why you are so defiant about paying them more than you receive.

CharlotteElizabeth92

Hi Zzx81, 
Our internet drops out around 3 times a week on average, we have had engineers out to look at this it works for a week and then happens again. 
I'm not happy to pay anymore because I'm happy with the service we are receiving from virgin  at the rate we pay now but have had no choice as no other provider can provide the speeds so now being informed we need to pay more I'm on the look out again for another provider. 

CharlotteElizabeth92

apologies. that should say I'm not happy to pay anymore because I'm not happy with the service.  

[Deleted User]

You're going to need to choose between speed and unreliability, or a lower speed and potentially a more stable service.

For only three drop-outs a week, assuming it just takes a reboot to get it back, I would stay where you are if the alternative is too slow.

MattMattMattUK

Have you checked when/if BT will be laying fibre to your area, does your area have a local fibre cooperative (many now do)?

JJ_Egan

Are these dropouts over wifi ??

matelodave

If you cant get better speeds with a normal landline then non of the other suppliers will be able to help as they all use the same OpenReach network between either the exchange or the cabinet and your house, so the problem is due to the infrastructure over which neither you or the supplier has any control unless OR decide to upgrade it or eventually install fibre to the premises (FTTP)

A possible alternative is using 4G. If you got a decent mobile phone service from one of the mobile suppliers. Try out a couple of Paygo sims from a couple of them in your phone to see what sort of data speeds you can get - try it at different times of the day as the service can be quite variable, especially if the networks get overloaded in the evenings and weekends.

Three, EE and Vodafone all do 4G broad band and there's nothing to stop you buying a 4G router and getting an unlimited data sim from one of the other suppliers. Most routers have the facility to add an external higher gain antenna  which can improve speeds and stability. There's lots of info in t'interweb and have a look here for some of the deals that are around https://www.4g.co.uk/home-broadband/
This is how to set it up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TtrAfpmZbg and heres how to gain some improvements with an externa antenna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxKE5GFVkEU

CharlotteElizabeth92

zx81 - unfortunately it can take hours to get it back up and running so very annoying when working (I'm a student nurse and my husband is a teacher) or we settle down to watch tv and can't. I'm think I'm just finding it hard to pay a company a monthly direct debit and not want to be with them or receive the service I think I should. 

MattMattMattUK - No I haven't I called them around a year ago and if I remember right they said within the next 5 years. Is there somewhere online I can check this? or contact them to ask if they can hurry it up ... they would get a lot of new providers signing up as everyone in my area is fed up with Virgin   

JJ_Egan

If you don't want VM service as said cancel and pay them off .

Check other services  as said .

Open Reach don't do hurry up .

CharlotteElizabeth92

Matlodave - thank you, this is defiantly helpful and I will look into It this afternoon. My husband has quite a good service with Vodafone at home so ill start there. Thank you