Thinking of moving from BT to Virgin - Am I mad?

EMcG

Totally fed up with BT Broadband - used to be OK but now totally unusable in the evenings. Fastest I've ever had is 3mb (at 3 in the morning) I normally get 0.5mb.

As the house it wired up for Virgin I was thinking of switching to them and getting broadband by cable.

This must make it faster - won't it?

I've been reading horror stories about Virgin on this site. But I am so fed up with the BT speed that I may have to take the risk.

Am I mad to go to Virgin?

P.S. Would leaving my internet router on all the time help my connection speed?

normanmark

I'm with Virgin Cable & the service is top notch. So no, i wouldn't say you're mad.

Just out of curiosity have you raised a fault with BT yet for the slow speed?

EMcG

Yes, I have contacted BT but they say no line fault. Just sheer weight of numbers on overloaded lines. That's why I thought switching to cable could avoid all these problems.

But then I read various horror stories on failing connections, billing issues etc etc.

But I'm so fed up I may well risk it. £9 a month at the moment for 2mb (for the first 12 months) - which is fine for me.

Anybody else think I'm sane or mad?

normanmark

I've been with their cable service for 5 years now & not had one major outage (odd ones of less than 2hrs). Billing wise only had a couple of mistakes but they were rectified there & then over the phone.

Stuart_W

You may save money on the internet, but don't let them end up charging you extra for phone calls. Connection fees and per minutre pricing can make it a bit steep - but this doesn't have to stop you from joining as you can get round this.

Depending on your phone usage, if any of the calls-inclusive packages are not worth the extra (or even if they are) it is worth checking out either the Phone Co-Op or First Telecom as indirect phone suppliers to save further money on phone calls (calling direct with Virgin is generally a rip off).

As you dial an 0800 access number first, you can choose which calls are carried direct by Virgin and which by Phone Co-Op or First Telecom

Phone Co-Op link:
http://www.thephone.coop/residential/telephone/homeuser.html (other tariffs are available)

First Telecom link:
http://www.firsttele.com/residential/residential-paymonthly-CallPrices-CS.htm

(please note you can't actually join both as they use the same third party carrier to route the calls)

Bufflowbill

Stuart_W wrote: »

You may save money on the internet, but don't let them end up charging you extra for phone calls. Connection fees and per minutre pricing can make it a bit steep - but this doesn't have to stop you from joining as you can get round this.

Depending on your phone usage, if any of the calls-inclusive packages are not worth the extra (or even if they are) it is worth checking out either the Phone Co-Op or First Telecom as indirect phone suppliers to save further money on phone calls (calling direct with Virgin is generally a rip off).

As you dial an 0800 access number first, you can choose which calls are carried direct by Virgin and which by Phone Co-Op or First Telecom

Phone Co-Op link:
http://www.thephone.coop/residential/telephone/homeuser.html (other tariffs are available)

First Telecom link:
http://www.firsttele.com/residential/residential-paymonthly-CallPrices-CS.htm

(please note you can't actually join both as they use the same third party carrier to route the calls)

You can also use the following for cheaper calls via their 0808 freephone numbers.

http://www.18185.co.uk/mobilerates.php

http://www.1899.com/mobilerates.php

elaeb

We were on cable but got charged for movies never used, eventually traced to "internal problems" but not before we were out hundreds of pounds. We were charged for movies when abroad on holiday and house empty and multiple movies on same day.

Great service if you never have billing problems.

EMcG

I'll just be going for the broadband - nothing else.