Virgin Media reviews! Please!

by Dirk Singer
at 20:11 on 9 Feb 2007

Well, as an existing NTL customer (with broadband, TV, phone) I can't say how things are for anyone ordering Virgin media cable broadband, but my experiences of trying to order a V box (essentially the rebranded Telewest TV Drive) point to the fact that they still have some work to do in terms of customer service.

While Branson was doing his living in a box stunt in Covent Garden yesterday, several miles away over here in South London his vans were driving around without the flagship V product...because they had to be recalled due to the old logos still being on them!

That's what the installer guys told us when they appeared on our doorstep minus a V box. I've since spoken to five different Virgin people and have had different answers about whether the box is actually available in our area or not.

I wish they would have diverted some of their Uma Thurman ad budget into upgrading the appalling NTL customer services outfit, as at the moment it seems like a flashy new logo but same old product to me. Report abuse

by Sharon C
at 00:00 on 11 Feb 2007

Only can say it amazes me all this Virgin hype. They're no different from anyone else. I used to be a ntl customer and always found them awful. Since moving house last November we've not yet got satellite or cable. Just had a look at all the Virgin packages and compared them to Sky. Sky's are a lot cheaper when you look into the detail, so we'll probably go with them. Branson's clever, the pricing seems good but he they only offer the basic broadband and free calls at weekend. Not saying I've ever had any love for Sky but at least they've done the TV stuff for years and you know what you're paying for. Report abuse

by Andy
at 03:16 on 19 Feb 2007

Hi, i got my online order for virgin media completed within 3 days, i have tv and broadband which was installed in around 30 mins. I used to have telewest 2 years ago and i thought it was pretty appauling back then, but now im very impressed, the tv service seems a huge improovement with more features than id seen before. the remote is a little bit slower than the sky one, but you get used to change after a few days. the broadband has been reliable and i have even taken it to other homes where theres a cable tv wall point but no subscription at that house and it works brilliantley within minutes.

I had spoken to customer service before i ordered as now, if you have had cable previousley or the previous occupant of your home had had cable, then you can opt to install it yourself, however i couldnt do it myself as apparentley my wall point was never hooked up :S so they arranged an installer to come round at the same time i had opted for a box to be delivered.

Overall i rate this service 9/10

Thanks!

compared to sky and Adsl broadband, id rather have cable anyway. Compared to sky and adsl, id give aol and sky an average of 6/10 overall. Report abuse

by Matt
at 14:21 on 19 Feb 2007

Well Virgin Media is now Ntl, Blueyonder, Telewest etc, never been able to have cable in our area and they wont laye it down in our area, well thats what Telewest said, but now Richard Branson has taken over, He is a Rich guy so maybe he will Extend the Cable who knows...

I was on AOL and ever since I upgraded my Internet to MAX product I was getting disconnected 24/7 so then I decided to move over to Sky, Sky cancelled my now without me knowing, so I wouldn't say Sky's service for broadband is good, but now I have got myself into a 12 months contract with there TV grrrrr can't get outta it...

Anyway im now going on to AOL broadband again, I just hope and pray that I don't get Disconnected again with em... been with AOL for 5 yrs nearly never had a problem till december 2006....

Virgin does sound good, but i hear badness about alot of companys and it just puts ya off... ya just don't know until ya try i guess... Report abuse

by Sue
at 14:45 on 20 Feb 2007

I must be one of the few people who had no problems with NTL broadband. We have cable television and phone.

Since Virgin have taken over using broadband has been awful. Slower than I can ever remember, almost as bad as Dialup.
It's slow to load up, slow to use the links and generally slow to use on line. Report abuse

by cutie
at 19:19 on 22 Feb 2007

i work for virginmedia and they are a fab company. The amount of people saying that we are rubbish company and how things have got worse since telewest/ntl have gone, there are no pleasing you people. you moan when its telewest/ntl and you moan when its virginmedia we cant win. all this rubbish about how the bbi has got slower since the name changed and yes people its the name thats changed not the products, maybe you should look a bit closer to home and see that the problem is your pc but you just dont want to call our pc help line to get it resolved as we charge you 50p per min. why do we charge you? well its because you should know how to use a pc and as some of you dont even know how to switch it on we have to put people out there to answer your stupid questions so why shouldnt we charge you for it. in my experience its people that dont pay their bills that have problems cause they are always the ones wanting something for nothing. when a customer has a problem we will do our best to fix it asap and give you a credit for any loss of service you have had as we dont expect you to pay for a service you havent got. well thats me had my rant about how bad some of our customers are but to all of you loyal customers who do pay your bills and you know who you are i hope you comtinue to enjoy the brilliant service and great customer service from virginmedia because you will get nothing but the best red carpet treatment. as for the customers that do nothing but scream and shout and dont pay each month then sod off to bt and sky. for every person that leaves our company we have at least 7 people on the phone waiting to join us to replace you. adios people Report abuse

by SARAH
at 21:10 on 22 Feb 2007

Dissapointed frankly was with blueyonder now have problems with tv drive its rebooting itself etc. I phoned and spoke to a foreign lady whom I had trouble understanding after 13 mins of repeating myself I gave in and hung up.
Virgin customer service is pants and frankly Virgin stink the old Telewest were great never had any problems with them at all.
Am now trying to see if we can get out of contract :( as highly dissatisfied.
And we only got informed two before hand by letter about change to Virgin :(:(:( Report abuse

by SARAH
at 21:11 on 22 Feb 2007

whoops should of been two days before they changed to Virgin not good enough :( Report abuse

by Pie
at 11:48 on 23 Feb 2007

Cutie works for Virgin, sounds like it is big rick b himself. The perks of the job that make you so happy are nothing to do with service provided. Still waiting to be called back for service from the sales theam i was one of those 7 people on the phone wanting cable. If you dont get the customers tho they dont count. Call us back and you may still enjoy the job when your manager starts upping your targets. Enjoy call centre monkey, enjoy Report abuse

by cutie
at 18:11 on 23 Feb 2007

I AM LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE A JOB WITH THE LARGEST CABLE COMPANY IN THE UK WHO OFFERS GREAT VALUE FOR MONEY AND A BRILLIANT SERVICE AND YES WE MAY GET IT WRONG FROM TIME TO TIME BUT WE ARE ONLY HUMAN AND WE DO OUR BEST TO PUT THINGS RIGHT. I DO ENJOY MY JOB AND HELPING PEOPLE IS WHAT I LOVE BUT PEOPLE WHO JUST PHONE FOR A MOAN I HAVE NO TIME FOR. AS FOR BEING A CALLCENTRE MONKEY?? EVERYONE KNOWS CALL CENTRE IS WHERE THE MONEY IS. THE PERKS ARE FAB AND IM IN A WARM COSY OFFICE GETTING PAID TO SIT ALL DAY HELPING THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY WANT HELP. BETTER THAN CLEANING TOILETS AND BUTING A GUT TO MEET DEADLINES (NO OFFENCE TO CLEANERS YOU GUYS ARE GREAT) Report abuse

by Trev
at 07:06 on 24 Feb 2007

Hi folks. I have to say I too have contacted virgin to move over. The sales team were fab, sold me the product over the phone. But, I was advised by a girl called Rebbecca that she would call me back in 3 days once an engineer had checked the line. That was 2 weeks ago! Have since called the sales desk, answer phone tells me of hours of service and asks me to leave e message. Have done twice. No reply as yet. Sorry CUTIE, I have to agree with you on some of your points regards moaning customers, sadly - I am now one of those!! Im still keen to join. Can you help out CUTIE? Be good everyone. Report abuse

by Joe
at 19:47 on 25 Feb 2007

STILL CANT WORK OUT THE CAPS KEY? THEN WORK FOR VIRGIN MEDIA!

virginmedia are utter rubbish. I'm on the 10Mb connection and it's worse that the old 512k connection. The caustic service are disgusting. I've never had such sarcastic nonsense from people who I help wage. It can't even remove the free TV service from my bill. It couldn't even give me a full offer that it advertised. The STB's are state of the antiquity. It's Branson should have done us all a favour and bought another hot air balloon and stuck it's name on it instead. I cannot stress it enough. virgin media are rubbish. Don't sign up. They are introducing bandwidth throttling which will mean no heavy downloading or gaming. The parameters of which will be at it's disgression. It's newsnet, like the rest of the strugling network is overloaded. I've been waiting 3 months to get slow LAN speeds sorted out and it is still not resolved. Sky is on the roof and the state of the art cabling is wired into the building. Have you seen sky's prices. I'll save £192/year. virginmedia are rubbish. Report abuse

by Rob
at 20:43 on 25 Feb 2007

Well, for what its worth I think that its good that Virgin are giving Sky a run for there money. I have been a Telewest customer for a number of years now with little to no problems. Last year I moved house and decided that I would give sky a chance to see if it was a superior product, but unfortunately I am severely displeased with the service that I am getting. I have now been a sky customer for about eight months and have had nothing but problems with the service. Firstly, the sky plus box crashes on regular occasions, and sometimes if I set something to record it has stopped half way through stating the error message 'no satellite signal is being received'. Having contacted customer services in relation to this incident generally I have spoken to someone who knows how to sell a product but not how to fix one - believe me this ends up with severe frustration!! I also have Sky broadband and more often than not there is a problem of some sort. My partner 'who is an I.T technician, has called up and told them what the problem is and how to correct it (D.H.C.P server) and sky's solution was to slow the connection down (which inherantly did not solve the problem). Having called sky again to try and fix it and demanding to speak to third line support the problem was fixed with my partners first recommendation. So yes, I am totally unhappy with sky and cannot wait to get rid of it. Sky as far as I am concerned are a greedy institution. If they can afford to invest 1 billion pounds with a stake in ITV then perhaps they can also afford to pass some of that money on to the supposed 'valued' customer and bring the prices down for the sub standard service that is on offer, and pass the savings on to the people who need it most - their customers. Similarly, Virgin Media has only just taken over NTL Telewest and for those of you whom have had a number of problems with this service, I am sure that it will be fixed at some point..... NTL Telewest got itself into a bit of a mess before Virgin Media took over, but its now up to them to try and fix it -IT WONT HAPPEN OVER NIGHT - I for one look forward to it and can't wait to get back!! Sky have the monopoly at the moment, and its going to take someone big to stop the greedyness of the organisation - I hope that its Virgin Media!! Report abuse

by KAKA
at 19:51 on 27 Feb 2007

anyone who backs virgin media obviously doesnt use them. they are rubbish and since taking over ntl my connection speed tests are saying i have a 56k modem!!! im supposed to be on 4mb and no, its got nothing to do with my pc or home connection. Im a student at Uni and my speed here is terrible, my speed at home is terrible, and all my friends arehavin the same problems! y am i paying for a service i do not recieve!!! Imo dont sign up and if you already have, get out Asap!!! Report abuse

by Rudiger
at 11:23 on 28 Feb 2007

Cutie

I am a whizz with PC's done everything at my end to make my connection faster.

It your two bit operation thats letting the side down now.

Admit the BBI connection speed has got slower Report abuse

by sue
at 17:07 on 28 Feb 2007

how do you check your broadband connection speed mine seems slower since i upgraded with virgin Report abuse

by scaredygenie
at 17:53 on 28 Feb 2007

Well, Sue, a timely question because we've *just* added a basic broadband speed test to the website! Check it out at:
http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband_speed_test.html

We'll be rolling out a magnificent version in the next couple of weeks, but this one is accurate and is proving really popular. Report abuse

by Marathonman
at 07:47 on 1 Mar 2007

You all seem to be confusing richard branson with "Richard the amazing wizard" - the one with the magic wand. He cant change things over night.
I've had telewest for over 10 years. In that time i've had 2 faults - both of which have been sorted quickly. I've also moved house and had my services transferred without a hitch. Yes my Broadband does go slow ocassionally - but i'm intellgent enough to know that it's not always to do with your bandwith. You can own a Ferrari but it's still going to go slow in heavy traffic.
Besides, i bet there are millions of people in africa who love to "worry about their Broadband speed" or "wait to get through to Customer Services because their 200 channels aren't working". A little perspective always helps. Report abuse

by Mictester
at 08:57 on 1 Mar 2007

What a joke!

Since Virgin have taken over, we've actually had connectivity for just under 20% of the time we've paid for. Download speeds on their 10 Mb service are in reality closer to 512 kb .

The call centre monkeys are completely clueless and rude.

As a technical writer for several newspapers and magazines, I can do this bunch of morons some serious damage - they know who I am, but can't get their collective acts together enough to actually provide a service. When I leave, I'll take a substantial part of their userbase with me.

The reduction of their TV service last night is irritating - don't believe the hype about the content being available "on demand" - you'll have to pay for it! There are other TV content providers who are all threatening to increase their prices to Branson. They've seen what Sky have done, and they'll all do the same. Virgin Media soon won't have any TV content...

Virgin Media is almost dead - it just hasn't stopped twitching yet! Report abuse

by ghighighigh
at 15:10 on 1 Mar 2007

I am about to sign with virgin media - I take it that this is not a good idea.... Report abuse

by seany
at 15:24 on 1 Mar 2007

been an ntl customer for 3 years, have had no problems at all with the broadband, very fast and always on. since they changed to virgin, the speeds have gotten dreadful. lucky i'm moving house in a month to an area which does not get virgin. bye bye crap connection and clueless "customer service" muppets. Report abuse

by scaredygenie
at 16:10 on 1 Mar 2007

ghighighigh - there are good reviews too - check the Virgin Media broadband info page. Report abuse

by Rich
at 18:38 on 1 Mar 2007

Andy

I don't beleive you - 3 days? Come off it - nobody gets served that quickly. Even in an effecient company - which Virgin Media (or at least the old NTL part) are not - it takes about a week.

Me, I've been waiting 3 months. After at least 100 calls and three screwed up installation visits the jokers still haven't told me what is going on.

I'm a lawyer and if I provided this service to my clients I would have been sacked and sued by now. So guess what I'm going to do next..........

Rich Report abuse

by shane
at 19:31 on 1 Mar 2007

i have had to call ntl/telewest's customer service many times upon instalation i had to wait 24 hours to get the tv channels working and the endless phone calls to them to sort out my broadband connection wich took a week to get right it always took an age to get through and when you did you cannot understand the accents of the call centre workers so that would drag it out further all this amounts to a big call charge if i caused these problems fair enough but if it is faulty equipment and clerical errors made by them why should we pay it is another cash cow for them to bleed money from us and also the takeover it looks like richard bransons hatred of sky is turning alot of virgin media users to quit and move on to sky i will stay as my broadband is fine i get what i pay for there its a shame they can keep sky movies on virgin media but not the basic sky channels while they waste the money saved on uma thurman i like uma as an actress and am not having a dig at her but virgin is carrying on with ntl/telewest's legacy like someone said flashy label and media hype saying its different now just wont cut it with me it is an insult to customers fair play my arse these virgin media executive's any major corporation for that matter they only think about money plain and simple Report abuse

by Sadie
at 00:02 on 2 Mar 2007

I think it is appauling that we have now lost Sky One, etc - yet we haven't been given a reduction in the cost of the package - so in theory we are still paying for something we are not recieving!

Oh,and this person calling themselves 'CUTIE' are obvioulsy a complete jobsworthy! He/she deserves headbutting! Report abuse

by Em
at 10:30 on 2 Mar 2007

The amount of people slating Virginmedia is hihg yeah I'l give you that but how many customers do they have that have been long term? I've been a customer with the company that use to be NTL that use to Cable & Wireless for over 13 years. Yeah it aint perfect but what service is? I was an AOL customer with their broadband and they were useless, I switched to NTL then and have had no trouble AT All!!!!! and I don';t live in a big area I'm in Norfolk home of the Combin Harvester and country roads you get lost on.

Sky One, etc going isn';t the fault of Virginmedia..... well, not entirely anyway it's a two way street. AND at least calling Virginmedia I know I'm actually calling the UK not some where else.....

Oh and as for not getting a cheaper service for loosing those chanels they've reduced my bil for the next 6 mths coz of it. THank you I'm Happy - VIRGINMEDIA Long may you live!!!!! Report abuse

by Boss Time
at 11:11 on 2 Mar 2007

Orange Customer Service 0/10
Virgin Media Customer Service 1/10 Report abuse

by pee'd off virgin media customer
at 15:43 on 2 Mar 2007

Hi everyone, Im off to SKY so I can watch my favourite programs.
Ive been with NTL/virgin media for years and they have been promising all these funky new features but none of them have been properly implemented yet or even at all.
Also when I phoned sky to ask about their services, I got through in a matter of seconds. When I phoned Virgin Media it took about 25minutes of listening to that very irritating tune on a loop to finaly get through to some one.
Bye bye and good riddance Virgin. Report abuse

by Gervais Sawyer
at 23:55 on 2 Mar 2007

Constructive criticism. Telewests technical support was brilliant. Virgin drives me mad. First a patronising voicemail that gives you several options, then tells you to dial another number, which then after listening to another 5 minutes of guff tells you to dial another number at 50p a minute.

Try e-mailing technical support - you can only complete the form if you are an expert and then you wouldn't be mailing them I guess.

Ah, but what about the new Virgin Media website? This is one of the most cluttered messes around. We don't want the sales tosh because we are already custmers. I just want to find my webmail login quickly, and that is still elusive. Just keep it simple PLEASE. Report abuse

by Kayleigh
at 13:19 on 3 Mar 2007

virgin media are rubbish they installed channels like a week ago and they havent come on, you have to wait like a million years on the phone just talk to someone who has no idea what theyre on about.going back to sky =)
or rather my mum is..im young =) Report abuse

by CHESSMYSTER
at 17:26 on 3 Mar 2007

I AM WITH VIRGIN MEDIA. I AM IN LIVERPOOL NORTH WEST (L8).MY CONNECTION IS SLUGGISH, WHEN ITS SUPOSE TO BE BROADBAND. IF YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY GIVE VIRGIN MEDIA PROPA ABUSE. THEY DONT PROVIDE WHAT THEY OFFER. SO ABUSE THE CALL CENTER MONKEYS. CHEERS. ADD ME ON MSN IF YOUR HAVIN THE SAME PROBLEMS peterparker675@hotmail.com Report abuse

by John D
at 17:55 on 3 Mar 2007

Well apart from losing Sky1 and Sky 2, just found that the PremPlus Chelsea match that I subscribe to has been moved to PremPlus 2 which says is not part of my subscribed package. Tried phoning the customer services phone number (0845 454 1111) and I just get a click and the recorded message that the number I phoned has hung up! And I thought that NTL were crap! Report abuse

by Daniel
at 17:05 on 4 Mar 2007

Been with NTL since they were offering 1.5Mb broadband speed and since then i have had no problems at all with the company. Since about January my connection has not been up to scratch. Since about Feb my net connection has been a complete joke, it's up and down like a yo-yo (mostly down) frequently reaching speeds of about 50kbps (bloody dial-up speeds).

I'm on the 10Mb connection and a 20 year old student who plays online games like it's my religon. Recently this has become near impossible for me and i'm getting very frustrated. I live in the Leeds area, I also have 2 friends that are on the same connection speed as me and are experiencing no problems at all.

Recently the modem has been restarting itself due to a loss of connection i think (the speeds get that low). Sent an e-mail to them saying i think my modem might be on its way out and they got back to me saying they did a check on it and found no problems.

Can't be arsed ringing them up since i'm just going to be fed a spoon full of crap. I sent another e-mail to them and got a "thanks for your e-mail, we'll get back to you soon" I'm not holding my breath. Report abuse

by Kevin Cargill
at 22:50 on 4 Mar 2007

Since virginmedia took over from telewest my connection speeds have plummeted. Downloading files takes twice as long. Streaming videos are back to as bad as they were on dial up. I am off to complain direct to beardy.! Report abuse

by konradiolio
at 00:27 on 5 Mar 2007

i too am recieveing what i can say is throttling from the new virgin i live 830 metres away from an exchange have a oxgen free copper wiring setup to the exterier telephone connetion (built in filter on socket)into the house .the telegraph pole is directly in front of me ie 3metres from my eyes now .modem is a spanking new rma as i drop kicked the other when wirless capabilitly died (used for networking devices not to connect to internet as wired connections far out way wirless for speed)
was with tiscali for 2mb before , was recieving a full 2mb then tht suddenly went tits up as well .as with virgin i was getting 6mb on their 8mb connection , at peak times 4 to 5 mb now lucky if i go above 1 mb peak but late night early morning back up to 5/6 if lucky.gaming has gone out the window now so its back to looking at bulldog or another isp Report abuse

by Richard Branson
at 17:04 on 5 Mar 2007

Hey Hey Kids,

Thanks for all buying Virgin Media, without you I'd be... well still bloody loaded, but I wouldn't have a succesful cable package available. Those of you who are moaning, please post your addresses so as an appology I will send you one of my dingle-berries to suck on.
Now, back to my hot tub full of b1tches!

yeeehaaa!

Mr Branson Report abuse

by Minh Dinh
at 21:18 on 5 Mar 2007

I've had my broadband cable internet since 2001 with telewest, and in the first year i had perhaps 5 problems, but since it's all been plain sailing. since virgin took over i feel that my downlaod speed are quite frankly pathetic. i use to be able to streamline on sites like youtube without problems yet now it's so poor that i don't even want to use the net anymore. i am suppose to have a 4mb connection, but it feel like 56k like in the old days when i was in school. i like richard branson as i think he's a great business man, but the service i'm getting from this company just really irritates me. there's no explanation on why my net is slower at all. perhaps i will find a company who would appreciate my money more. as a human i have choices, and perhaps i'll have to decide whether to stay or not. Report abuse

by Karl from sheffield
at 06:00 on 6 Mar 2007

i have definately noticed a DRASTIC difference on the speed of my internet connection since virgin media have taken over, i feel ripped off since that branson took over! soon as my contracts over they've done with me! Report abuse

by jo
at 09:59 on 6 Mar 2007

Well quite frankly i think it bloody brilliant. Perhaps in the first few days there were some hiccups, but surely thats too be expected - especially when they were obviously quickly trying to add in new features that will make our viewing SO much better than anyone elses!!! i have been checking the Virgin on demand service daily and there is stuff being added all the time (i mean FREE stuff). Check your own ondemand "tv Choice" there are HUNDREDS of free programmes you can watch any time - and i am on the basic package..... from nip/tuck to elizabeth to red dward and babylon 5 to the office and black books. Documentaries, tonnes of dramas - go look. To me this feature alone makes virign media worthwhile and brilliant - that they are giving us extra for free. Not to mention the "tv Catchup" where you can watch what you missedi nthe week - ntl had a weak vrsion of this but virgin have increased this service hugely, and if you keep checking the list gets longer every week!
In terms of interactive TV this is really exciting too and could be the first big step a TV company (as opposed to a games company) has made into the interactive world. If you get the virgin package you can record TWO programmes and watch another! They are an innovative company whose mandate always strives to give something back and treat its customers fairly. This is highly commendable considering the type of buisness environment of our societies. Look at the opposition, they are underhand and money grabbing and always have been - i currently live in a house with sky and it is not a PATCH on virign. There isnt one feature on it that virgin doenst have and there are many that sky lacks making it really frustrating for someone like me who used to be with virgin/ntl (my mum has virgin hence my knowledge of it). I hope Virgin and Richard keep striving for this, its just brilliant. Report abuse

by Lee from Manchester
at 12:37 on 6 Mar 2007

I seem to be suffering at the hands of Virgin Media too. I play high speed internet games, hence me having a 10mb broadband connection, that was until Virgin took over.

All my online games are now unplayable and disconect so often its not worth bothering. Surely Virgin are breaching their contract here and we therefor don't have to suffer for the rest of your contract. I have already contacted Virgin Media and fought past the joke of a answering service. I spent the first miniute trying to get the call taker to get my name right as he seemed to be struggling understanding me.

Ultimately he told me the problem was on my side and with my system. I spent all night pulling my system to pieces and reinstalling all my sofware with no difference to the performance of my broadband.

Today I have been finding lots of site like this one, with lots of unhappy cusomers. While online on world of warcraft all Uk players with Ntl/Virgin that I've spoken to have suffered major problems.

What is going on Virgin? I am one very anoyed customer, mainly because I hope you don't expect me to beileve that you are not aware of all these problems. I which case your customer services are just fobbing us off one by one. Report abuse

by Daniel
at 14:54 on 6 Mar 2007

Well i decided to give Virgin Media a ring. The guy told me to download windows media player 11 from the microsoft website to see what i was downloading at (130kbps and paying for a 10Mb connection). Then he told me to disconect my ethernet cable from my modem and ran a test and he said i had huge packet loss. I would recommend this test to them if they don't offer it because it eliminates the fact it could be ur pc's fault. Anyway i have a technician coming out on thursday so i will tell ya what the problem was/is after then.

Lee that problem with WoW disconnecting etc on virgin media connections could be to do with telia also.

Oh and Jo GTFO out of this blog, ppl like you work for independent companies that get payed by other companies (in this case virgin media) to say great stuff about their service on blogs/forums. Report abuse

by Pseudo
at 21:47 on 6 Mar 2007

Hi, I've been an NTL (now Virgin Media) customer (10mb Broadband only) since Sept/Oct roughly. I've personally had no major probs to moan about with the service i'm receiving.. never been 100% satisfied with download speed though, average HIGH download speeds roughly 600kb from various web-servers (next to nothing from Microsoft), yet always good upload speeds which there's no complaints on that aspect. as a gamer Virgin Media (VM) give a nice low ping/latency

I'm also a WoW player.. and almost certain its blizzards fault rather than VM's, seeing that almost every WoW player experiences various problems since the expansion.

I REALLY cant stand those people that are on the VM payroll saying that it's the best thing since sliced bread.. because it will be a biased point of view. I'd personally embarrassed if i was Richard Branson and saw employees defend VM in the manner they have done.. pretty much saying they can't stand helping beginners to PC's (Cutie *cough*), which is understandable but unnecessarily said in a public place (great Customer Service huh? ¬¬)

and considering this is a supposed VM review blog they have no reason to be commenting here.. seeing that reviews are usually from customers with customer perspectives.

on that note.. bye : ) Report abuse

by cobsy
at 23:14 on 6 Mar 2007

im very pleased with ntl & the change to virgin media did not affect me at all , my internet is still as fast as it is meant to be, customer service was great when i done a upgrade, playing games online rocks with at times 1% packet loss which i say is rather good... thumbs up so far from me... maybe there service will get even better now its virgin media . Report abuse

by BranstonPickle
at 02:37 on 7 Mar 2007

Well, I work for VirginMedia (Technical Support, no less), and have to agree that since Virgin took over I've heard nothing but complaints about slow speeds and frequent disconnections, I also have NTL cable (now VM) at home and have noticed the speed and connectivity plummet since the takeover, don't bother calling tech support if you have slow speeds because honestly, we can't help you, it's down to Virgin having crap servers and blaming it on BT, it's not BT's fault most of the time, that's just what we're told to tell you to keep you happy(ish), honestly, we're none the wiser than you lot, if somethings broke and the three or four usual ways of fixing it don't help then we're just gonna fill out a fault form and pass it on to the next level, cuz us "call centre monkeys" get very little in the way of support to help us to help you, which is very frustrating. Virgin's service is shockingly poor, I hear so many horror stories of people going months without connections because we just kind find what the fault is, lol, must drive you lot mad. However, at the end of the day, they're all the same, the internet is a dodgy service to keep running well and unless you shell out for a LLU (Local Loop Unbundle) package with someone like bulldog, (where you see where the extra money goes as they use their own independent lines as opposed to BT's) then your stuck with these kind of problems cuz BT are in total control of this, they own all the lines ISP's use and if something goes wrong and it's passed to BT to fix... well, don't expect them to all jump at once now. Report abuse

by konradiolio
at 03:08 on 7 Mar 2007

hey dont get me wrong the support personel are the best ive encountered so far .especialy if u use vigins online representative,but i suspect they are having issue,s implementing the merger/re appleing umbundling services and implementing all the companys server configs and connections. im only saying this cos ive suddenly gained an increase in my service not much but a bit up to 6/7mb download at off peak/most casual user dont stay up to the wee small hours like me cos they have normal work hours .This i think is relative to virgin media ,it is supposed to let us stream their programs via the internet . as most have seen when they use it after work to enjoy some media/youtube/movie reviews and news reports they missed .they are waiting an age because of buffering , not exactly the kind of internet we were expecting from a so called new and exiting service .im gonna stick it a bit longer as i think they may be teething, hopefully gaming will be back on the agenda at normal times gets lonley when all yer mates have pissed off cos u gotta wait for 23.30gmt just to play
the time ive seen the bandwidth die is between 4.00pm to midnight Report abuse

by konradiolio
at 03:21 on 7 Mar 2007

dan think jo,s on about the cable bundle set up and not the broadband telephone wired service she also on about the tv bundle as i think you like most in this blog are on about crappy wired service
the cable setup should always run better than telephone wires as we get interference and wheather affects our service
@ lee try playing your games early in the morning 4/6and after 12pm midnight to see if it is an issue with virgin this is ONLY TO TEST and not some pillock trying to tell u when you should start playing ,you should see it returns to a normal ping rate.i tried and found my ping had gone back to normal hence stated in the above post due to the throttling at peak times if your a downloader of torrents set it up to download at these time and torrents fly but alas having great speed at unsociable hours is not the answer we seek :0 Report abuse

by sue
at 11:10 on 7 Mar 2007

Doers anyone else have trouble with the Virgin Media listing now - which say "seaching" on all channels - and often stay the WHOLE evening without giving the lisitings. The 'i@ information button also does not respond. I have untried unplugging and re-connecting my box but it makes no difference. I find it really irritating. Has anyone tried to get a re-fund now we no longer have Sky 1 etc??? Report abuse

by Daniel
at 15:14 on 7 Mar 2007

Tracert to Virgin Website

Tracing route to ntlworld.com [212.250.162.12]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 38 ms 6 ms 7 ms 10.120.68.1

2 7 ms 8 ms 14 ms leed-t2cam1-a-v113.inet.ntl.com [80.0.54.125]

3 * 6 ms 7 ms leed-t3core-1a-ge-014-0.inet.ntl.com [195.182.175.169]

4 2623 ms 15 ms 8 ms lee-bb-a-so-230-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.175.65]

5 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms bre-bb-b-so-200-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.175.26]

6 14 ms * * win-bb-a-so-110-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.233]

7 17 ms * 14 ms win-dc-a-v900.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.162]

8 1843 ms 13 ms 25 ms www.virginmedia.com [212.250.162.12]

Trace complete.

Tracert to World of Warcraft servers

Tracing route to eu.logon.worldofwarcraft.com [80.239.180.111]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 8 ms 6 ms 40 ms 10.120.68.1

2 5 ms 10 ms 6 ms leed-t2cam1-a-v113.inet.ntl.com [80.0.54.125]

3 2210 ms 7 ms 8 ms leed-t3core-1a-ge-014-0.inet.ntl.com [195.182.175.169]

4 1856 ms 7 ms 6 ms lee-bb-a-so-230-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.175.65]

5 12 ms 21 ms 44 ms bre-bb-b-so-200-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.175.26]

6 2536 ms 23 ms 22 ms telc-ic-1-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]

7 * 13 ms 14 ms ldn-b2-link.telia.net [213.248.100.97]

8 2573 ms 14 ms 15 ms ldn-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.250.225]

9 21 ms 24 ms 29 ms prs-bb1-pos6-0-0.telia.net [213.248.64.9]

10 * 546 ms 21 ms prs-b2-link.telia.net [80.91.251.112]

11 2689 ms 29 ms 25 ms prs-nant-ks51-geth0-1.telia.net [213.248.98.74]

12 * * * Request timed out. Report abuse

by Chacho Coudet
at 10:41 on 8 Mar 2007

I've got two pc's (no router) I used to be able to connect my two pc's to the internet by unplugging the power cable of the modem and thus obtaining an ip address for either of my computers...However, for the last two weeks I haven't been able to connect one of the computers...Suspiciously enough, this incident coincides with Virgin taking over the old Telewest company...Any ideas anyone??? Report abuse

by CorradoMan
at 17:51 on 8 Mar 2007

I'm supposed to be on 10mbs and instead when I do a speed test im getting only about 2mb/s. MY upload speed is never fast than 500ish kb/s.

And for about the last 2 weeks I've been dowlonading from some sites at about 10kb/s !!!!!!!!!!!! 10kb/s on a 10mb connection. I've had enough and am not paying for this crap anymore. Report abuse

by Daniel
at 18:53 on 8 Mar 2007

Ok i had a tech come around to my house today and he replaced my modem and my speeds are back up to scratch. If you have a modem (silver coloured) then try get it replaced by any means with the latest model (blue coloured). Report abuse

by DrDoooo
at 07:28 on 9 Mar 2007

Im on Virgin Broadband now and I too am experiencing really bad problems with games online and on xbox live.
I run tests and Im also getting 100% packet loss which is terrible, but upon seeing Dan's post above me im concerned as I already have a blue coloured modem?
Ill be ringing Virgin later on and getting this issue resolved, as it clearly stated in the advert I saw that xbox live was indeed playable on Virgin Media Broadband, and at the moment that just isnt the case.

p.s I did have NTL for 4 years before Vrigin took over and had no connection problems or any problems of any kind in that time oO Report abuse

by James
at 12:37 on 9 Mar 2007

BranstonPickle: BT aren't involved at all with cable modem service - everything from the modem through to the routers connecting you to the rest of the Internet are Telewest/NTL/VM/whatever.

I'm a Telewest cable modem customer myself ("10Mbit" service) - lately, I've been having terrible service. At some point recently, the traffic was rerouted to go via the NTL network - last night, I was having packet loss in excess of 80%, within the NTL network. I'd been a cable modem customer since very shortly after the service was first launched - and a SurfUnlimited dialup customer before that, with no problems (except the very first month, when SurfUnlimited had been applied to the wrong line so calls were charged at normal rate - a trivial billing error, corrected instantly) until after the merger with NTL. I know there is nobody to blame for that outside Telewest/NTL/VM - the only question really is which particular bit caused it.

Fortunately, I switched TV service to Sky before the rush, and switched back to BT a few weeks ago - ADSL here I come! Report abuse

by Ross
at 17:46 on 9 Mar 2007

yeah well.......richy brandson youv relly messed this one up havent you........I cant get logged in to any 128bit encryption sites.......iv lost money from ebay cause i cant get logged on there......iv lost contact with imortant business contacts cause i can get into messenger or hotmail........so did you think about the customer with this takeover.....or did you just wanna line your very greedy pockets....youve slowed the whole thing down havent you...........oh and the sky channels too huh.......and my friends landline phones arnt working either..........telewest was great....virgin media stinks

a very very very unhappy customer Report abuse

by Ross
at 18:28 on 9 Mar 2007

oh yeh and i forgot to say we have been with telewest here in scotland for nearly ten years..................no problems until now Report abuse

by Stickyeye
at 22:36 on 9 Mar 2007

For the last couple of days it has not been possible to access ebay uk through Virgin Media from four computers in two homes in East Kilbride, Scotland. There is no problem accessing it from a friend's home who has a different ISP. They appear to be trying to sort out the problem but they are taking ages!! Maybe they just can't get the staff. Wish I was with another supplier. Report abuse

by Markus
at 22:37 on 9 Mar 2007

What's happened to Cutie, I'm dying for some more of her off the wall comments and top quality computer advice! If she's representative of the virgin customer service team we've got nothing to worry about, she sounds at least as rude and ignorant as the telewest team. Report abuse

by nikki
at 22:44 on 9 Mar 2007

In reply to Cuties comments.
If only Virgin Media could carry out a simple customer migration from Ntl Freedom to Virgin Media but that has not been my experience, we started what would appear to be a simple process, migrate from one package to another within supposedly the same company on the 15th February today the 9th March we still do not have a virgin Media broadband connection, a time scale of 5 - 10 days was given at the time of request for migration. We have experienced a total lack of customer support, service or understanding of frustration, they promised call backs, issue of MAC code, etc etc but to no avail, we are still waiting, they don't answer emails either. how can we have any faith in the service that you say is fantastic when chaos seems to reign in every department. now it would seem you have blackened their name more by voicing your views of their customers in a public forum for all to see who have little or no faith in the service that they offer. I am now more skeptical of the support and service that they provide as i now know the views of at least one of their employees and I don't suppose you are the only one I,m sure your job would be utopia if it weren't for the customers.
As for call charges made by virgin media for customers to talk to any of your departments be they 0845/0870/ etc none of us would mind if we received the service that you promise and that we your customers deserve, I'm sure these charges go some way to paying your wages, yet in my experience I have suffered lies, bad information, other outside organisation eg BT have been blamed for the delay, sorry that person doesn't work here, no you can't talk to a manager and the list goes on................. Your security procedures are lousy one minute they know who the account holder is the next they ask to speak to my husband who isn't the account holder, they have taken credit card details from a third party without clearance from the credit card holder (As it happens i was authorised by the credit card holder to pass this information however Virgin did not confirm this with the credit card holder.) This type of fiasco happens each time I speak to a Virgin/Ntl employee.................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!................?????????????.

In fairness i haven't come across an ISP who's customer service is any better.
all they are interested in, is sweet talking you on board for a year then taking your money and doing a runner. (when they have to do any work)

If Virgin Media was a high street shop you would be looking for a job.

In terms of my frustration concerning Virgin media, the tone of this letter on a scale of 1 -10 is only 1, but Virgin have tipped 10 many a time.!!!
What more can I say..... Report abuse

by Antsgame
at 13:00 on 10 Mar 2007

i fink vigin media have done a good job with the network but have failed with poor regestration issues but the costomer sevies have been great with the enquies
finaly Virgn meda have a great internet service with the right speed that it says on the adverts. Report abuse

by Lornalou
at 19:41 on 10 Mar 2007

Hey!
Just complained about our bill for broadband going up £7 with no warning (we had been on a special deal previously), and other sneaky wee increases, and got a reduction of £15 per month... Have to say that we'd been with Telewest for a few years and had no complaints whatsoever, and that includes a housemove too. Just need to keep a wee eye on this mob. Report abuse

by Chutoy2
at 23:42 on 10 Mar 2007

I'm on Telewest/Virgin broadband and have had problems since Thursday morning in trying to access any secure websites using IE7 & Firefox, although none of the settings on my machine have been changed. To make sure it wasn't just a problem with my desktop pc I tried connecting my laptop direct to my modem and had the exact same problem. I can't get into any sites such as gmail, ebay, myspace etc.
Is anyone else having the same problem? I called the 'customer service' line and they kept asking me to check my pc's even though I kept telling them I thought the problem is at their end.

Is anyone else at all having this problem?! Report abuse

by Kieran
at 01:04 on 11 Mar 2007

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/11735749582262313433.html

200k!

10mb service, bloody useless.

Do the test, score them low, and they will learn from their mistakes. Report abuse

by kevin
at 12:30 on 11 Mar 2007

also ive had problems with world of warcraft lagging all the time getting kicked off all the time my niece gets it too the same time as we quest together and also my friend gets it no of my other frinds get it, and i never used to get lagg at all or any problems till now, think virgin should have left well alone ntl did a much better job.

sorry but thats how i feel its so stressing losing my connection, it cant be blizzards fault all the time Report abuse

by Adam
at 17:43 on 12 Mar 2007

I used to have no issues with NTL, I would play warcraft quite happily only getting the occasional dissconnection every.... month? The second virgin media took over I would sometimes get dissconnected about 5x a day... it's rediculous, if it isn't broken, don't fix it... virgin hnve done something and quite frankly i'm thinking of moving to BT... perhaps paying a bit more is worth it. Report abuse

by adam
at 21:49 on 12 Mar 2007

sue is right since virgin media has took over the broadband has got slower it is like dial up sometimes! for eg you have to wait for pictures on the site to appear 1 after the other just like dial up ! waiting 4 links to appear is slow! searching is slower!! i know its only 2mb but it should b faster than this surely!!!!! Report abuse

by Doug
at 15:15 on 13 Mar 2007

I am also,like hundreds of others users having serious problems playing World of Warcraft for the first time ever!

Like everyone else, this is only since the takeover. Check the games technical forums, this is very widespread and very recent. Report abuse

by ron
at 18:49 on 13 Mar 2007

well ive been with ntl for a long time and found them ok ,i cancelled my internet from them 2 years ago ,fully paid up ,,now for some reason virgin are trying to get £70.80 from me for last year claiming its for the internet ,,,,,,,,,,,,funny that ,as ive just got connected back on 2 months ago,,isnt richard rich enough with trying to con me out of £70.80 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,think ill be useing another internet service Report abuse

by karen
at 21:11 on 13 Mar 2007

ive been with virgin media for a matter of weeks and am disgusted with the service. their customer care team is NON EXISTENT. i had a call from them today offering to upgrade my package which i stupidly did, they said it would happen within an hour, it not only didnt, but i lost virtually ALL my existing channels. i tried for 3 hours to get through to them but was cut off with a message saying 'your call isnt being answered beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep', offering me several options to press which i did time and time and time again and got thrown back out the door. i decided to go through to their billing dept asking if i would like to make a payment and HEY PRESTO got through but no, they couldnt help me, had to be customer care, i rang through again and a guy guaranteed i wouldnt be cut off/kept waiting but i was left holding for 20 mins at which point i gave up, i must have rung a total of 20 times and eventually got through to customer service who told me i should dial ANOTHER number and get technical support, and you know what? the number gave me EXACTLY the same options, press this number etc., their website wont let you mail them unless you give your account number and password, they have no address on their bills/letters to write to and you CANT get through on the phone, so what the hell do i do?? the writer above who says he works for them and its a great service must be delusional. its obvious richard branson's so rich because he takes peoples money and doesnt employ staff to take care of them! i intend to switch over as soon as possible. total farce! Report abuse

by brian
at 21:32 on 13 Mar 2007

Pretty much same complaint a s others here ,was an ntl customer for years with the 10mb package ,play wow alot never had any probs ,as soon as virgin media took over i got lots of disconnects on raids etc and very high latency,my web browsing is very slow also,pages take forever to load .I tried customer support ..what a joke i you have to repeat everything you say at least twice because they cant understand you.I,m currently looking at other providers. Report abuse

by Lou
at 12:17 on 14 Mar 2007

Has anyone else been having problems with the On Demand service freezing after going back and forth several times, I'm sick of having to unplug my box and replug it every couple of times....Thats a fairly new problem thou, however, I've always had a picture problem so that not new at all, has always kept freezing...oh as for internet I suppose I have noticed a difference in the speed by only slightly and mines increased not decreased I'm on 4mb I switched from AOHell(AOL) they are worse, especially in customer service issues. Virginmedia isn't good but they have only been running a month or so - I'm willing to give them time as I've been a customer since Cable & Wireless. As for the Sky1 fiasco I've read different sites NOT Virginmedias site either saying that sooner or later they'll get all the same programmes if not always downloading them off the internet. I'm not happy with the service but I'm not miffed with it either. With change comes.....change I'll wait to see how they go. Report abuse

by alan boylan
at 14:04 on 14 Mar 2007

i have been with telewest for a long time and i was happy with the service.... since virgin has taken over the service has been quite frankly pathetic... simple things such as keeping the tv guide up to date have fallen flat on its face, it is simply impossible to plan my evenings viewing.. ..the broadband is worse though i find it gets very very slow after 8pm and i only play on yahoo games at that time i hardly ever down load music or tv programes.... AS FOR CUTIE I HOPE YOUR STILL SAYING WHAT A BRILLIANT COMPANY IT IS WHEN THEY SACK YOU...because you are losing customers hand over fist, you cutie are what i term a company cabbage.. EVEN WHEN THEY ASK YOU TO BEND OVER YOU WILL STILL BE SAYING THANK YOU.. Report abuse

by Sue
at 21:41 on 14 Mar 2007

Must agree with previous comments, tv guide info that comes up on the bottom of the screen is always getting stuck, most times it's completely blank. Main tv guide is always miles behind or "searching". My broadband has actually been ok amazingly. Well gutted that I can't get to see LOST anymore since Sky One has gone, (can anyone tell me how I can download it, free and easily?) The fact that we are still paying the same monthly amount for less channels is wrong. New virgin channels are rubbish, but Hey Richard B you make sure you've got enough coppers for your next balloon trip around the world OK?! Report abuse

by chrispk
at 00:31 on 15 Mar 2007

had virgin media tv/broadband/phone installed 1week ago. all new set up (3 ugly white plastic boxes fastened to my living room wall) 1 for phone, 1 for tv, 1 for internet.
i'd been on onetel 2mb broadband for 2 years previous and very happy with the speed but it was £20 a month which is why i switched. now on virgins 2mb and my speed when browsing is absolutely shocking, just loading my hotmail "sign in" page can take over a minute. my parents have had ntl for years and have not changed anything (original box and modem) since the day they signed up and theirs is far quicker than mine despite living around the corner from me.

does anyone have the free virgin PC GUARD? just wondering if that may be slowing it down?
its an all round protector, firewall/anti virus/pop up blocker/privacy manager etc.. sometimes these programs clash with other antivirus or firewall products??
if it is hindering my system i'm getting rid of the pc guard Report abuse

by chrispk
at 00:42 on 15 Mar 2007

please virgin let these be teething problems that you WILL sort out for everyone.

i'm also having problems with the virgin central channels (channel 119 & 120 on mine)
they show a clip e.g nip-tuck , it says "press the red button, now sit back and enjoy"
well i've been sitting back for a week now without any joy whatsoever and it still shows the message "please wait just loading"
if i wait any longer for the episode to load i wll get sacked from work :o) Report abuse

by Thalia
at 01:19 on 15 Mar 2007

I signed up with Cable and Wireless in 1999 when I moved into a South London house with no BT line and BT wanted £500 to dig up the road to put one in.
For a small monthly fee I got a cheap phone, an excellent TV package and free stereo for my radio which sounded fabulous through my Hi Fi.

Then NTL took over and my service got cut back. I lost the radio channels, the TV package was cut, the picture quality deteriorated and often cut out altogether, the phone bill skyrocketed and the package price went up. And up.

Now Virgin Media have taken over and we've lost Sky One which turned out to have the only stuff left I ever really watch. This last two weeks I've hardly watched any TV at all because there is nothing worth bothering with. I've missed Bones and the end of 10 years of Stargate and I'm really fed up.

Virgin Media want to sign me up for a year on digital with phone but they can't tell me what I'll be able to watch because they don't seem to know and they can't tell me how much the phone calls will cost for no reason anyone has explained. I just get cut off whenever I ask. The guys are supposed to be coming next week to install it but SO not signing up to a deal when no one has told me what I'm getting or what it's costing so if they do show they can go away again.

I've been looking around for alternatives but Sky is too expensive and I don't want a giant ashtray on the front of the house (they could put it on the roof, my neighbours did, but they refuse to do so). If I get Freeview that'll be £200 installing a roof ariel and a box and then we are still back to there really not being much left to watch although my friend has it and there seems to be way more than I have now with Virgin.

All I want is the deal I had with Cable and Wireless 8 years ago.
PROGRESS??? You can keep it. Report abuse

by Tayzyboy
at 11:37 on 15 Mar 2007

For about 3 weeks now my lag on WOW has been 1000-2000 if i can keep connected for over an hour im lucky. Was with NTL before and that was fine (200-300 at peak times) and very rarely cut off.
The TV is dire now too, I've been having the same "searching for programmes" problem with the TV guide a lot - though this did happen with NTL albeit less often.
The Vigin on demand channels are not exactly my cup of tea, not eactly much choice. These have been working 80% or so of the time for me...

Well at least im glad its not just me , and i can finally stop playing with my PC settings in the vain hope that it will help.

I'll give virgin until the end of the month to sort this out - if not then i'm off! (if i can get through to customer services - might have to put by a whole week to do that!) Report abuse

by Steve
at 15:47 on 16 Mar 2007

Same problem as everyone else, since telewest switched to VM ive had a really bad connection. I am moving house soon, I wont be asking Virgin to switch my services over to the new house thats for sure. Report abuse

by Ben
at 11:11 on 17 Mar 2007

I've been with Blueyonder Telewest for about 4 years or more. I've had just two outages in all of that time - which were fixed within a couple of days - and great speeds on the 10Meg connection.

Blueyonder then:

- 10 meg speeds great.
- Technical support calls were free.
- Tech support people very helpful with no waiting for more than 5 mins.
- Engineers turned up within 2 days of calling.
- No complaints.

Virgin Media now:

- Rubbish rubbish rubbish speeds. Tested the connection on 5 speed test sites and getting between 500k and 3meg for a 10 meg line!
- Technical support calls 50p per minute!
- Tech support person 1 (after a 30 min wait on hold listening to that awful tune) "Sorry, we don't deal with Blueyonder customers here, call this number instead".
- Tech support person 2 (after another 15 mins wait) "Sorry, I don't understand, can you repeat that" A woman who can't understand me despite 10 mins of explaining everything five times, and the line is so bad it sounds like she's on the other side of the world. Oh wait, she is!
- Tech support person 3 (after another 15 mins). Actually I hung up at this point.

Plus watch out for this one: I used the confusing support contact form on the Virgin Media site to try to get the speeds fixed. Then 3 weeks later came home to find an engineer had visited, but as I didn't know they were coming obviously I wasn't there. So they decided it would be a great idea to charge me £10. I was furious. It took me 1 hour on the phone to get them to remove the charge. To be fair, they sent a new engineer out fairly quickly (calling to agree and confirm the appointment this time), but he didn't know what the problem was (he used to work for Blueyonder, nice chap). Probably the Virgin Media servers we agreed...

Oh, and if you are calling VM customer support, don't call the 0870 number. Call this one instead:

Customer Services: 0117 9076666

If this doesn't improve I'm off to risk another service. It's a shame, I've recommended Blueyoner to my friends for years.... I understand the competition in the market for covering TV/Phone/Mobile/Internet, but come on guys. Don't be crap. I can get crap broadband like this for £5 with Orange. Why should I pay £35? Sort it out. It's not hard. Report abuse

by Mr noname
at 16:54 on 18 Mar 2007

Again same story as the rest with WOW and another online game called Anarchy Online (AO) lagging alot and crashing every 30 mins on averige, IE is the same and download speeds are worse getting disconnected completely all the time and looking in network connections i see im not receiving enough packets, to top that off virgin media hajacked my home page if i switch it to google (then save as home page) then reboot EI virgin media is homepage again what kind of ISP hijacks your home page? Report abuse

by nicola
at 17:26 on 18 Mar 2007

well i have been with ntl for yrs then i went to sky for my dtv got disconnected months before xmas,i kept getting a bill every month since then,i complained and ntl sorted it,but now its virgin crappy media they are hasselling me now saying i owe them money for something i have not got anymore, i tell you what im well peed off about this and i told virgin im not paying it he said so your disputing you owe this money? i said yes,and he put the phone down on me the tw@t so they are getting a phone call tomorrow. Report abuse

by slowspeed
at 00:38 on 19 Mar 2007

i agree with all about the speed, which is like dial up. i have spoken to their support team through phone,their online email and used the live support. still waiting for an answer. they said they can regrade my line to 2 meg instead of 8 meg, i said waht about the price? it will stay the same. even then we can`t guarantee that this will fix it. they also blamed my set up. i have been using computers for over 20 years, so i can safely say i know enough about them.i have also complained to ISPA http://www.ispa.org.uk/ twice and OTELO. my next course of action is Trading Standards then a solicitor. Breach of contract! Report abuse

by Ben
at 08:42 on 19 Mar 2007

I've been testing the speeds two or three times a day now. I'm actually getting between 7 to 8 meg on my 10 meg line, but this is at 7am on a Sunday morning. By the time 10am comes around it's down to 2-3 meg. Last evening it was 0.4!!

So in conclusion this thoroughly scientific test reveals that it's the servers/lines not coping with the number of people online. OK, so I'm not a broadaband scientist but it makes sense if everything from 3 companies (NTL, Telewest, Virgin) is now bening routed through the same place. If it is that is.

Make your own minds up, but even if that isn't the reason and if this doesn't change I'm leaving you Virgin, you cow. Report abuse

by Mitch
at 12:00 on 20 Mar 2007

I've been an NTL customer for several years and have been one of the lucky ones to not have had much of a problem with them until now.
1st they messed by bill up when the merges with Telewest - after much waiting and several attempts with different operators, finally a great chap called Carlo helped me out, sorted out refunds and generally knew what he was doing.
Now comes my real beef with Vigin Media dot CON (no that is not a spelling mistake!)
They advertise 2 for £20, 3 for £30 and 4 for £40 available to Existing Customers who take an additional service. Great I thought! I've got 'Phone and Broadband - I'll take the Mobile service and get 3 for £30 - WRONG.
I was told I couldn't do that, i'd have to take a TV package too, meaning that I need to take TWO additional services.
I notice they are still advertising 'Phone, Broadband and Mobile - 3 for £30 - available to existing customers.
How can they get away with it? It's blatant untruth.
Anyone else had the same experience? Report abuse

by A Virgin Media victim
at 16:54 on 20 Mar 2007

I have been trying to cancel my Virgin Media contract. Easier said than done.
I have only had the service 6 weeks, and had nothing but trouble.....
I have had money taken from my account that shouldn’t have been taken.
A slow internet connection.
The TV box has actually shut down twice; I then have to call for it to be sorted.
The TV guide is constantly sticking or searching…
And now the Sky channels have gone.

It’s an absolute Joke.

Although Virgin Media will let you cancel your contract up to the end of March, it’s very difficult to speak to someone at customer services to do this. I called numerous times last night, spending at least 30mins on hold (twice) only to be cut off...So I then phone back only to have a recorded message telling me the lines are busy and to call back later…I phone back later and the lines are closed!!!!!

Don’t ever use Virgin Media!!! Report abuse

by Goose
at 21:05 on 20 Mar 2007

I have not had my BroadBand connection long, i signed up a couple weeks before they changed to virgin media. i was getting 2mb download all the time no matter when, now it is virgin media it is round 500k download unless it is early morning,
also i have a friend who is on virgin.net(bt adsl) and their speed was around 300k for 2mb connection was fine till about 6 months ago and the ping rate to google was around 250ms too slow to play anything online. unless it was early morning.
shocking really, shouldn't they just bite the bullet and pay out to upgrade there servers??? sure more people would come to them if word is they have great connection and download speeds. Report abuse

by CK
at 12:14 on 21 Mar 2007

Shambolic customer services, 49 min phonecall to cancel an account. Report abuse

by Ryan
at 13:43 on 21 Mar 2007

Virgin Media has destroyed the once superb Telewest service.

I received a bill for £117 last month, the charges were made up and after 20 days I have yet to recieve an answer from them by e-mail to my original complaint.

Forget calling, I gave up after 45 minutes
My 2MB service which was sublime under Telewest/Blueyonder is now pathetic.

As Virgin Media refuse to answer my e-mails despite their "we'll get back to you in 45 hours" automated e-mail responses I have had to cancel my direct debit.
They can go to hell.
I shall give Sky a go. Report abuse

by LezH
at 20:21 on 21 Mar 2007

I wish I'd not read the above reviews/rants now. An hour ago I was optimistic that normal service would be restored if not as soon as possible at least within the current decade. Now, after reading your comments, I realise that this is a hopeless piece of self-delusion.

Last October (yes, October 2006 - you people with 2007 problems get in line!) I reported a fault to Telewest: dropping internet and missing TV channels. Apparently a new beefier cable was required to give me back the level of service that I was paying (a lot) for. This, they told me, would need them to do a 'night pull' - which, till then, I had thought was something rather different. Now, after five and a half months of phone conversations with seemingly well-meaning young people, and visits from seemingly well-meaning blue-overalled engineers, I have detected a definite change: my internet connection is now slower and dropping more often; more TV channels have disappeared, some stolen some too sick to put in an appearance; remaining channels are breaking up more so it's often a choice between freeview or an interesting array of discorporate pixels; engineers not turning up at all; and nobody phoning me back when they said they would.

The essential difference seems to be that Telewest tried to fix the problem and couldn't whereas Virgin promise to try to fix the problem but can't be bothered to turn up. If, as someone indignant said earlier, Virgin do have a red carpet for their customers, I'd hate to see the threadbare one!

I've done a bit of research on Sky service and prices and, if it isn't just pie in the, it would seem they are substantially cheaper over the one-stop-shop package than VM, with more channels on offer. But my son who shares the internet has to upload stuff to work and so needs better performance than ADSL is reputed to provide, despite the exchange being just a few minutes walk away. Can any experts out there advise please, before I make another ghastly error of judgement?

Thanks - LH Report abuse

by slowspeed
at 13:04 on 22 Mar 2007

here`s the cancellation number
0845 045 0709
i am hoping to cancel and go somewhere else, but not sure where. i phoned up to get a MAC code, got the usual 3 or 4 options,tried them got sent somewhere else only to get more options, eventually got someone and asked for my MAC code, he gave me the above number which i phoned only to be told that the lines are closed. maybe the name Virgin is appropriate, as they haven`t got a clue about customer service or broadband. Report abuse

by Stu
at 19:02 on 23 Mar 2007

Truly a bad transition. I've since given up attempting to contact Virgin Media via email. I've sent no short supply of them either and every one of them has been ignored. Furthermore, I'm having them constantly call me for payments that aren't even due yet and they're so far less than competent to answer anything beyond their "list of things to say to the customer"!

One example of this, I had some absolute idiot of a man from their customer services/Finance department, again, demanding a payment that isn't even due!
He had a quite a broad African accent making it difficult to understand him -- I was at least courteous enough to say "sorry, I didn't understand you" or "could you repeat that" -- when this imbecile didn't catch what I said he replied with "WHAT!" in a less than respectful tone with too much volume.
I then asked for his name, he replied with Steven. "Steven what?" I asked. He stuttered and oh and ummed and refused!! I got him to eventually tell me it's "Steven Fakee" I asked him to spell it, He replied F.A.K.E --Thats right! STEVEN FAKE! and he's pronouncing Fakee! Laughable.

I had no qualms about telling him all about his damn self and stinking attitude.
This is a disastrous switch from Telewest and I'm now preparing myself to also make a switch... to another ISP.
And if "Cutie" above is really a representative of Virgin Media, then you need nothing more to ascertain what sort of people they've got working there! Report abuse

by Deuce5
at 01:01 on 24 Mar 2007

Virgin Media are money-grabbing, heartless fiends. I joined when they were NTL, but cancelled a few weeks in when all I had received from them was 3 letters confirming my dd. I never got any service from them, yet this did not stop them taking money from my account even though I have cancelled the dd with my bank at least twice now. I have cancelled my service with them twice now, and yet when ever I call them, I am miraculously still a customer paying for a service I have never got. I phoned them this morning, on their free-phone virgin helpline (oh yea, which isn't free), to speak yet again to one of their trained monkies. I have now spent literally hours listening to their lame hold music, being passed around the houses like some unwanted nuisance. Yet again I finally reach the disconection department, third time lucky, this time I'm bound to succeed in cancelling this hellish service. But no, after waiting 10 mins, "I'm sorry, our operators are very busy, please phone at another time" - THEY HANG UP ON ME!!!!!!! I hate Virgin Media, don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Murdoch's monopoly, but be warned, if you join Virgin Media, expect no customer care, you'll be lucky if you actually get what you pay for, and oh yeah, you can't cancel, so it's regretably for life, or so it appears. I have lost the will to call them again, so I might as well get used to fact that I'm going to be a little poorer from now on, I have yet again cancelled my dd with my bank, so I wait with bated breath. Report abuse

by Andrew
at 19:06 on 24 Mar 2007

Since the takeover my internet has slowed down to the point where its almost useless. Loading pages either takes a ridiculous amount of time or just crashes. So I'm using my computer less and watching tv less with the loss of the Sky channels, and Virgin's idea of a replacement - Virgin Central - isn't that great, it just means you can watch programme series you've already seen before as opposed to seeing the new episodes. Report abuse

by Stu
at 20:14 on 24 Mar 2007

To Broadbandgenie, Why wasn't my review of Virgin media acceptable? I'm sure anyone would appreciate you giving a reason for why you considered a posting to be an objectionable one?

You have my Email address (as was given first time around under the same name) perhaps you could take the time to show me you possess a spine and give an acceptable response. Report abuse

by Stu
at 20:17 on 24 Mar 2007

Scrap it! For some bizarre reason my previous posting did not show until I refreshed the page a couple of times. My sincere apologies and I'll eat the pie, so to speak. Report abuse

by Antoni
at 15:57 on 25 Mar 2007

The worst broadband service in the world = Virginmedia atm. Terrible in every respect from quality of connection to customer service. I'm really pee'd off that I'm with them and will be going elsewhere ASAP. When they were NTL they were the best, never hardly had a problem with them. They really should have stuck to riding balloons and making sub-standard cola. Absolutely clueless. Report abuse

by Matt
at 18:13 on 27 Mar 2007

After 4 long sufering years, I'm finally leaving Virgin Media (or Telewest previously). That is if I can ever get anyone to answer the phone so I can cancel my contract. I can't believe that a business with the levels of customer service I've had to endure can still be operating as a business. Absolutely diabolical.

As for the bills - can anyone truly say they understand the charging methods, which seem straightforward enough until you make a change to the service, which seems to me like an excuse to bill the customer excessively. I have never been able to reconcile this and if it isn't fraud then it's a very good imitation of something that is.

As for content - fine. But the bleating that has come from Branson over the Sky debacle is comical. He talks about the Sky 'monopoly' then in the same week gets annoyed by proposals to open up the skies to proper competiion, when of course he would prefer the current cosy arrangement with BA and Virgin owning all the Heathrow slots to the USA.

Good riddance to Virgin / Telewest. That is if they ever answer the phone - currently 31 minutes and counting. Report abuse

by Steven
at 20:01 on 27 Mar 2007

What an absolute waste of time and space VirginMedia are. Telewest, although not perfect at times, were much better. I was one of the first Blueyonder broadband customers when the service was launched. I've always been very happy with the service until the Virgin takeover. My 10mb internet connection has dropped to an average speed of 1mb. I've called their indian call centre and was told, "there are server problems in your area". I can find no mention of this anywhere on their website or their status telephone number I was given - 0800 5610061. The call centre advised that they could not give me a resolution date or time. After reading all the comments in this forum, I think I now have a better understanding of the size of their problem. Avoid them like the plague!! Be warned. Report abuse

by Gambler
at 00:15 on 28 Mar 2007

well I cannot really comment coz I have just ordered virgin cable broadband the 10 megabit one. well I was a homechoice customer for the last years, homechoice now taken up by the tiscali about a years ago, i didnt have any problem with that. I ordered sky broadband a month ago the 24 megabit one they installed everything at ma home but not able to get me online.....they couldnt even figureout the problem.so I had to cancel ma contract within a week coz of no service.
Well lets hope whateva Cutie is saying is right...coz i dont have any other choice but to believe in her. love ya cutie:) Report abuse

by Julian
at 08:36 on 28 Mar 2007

hey gambler did you get BT out, they might of told you that your telephone line was too old to handle fast speeds, a friend had the same problem and he was told he could only accept 1meg broadband until his lines were upgraded Report abuse

by Master
at 13:57 on 28 Mar 2007

Do not under any circumstances, even consider switching to Virgin Media. They are the modern day version of 'The Emperors New Clothes'.

I was with Telewest since 2002 and since VM took over the reins they have introduced an evening (16:00 - 00:00) throttling 'campaign' which rendered my Internet usage null and void as I work during the day.

This 'campaign' was surreptitiously introduced and only came out into the open following a barrage of complaints aired on various Fora.

Their Tech Support department are as good as useless and invariably end up telling you that your pc is 'the problem' even after you point out the obvious.

Customer services are non existent as I tried 4 days running to try and cancel my contracts, but was either put on an indefinate hold or mysteriously cut off.

To top it all, the seriously flawed and underinvested mish mash of Networks cannot cope with the existing customer base and internet browsing in non throttled times, is akin to wading through hardening treacle with your legs tied. Report abuse

by Bigcats
at 23:32 on 28 Mar 2007

I've been reading this reviews and have to laugh to myself......first of all 10/4/2Mb BB does not mean megabytes!!! it means megabits (smaller than megabytes)!!! and it can only go as fast as the server that your dowloading from!!! so if the site your on is SLOW then your connection will be SLOW no matter how fast your connection is!!! go to a fast site and it will be fast!!! YOU WILL NEVER GET 10mb download ever unless the whole world turned off their internet connection its just like a motorway the more cars on it the slower it goes...simple!!and since i download alot of videos and films i think its fantastic....if you really think VM is bad go back to dial up you'll soon come running back with your tail between your legs!!!
everytime i've rang virgin media (been an ntl/VM customer for just over a year now) they have always answered my questions and have been very helpful...yes sometimes it has taken time but what do you expect...you can find that with any BIG company!!!
Oh and a little hint if you want to cancel your account and can't get through just cancel your direct debit and they will soon call you....again simple!!
and no i don't work for VM lol Report abuse

by peeeeeed off
at 11:47 on 29 Mar 2007

LAG beyond belief ...........
lagging out of all my xbox live games
10mb

more like 10mb packet loss

spikes up and down all the time NO GOOD

going to go some place else

and as for CUTIE what a stupid BITCH
those people she moans about keep her in that job.
I can bet my left NUTshe aint that cute sitting there all day long !! Report abuse

by Gandolf
at 20:30 on 29 Mar 2007

Now now young Hobbits. Enough of all this falling out. Lets all take a step back and put things into perspective. Why I remember all of you when you where just little children.Some of you in fact hadnt even been born when mankind was given the word "Internet" How Arragorn and I had laughed for days at how you all thought it was "MAGIC!!" haha "The devil himself" some of you thought. He had said at the time "I doubt they will be happy for long" And take a look around you. Only 2 score and ten winters later I find you squabbling over your toys.Such a short time ago how you boasted of your 1GIG drives and your Floppy disks. The Elves where tasked with providing you Broadband, and this they have done. The only thing that is sure in your Mortal world is your Immenant death. Do not expect these toys to be so reliable. Thats how you all live your life. Each and everyone of you has fallen short. All the things you said you would do. And never did. And Cutie is a fine elv. You must remember cutie. Broadband is always going to dissapoint these mortals as a replacement for self enlightmenment.

Remember.
There is only one that sees all.

And that is I.

GANDALF THE GREAT

Now play nicely Hobbits and I might let you have affordable T3 in the next few years. Report abuse

by sue
at 17:31 on 30 Mar 2007

I now have nothing but contempt for Virgin Media. I have been trying to change the name on the account from that of my late mother to mine after she died in January. Two months down the line I am being told that will have to get my mother to cancel her service [they really don't listen do they] and I will have to take out a new contract, this is the contract that I have been told repeatedly is in the post. Afterall I have spent 6 1/2 hours on the phone since January sorting this. However they made sure they had my bank details so that the account could still be paid. As for Customer service skills I don't think Branson or any of his staff have heard of the concept. I have given them 7 days to sort this out including a letter of apology or I will cancel the contract Oh wait thats right I dont have one! In that case they can chase my late mother for the money, because I won't be paying it Report abuse

by IT WHIZZ
at 19:48 on 30 Mar 2007

DO not go with virgin media they are pants. been a loyale customer for 5 years had no problems untill a week after i got the letter of the switchover from telewest to virgin media. when i was with telewest i got download speeds of 2mbps no i get somet stupid like 80kbps downlods. this makes me a very disatasfied customer. i also got these results of dslreports.com .

Suggestion :- Do not go with virgin media they will con u out of money some how. Go with sky or stick to ur Freeview box set(if you have it ) and have bt internet it is wkd.

and before any of u guys say i dont know what im talking about im an Computer engineer so i know what im talking about Report abuse

by Toggyuel
at 10:31 on 31 Mar 2007

Can anyone explain why i have to pay extra for my Xbox live connection on Virgin media? . I Thought that as long as you had a broadband connection you could plug in whatever you wanted. Try and find a reference to this charge anywhere on the NTL/Virgin website It doesnt exist I was paying around £2.50 more a month for this mysterious xbox connection . Now i have rearranged my package i've lost xbox live . Report abuse

by david
at 05:05 on 1 Apr 2007

You can complain to OFCOM and they will be looking to consumer complaints and take ation agianst virgin media unfairly service, don't rely on to someone eles, the more people make complain, the more can be done here a website for detail and number http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/internet/isp/other/ Report abuse

by Mr H
at 19:57 on 2 Apr 2007

For info: Virgin restrict 10Mb lines to 5Mb after you download 3Gb. This seems to be the same for 20Mb upgrade they are now rolling out - so People with the recent price increase thats £37 a month for a 5Mb line - Most expensive ISP in England?

Personally I think all ISPs should be hauled over the coals for their 'unlimited' advertising - people need to know what they are buying. Report abuse

by tackling
at 20:57 on 2 Apr 2007

why dont they ever answer their one phone number.... it's crap.... try and question.. Report abuse

by Bluesofa
at 21:45 on 4 Apr 2007

Six weeks ago, I saw an advert for vodafone at home. It looked bags cheaper that the £45 - £50 a month I was paying for phone, with evening and weekend calls and 4M broadband with virgin. I called virgin to ask about better deals. They knocked £6 a month off the broadband. I decided to leave and go with vodafone.

I rang to cancel the virgin contract today. They told me they WOULD match the price of vodafone at home. £25 would get me calls to 01 and 02, plus 4M broadband plus line rental. I was told that I'd been speaking to the wrong people about prices when I'd spoken to Customer Care. I was told that it's my responsibility as a consumer to threaten to leave all the time so that I can get the best deal! - so presumably it's virgin's responsibility to rip me off for my loyalty then!?? I was then asked if I wanted to stay, and take the deal that they decided they could produce once the BT engineer was in my house.

Now, why would I want to stay with a firm like that? Report abuse

by Nifen
at 22:59 on 4 Apr 2007

Just want to comment on the people that work for virgin media.

So far i've had telewest for over a year and now moved houses and have virgin media.

The problem is that virgin is the ONLY cable provider in the UK. there only the largest because they are the ONLY cable company.
If your proud to work for the ONLY cable company (which appears to be the largest for some STRANGE "ONLY" reason) then, then good for you.

So far in the last year we've had many days with no internet. They never get the bill correct. We are always over charged and then we ring up and have to have them change it for the next month.

The internet never stays the same speed. ( i honestly dont mind having a slower internet, as long as its constant) I can deal with Lag in a game but having internet which jumps a really blows.

Since connecting to virgin media in our new place. I've had the internet drop out many times so far, I live close to an exchange so it should be fairly rock solid, but instead i recieve internet speeds as low as 164 k when i should be getting around 8000 k (or 8 meg) being realistic as its a 10 meg connection.

I'm quite disappointed with the whole situation and apparently its all caused because Virgin is over selling there internet like Talktalk. This problem will only get worse, and introducing a faster connection 50 Mb's will not resolve the speed problems with out upgrading the network it self and providing better support.

I think the only reason we didn't go for DSL was the fact that we needed a phone line and didn't want to have one as my flat mate and my self never used it in our last place and it seemed pointless getting one.

Its just sooo frustrating. I want to scream or pull out my hair. If they sold me a nice 4 meg connection which didn't drop i'd take this over a 10 meg connection any day :) Report abuse

by Bob S
at 20:24 on 6 Apr 2007

I have been with Telewest (now Virgin) for at least 8 years but was not happy at them keep putting up the costs e.t.c

I threatened to leave Virgin, phoning the retention line. Got a great deal from them on paper but this still has to materialise.

After this so called deal I would be paying £12 per month extra but this would give me an upgrade from evening weekends phone to unlimited, a V box and the movie channels and sports channels.

GREAT, yes if it happened.

Installation date for V 19th March did not turn up rescheduled for 11th April.

Looking at my online bill, advanced charges, they are charging me £34.50 more than I agreed with the retention guy and i have not got the kit yet.

Phone to cancel everything but cant seak to anyone i will have to ring back Saturday.

Take my advice if you are thinking of leaving Virgin, JUST LEAVE, dont let them tempt you with false promise.

PS I have all the details agreed via e-mail with the retention guy so if they want to take it to court so be it. Report abuse

by slowspeed
at 23:31 on 7 Apr 2007

i eventually got my MAC code through my email, i also found a recorded message on my phone saying that they don`t want to lose me as a customer, wonder why ?
they also said we want £180 because of the contract, makes me wonder if the governing bodies are getting backhanders. complained to ISPA 2 time got knowhere and nothing,OTELO once nothing again, and of course Virgin.
Trading standards and maybe a solicitor next. funny how all these bad ISP`s are still running despite their neglect of the law and their customers. Report abuse

by Steve F
at 17:05 on 9 Apr 2007

Has anyone got Virgin Media TV, I moved from Sky to Virgin and at first was pleased but this last week Virgin have introduced a new system to the way you have to view the movie channels, it involves you entering a pin every time you change from one channel to the next so you cant surf the movie channels anymore, also you can de-select it.
As soon as my contract is up I will be switching back to SKY unless Virgin remove this stupid idea or at least give me the customer a choice. Report abuse

by Aaronu
at 21:20 on 9 Apr 2007

I think that it is simple Virgin is making a packet at our expence! They have reduced bandwidth to all customers even if they only did this for a week they would make a massive saving as it costs them to provide such high bandwidth.... by reducing it down they are making loads of money and I mean millions... this may just be a thing that goes on till they loose a few customers then go back to normal speed (maybe) but I don't think I will wait for that to happen... I have looked at sky and I like the sound of 16mb connection BUT in the fine print sky says that though it is an unlimited service they still regulate your download amount - they call it a FUP "fair use policy" which means they will tell you when they think that you use the net too much lol or in other words they don't think that you sould use what they sell you!

I don't like the sound of that as all I want is true fast unlimited BB.

Does that even exist any more?? NTL used to work for me I had no problems (kinda) but I at least got fast downlaods with no catch - my main question is will it ever go back to the way it was

I have a 4mb connection I now download at 8kbps hmmmm was about 600kbps. Report abuse

by slowspeed
at 13:08 on 10 Apr 2007

no i don`t have tv, but i noticed on their web page for the bundle that i am on, it says free tv included down the phoneline. which i haven`t got. i am expecting a reply from the ISPA very soon. Report abuse

by Ben
at 22:47 on 11 Apr 2007

MONKEYS. The lot of them. That's all there is to say. I've left some reasonably intelligent reviews on here previously, but now I've had it with Virgin Media. I'm leaving, after 5 good years with Telewest it's over. It's too late. These guys, are monkeys. (Apologies to any actual monkeys out there, no offence meant.) Report abuse

by Ian in Huddersfield
at 14:51 on 12 Apr 2007

Recently moved out of my house where I lived with my parents since forever. Had NTL for the past 10 years at my parents house. Most recently this was running at 4meg. Download speeds were excellent and always reached full bandwidth... downloading at about 420kb/s from reliable sources.
My house move co-incided with the change from NTL to Virginmedia. I thought nothing of this, as nothing was supposed to change. I signed up for 4meg broadband.
After 2 re-visits from Virgin media engineers both saying the same thing (All equipment working fine and signal strength to cable modem excellent) download speeds were still not geting above about 150kb/s.
Got a call asking me is I wanted to upgrade to 10mb for free as compensation for losing sky one!! I said yes - of course!!
Bandwidth has not improved... still get up to 200kb/s if im lucky, and they seem to fluctuate constantly. My download speed graph looks like a sound wave!! constantly changing.
I have no idea what to do!
Spoke to Virgin today, they said they know there is a problem and it is because they are upgrading parts of their network and bottlenecks are occurring!
If my bandwidth isnt back up to a reasonable level by next week, I'm cancelling!! Report abuse

by John Gangster
at 15:00 on 12 Apr 2007

You can download virgin media pcguard from www.pcguard.notlong.com. I hacked into the virginmedia files via their website because i was hoping to implant a virus as they are so rubbish, my bradband connection speed is as slow as ever & NTL was brilliant. Its a shame Richard Branson can't be good at everything. My hacking into their main website also shows how easyily virginmedia is vulnerable to hackers, it was soooo easy hacking into their main dual core system. Once again, it shows how rubbish they are. If anybody has any queries please don't hesitate to question the Gangster, im at your service. (By the way, i implanted a virus called Final Destination Intiation into virgin media's mail exe. system so they will have trouble sending emails haha, i didn't want to mess with anything else as ti would mess up our internet connection!) Report abuse

by elf
at 12:24 on 13 Apr 2007

Steve F - MOVE as FAST AS YOU CAN away from Virgin, before your hardware fails and you encounter the blackhole that is customer service! Since Virgin took over from NTL, their ability to fix anything has completely vanished. I've had 2 hardware failures in 7 days, and each time, it's taken over 2 hours on the phone, followed by up to 4 days of waiting for a technician to show up (and spend 3 minutes replacing a box). THe last replacement ended up being a poorly refurbished 6 year old model box, which has none of the features of the current systems (ie, no main guide, no interactive functions), and exhibited intermittent error messages from day 1 (I called Virgin after receiving this substandard box, requesting replacement, which they refused, as it "hadn't failed"; they claim the intermittent error messages and screen freeze are just normal issues.). It did finally completely fail THursday, and am now told that the "best" they can do is send a technician out on Monday - another FOUR DAYS WITH NO SERVICE!. Talking to CUstomer Service "" and Customer Relations is a total joke - no one in any of these organizations is actually empowered to resolve anything, they have no authority to assist unhappy customers in meaningful solutions, such as prioritizing service.

Only a monopoly such as Virgin could get away with this lack of responsiveness and still be in business! (in much of my area, installation of SKy dish is not allowed, so Virgin is the ONLY option)> Report abuse

by Wilksy
at 14:43 on 13 Apr 2007

Well in one way, I am glad it's not just me that has had these problems. I have had problems since about a week after the change-over letter aswell. Speeds between 4pm and midnight are ridiculous. I play WoW for 4 hours a day midweek to 12 hours a day on a weekend. Had no problems before on Telewest but now I get disconnected every 30 mins or so and lag between 600ms - 25,500ms! absolute joke. I have been on to Blizzard over this and sent about 8 emails backwards and forwards to them. I have done tracerts etc aswell. As for Virgin Media, I phoned up and spent 35 mins on hold before being 'cut-off'. I rang back again and went through about a dozen tests with 3 different support guys and they ended up telling me it was my pc that had spyware! suprise suprise!!! I have installed all the latest drivers, changed my network card and updated the drivers. Also ran 4 different spyware programs and 3 antivirus programs It's still the same :( Virgin Media still say that it's my pc. I've reformatted my pc and installed all the latest drivers and it's still the same. They are useless. The support are rude, arrogant and a waste of my time. Luckily I have been with them since 2002 so i shouldn't have any problem cancelling.... First I need to find a decent supplier (suggestions anyone)..? I will be without the internet for a couple of weeks but hey, it's no use as it is anyway! Luckily I went to page 192.168.100.1 when doing a test with the support and got my MAC Address from there. Took a screenie and kept it for when this happened! ;) Good luck to the rest of you changing over, looks like I will have to pay £99 for a new BT line before I can even think about a new supplier.. :-s pants Report abuse

by Tabetha
at 16:56 on 13 Apr 2007

I've also had it with Virgin Media - I've not been able to access Teleport for 48 hours - I am at a loss to understand why they only put up one episode of a series (See Sopranos Series One) and only half of West Wing Series 7. We are all still paying for the Sky services but not receiving them. I cannot begin to explain the hassle with customer services. Two of whom, admitted they didn't even have VM as a provider. And one had no idea how the Teleport system worked.

I pay my large bill monthly and object strongly to 'cutie' and his/her rantings about customers. If you took a mean reading of the posts here - you would find that at least 80 percent are unhappy.

Oh! And i never actually received notification that VM were taking over Telewest. I just received a bill and rang to ask for an explanation. Still never had that!

Sky here I come :-) And Richard Branson, you should be utterly ashamed of yourself., Report abuse

by Wilks
at 15:17 on 14 Apr 2007

Well I've been running Pingplotter all day and been pinging the bbc, virgin media and blizzard websites. All of them have had packet loss. This varied between 10 & 90% loss. I then pinged the bbc site over and over through cmd prompt and started getting 25, 50 and 100% loss at various times. Other times it worked fine.
Phoned Virgin Media and spoke to the first decent guy in ages. He checked my modem and it was pinging at 8ms so they ran '2nd level checking'. It turned out that they have a signal/noise ratio problem at their end which they weren't aware of. They are working on it now and it should take a couple of days to sort out. I'm going to ring back on Monday if Pingplotter is still showing packet loss. I suggest every1 downloads it and keeps it running in the background. Just ping the bbc site and let them know if you are getting packet loss in the second column. Fingers crossed that something will get sorted because wow is unplayable. Report abuse

by God's Apprentice
at 23:49 on 14 Apr 2007

Sorry folks but I have to report that after 10 years with telewest/ntl and now virgin media I must say that the customer service is crap (mite be better in India with the rest) I used to work for them and know a lot of people who work there still. I have to say that apart from terrible customer service I actually receive excellent services from them my tv is great, my telephone bills are ok and my broadband is excellent. Oh Monkeys doesnt even begin to describe Virgin Media staff at this moment in time Ben!!! Report abuse

by Geoff (west Yorkshire)
at 13:53 on 16 Apr 2007

Amidst all the bad publicity that Virgin Media appears to be attracting I would like to say that I have had my
2mbit/s connection live for 2 weeks now and I am well pleased with it. Download and upload speeds are up to par, the cable television works just fine and I have found all the staff I have spoken to so far very polite and helpful.
This is a very stable internet connection. Indeed I see friends and neighbours having grief with their ADSL setups. Cable internet access through an ethernet port. I can recommend it. Report abuse

by Charles
at 13:23 on 17 Apr 2007

Over the past couple of weeks my connection has been getting steadily worse - WOW dropping out, browsing very slow etc. I phoned Virgin on 0871 2251111 and initially they blamed my computer. I tried a different computer - no improvement there. I phoned again and they sent an engineer who replaced the cable modem (although I had to wait 2 days). The old grey Ambit modems are apparently no good for the current network speeds and can cause problems. I had some difficulties activating the new modem but after deleting references to the old usb modem from the registry I managed to get things going again. Everything seems to be working as before and, so far, no DCs. Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 15:04 on 17 Apr 2007

sue is right. telewest/vm knew/know nothing about customer service Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 16:44 on 17 Apr 2007

the customer service and technical support staff aren't to be blamed in a lot of cases though. its the organization and management of the company. for example; when i was working for telewest, it would take over a week for outages to be reported to the call centre staff. sometimes the outages wouldn't even be reported

the second line support staff would treat the first line (call centre. what i was) staff like crap. they would feed us all sorts of crap so that they would get out of doing any of the hard work of dealing with justifiably angry customers

i can tell you about many instances like the above

even though it wasn't my fault, i don't fault customers for giving abuse. its not right how they get treated. in most cases i blamed telewest Report abuse

by Spike Hughes
at 15:02 on 18 Apr 2007

Virgin Media - horrendous. They want your business soon enough but cant deliver the goods when it matters. Since taking over from NTL my broadband connection at home is now worse than a 28K dial up, no joking. It took 2.5 months to change from BT to Virgin at work. Do yourself a favour and shop elswhere. Report abuse

by AuburnPixie
at 12:01 on 20 Apr 2007

I agree - monkeys...customer service staff had no idea what they were doing, to the extent that I didn't even get to the point of signing up with them after at least a month of trying. Definitely a 'computer says no' culture. Another company that's got too big and now runs on pure inefficiency...perhaps they should have spent more money on staffing their sales and customer services teams and less on Uma Thurman. These companies don't seem to understand that promises and PR need to be followed through with actions, that pretty girls on their adverts talking crap aren't enough!! Although I suppose they're attracting enough people wanting a cheap deal and/or wanting to avoid a landline (and BT) altogether to make their quick buck.

Eventually ended up going with Vodafone At Home - much, much better all round. Customer service and 24-hour support lines are staffed with people that actually know what they're talking about, it's really easy to set up, and we were sent really good, clear instructions and information with the modem. Speed is good - matches the speed they promised and seems to be constant (at least at the moment!) Really good value as well for £25 for broadband, line rental - which means that I no longer have to pay money to or have anything to with the inefficient and negligent BT...hurrah! - and includes phonecalls to UK landlines free at any time of day. Also got 6 months free Norton, which was perfect as mine had just run out. Report abuse

by Katrina
at 21:43 on 21 Apr 2007

Just changed to Virgin TV, phone and broadband yesterday. Not impressed at all. Was with the notorious BT for Broadband but it is now even slower. (They didn't tell me it wouldn't work with my son's Windows 98 2nd edition either). Wasn't impressed with not knowing our new telephone number until the installer actually arrived so we had a mad dash to let everyone know it. The installer had run out of explanation booklets for the TV so we are still trawling through it trying to figure out how it works. It takes ages for each page to load so trying to find anything out or even just scroll down pages takes forever at the best of times. TV on demand has crap programmes on - it seems they choose them, but I haven't seenanything on there yet that we generally watch - and we don't watch obscure stuff! The programme listings are all higgledy piggledy - no logical order at all like we had with Sky. We haven't had any paperwork through other than a letter confirming the direct debit details - but not the amount or date, no contract, no booklet, no information - Jack ****. Report abuse

by Bleh
at 23:40 on 21 Apr 2007

Since Virgin Media have taken over, my Broadband connection has been unbearable. Its as slow (if not slower) than 56k when browsing. If they dont get it sorted soon, then people will start moving over to companies such as BT.

For anyone like cutie who have smart comments like "learn how to use a pc" etc... Ill point out that i am a qualified network technician and there is NOTHING wrong with either my home network setup or my pc. Virgin media simply suck atm ;) Thats my pennies worth anyhow. Report abuse

by Fatso
at 08:37 on 24 Apr 2007

Since 20 Feb I have had Virgin Mi]ediabroadband on my new PC equipped with Vista. Rarely can I get my E Mail. Spometimes, they partially download,c then disappear into the Ether, never to be seen again. Most times timed out, and get error messages 0x80000c cc90. Do I need a different modem, I wonder? Report abuse

by marvin
at 12:28 on 24 Apr 2007

i got vm and i hate it. i got phone tv and brodband. first off they tunrned my channels off as we all know which i was mad about. then and now my broadband as gone down to 1.2 mb when im paying for 4mb. and at the weekend i tried to watch skysports and it was like watching stutter tv. so i rang them yesterday after sitting there for about 30 mins and listining to why sky sports not working they told me my brodband will be back to 4 mb in 2 hours. that was about 26 hours ago and is it. noooooo. one good thing i need a new remote and it came this morning. royal mail is fast. Report abuse

by Anon
at 04:54 on 25 Apr 2007

This is all down to how much contention virgin media are applying to the service basically you have 26Mb of bandwith shared between up to 800 users = 32.5K each so if all users are trying to download at the same time you will indeed see dial up speeds.

I believe that if you signed up with NTL the contention ratio was 20:1 however the above indicates a contention ratio of 30:1 so now you know what to say to Virgin media / Ofcom etc when you complain ask them to check your contention ratio

Also bear in mind Bt's contention is advertised as 50:1 so they will be even worse.

http://www.ntl.co.uk/mediacentre/thecompany/faq/default.asp?section=3

"I've heard that contention ratios differ between cable and ADSL broadband. Can you explain?
A. Yes. We have engineered our local access network to provide a 20:1 contention ratio in comparison to a number of ADSL providers who have contention ratios as high as 50:1. The "contention ratio" is the number of customers that share one unit of data capacity, meaning the lower the contention ratio the higher the quality of the local access network." Report abuse

by vdsm
at 10:54 on 26 Apr 2007

Ok i been looking at some of the stuff people have been saying but i got bored with most of by about a quarter of the way down. When i see people saying ive upgraded to virgin or i decided to change to virgin from telewest/ntl and my favourite one is when i changed to virgin from telewest/ntl my bb now runs slower. well guess what since you changed over absolutely nothing has changed on your broadband. the speeds are still the same and that last person to do a post are talking rubbish. im not going to say which department i work for but its the expensive 1 thats all im saying. most of the people i get are not computer literate and fair enough if they have no computer knowledge thats not an because its my job to help them but for the love of god if you ever phone then have a bit of common sense. like that other person said ( i think there name was cutie) most of the people that phone either have not paid a bill or in my case they dont even know how to unplug a cable. by the way this is not a rant this the facts. i have respect for people who phone and state they dont know what there doing, but for the people who say things like "yeah im a computer technician" or "i have a computing degree" for anyone who has ever phoned and said this tro my department then heres what we think when you say that. If you ever say this we automatically want to shout because if you did have a degree or was a tech then you would not phone my department.People please if you have any statements about the broadband being worse after the NAME change to virgin then stop talking rubbish. Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 21:33 on 27 Apr 2007

VDSM
i have worked for telewest and know about computer (read posts above)

i can positively tell you that the conversion to VM has affected the digital tv service and internet service

don't giv us that b.s that we are all morons on this board. heard it all before when i worked for telewest. I can tell you that the company has been very badly organised for years Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 21:36 on 27 Apr 2007

AuburnPixie

GREAT STATEMENT: "COMPUTER SAYS NO" RUNS RIGHT THROUGH VM AND MANY OTHER COMPANIES Report abuse

by Chacho Coudet
at 13:11 on 29 Apr 2007

I have been with Telewest (now Virgin Media) for many years without any major problems; However, since the company changed its name, I have noticed that its customer service has gone down almost overnight. I'll give you an example of what I mean by this: Last friday (27th of April, 2007) I was ‘surfing the net’ and my internet connection stopped all of a sudden, I immediately rang 150 to see what'd happened, the guy asked me to disconnect my modem and reboot my PC (which I’d already done)...nothing changed, still I had no internet connection. He then asked to go to Run, to type: CMD and release and renew the IP address...nothing happened again. I knew it was a connectivity matter, perhaps they were carrying out repairs in the area and all of this had nothing to do with my modem nor my pc....But what really annoyed me was this bloke's next move: he proceeded to give me a Premium number to call (PC HELP) to sort out my problem because he couldn't tell whether it was my modem or my pc that was causing the trouble, instead of sending a technician to my address (which would have been the normal procedure with Telewest before)
Because I refused to call a Premium number and told him that I was not happy with the solution he'd given me, he said to me: 'Well, if you don't want to call PC Help, YOU'LL HAVE TO SORT OUT THE PROBLEM YOURSELF'
Well done Virgin Media! Your Customer Service really sucks! Report abuse

by Chris
at 19:54 on 30 Apr 2007

I AM SO FUnD OFF WITH VIRGINMEDIA BROADBAND.. i was with NTL as from nov 2006 with 10mb service , since Virgin have taken it over , my so colld 10 meg service is actualy 512 kps or lower , after spending several hours on phone over a course of a week and an engineer called round today ( 30 april 2007) no bloody difference , i use www.speedtest.net to test speed daily , up until 23 april it was high 8 meg ..low 9 meg .. not bad , but ever since then my high is 1.5 meg to 213 kps , and i'm paying £35 a month for this service ... i wont be for long , have sent a nice long letter to BBC Watchdog ,after i spent 2 hours 40 mins at 1 time trying to get passed onto an advisor .. VIRGIN YOU ARE WORSE THAN TALK TALK AND FULL OF S*** Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 21:43 on 30 Apr 2007

when i was working there a couple of months ago, the tosser bosses were going on about the IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE TO VIRGIN AND MR BRANSON

YOU SHOULD OF HEARD THEM TALKING, WHAT A LAUGH. IVE NEVER BEEN SO TICKLED Report abuse

by Danny
at 08:13 on 3 May 2007

Virgin media = Another cost cutting exercise by Richard Branstons "all image no service" money making exploits.

I have had more issues with Virgin than I ever had with Telewest.

POints to consider.

You get channels taken from you that you had. No simpsons, no Sky series dramas.

You cant deal with issues unless your the bill payer even if your pay part of the bill.

Virgin do not know how to deal with dislexic customers. I was asked for information that I would have to read back by 3 staff on 1 call. If i was a younger less confident sufferer then I would have been put to embarrassment 3 times all just to complain that there had been too many service failiures.

Virgin representatives will always use the "account information" as a way to aviod speaking to you. So basically only your Dad(or bill payer) can sort the cable, and if he works long days then he wont be in to make to call in their operating times.

Virgin claim they give us the "next generation" of tv and internet services, however they will only support you if your wired onto you modem. They are still in the seventies. I however like most people have moved into the wireless age and prefer not to have to dismantle a pc setup upstairs to go and plug the whole thing into the modem downstair. This is another way to "not deal with customer issues"

Virgin TV standard package blows. I very rarely watch tv these days. I begrudge paying for a service which pays the wages of the people who have posted here saying that we the public "expect too much". I would fire anyone who had that attitude in my company. What happened to listening to the customer needs and pushing things forward?

Virgin is bad quality internet. I had no issues ever on Telewest. Not once. Virgin gets slow in the evenings. They have over subscribed areas of the network, probably in some cost cutting operation and now you can expect pages to turn slow for no reason of fault at your end. You'll miss auctions, you'll lag as a gamer, you'll lose great hands in poker tournaments.

Virgin never automatically adjust your account when you complain about service failures (something cable have always done) They take the full whack. I had a representative admit that I have many complaints on my account yet never once have I been re-imbursed for the service I didnt receive.

Virgin staff do not appear to be empathetic towards us. They are probably at their wits ends with the complaints, and Virgin need to think about giving the customer something back before they lose it all.

Or maybe that was the desired result. Maybe Virgin came to destroy the other services. Stage a little arguement between sky and virgin, reduce the service, pay some network engineer to try mess things up regular or employ monkeys.

What do you make of it?

Typed for Danny by Bob Report abuse

by Danny
at 08:30 on 3 May 2007

VDSM

Lets just analyse your reponse a sec.

You say "im from the expensive dept" as if this is some sort of self recommendation to support your arguement with a level of management that you may or may not posess.

Then you dont like it when customers say they are a "net engineer" as a declaration of the level or their knowledge.

Maybe you dislike when people tell you what they are, because of an inadequecy your traits which makes you feel you have to say you are something to support your case.

Its called projection. You dislike yourself, and accuse the public of doing that which you are capable of doing. Plenty mental heath clinics can help with that issue. The other option is that its Report abuse

by Danny
at 08:43 on 3 May 2007

...you are actually a well paid member of their staff with really poor grammar. (and thats coming from a dyslexic).

If its the first I can handle it. Humans arent perfect, your under pressure because your company is under performing.

If its the second and you genuienly are expensive payroll material, you just misrepresented your company on a public forum. I'll be running a mile from your service, as I wouldnt want it to be provided by someone as synical as you seem to be. May be the people who ring in are frustrated computer techs or degree holders, and that why they are frustrated, the problem isnt at their end!

So, have a cup of coco and a minute with yourself and decide who you are. Report abuse

by Ex-Virgin customer
at 23:02 on 3 May 2007

They announced today that 20Mb customers who dl more than 3Gb between the hours of 4 and 12 will have their service 'throttled' down to 5Mb for the following 4 hours.
So, they give us an ultra-fast service and then expect us not to use it. I've cancelled my subscription and moved to Sky. I never had this problem with Telewest or Blueyonder. Disgraceful. Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 23:03 on 3 May 2007

spot on danny. the problems have been there before virgin took over. when i was working for telewest there were loads of people complaining like. since the VM forming its gone worse Report abuse

by Stan the Man
at 14:42 on 4 May 2007

Like many others I just got fed up with Telewest and Virgin Media - Price increases & Non existant Customer Services. I gave them 1 months notice as required and everything terminated and they collected their equipment on the 27 February 2007. Since then I have had three bills for my phone,broadband & TV covering March, April and May 2007!. After trying the impossible - contacting them by phone - I finally wrote to them by recorded delivery. 10 days later I received a letter with the heading WE'RE SORRY TO HEAR YOU'RE UNHAPPY ..Promising to sort things out - they have not. This letter was signed by Ryan Pursey, CUSTOMER LOYALTY & RESOLUTION MANAGER. Yesterday I received another letter demanding payment and informing me that a handling charge of £10 will also have to be paid. This letter was signed by Trevor Elliott, DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER RETENTION & CREDIT MANAGEMENT. My battle with this awful Company continues ... watch this space Report abuse

by mooncheese
at 20:16 on 6 May 2007

everyone give vm a break.
you all would winge even if everything was running 100% fine that the speed isnt fast enough.
i work for tech support in v/m......... u get ******** calling in all the time (moaning voice)my internet is slowwwwwwwwwww i cant play my gameeeeeeeee.....
wat i say is get a life ......... look outside ur window ........ theres a world out there......... u do not know how much of a laugh u sad acts give me when u call in.
and be4 u say am i with v/m yes i am ...... have been for 6 yrs and never had anything go wrong.
so shout up.
deal with it. Report abuse

by Darren
at 07:56 on 7 May 2007

I have recently have had the same problem playing World of Warcraft, everynight i keep getting high latency, well over 3000, so i cannot play the game.
It was fine until VM took over, don't know what they have done but it needs to be sorted! Report abuse

by NicK
at 19:30 on 8 May 2007

VM are ****. I have been trying to get hold of them for a while but no1 answers. When i did get to speak to 1 of them they gave me all this crap about it being my pc lol. Tbh i was laughting in his face at this time and he put the phone down. THERE CUSTOMER SERVICE is� ****, all they do it take your money every month but dont give you the service that your paying for. I got the 10mb package with NTL for online gaming and it was very good with low pings and no packet loss. Im getting high pings and 50%packet loss. Im gonna be leaving them soon so can any1 tell me a good provider? Report abuse

by Wilks
at 20:05 on 8 May 2007

Well, Virgin said that they had fixed the problem which they had found but I still get unbelievably bad speeds. I changed back to BT on the 1st and have gone with a different supplier from the 10th. Modem should be here on the 9th. I'll let you know the difference. Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 11:38 on 9 May 2007

mooncheese you are another w*nker who is getting your company a bad name Report abuse

by kdee
at 12:16 on 9 May 2007

VM are a shocking lot, customer service is terrible. Was with TW for years and had no problems at all, i have had to phone VM more times since they have taken over than i had to phone TW in all the years with them.

Changing to SKY once i get the BT line in and cant wait, i will save more money with SKY for the same sort of package VM.

As for the VM employees that have been on here having a go at people for moaning, we have a right to moan we are the ones that are paying for the service and also your wages. Report abuse

by Chris
at 14:59 on 9 May 2007

virgin media is a name only it is granted by Richard Branson, it is NTL that took over tele west and it is crap, Suport lines go to forien countries and you can not understand them so it takes twice as long to get the problem sorted as well as the cost of the call, When it was tele west it was great the suport team were fantastic they realy knew their job not like the suport you get from forien countries now. Report abuse

by VERMIN-CAT-NORWICH
at 18:30 on 9 May 2007

take a look at this site and you might understand…….what all the fuss is about….

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 16:30 on 10 May 2007

When i working for vm when nthey were telewest/ntl, I knew one call centre worker who told a customer to "f**k off" and managed to keep his job without any fuss. This tosser had/still has I think, the cushy job of helping new call center employees get started on the phones

I heard from the newbies that his attitude towards the customers was awful and he never seemed to give a f*ck. no wonder a lot of virgin employees have a bad attitude with people like that in charge Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 16:33 on 10 May 2007

kdee you are spot. the customers pay the employees wages. they have a right to kick off when they are being fobbed off

They had problems when they were telewest (when i was working) but it wasn't as bad as they are now Report abuse

by jm
at 21:38 on 10 May 2007

well vigin have put my bill up by ten pound and not told me this is still on going to get my money back 4 months later and this month they took even more just short of 20 pound more than they should ..and to top that my 4 meg speed has never got to 4 meg 3 at the most at this moment its about 1 meg if im lucky .i play online gaming a lot and for you guys that understand pings they need to be low to play ie uk game server average pings are 15-25 i get 40 plus used to get 15-20 on a 1 meg line before virgin came along ..they sent out and enginer who said nothing woz wrong ..after the enginer had gone a spotted a attenuator on the back of my modem ..nothin wrong bull wot did he fit that for then its a joke .. mooncheese if every one rings saying my internet is slow dose that not prove a point and to say you work for them think you should pick your words wisely ..well think we should get watch dog involvded that will get things sorted Report abuse

by Wilks
at 21:54 on 10 May 2007

Well, I changed supplier this morning and I've been on the net all day without slow speeds or disconnects in game. Some much for it being my pc that I spent around 5 hours backing up, reformatting and reinstalling!
Virgin Media are at fault. Underhanded throttling and poor equipment at their end is to blame.
If you are still with Virgin Media, get out if you can and change company. My internet is all sorted now, just in time for next week off work :-p woohoo Report abuse

by NicK
at 22:19 on 10 May 2007

Yeh im gonna be picking another isp. Who do you guys reco for low pings because i do online gaming? Report abuse

by slowspeed
at 14:41 on 11 May 2007

As for the guy who is being charged extra, as far as what i have read in the T & C`s
you can end your contract as long as you tell them. Otherwise you are agreeing with the increase. I was online talking to a VM techie who actually admitted that VM are at fault. This of course has not fixed the problem of high ping and slowspeed. Their solution is to regrade to 2 meg whilst charging me for 8 meg. BTW Wilks who is your ISP now? Report abuse

by Chris
at 19:11 on 11 May 2007

Well i have phoned 151 everyday for 3 weeks about slow broadband in the evenings , duringthe day its up to around 16 meg , after 4 pm its below 3 meg and sometimes only 212 k .....no probs with my p.c , got tech support to switch me to another exchange , low and behold ..NO DIFFERENCE , so virgin have capped the speeds , because of selfish a$$ holes that constantly download movies and music using up bandwidth and slowing down good peoples connections , i have had my account checked and i dont even d/l 500meg a month , yet because of these people i am subsidising the parasites because i cannot get the speeds i am promised , i think virgin should monitor these accounts and chage these scum upwards of £100 a month , then maybe we could have decent connections Report abuse

by Chris
at 19:13 on 11 May 2007

P.S i cancelled the d/d and informed them Report abuse

by LIAMLIONHEART
at 22:48 on 11 May 2007

chris. you can't blame people for getting the most out of there service. downloading music and movies is what they pay there money for. blame virgin. they should upgrade there hardware to handle the downloading.

virgin promise unlimited internet downloading. no caps. they never make a big point about internet usage on there web pages cos it would cost them megabucks. its all hush hush until you have murder with them Report abuse

by Marie, At the end of my tether
at 01:56 on 12 May 2007

HI!
Some very interesting posts here. I especially love the Virgin employees, what charming individuals they are :P If they are a typical cross section of Virgin call centre staff, it's no wonder we're all p***ed off! Hmm...they don't suffer non-techies gladly, yet those who confess to being techy are bitched about just as much. Are there any people they actually don't begrudge helping? It's hardly any wonder VM's customers have had enough.
As for me, I just love getting bills in the post for a service I've been trying to cancel since Christmas. It's all such a saga I can't even be bothered to bore you with it. Just don't try to cancel by phone - nobody in any department seems to have the authority to do that for you, or you'll get transferred over and over and eventually get cut off. Don't try to cancel by email either - you'll get an automated reply advising response within 5 days or something like that, but nothing will ever happen. Try snail mail, recorded delivery. Me? I'm still waiting ... Report abuse

by Wilks
at 08:47 on 12 May 2007

I went with BeBroadband https://www.bethere.co.uk/ (24mb unlimited)
From ordering to being online, it took 9 days
So far no probs :) Report abuse

by Chris
at 12:55 on 12 May 2007

I just moved to north london and have tried to order the virgin package - after 2 months waiting I now have excellent broadband & phone through BT. I still await the virgin TV connection - it was scheduled for March 27, then april 23, then may 23rd, then june 1, now I'm told june 6. Each time they have moved it or turned up without enough people or with the wrong tools. They are an absolute shambles. I complained midway through all of this with the result that they had to put BACK my installation date since they were dealing with the complaint. All the complaint has showed up so far is a letter saying that they are dealing with complaints within 10 days.....that was 7 days ago. Phoning them can be a nightmare, replying to their emails is no good since they bounce back no matter what account I send from. I have never experienced such inadequate customer service or service per se in any form of purchase. If you have another option I strongly suggest that you take it. Report abuse

by Chris
at 19:00 on 12 May 2007

Well i see my post was removed , never mind .Well i was right Virginmedia is capping at approx 4pm onwards , its saturday and had good speeds all day , now dropped to 1.5 meg , same for rest of week days Report abuse

by VERMIN-CAT-NORWICH
at 19:48 on 13 May 2007

I don't see how 'higher expectations' would explain Virgin Media's seemingly calculated decision to hike rates from £18 to £25 for users of the most basic 512k connection as a standalone service, without even notifying the customer. If you look at the Virgin Media website explaining these new prices, the bundle aspect of the new tariffs isn't even mentioned. Virgin Media simply assumes that you want TV and fries, when you only want Virgin broadband and to keep your BT line.

Let's say one fifth of Virgin's appoximately 4.9 million customers are using just a 512k connection alone.

This would mean that Virgin Media has made something like £7 million by automatically 'upgrading' 512k customers (incidentally without increasing the speed to 2MB) in just one month, knowing that most of these customers will not bother to challenge such a huge company and push for a refund Report abuse

by Chris
at 16:04 on 14 May 2007

Had a word yet again with robmeblindmedia and they have agreed to lift my capping within 72 hours .. finally they admitted they have capped service , engineer called out today(14th may) nothing wrong with connection my end .. told tech support all that for past 3 weeks , too many indians/pakis employed on tech support , spend longer tryin to figure out what the hell they are talking about ,and them trying to figure out what the problem is ( i think they need new cue cards to read from ).. well when 72 hours is up i will report findings here , just for interest i signed contract with NTL ..not virgin , so my contract is not binding unless you signed a new agreement for virgin , this comes straight from an engineer from virgin .. i would recommend if anyone has slowdown to speedtest during the day and evenings and keep a clear record as this will help win your case if you decide to leave early Report abuse

by NicK
at 22:12 on 14 May 2007

So chris are you saying if i ring them because i signed my contract with NTL about 3 years ago that they will remove my capping? And if i did ring them about that i prob wouldent have much luck because they dnt no what there on about. cnt understand them. Report abuse

by Chris
at 13:20 on 15 May 2007

There is no mention of capping on my NTL contract and virgin never sent me their contract .. so its void , only recently have they started capping , although its on virgins website under traffic management etc , customers were not informed of any changes via letter or e-mail , as far as ntl goes , it does not exist anymore as it is now virginmedia , contracts cannot be taken over by another company without a new contract being signed , when you pay for a high speed connection ,then thats what you should get , you dont buy a porsche and expect it to run like a mini ?, so virginmedia are taking your money and providing a 3rd class service , also you dont need a mac code to go elsewhere , all told i have spent over 20 hours in past 2 weeks trying to get speed back up , you only have to dial 150 etc and see how long you wait for tech support etc ,to see they have major problems with speed issues and network problems .. virgin boast they are the #1 cable company ..... thats because they are the only cable company now Report abuse

by Chris
at 15:09 on 15 May 2007

Update .... virgin are not charging me to end contract , because of problems , so if you complain enough ,its cheaper in the end ......now signed up with B.T , after virgin anything is better ( apart from talktalk and a couple of others) , would sooner have slower speeds and constant Report abuse

by elly
at 18:27 on 16 May 2007

well chris is right on the money virgin media does cap there download speeds in the evening and now i have noticed they switch evening days to confuse people.
i used to be on 4meg with them but i downgraded myself because of the capping and
will only do another 12 months with them then im gone.telewest never did this.
i believe virgin customers will leave as a result of this.
VIRGIN MEDIA common guys streaming video in the evening on your lowly package doesn`t stream properly hence the capping (virgin quality broadband supplier) hmm
i dont think so.HOPE YOU ARE WATCHING THIS BRANSON. Report abuse

by bernard Peel
at 20:12 on 17 May 2007

Virgin media is commiting fruad in a big way,they are telling people on the phone,there is nothing wrong with our broadband.I am a 4 mb user and i dont even get 1mb,and half the time i go belowe 100 kts what the hell is Branson playing,rob the poor to give to the rich.His broadband is becoming a laughing stock,no sorry is a laughing stock,exceot i dont find it funny.They take my money out of my bank fast enough,well i recon its about time they started putting it back. Report abuse

by bernard Peel
at 20:18 on 17 May 2007

If you are paying Virgin or NTL as it is to me by direct debit,and you are getting a bad service you have the legal right to tell them were to stick there broadband,if you can call it that,its more like broad dial up. Report abuse

by Chris
at 11:21 on 18 May 2007

Hi Elly

did u sign with virgin or telewest ?..if u signed with telewest then virgin have no hold over you as they need to send you their contract ,if you signed with telewest the company i believe does not exsist so you can call virgin and cancel .. but what i would do is call 150 (if virgin phone...its free) and complain about your speed/capping , keep doing this everyday , threaten to leave etc , explain u signed with telewest and that you have no contract with virgin and you wish to cancel etc , you dont need a mac code from cable .. i am now down to 2 meg from 20 meg , even during the daytime , cant wait for my BT pack to arrive , it may work out slightly more expensive , but at least its tried and tested ..JUST KEEP MOANING ON PHONE , GIVE 'EM HELL Report abuse

by Andy James
at 10:22 on 21 May 2007

I was with Blueyounder \ Telewest for a number of years and never had a problem. Surfing, D\L, streaming and playing WOW (world of warcraft).

Since Virgin took over the quality of service with regards to BB has simply dropped and is aweful.

For surfing you wont really notice, as it would appear random packets are being dropped - D\L's and gaming are hit the hardest and for me as a gamer i'm really seeing a drop in service. Also streaming video i.e youtube is pants now.

Regardless of what time i check i never even get close to 10mb, 5mb tops, my upload is lower than it should be also.

Although they do claim "speeds upto" and dont state definite speeds.

I've been told they are throttling bandwidth to save money, all i know is when i get problems and run a ping -t - packets are going missing.

BB was always fantastic for me, never had a problem but since Virgin took over they are simply cost cutting and saving money and we're suffering.

I am now looking at the best ADSL deals and who will give me a free router to replace the one i had to buy for my home network ;(

Shame as I have had a good 4\5 years with Blueyounder and it was a perfect ISP - did everything i wanted and i was well impressed. Since Virgin have took over it's simply crap. I'm sure my old 56k modem was better ;)

Anyone looking to get a BB provider i really recommend you stay well clear of Virgin, you don’t get what they claim you get, its a con and a death of what for me was a great service - such a shame. Report abuse

by mark warnes
at 21:19 on 21 May 2007

i have been an ntl customer for about 3 years and in that time i never once had a broadband service problem, the bandwidth was always matching that of the package advertised

since going over to virgin media my broadband connection has become increasingly slow, i have tested it almost daily and despite being on a 4mbps package my speeds vary between 250kbps and 580kbps

these are a total joke, they are comparable to the speeds i was getting when i first joined NTL 4 years ago, at least back then that was the advertised speed and what i was paying for

i phoned the tech support i should have known better, i am a desktop support technicain for a large blue chip company and personally support a large nunber of pcs and remote employees with their broadband. i know what i am talking about. the person i talked to was CLUELESS and was most definitely reading from a script with no notion of the reason behind her questioning

she then told me that the maximum download speed availble for 4mbps customer was always 512kbps ?!?!?!? what a load of twaddle

I'm off, I'm going to find another supplier, this broadband customer service are a total joke

I told them again and again the bandwidth I am getting on my line is not the bandwidth I am paying for but they either do not understand what I telling them or are not actually interested Report abuse

by James N
at 09:07 on 22 May 2007

Ive had cable since the weekend. Took a bit of work to set up and a few calls (and got passed around different departments far to many times) but now running. TV is fine but the broadband connection is slow. Im paying for 10mb and getting 2.5 to 4mb download speeds. I am raising this with them. Used to be a telewest customer while getting through to support was a pain the general lvl of service and speed was good.

Come on Virgin get this broadband speed issue sorted.

James Report abuse

by Stan the Man
at 11:50 on 22 May 2007

Update since my first posting on the 4 May 2007

Received further computer generated letters ....

FOUR letters from the the Customer Loyalty & Resolution Manager "WE'RE SORRY TO HEAR YOU'RE UNHAPPY"

ONE more letter from the Director of Customer Retention & Credit Management
demand immediate payment

ONE letter from the Manager, Virgin Media Payments demanding immediate payment - now double the original amount in dispute!

and

FIVE further harrassing calls from the Working Payments Department -One even threatened me that "they would keep calling me until I pai

I have sent Virgin Media a further THREE recorded letters.

To recap .. I cancelled my contract in January, all equipment was REMOVED in February, but they are still billing me ... it is absolute madness

VIRGIN MEDIA'S "RESOLUTION OF COMPLAINTS" MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

As reported in the press last week they are loosing customers in their droves.
If I was Richard Branson I would jump ship, before it sinks!!!! Report abuse

by Chris
at 14:54 on 22 May 2007

James N

The tv runs through you broadband cable that will help slow it down , if i was you i would cancel virgin A.S.A.P and look elsewhere , i am/was on 20meg service and i am lucky now to get 2mb anytime of day , as my post above says it all just dial 150 and moan like hell , eventually they will get fed up with you moaning they will let you cancel with no charge , mine should have ended nov 2007 but because i told them i signed with ntl not virgin ,i have no contract with them, and also told them i wanted 10 meg , not 20 meg as it was more stable etc etc ,also report them to bbcwatchdog etc , i have many times with proof of speeds i was getting , the more people complain the more ammo watchdog have to investigate this robbing company, after all its your money they want , as long as people pay they will get away with it , i am sure if you mention that they have breached contract with not supplying you with speeds you are paying for , just try it ..it cant hurt , good luck to you all Report abuse

by Chris
at 13:06 on 24 May 2007

here is my latest speed ,i am on 20meg service http://www.speedtest.net/result/130381959.png...i am only 50 miles from london ,, i have only phone and BB from robmemedia ...feel free to copy speedtest to all your friends that are thinking of joining VM Report abuse

by Chron
at 14:55 on 24 May 2007

Hey, I'm with Virgin Media.. and I'm having some annoying problems when playing a Online Game.

My Packet Loss is sky high (6.0% - 10.0%). It's not just that!

I can't connect to the English Servers (Which is where I live, England), but I can get on the American Servers PERFECTLY.

I've talked to people, I've talked to the TSRS for the game (Tech Support Staff). It seems alot of people who play this game and are on Virgin Media (Even though they have a bigger MB connection) are having this problem, but people with Tiscalli etc aren't

Can anyone help me out, or point me in the right direction..

- Thanks!! Report abuse

by Maddog Brown
at 14:11 on 25 May 2007

Virgin Media - Total joke i advise anyone thinking of taking any of the four services they provide to think again and go to a provider that actually cares for the customers and not just the amount of money they can con from you. Report abuse

by Chris
at 20:13 on 25 May 2007

Chron
right direction is leave virgin .. i was on 20meg service and i had same problems , i wasnt even getting 2 meg in evenings , i switched to B.T 8 meg , no problems at all day or evenings etc , pings are good too , if you read my above posts they couldnt even sort it out after a month.. virgin just suckers everybody in with their advertising so you think you buying the porsche of broadband ..... only to find you ended up with a lada , tech support with VM is crap , they read off que cards and pass you from 1 tech to another etc , same old instructions etc etc , i even had 2 engineers out , no problem with modem etc .. ITS JUST A CRAP SERVICE , get out ASAP , Bt may be a little more expensive but you do get service Report abuse

by jason
at 09:12 on 26 May 2007

I'm looking for a broadband provider and was thinking of choosing virgin media . I can only get the non-cable type here for virgin media and I was just wondering if anyone has any experience of using this. Report abuse

by vince
at 09:06 on 27 May 2007

This message is for the comments made by cutie,

I am an IT Technician and have been for 8 years.

My brother in law had a fault with his NTL broadband of it being slow and not working.

I looked at it first and diagnosed it to be the modem in the set top box to be at fault. He phoned your so called boffs to log the problem, they said it was the laptop at fault or his wireless router.

Why do they wade through so much� ****� that they read from scripts rather than actually listerning to people who know what they are talking about?

What a surprise they sent a standalone modem and it cured the fault..... Report abuse

by paul
at 23:52 on 28 May 2007

when i joined virgin media i was told you cannot have a wireless connection,to connect two pcs to the net,evrywhere else i av been i av been able to do this,so just wondered if anybody else had the same problem,would love to connect both my pcs Report abuse

by Wilks
at 11:53 on 29 May 2007

I saw an advertisement for VM the other day and it went something as follows....

Virgin Media downLOADS

I found this very amusing because it truly is, DOWN loads
LOL Report abuse

by Tayzyboy
at 15:04 on 29 May 2007

Paul, I'm with Virgin , if you have a wireless router then there's no problem connecting 2x PCs.

To be fair to virgin, they were dire (I commented a month or so ago) after the NTL takeover, but are now back to NTL speeds - which are about acceptable (just over 1.5mB on my 2mB connection).

As for customer service, dont really know....but most companies are sh*te these days when you have a problem....cross that bridge when i come to it Report abuse

by serialjunkie
at 19:55 on 30 May 2007

I've just installed Virginmedia broadband and it is quite slow compared to my other ISP (Zen Internet). Let's give an example, Zen loads a 5 minute clip from Youtube in just under 1 minute. Virginmedia loads the same clip in 8 minutes. Both are 2mbps packages, and both tests are within 10 minutes of each other. Virginmedia says everything is working perfectly. Quite amazing really. Report abuse

by Neil Munro
at 02:59 on 1 Jun 2007

Telewest - Great
Virgin - Crap

I'm sick of being told lies by people I can hardly understand.
Today I can't access Diablo and a few other sites. Phonecall one, all the usual crap tests, eventually I got onto some sites but still not Diablo. Meanwhile my Daughter phoned up, she lives in a different town, and was told that there was a problem at virgin's end.
I phoned again, this time the guy insisted there were no problems with Virgin and the problem was mine. After 30 mins of fruitless arguing I gave up. 20 mins later I phoned again and was told this time that there WAS a problem at Virgins end. AAAARGH.
Needless to say the problem still persists 12 hours later. **** it, I'm going to bed. Report abuse

by Giuseppe Spadone
at 14:35 on 1 Jun 2007

Virgin engineers have made around ten calls in 6 weeks to try and stop my TV Crashing Freezing...Slowly but surely they have replaced all equipment, rewired the whole thing - gone into the street and messed around with the Network Box.
The engineer today admittted that most of his calls were regarding screen freeze problems. Their management clearly knows but is yet to be able to solve the problem. He has checked over everything one more time, but he does not expect the screen freeze to stop..I just phoned customer service and they have finally agreed to a refund for all the problems - a staggering £17...! Wow, so generous...
The engineers seem tired and depressed -so demotivated - dead eyes looking at me when they arrive.
Richard Branson should be totally ashamed to put his name to this organisation...
in all respects this is a company that never delivers...utter rubbish...! Report abuse

by Dance
at 15:11 on 1 Jun 2007

I was with NTL for over 10 years as a customer, I used to install digital TV and Cable for them. NTL were far from perfect but I can say without a shadow of a doubt, VirginMedia are utterly USELESS.

Aside from the loss of certain TV channels in recent months, they have now screwed up the user menus on STB's and now 'On Demand' is even LESS reliable, Broadband is constantly being disrupted for 'upgrading' (yet only premium rate customers will get an upgrade, the rest can put up with and like it).

But to top it all, they are going to introduce a Traffic Policy, that will effectively prevent any speed benefits with a download cap. If you exceed this limit in an evening between 4PM and Midnite your speeds will get halved automatically. The limits are ridiclous, 2 Meg conn limit will be less than 400Mb in that period, you can't even get a game demo with that !!

Vince was right earlier in saying that they won't listen to people who know what they're talking about, they have these written fault finding algorithims that they have to follow, just to tell you what you knew in the first place.

I never thought I'd here myself say this, but Sky, here I come. Report abuse

by Kurt Munro
at 16:23 on 1 Jun 2007

I have to agree with Neil Munro - same 2nd name as me, no relation though :).

Telewest / BLueyonder = Brilliant. Great speeds no cap on my 4mb modem.

Virgin Media = can't load a lot of Google-based sites such as google.co.uk. I'm having to access it using http://216.239.57.99. Youtube pages load fine but the actual video player embedded into the pages will not load. This is on IE and Firefox. It's not a spyware/malware/virus problem either. My "hosts" file is clean, etc etc.

I wouldn't be bothered, since I'd just wait 24 hours and it would normally be A-OK again, but this has been happening for a week now.

I've read that Virgin also half your download speed if you download over 750mb on your 4mb forum. Absolute nonsense.

Blueyonder was perfect and it's a shame it doesn't exist anymore. I'll have to move somewhere else now. I'll dump their tv box too since it doesn't have the sky channels. Report abuse

by dont-touch-virgin
at 21:54 on 1 Jun 2007

Funny story for you guys...

Virgin (Telwest) Engineer comes out to fix my "connection" issue. Replaces modem and says problem fixed. Apparently not. Comes back and replaces modem AGAIN and cable out to street box and says problem fixed. Apparently not. Comes back and says it must be my computer. Apparently not. FOURTH VISIT comes and tweaks box outside my house for approx 5 mins. Problem fixed. Today I now find that I cannot access some secure sites and phone then up to ask about it and they DENY THE ISSUE LOG PUBLICLY DISPLAYED ON THEIR OWN WEBSITE! What do they tell me? You guessed it "It must be your computer"......I rest my case. Report abuse

by dont-touch-virgin
at 21:57 on 1 Jun 2007

Further to my last note I agree that Telewest service was all-round excellent. The Telewest Engineers that came out to fix my problems were all fairly honest. One even bluntly agreed that things "were a mess". Cant wait for Sky's top-line broadband to come to my area..... Report abuse

by Neil Munro
at 01:02 on 2 Jun 2007

Update - Another 24 hours go by with no results. Sigh Report abuse

by Chris
at 11:16 on 2 Jun 2007

Niel

keep phoning etc etc , dont let it ,let up . I had a month of it and no luck , they keep logs of calls etc , when i left they never charged me to end contract .. i am now with B.T and so far everything working and getting the speeds i was promised day and night , if you signed with Telewest and have not signed with VM then you are entitled to leave and look elsewhere for your services Report abuse

by Diablo
at 13:41 on 2 Jun 2007

Hey,

I'm thinhking of getting the virgin media M broadband package.

I'm a reasonable user, don't do the gaming anymore but downloding applications mostly and probably download about .5Gb of data per month - how do you recommend it for me?

Also can you just get the Virgin broadband but keep using your phone as BT?

Cheers Report abuse

by www.ravehistory.co.uk admin
at 21:03 on 2 Jun 2007

SPEEDS:
I upload a lot of footage onto the web and I am sure I'm suffering at the hands of Virgin

ERRORS BILLING:
I have suffered huge billing peoblems with Blue Yonder / now Virgin and its directly own to the call centre staff. Every 6 months I have to call and get my billing adjusted / reduced to the amount I was originally promised.

CALL CENTRES:
The applicants for call centres only need basic skills such a good telephone manner and pc skills, not a great deal else. If you get a nice one then alls plane sailing and everyones happy but when you get one whose a plum it really can make things akward but all call centres work to a script and it depends how far the call centre rep wants to try and push their luck. Don't ever swear as they are allowed to terminate the call but just remember if you are polite you have a right and they have a duty to let you speak or arrange a call back from someone more senior.

If you do suffer with one been unhelpful or self rightess you can complain, get calls listened to, ask to receive a call back of a senior member of staff or even complain to a senior executive who has a team of people paid to deal with compants.

I have found it a mixed bag with BlueYonder / Virgin (see my comments in billing errors) Report abuse

by shell
at 16:52 on 3 Jun 2007

I cannot fault the quickness in which they fitted our package to a higher one, they were here within a couple of days. Sadly thats the only thing i cant fault, the customer service (coming from a customer service manager for another none related company) is bloody appalling!! They don't call you back when they say they will. Our ten meg broadband has been off three times in a week for a couple of hours at a time. Engineer who came just said oh theres two many wires in box so your connection will be crap mmm £42 a month for a crap connection, and my husbands a computer engineer so it definatley isn't our computer, great!!!! When we first signed up we had our service restricted four days later for not paying a bill they werent due to send us for three weeks! When we rang they said it was because we had joined at the wrong time of month lmao.

So for me its a 10/10 for quickness of installation and the chance to get your money and a big zero for everything else. Report abuse

by James
at 21:30 on 4 Jun 2007

BRING NTL BACK!!!

I have got a 2MB connection and used to enjoy download speeds of around 250-300kbps (which is not great but fast enough for what i use the net for). Since Virgin Media have taken over i am lucky to get 30kbps. When I called the support line I was told to unplug it for 5 mins then re-connect (like that is magically going to make it better) That made no difference so I booked an engineer. I wasn't home when he called around but my parents said he was there for 10 mins before disappearing saying that all was well. All was not well and i'm still downloading at 20/30kbps. DISGRACEFUL - They have just lost me as a customer and can imagine have lost thousands of other people. Who is going to pay £20 or more for dialup speeds? Report abuse

by rich
at 13:29 on 5 Jun 2007

Telewest was great. I had to phone them on a couple of occasions and couldn't fault the service I received from them. Rarely a problem with the kit or the service. Since the switch to Virgin, only had to deal with the customer service once so far and that was fairly (if not entirely) painless. However, like others, I have noticed a drop in the broadband speed - and I can tell you now it's not down to my own PC. I'm using a brand new laptop with a very high spec. It can handle very demanding software so I doubt very much that a little thing like the internet would give it any hassle. I don't watch much TV, so can't comment on that side of things since, for as much as I actually use it, the service is OK.
For customer service I give Virgin 8/10 - meets my expectations and no more.
For services in general, I gave Telewest 10/10 but Virgin can only muster 7/10 - there is a difference, despite what the Virgin staffers try to tell us. Report abuse

by Jay
at 17:16 on 5 Jun 2007

I was with Ntl for 4 years (just the middle speed broadband) and had no problems at all. The unlimited download was what i valued most, and it was a very stable service. I got the cable TV about 6 months before they were taken over, and that was fine too...... Then virgin media took over.

I rang them up to complain about a billing error and to get my broadband speed upgraded - i was told about an offer for 10Mb that sounded too cheap to be true.... and obviously it was.

The speed increase never came.....then i saw i was being charged £42 a month for broaband (2Mb) AND £15 a month for basic TV (minus the sky channels of course) package AND hadn't been refunded from the original time they over charged.....

I was really busy so didn't call them straight away......but when i came home to find the broadband completely out (because of local area work) i deffinatly found the time then!

I got through (after 20 mins) to someone who had perhaps the worst english from any call center oprative i have had the displeasure of talking to...... There was no point trying to carry on because she was obviously clueless.

I when i got back the next day and my broadband was still out (despite my area being back on) i phoned up wanting to cancel everything and go to Sky.... If it wasn't for the person i got through to being english and able to take a tirade of frustrated anger on behalf of Virgin media then i would be would be with Sky now.

Somehow they had managed to put 2 separate packages on my account or something...... either way I was refunded all the extra they had taken, given 10Mb for £25 and my Tv just £3 a month with 50 extra channels!

The on demand Tv is a bit erratic and the general menu stuff a bit slow.... but on the whole i'm much happier than i was Report abuse

by Dance
at 18:54 on 5 Jun 2007

Diablo, don't bother with Virgin then, if you download 0.4Gig in one (I repeat one) evening, you will get your speed cut in half for the rest of the evening.

(NB: Using the base level broadband, on the fastest it will be 0.75) Still rubbish. Report abuse

by Fidget
at 16:59 on 9 Jun 2007

No problems with Virgin Media here in South West worth mentioning. Good download speeds and tested at the published speed i.e 4megs is 4 megs. No real problems with the TV (apart from the old Telewest box being a bit slow). Now upgrading to their 20meg service (as soon as its rolled out here) and V all for a reduction in cost! Thats not too bad. I did hear from a mate though with Virgins ADSL Broadband in another area which is nothing but trouble, low download speeds and a very high ping, making gaming with him almost impossible! Nothing like that here, it all depends on where you live and what type of connection you have.
Customer care were slow in answering, probably took 20 mins listening to some terrible music. Report abuse

by Diablo
at 23:13 on 10 Jun 2007

Ok thanks dance just got a small ADSl company but they had good reviews Report abuse

by
at 20:13 on 13 Jun 2007

Well having been with Blueyonder/Telewest for a good few years and not really ever having any issues I'm now ready to give up DicksMedia, So does anyone know of any unlimited services?
Want something in the 8Mb download catagory Report abuse

by mrley88
at 21:49 on 13 Jun 2007

Virgin media cant do anything right and when they do they� **** something else up!!!

examples

our box was apparently upgraded and now our old remote has failed and wont register at all new batteries tried new sensors tried and universal remotes .... not 1 works

2nd example

we had a problem with our cable it has been a problem since they bought NTL over ... yes NTL weren't great but at least they didn't� **** up as much as virgin media do
anyways this problem our tv would not load anything we reset everything ... no luck
we telephoned the freephone helpline ... they� ****** the internet and tv service then

3rd example
ur broadband has failed constantly on and off for about as long as they ran under the virgin media name

4th example
whenever we contact the helpline its a foreign imbecile who you cant understand a word of and when you do you find no more than to know you are being called stupid politely.... i myself am a very highly skilled computer technician and am used to most errors internet based... but the rudeness that comes from their pie holes is absolutely offensive .... we are refusing to pay for this months service and possibly last month..... because we have had no service at all.....

let me sum it up

VIRGIN MEDIA ARE A PILE OF ****!

utterly disappointed ... avoid this service like the plague Report abuse

by Ali
at 18:29 on 14 Jun 2007

Lately I have had a few problems with Virgin (perhaps due to taking over NTL), namely inaccurate billing and the incompetent and rude handling of this issue when I drew it to their attention. After three phone calls of being fobbed off and broken promises I wrote to Neil Berkett, their Chief Operating Officer and Cynthia Hultquist, their Human Resources Director. Unsurprisingly, everything was corrected the very next day. If you want to do the same, the email address format is first.last@virginmedia.co.uk

Technically, the service has been very good, but like Telewest and NTL, their customer service centre standards are terrible. I put it down to weak management, low salaries so that only those with a low IQ apply, and the encouraging of autonomic responses to get customers off the phone. It's not difficult to fix; the middle management just needs to be re-hired and the permanently bewildered call-centre staff retrained to value their customers. Report abuse

by Chris
at 10:19 on 15 Jun 2007

since i left virginmedia , i went to B.T broadband option 3 , up to 8 meg .. i constantly get 6.5 meg day and night , not noticed any slowness or high pings ,and its unlimited , i must say it is a 100% better service than virgin who were giving me 20 meg ( 98% of time was less than 1.5meg with an all time low of less than 200k ).. i recommend B.T ( although it takes 10 days for service to settle down) my speeds are constant Report abuse

by gatta
at 21:57 on 17 Jun 2007

do not go to virgin .im on xl package for last 2 months on average get 1 -2mb should be getting a max of 20mb .virgin shame on you .lairs .a lot of unhappy custumers :(((( Report abuse

by Nick
at 09:00 on 18 Jun 2007

Virgin are a joke. The broadband connection is giving me real grief at the moment by not connecting to secure sites, which is just ridiculous. The TV service is worse. The firmware on our box updated, and all the film channels stopped working. We reported this on the day, and have since been billed for them for 3 months with no service. The interactive services haven't worked in a good 4-5 years, the remote need not have a red button. Luckily we're going back to sky, and since we've had our BT phone line reactivated, we dont get any more spam phone calls! Just an added little extra. 12 days until TV and internet switches, absolutely cant wait. Oh and not to mention saving ourselves about £30 per month. Report abuse

by Denis
at 10:24 on 19 Jun 2007

After 5 days without broadband.
I got someone here to fix it.

Here are reasons to avoid (I am stuck with them)
_You will pay a premium line as of July 1st for any support issue.
_ You have to sit through 2 minutes of babllibng and sometimes repeating messages about different faults. (You still pay.. good for revenue)
_ The support is dreadful and first line often has no clue of what they talk about.
_ second line support only gets back to you within 2-3 days (usually within 8am to 4pm). If you are not home, you will need to call them back. Lucky they have a job, I need to avoid it to obtain their support.
_ You are always reminded that not being home between 8am to noon or noon to 4pm when they do site visits will cost you £10
_If you have TV has well, invoicing is total shambles. I have 2 accounts and it is made very unclear how that is set. Even their accoutning team tellt he other is wrong. but they cannot talk to one another, you have to use the paying number to tell them. Again more revenue for virginmedia

5 days without network oout of a month is considered normal as well as having to take time off work to get the service fixed. The fact you pay for this and for the missed service is irrelevant.

Steer clear of them. Report abuse

by mr beard
at 21:31 on 19 Jun 2007

Has anyone actually got there problem fixed yet? I pay for 10 mg and run at about 3mb! I am still thinking about contacting trading standards, has anyone else got any joy from complaining? The News of the World site: http://notw.typepad.com/gadgits/2007/04/virgin_medias_w.html#comment-70247896
is very handy to log a complaint. They will forward your complaint to virgin and I have received a reply, they are looking into my poor connection speeds and i got to speak to a UK based office with normal rate phone line... I hope they sort this out, i'm gutted it's gone so slow. :( Report abuse

by unhappy customer
at 23:37 on 19 Jun 2007

I had been an ntl customer and had no problems at all with phone or internet service, but since virgin media has taken over my internet connection is really slow.I decided to contact VM but got no answers was just passed about from one person to another who could not understand me.Tried emailing them again to no avail,so I decided to check out the following
http://www.consumerline.org/search/?cat=Services To Your Home&item=Telephones and Internet Services This is what it states

Telephones and Internet Services
Introduction

BT and ntl are the only companies operating fixed line telephone services in Northern Ireland. However, there are several mobile telephone companies and Internet service providers operating here also. It makes no difference which company you're dealing with, or which type of phone you have, your rights as a consumer are the same.

What The Law Says

Under the Communications Act 2003 every customer of a public communications provider (fixed line phone, mobile phone or Internet service provider) has the right to alternative dispute resolution if a complaint cannot be resolved by the company. Two schemes have been approved by Ofcom to provide dispute resolution. These are Otelo (Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman) and CISAS (Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme). If you have completed your company's complaints process you should check which scheme the company is a member of. You will not be charged for using either scheme and they are entirely independent

What to do if You Have A Complaint

Contact the Customer Services Manager and give the company a chance to put things right. If you're unhappy with their response, get in touch with Ofcom. Ofcom look after your telephone interests and follow up your complaints. You have the right to have your complaint looked at by an independent complaints review scheme. This service is free of charge and will work to resolve the complaint within six weeks. BT is a member of Otelo and ntl is a member of CISAS. The relevant addresses and phone numbers are shown below.

Contacts
Ofcom Contact Centre
Ofcom
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA
Phone: 020 7981 3040
Fax: 020 7981 3334
Email: Click Here
Web: Click Here
Ofcom Northern Ireland
Landmark House
5 Cromac Quay, The Gasworks
Ormeau Road
Belfast BT7 2JD
Phone: 028 9041 7500
Fax: 028 9041 7533

Otelo
Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman
PO Box 730
Warrington
WA4 6WU
Phone: 0845 050 1614
Fax: 0845 050 1615

CISAS
c/o DRS-CI Arb
12 Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1A 2RP
Phone: 020 7421 7432
Fax: 020 7404 7150 Report abuse

by D Williams
at 14:53 on 20 Jun 2007

I echo what's already been said here countless times. Since Virgin.net became Virgin media the broadband service has been very slow and extremely sporadic at peak times. Whilst their customer service department are very good at responding to emails they simply cant or will not do anything about it and couldn't seem to careless if you threaten to go elsewhere. As one of their employers has commented above 'for each of you moaners we lose we have 7 others wanting to join us. I gather from this that most broadband providers seem unable to offer a reliable service. Report abuse

by Justice
at 00:05 on 21 Jun 2007

"DON@T WE ALL LOVE A MOAN.."

Gotta laugh at some of you dumb asses. Some saying NTL used to be great and Branson has fucked up everything. Erm Richy Branson doesn't own Virgin media he's not even 2nd in command he's a share holder of like 7%. The guy in charge is the NTL director! yep same guy you always had ****heads.

Fact is its the same Customer service people. Same tech support people and same folk that run it. Many of you have good reason to complain about your service but skimming these pages i read things like.

1. I can't access secure sites (**** computer issue)
2. I can only get online with 1 computer! (**** Computer issue)
3. A guy blaming Virgin for his bad conection to warcraft his proof a tracerout that shows timouts and high ping half way into telias network (Fucking outside of Virgin Telia are Blizzard knumbnutts)
4. Some **** who done a speedtest from a site in the US. (No comment)
5. Somone demanding a migration code from a cable line. (DSL doesn't have Mac codes Virgin media own there own line and have nothing to do with anyone else. only ADSL needs mac codes)
6. somone sayed virgin cap you at 0.4gig a night. (Your throttled at only peak times if you download 4gb not 0.4. Only for a few hours your service will be slowed down btw 4gig is a shitload. Sky gives you 4gb for the month and many other isp's leave you capped for good if your a heavy user.)

Overall mostly the complaints here are stupid. The people making many of them are sad folks who likely jump on the phone and blame the person on the other end regardless if they ****ed it up or not. Stop pointing the finger and STFU, Listen to the people trying to help you. everyone I've noted above are good examples of jumping to there own conclusion.

TRY BEING NICE FOR A CHANGE. THAT WAY THE PERSON ON THE PHONE WILL TREAT YOU LIKE A HUMAN BEING INSTEAD OF AN ARROGANT UNEDUCATED & OBNOXIOUS ****S.

Goodluck to all you people with genuine issues..

*********************************************************************
These comments are dedicated to the people in Tech-support i used to work with. I quit my job because of depression after having to take abuse from a large amount of idiots for over four years with different ISPs. Nothing to do with virgin media. Most people are wonderful and pleasant but beleave me you wouldn't like being shouted at for someone elses ****up especially if it's the person shouting at you!
===================================================== Report abuse

by D. Jackson
at 23:34 on 26 Jun 2007

Never had any problems with broadband connection with NTL. However, since Virginmedia took over we have had endless problems with speed variation, often to the point where websites time out before opening. Also often completely lose the internet connection. Finally rang their customer service line tonight and experienced a similar response to lots of other people here, with the perhaps notable exception that, after allegedly testing my modem connection (from India!), the guy accepted that the issue was with their server. A colleague from the IT dept at work had suggested that this was likely to be the case due to a greater than anticipated response to their recent advertising campaigns. They should be upgrading their systems rather than deliberately slowing people down. At the time of my call tonight I was actually connected to the internet, even though it had taken 15 minutes to get online including restarting my PC and powering down the modem, so their chap suggested that we should ring again when it had failed. The chances are that the connection would come back before I got to speak to anyone.

As has recently been stated, we're now going to be charged ridiculous rates for these less than helpful customer service calls. Still I suppose it's one way to keep the number of calls down! As for VM being the ONLY cable Company, does this spell the beginning of the end for cable? Wonder why Sky have withdrawn their base channels from VM! I don't particularly want to change back to a BT phone line but it looks like I'm going to have to. Anyone know anything about Eclipse? Report abuse

by KB
at 01:11 on 28 Jun 2007

have been looking into virgin bundle package this evening, was half way through registration and decided to check reviews first, just to be sure, well after reading this, there is no way on earth virgin will be getting my custom! Report abuse

by JustaVirginUser
at 13:26 on 28 Jun 2007

@Justice

"TRY BEING NICE FOR A CHANGE. THAT WAY THE PERSON ON THE PHONE WILL TREAT YOU LIKE A HUMAN BEING INSTEAD OF AN ARROGANT UNEDUCATED & OBNOXIOUS ****S."

Maybe you should try a piece of your own advice...?

You're being excessively harsh to people who, like me, have had reliable, virtually uninterrupted service, only to get repeated faults when VirginMedia took over, and have your issues read back to you by someone in India who's reading from a generic checklist.

You should be able to appreciate that it can be very frustrating for some when you are greeted with the same checklist each time and it doesn't solve the issue. Report abuse

by Justice
at 21:00 on 28 Jun 2007

JustaVirginUser.

Like i sayed. Virgin didn't take over. The company was renamed. It's the same people in every dept you would have spoken too in the past, Instead of assuming people know the answer but wanna leave you broadbandless try going through the steps. I for one always explained what was wrong and if i couldn't fix the issue advised the custoemr what would. Ie. somthing they call out of scope windows needing reinstalled. Network card broken. blah blah.
If your service is slow due to an outage it shouldn't take long to find out and if not there problem is always explained during the steps you sayed are annoying.
-------------------------------
The Indian callcentres on the otherhand are somthing i agree with you on.
Firstly they take jobs from the UK. Customers can't understand them. They do follow scripts unlike people inside the UK. Unfortunetly they are there. But tell me an ISP that doesn't outsource Jobs..
-------------------------------
My advice is if somone says they can't fix your problem and don't give you a reason ask to be passed to somone else because although they can't fix they should be able to explain roughly what is wrong with the service.
With the new 25pmin charge it is illegal to have somone answer the phone who can't give this support.
If it's an outage in your area and nothing is done about it then call customer services quote how long you have been using the service and how long it's not worked for if nothing is done after that call them again and tell them you will contact trade standards and Ofcom. Your ISP has to offer you a realistic service.
-------------------------------
Honestly though 90% of calls virgin will get are due to customer error and a small % of them are customers who go on the attack saying they didn''t cause it and Virgin are to blame. I'm sorry i stick by my points earlyer. Virgin don't have devine intervention they can't stop problems just because there name has changed.
-------------------------------
If youwant to speak to a UK tech support agent try talking to cancelations who are UK mostly liverpool based they can pass you to somone direct.
------------------------------- Report abuse

by Justice
at 21:07 on 28 Jun 2007

JustaVirginUser
As for trying some of my own advice. i already pointed out a fe people who are outraged at virgin for no reason there issues stand with themselfs i can tell that by there comments and problems. as i even sayed one person went as far to post a traceroute for an issue obviously with his games hosting service. Learn what your saying before you start flaming. If you want i could scour this page an prob find another 4 or 5 !! Report abuse

by realtreat
at 23:35 on 29 Jun 2007

i think virgin media are taking the piss capping customers downloads ntl never used to do this. heres an article. http://techdigest.tv/2007/05/virgin_to_intro.html.

they deny this on the phone i rang 4 times in 2 days and all denied it until i said i was an ex ntl engineer and i know when its been capped, they eventually gave in to me and told me the truth.

if u want unlimited downloads go for BE UNLIMTED its a new company 24mb bb the fastest in uk atm all for 24.00 amazing i know and thers no catches ive read all the small print.

THEY CAPPING COZ THEY CANT HANDLE THE 20MEG YET BUT STILL CHARGING U FOR IT DONT ACCEPT IT. AND EVEN IF U AINT 20MEG AND STILL DOWNLOAD OVER 3GB U WILL GET CAPPED. IN SWEDEN THEY ARE ON OVER 100MEG REPORTS UPTO 500MEG BROADBAND WHY THE BRITS ALWAYS LAST EH?

BE UNLIMITED IS A NEW SERVICE AND IM DEFFO GOIN FOR IT.

CHOOSE YOUR ISP CAREFULLY - VIRGIN IS OK IF U DONT DOWNLOAD MUCH IF U DO DONT WAST YOUR MONEY. Report abuse

by alan
at 11:19 on 2 Jul 2007

Well as for getting conected in three day how about two?
yes phone up and two days later was on the phone and on line
but have had a hell phoning up to get pcguard total installed two days on the phone at 25p 10p only to find out i had been down graded from xl account to m account.

not very good at dealing with things when its all gone wrong Report abuse

by Sharon
at 18:04 on 2 Jul 2007

I have been with VM for under and year and trying to find a way to get out.

The TV box never works properly, i usually have to reset it everyday, i have had an engineer out twice, both times i went without TV for a week as they couldn't reset it.

TV on demand has not updated since 26th June and VM say it may not work right up to 23th July. This is since they started charging £5.00 a month for it, coincidence!

Customer services are rude and i can never understand half of what they are saying as the same for understanding me.

The last two bills have been incorrect, the last one i was charged double for everything, time before that they failed to take out the direct debit and charged me for it!

TV package had an upgrade but still paid the same when they lost Sky One etc, they are now denying they gave me that deal, so it will be ending.

I stayed with VM when they lost Sky as they said it was a temporary thing and they would fight for these channels back, also that the Sky One programs would eventually appear on TV On Demand, this service is now chargeable had hardly ever works. i felt sorry for them that they had lost to Sky and supported them, they assured me that there would be benefits by staying with them and that they would replace what we had lost with something else, what exactly?

I know there are people out there who get an excellent service from VM but if you search around the internet for reviews the bad ones outweigh the good.

VM was also cheaper than Sky but has now become a lot more expensive, i guess this is to compensate for the loss of customers.

I wont be staying with them much longer. Report abuse

by Dan
at 19:55 on 3 Jul 2007

Ive recently had problems with major packet loss, mainly between 4pm and 12am.

Makes online gaming a real pain and not fun.

Anyone else had this problem? Report abuse

by Mike
at 20:40 on 4 Jul 2007

Virgin Media are absolute *****!!!

Tried to setup a direct debite 3 times now over the phone!!! (4 times if you include the initial online signup) but they keep charging me the £5 handling fee every month...

As for the TV. Well Sky One went and that bollocks "TV you control", well when it feels like working... there isn’t anything good to watch...

Broadband.... you’re having a laugh!!! 50:1 ratios just isn’t good enough. So slow now, you can’t even torrent lost, or 24 etc

12 month contract please finish soon... I will most definitely be looking else were!!!! Report abuse

by che
at 08:30 on 5 Jul 2007

People should check out the status page on the virgin media website, it's becoming like a hardback book. Every day there is an outage somewhere, with the usual end remark virgin media apologise for any inconvenience. Persoanlly if someone sneezes or farts their connection goes wrong. Virgin Media is yes just a rebranded name, i still get the old NTL engineers visit even they say the service is rubbish. I am on the xl package with basic tv got my charges down to £27 a month for both which isn't bad but i will be pushing for even cheaper if the slow download problem isn't fixed, been nearly a month now. So if anyone is on the XL package with a modem other than scientific atlanta or motorola phone the cancellation team, and clearly state you know you have a problem, ie the modems people have aren't upto the job therefore i want reduced rates. Failing that disconnect modem hang from a branch on a tree and wait for a lightning strike to hit it, once it's cooled down and the flames have gone out reconnect. Personally this method isn't reliable but it may infact improve matters, as they say on deal or no deal GOOD LUCK! :p Report abuse

by che
at 18:24 on 7 Jul 2007

update well well well, i called retentions to cancel my internet package and lol the guy said hang on this will take some working out due to all the notes placed on my account. He said oh it looks like we've made a few mistakes in the past cause from what i am seeing you're only paying £2 a month for basic tv package and 20 meg connection, odd as someone told me only last week i'd get 2 for £27 a month for the next 10 years. Well for what it's worth slow download speeds are a pain but considering my circumstances as they stand now i can't grumble Report abuse

by marathonman
at 07:45 on 13 Jul 2007

I've had Birmingham cable/telewest/virgin media for about 10 years - and I've got no idea where you lot get your problems from. In that time i've never had a problem with my bills (because unlike most people i pay them on time!!), only ever had 1 fault (which they fixed 1st time) and I've even had everything transferred to a new address - without a glitch.
Are the company's work for perfect! I suspect not. Report abuse

by KIM
at 13:49 on 19 Jul 2007

VIRGIN MEDIA HAS NOT TAKEN OVER TELEWEST/NTL IT HAS REBRANDED THE PREVIOUS COMPANY PAID FOR THE VIRGIN NAME . THE PROCESSES HAVE NOT CHANGED AND THE STAFF HAVE NOT CHANGED ONLY THE NAME , SO ITS PROBABLY YOUR EXPECTATION OF THE VIRGIN BRAND THAT HAS CHANGED YOUR OPINIONS NOT THE ACTUAL SERVICE. Report abuse

by Chris
at 11:42 on 22 Jul 2007

YOU DO NOT NEED A MAC CODE FORM VIRGIN..its cable , if you want to change isp and have a BT line you can just switch to another company , i left virgin and before i did i signed up with BT .. no problems , i am getting 6.5 meg 99% of the time with no slowdowns and happy gaming , i use the home hub , which allows you cheap phone calls using broadband and doesnt interefere with games ,downloading etc , i am very happy with service from BT and only a couple of hiccups which were sorted within minutes on the telephone .. i was on the 10meg fom VM and was getting less than 212 k at peak times making whatever i was doing on the net near impossible , Bt may be a little dearer but its worth it Report abuse

by unknownpersonage1
at 12:17 on 27 Jul 2007

been a cable customer for many years had bb for about four years have noticed alot of slow down in recent months although this has improved a bit recently its still not as good as it should be paticularly in the evening also it speeds up after tenpm.
cutomer service seems disorginized because they get things wrong a lot indian call centers
useless Report abuse

by lorraine
at 18:24 on 27 Jul 2007

I was a ntl customer can can honestly say I had no problems with ntl that has now changed since the company has changed to virgin media.
For example I received my bill last tues then final demand on wed.I phoned virgin media (kept on hold for 25 mins)when I actuallygot to speak to a member of thir staff I was told that my bill arrived late due to a postal strike and they would give a further sen days to pay the bill.I explained to them that I would pay the bill immediatedly but was a bit annoyed as receiveing a final demand the operator said that was not a problem and they were very sorrythat this had happen.So on thurs morning on my way to work I poped in and paid my bill.On friday I went to use my phone and my services had been cutt off.I phoned virgin again (using my mums phone) explained the story all again after being on hold for 35 mins .I was told that they had received my payment and my services would resume as normal nearly a week later now and have still no service .Think its time to look for another internet and phone provider. Report abuse

by Sir Peter
at 14:56 on 29 Jul 2007

Sue
Feb 20th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I must be one of the few people who had no problems with NTL broadband. We have cable television and phone.

Since Virgin have taken over using broadband has been awful. Slower than I can ever remember, almost as bad as Dialup.
It’s slow to load up, slow to use the links and generally slow to use on line.

Hi all

I will be giving Virgin Media till Xmas to improve or we will be going over to Sky, customer service is crap.
No Guide most of the time comes on the screen, the live events seem to mess up most of the time.
And they are slow in paying the money back to me when they have messed up. Report abuse

by marathonman
at 10:32 on 8 Aug 2007

Hi sir peter

My brother has sky broadband and TV. Dont think that changing company will cure all your problems - you'll just get a set of different problems. Report abuse

by Chris
at 14:46 on 8 Aug 2007

LOL i see that Virgin media has now lost over 70,000 customers , that will teach them , wonder how long before its sold off Report abuse

by che
at 19:59 on 8 Aug 2007

chris as you mentioned virgin media have lost a lot of customers but do you realise virgin media is NTL/TELEWEST. All NTL is doing is using the rights of the virgin media brand name, it has the same staff as it always has done. People moan about speeds well if you have ADSL then there's a contention ratio to think of usally 50:1 and at peak times it will be slow, as for cable users there has been a series of upgrades and some of the modems aren't upto the job and also the servers needed to be upgraded to handle the higher speeds. Last time NTL upgraded speeds there were issues of slow speeds for awhile but then things improved as it will do again this time Report abuse

by disgruntled customer that has not even joined yet
at 09:47 on 10 Aug 2007

I was expecting my virgin services to be installed this morning and requested a call before they arrived (no call). I left at 8am the engineer turned up at 8am and 30 secs (luckily my brother was the one meeting with them). He spent 1 minute inside and ouside the flat trying to locate where the cable running into the flat via the front garden went to!! (surely the room in the house on the other side of the cable). Engineer said that he cannot do the job as the cabling has been chewed up!! and he only installs boxes. I called Virgin at 9.10am and after 15 minutes waiting and speaking was promised a call back after they got hold of the engineer. 10.15am I called again and explained my earlier call, the woman put me on hold for 15 straight (without ONCE coming back to me) whilst she tried to contact the engineer. So i put the phone down. I am now on the phone again 10.35am and have asked to be put through to a manager after a discription of my query. I asked the guy to please not put me on hold for ages (so far i have been waiting 4 minutes)............ Guess what, someone came onto the line and hang up on me. I dont think i am going to continue with Virgin and shall make sure my friends and family know of my experiences. Report abuse

by disgruntled customer that has not even joined yet
at 10:08 on 10 Aug 2007

its now 10.46am and I am back on the phone to Virgin (i know i am glutton for punishment). Told operator that i want to speak to manager because i dont want to repeat for the 4th time, be put on hold for ages and then disconnected. Guess what I was on hold for 3 mins then my brother informs me that the same engineer is there. I spoke to the engineer and he repeated that the cables were chewed and he could not find where they went. I told him to show my brother the chewed cables!!, he hesitated and said that he is going to fix it. So i told him that i would hang up on Customer Services if i have his assurance that he is going to install my services. So far 10 mins later and he is still there. My brother is under strict instructions not to let this guy go without checking the services are installed and working and to get his name, in case of further CONFUSION! Fingers crossed. Report abuse

by Chris
at 17:18 on 11 Aug 2007

Che

i had NTL for years with no problems , when virgin took over from day 1 i had nothing but problems , slow speeds , dropped connection , capping etc ... Never did i have this with NTL , even the engineers said there as been major problems and they have changed back to B.T ... if you read on virgins website , they have admitted capping peoples service etc .. since i have been with B.T , i have had no speed issues or lost connections or capping .. 1st Class Service Report abuse

by Darren
at 14:33 on 20 Aug 2007

Its now 20th september ive been ringing Virgin Media since last tuesday over a week now regarding changing my phone number all i get all the time is someone in Bombay who i can not understand at all.They have not changed my number yet but told me it would all be put right last wednesday and guess what still nothing been done.The customer service faults department are a joke all they do is pass you around to someone else who again pass you to someone else.I would ask any person who is thinking about having any dealings with this two bit company PLEASE DO NOT they are a joke. Report abuse

by Henry
at 21:21 on 27 Aug 2007

Telewest customer for years. After initial 18 months of poor performance eventaully had a great service.

Within 2 - 3 weeks of the switch to Virgin, I had nothing but problems, which was compounded by the drastic reduction in customer service, although they tried to convince me that nothing had changed apart from the name.

After abut 4 months of disconnections (TV and Internet) I cancelled my sevices and booked the BT service to start after the 30 day cancellation period. (they called me back a week later and offered me a bribe, which I took, to stay ... £30 for my broadband telephone and an enhanced TV package. A reduction from my normal £100 per month)

With all the initial problems I had with Telewest, they made up for it with customer service, which to their credit was excellent.

At the moment I've had virtually no TV for the bank holiday weekend. I guess all their engineers are on leave ??? (a network problem)

Great service when it works, but it does'nt too often.
Poor customer service Report abuse

by JEFFEL
at 22:02 on 4 Sep 2007

HI EVERYONE..

GUESS WHAT VIRGIN MEDIA HAS NOW INTRODUCED TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WHICH LIMITS UR SPEEDS WHEN U CROSS THE DOWNLOAD LIMIT AT PEAK TIMES 4-12 MIDNIGHT..TAKE A LOOK AT THIS LINK BELOW..THIS IS SUCH BAD NEWS FOR A HARDCORE USER LIKE ME............
LINK ---
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html Report abuse

by wilhelm
at 19:51 on 5 Sep 2007

Other people's experiences of the ex NTL/current VM service seems to mirror my own. Over the last few years all of the increases in bandwidth (512 to 1 to 2 to 4) have been well received with the exception of the last one (2 to 4). Over the last 3-4 months my connection has gone from being great for gaming / streaming TV (4OD etc) / game downloads (metaboli / steam) to being absolute poop. I was lucky to get 400kbps from what was supposed to be a 4Mbps connection even at off-peak times. It looks as if the internet TV revolution is going to be leaving me behind as I can't get anything but VM cable. I've cancelled my sub to Metaboli which is a great service but not really worthwhile with such a low download speed. No more BF2 either which is a damn shame.

Regardless of what people may say the trend is pretty clear here in Bilingham, Teesside. Even with a properly maintained computer the connection speeds are atrocious. You can't blame all of the reported slow speeds on 72 year olds with PIII systems riddled with malware in their spare rooms. A lot of people are a little more savvy mowadays. Something is afoot.

I simply downgraded my broadband from 4 to 2 meg just because I objected to paying for such a crap service but I've got to have something. It might start to be the case that a 3G connection is going to seem increasingly worth it for people with nowhere else to go.

Judging by the changes to VM's phone charging framework (changed to price per minute (versus second) and advance rental(versus in arrears)) I would suggest that they are attempting to wring the last penny out of customers before selling it off as a going concern. This would tie in with a woefully underfunded infrastructure as may be the case with the cable network.

Note - "Virgin Media - it’s like the night before Christmas!" - Yes, it probably is - you spend all year with old knackered crap before getting something shiny and new (presumably from another supplier) or a sock with an orange in it.

wilhelm Report abuse

by Jerien
at 20:40 on 5 Sep 2007

Right im so upset right now i can cannot express.

Iv just started my usual daily browsing and its taking ages to connect to any site. I tested my speed and it seems to be at a normal 252 KPBS which is fine... But connecting to any site will take upto 30 seconds! The problem has only happened! ARGH

I have done the following..

Rebooted Cable modem - Same results
Tested connection out on all three computers in my home - Same problem.
I have tested the problem out on my newly formatted computer - Same problem.
Tested on newly formatted computer with other computers switched off - Same problem.
I connected my cable modem directly to the newly formatted compuer - Guess what? Same problem!

Oh and guess what. I phone up techincal support only to find out that
the broadband technical support has switched to a 0900 number charging 25p per min and 10p connection fee!

VM this is a low and if this gets any lower im switching! Report abuse

by james
at 23:22 on 7 Sep 2007

do you have pc guard mate ? Report abuse

by Stephen
at 14:03 on 12 Sep 2007

Signed up to Virgin 3 months ago. Since then, they have set up THREE direct debits with each one charging twice the amount on my contract!!! This means I have been charged 6 times the agreed amount. When I got through to 'customer service' and they finally admitted it was their mistake they just said ' ok sorry about that! This is after god knows how many calls and how much time on hold. When I asked to speak to a manager I was told there wasn't one and the woman from 'customer service' actually said 'well, Ive just said sorry. What do you want me to do?' Erm, well, first refund the money, then the money that I have had to spend calling you, then at least make an attempt to sound confident that you know why it happend, that it won't happen again, and that I have a chance of receiving the refund. I could literally hear the cluelessness.
I have been promised a cheque in the post with the refund but i'm not holding my breath given the level of money grabbing incompetency shown.

Try and find a way to speak to anyone in authority/the ability to solve basic cock ups in this company. Report abuse

by Kyle
at 14:38 on 14 Sep 2007

Virgin Media sucks, 3 days ago they had turned my ping up an extra 400ms, So I can't play online games. I went crazy on the phone at 1 Indian guy and he managed to turn it back to 10ms for ONE hour, then it went back. Report abuse

by Dee
at 11:21 on 19 Sep 2007

Virgin media are crap, we have had it since July 07 and have had nothing but problems with it, the install was not done properly, and the guy left bare wires in our cupboard, made holes in the wall, and it did not work that well, we were told we would need another install, but never got one, the customer services are so bad, they are rude you always get told different things, they never seem to know what they are on about, I was away on my wedding anniversary, and had to keep phoning virgin by my mobile while I was away, the whole anniversary was ruined, to try and sort the problem out, it took them over a week before my TV was sorted out, my TV in the kitchen dose not even work now, and they said it was not there problem, funny as it was working before there install, it is now September and the TV keeps crashing, recordings are cut short, we keep having to reboot the box, and they keep having to send us downloads, the screen keeps breaking up, the TV guide dose not always show you what is on,

In September 07 virgin media disconnected our phone line by mistake, and gave our number to someone else, even though they admitted it was there fault, they did not go out of there way to fix the problem, I was left with out a phone for seven days, five of which I did not have a dialing tone, so could not call even the emergency services, I am registered disabled, which they knew, but still it took them over a week to sort it out, I have a ADT alarm which did not work, as it works off of the phone line, I am very disappointed with the whole thing, Report abuse

by James
at 09:49 on 21 Sep 2007

I was with Blueyonder and to be honest they gave me a good service and more often than not the speed I had was what I was paying for. I have since signed with Virgin and the service communication and speed has been incredibly bad. Despite being passed to the executive office (because I wrote something on the News of the World foums)in may and dealing with one person (who to be fair has been doing there best) The issues have not been resolved. I had the 10mb service now the 20 my average connection speed using broadband speed test (and some others) is abour 4mb. It has been down to 1mb and on one rare occasion actualy reached 9mb but most of the time it runs between 2mb and 5mb. The engineers they have sent around have either not finished the job, bought the wrong kit, didnt have the kit they where meant to install and on one occasion swapped out the wrong box (2 months later still waiting for that to be rectified).

There call centre in India (and if it wasnt india smeone needs some training and language skills) just told me anything to get me off the phone when ringing in the early days about the connection speeds i.e oh its some server work happening this weekend should be ok tomorrow ( a bit like a taxi company telling you your late cab is just around the corner)

I could go on and on. Not good Report abuse

by chris
at 21:37 on 22 Sep 2007

No sense posting on here , virgin dont read it .... so just change isp's and stop whinin .. Report abuse

by Alex
at 19:38 on 24 Sep 2007

I echo exactly what James said, Blueyonder service was fine never had a problem. Since the company Virgin media took over the problems have flooded in, the customer service is shocking badly, i mean really bad. My broadband is running below 1mb when it should be 10, i have phoned up to get no where. I live in the north west of England and advise anyone NOT to join vergin media. The TV hard box is **** too, we have had three new sets within the last 6 months and its still not working, we live busy lives and cannot be bothered attempting our engery to resolve the issue again. Its just really anoying, value for money this service is not!!! Report abuse

by dave
at 21:16 on 25 Sep 2007

It's a shame that Virgin don't read these complaints!

I started with Telewest when I moved here because it was already hooked up. 1Mb broadband was fine. Got a call saying that I was being upgraded to 6Mb for free.....Ok will try it. Virgin media took over and put me up to 10Mb for £2 per month despite being told no price increase going up to 10Mb. Had noticed slow downloads so started the goodold phone chase using customer service. After 9 days was told that there was a KNOW PROBLEM IN MY AREA SINCE MAY! kNOWN TO WHOM????? Was asked if I could just live with the problem until it sored itself out!!!!!! How does a UBR just sort itself out! Now reduced my package to 2Mb and luck if I get dial up speeds. I just wish I had the time and money to go with BT.....Still awaiting an appology from Virgin Media but will never get it. Advised all at work and in the surrounding area to keep away from Virgin Media. If only we could email the head of customer services or at least get his address (not just his assistant or the rest of the customer service types) he may be shocked to see how poor CUSTOMER SERVICE is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Power to the people.....eventually! Report abuse

by Paul
at 17:44 on 26 Sep 2007

What riles me is they are all as bad as each other.

My VM 4 Mb connection never ran faster then 2.5 Mb, and yes, I do know how to tune a PC, edit the registry etc.

However, the **** I've gone through trying to get BT to install a phone line, honestly, we have a real problem in this country.

The only effective answer is blow the lot of them, get out of the house and enjoy life. Or move to a country where customer service still counts.

Good luck to all of you. Report abuse

by Internet Service Providings
at 17:08 on 2 Oct 2007

Virgin Media have now transferred their Internet Service Providings helpline to an Indian call centre where they claimings to speakings in English ? Really ? and they also charge 25p per minute 10p connection fee for having conversations about Service Providings problems.

The employee I spoke with to report my providings problems started off speaking in a reasonable English accent, but as the conversation continued they seemed to get more and more excitable whilst the English accent became less and less comprehensible.

So anyway an engineer will be callings in 6 days to correct the faultings and if I am unable to get the afternoon off work (as holiday) they will be chargings £10, is this really a fair way to run a helpline ?.... Im sorry I think not :(

Unhappy from Bedford Report abuse

by Paul
at 19:19 on 2 Oct 2007

If i was you i would be careful as i've just only found out that the line rental is no longer included in my xl package. Now i've never recived any notification of this change and it's been like it since 2004. But i've just looked on the web site and for the xl package it say you get free line rental. Also you need to be aware that even thou they say there broad band is unlimited they do actually cap download speeds for what they class as high band width users each night, but they do not say exactally what that limit is. So before signin up to virign i would read there terms of service very closely as you will probally find, at a moments notice they will change your service without you knowing. Report abuse

by Phrozen
at 22:22 on 4 Oct 2007

Well,

I was with telewest for about 5 years and when the Virgin Media change came, it was all down hill from there...

Now, they have decided to introduce this stupid Bandwidth Capping, which really ruines the service and rips you off.
If you download 3GB in 4 hours, you are Instantly capped to 5Mbits which in my opinion is really unfair.
A nice shiney 20Mbit connection and you cant even use it to its full potential!

Hope that was helpful. Report abuse

by Brett
at 17:45 on 5 Oct 2007

Has anyone else been told by Virgin Broadband support that the reason your session seams to drop so you can't get on to the internet and have to reboot your broadband modem, is that your PC can't hold onto the modem IP address and so it is a fault with your machine, even though with other broadband services the service is never dropped.

And now almost everytime when I connet my PC to the modem and it says there is lttle or no connectivity, I should shut down both my PC and broadband modem, reconnect the modem to my PC via the cable, turn on the modem and then turn on the PC and it works. Is that what I should expect from a broadband service? Report abuse

by Jim Hall
at 23:14 on 5 Oct 2007

Just thought I'd add in my two penneth for the record. I've been with NTL for countless years and had my fair share of problems but Since Virgin Media it's been plain ghastly! Last night my (4MB) download speed was down to 12k and the ping was off the measurable scale. Virgin of course are trying to get me to ring their premium rate number for support on this, promising that if it's found to be their fault they will refund me the call charges. I'm not stupid, I've been round the block a few times so I'm not interested in the standard technical bullshit telephone call that recommends I reboot my PC and disconnect my modem for 30 seconds. I think I sussed that one out 10 years ago without any assistance! I refuse to ring their "pay to treat you like an infant" telephone line as I'm fully aware that there is irrefutably nothing wrong with my end of the deal.
The problem is: Where else can I go to get better service? I've been researching this for weeks now and there are NO resounding cheers for any of the ISP's when you dig deep enough. I got interested in Plusnet until I found they do not offer any sort of email support at all - they don't even have an email address and admit that is on purpose!
Anyone here recommend any ISP that isn't Total crap in this country? I'll pay more for a decent service. What I'm currently being provided for the money should, and probably is illegal!

I'm glad I found you all. At least I don't feel alone in my anguish anymore. Report abuse

by Ex Virgin Employee
at 10:55 on 7 Oct 2007

Ex virgin/Ntl Employee, the service is good for some and bad for others, but mostly bad, to be honest alomst everyone who works there couldnt give a crapf ro elping you, we got paid £1.00 to add a new package or increase your package and when your taking over 200 calls a day then we tired to sell to everycall, i was earning over £800 a month in commision alone and the majority of that commision is just added through loopholes, i couldnt give a crap for who phoned i would try to help unitl i got bored about lunchtime then i would switch off, and pretty much everyone is the same, but dont have ago at me its why i left, it was unfair on you guys, who hear wants 200 calls 5 days a week of people complaining and moaning at you personally even death threats and threats of attacks and even some people threated to rape me!!, we had no knowledge to problems any suggestions to improve the service for us or the customer were quickly ignored as too expensicve or too much work, ( i asked to put a message on the beginning of the phone call if systems were down to stop you guys having to hold for 40-60 mins to be told to call back and got told its not possible!!!) managment are nobs! and didnt care about anything but meetings that info wasnt passed on to us, its just all over the place and everyone in the company stabs everyone else in the back theres no team work or community, DONT GO FOR A JOB THERE and if you can help it do not take VVirgin media, sky and BT are mcuh much better, 20mb broadband is more like 2 mb broadband as they wont update the servers to cope with it its all a marketing scam sure some peeps can get it but the majority cant because the system cant give it and the more peeps on your street with it the slwoer your connection. Report abuse

by Richard
at 16:20 on 9 Oct 2007

Virgin Media could be so good they have a cable network other than the tiredsome bt Infrastructure that all the other providers use if they just pull there fingers out of the arses and remove there Capping service improve there service desk they would be tidy. Offcom should make them open the cable network up to other providers seems unfair.

There not as bad as Orange tho i'll give em that if have to call there idiot service desk again i will go nuts they have no idea and how to support broadband and ask you the same questions everytime u call and they wont let u skip there ? until there answered however stupid they r. Ive learned not to bother fighting them on the stupidity as it just increases the call time. I'm starting to think thats what they want Terrible dont go with Orange BB. Report abuse

by Martin
at 17:08 on 11 Oct 2007

I'll add my 2 pence too.

I am fed up with their 20Mb service giving me download speeds of 0.5Mb or less.

The technical support guys (at 25p/min!!) don't know jack and like to tell me things which aren't true (I'm an IT guy myself). They then attempt to repeat themselves as if the more they repeat it the more truth it'll have, that REALLY winds me up.

They blame that my router isn't configured correctly repeatedly and WON'T listen to me, even though it's perfect (had 19Mb at 5am once!)

Thankfully I've only been with them 7 days and therefore I will be cancelling within the next two weeks if it doesn't improve. They are sending over an engineer saturday, don't know what he's going to do...maybe he'll play with his nuts for half an hour then ****** off. Report abuse

by Damian
at 20:45 on 11 Oct 2007

Virgin media is poo.

Our tv service has been poor since we got it a few months ago, keeps crashing, tv guide keeps saying "no information available", and on demand hardly ever works.

I phoned them over a week ago about this, and they said an engineer would call me back. Still no call.

Tonight the TV has frozen completely, so I got on the phone.

Spent 3 minutes trawling through their menu's, before finally being told "press 2 to be put straight through to an advisor". Pressed the number 2, then had to listen to them telling me to turn my box off, spin in a circle, hop up and down three times, then turn it back on. Finally, I got cut off because I was told they were too busy.

Now trying to call back I'm told "sorry, we're experiencing problems right now, please call back later". Well, when I do it will be to tell them to collect their equipment and cancel my account.

They really are appalling. I should have canceled when I first moved to my new house. When we asked them to move our account to our new house, they said they'd send an engineer out to install everything. Day he was supposed to turn up, he didn't. I phoned up to ask why, they said he had been canceled because we had an outstanding balance from our old address (nice of them to tell us). So I paid them, they scheduled another engineer visit, I took another day off work, got a call from the engineer who was sat outside my old house over 80 miles away. I phoned up again, complained a bit louder, and managed to convince them to send an engineer the next day. I couldn't get the day off but my fiance was here, got home from work, engineer had been but no broadband. They sent another engineer out to fix it, he said "sorry, you'll need your garden digging up and a new cable running to your house". By this time I was fuming, so I took the box off the wall and fixed it myself!

They can't do anything right. Seriously, avoid them at all costs. I'm canceling my TV tonight (if I can ever get through), and as soon as I can get BT to install broadband I'll be canceling that too (I need the internet for work so can't cancel immediately). Report abuse

by johnno
at 00:15 on 13 Oct 2007

ok everyone I hear you. I have the same problems with speed, continued disconections, the technical people giving me different excuses for a poor broadband sevice and in some instances no broadband at all, blaming my router or its configuration or something else. I have had an IT guy (at my expense) come have a look at it and even he says the fault is with VM. What I want to know is how can I get out of this contract. There is no way I can put up with this for another 11 months. OFCOM don't seem to be helpful except to say write a "formal complaint"...well I would if I thought I would get a response!! Please if anyone can help it would be appreciated very much. Report abuse

by Liam Parling
at 14:17 on 15 Oct 2007

i just have to say virgin media are the worst company ive ever delt with. me and my mates have just moved were we have a cable connection so we though wed go with virgin media and its been pain full 1st guy came and brought wrong box and just left� we then rung virgin which cost a bomb from a mobile since they didnt install phone line or internet or tv . they promised to call us bak with new installation lets say i had 2 call them 8 yes 8 more times to get a new installation date. 2 weeks later we get it installed and surprise its not all working bbc hd dosent work sky manage to have 12 hd channels working virgin has just one its not a big task when we bought it there big point was the v box is better than sky hd box its not its slow big ugly and the pice of **** dosent even record or pause or rewind at all all three of us whish we had gone with sky internets slower but from wrking at currys selling sky i no customers are happy with there service and it does what it says i will never recomend virgin media ever Report abuse

by Johnners
at 11:08 on 19 Oct 2007

Was with Telewest from 2003, no problems. We had a flood in 2004, but they were out and got the broadband service up and running within 48 hours, excellent. Now I'm with VM, it's absolute rubbish. I'm paying for a 10Mbit connection, but the maximum I get is 5Mbit if I go on the comp at night, or a paltry 2.8Mbit in the evenings. I was using Linux operation system for a while, and consitently managed to get the full 10Mbits, but now back with Windows and seeing the slow speeds again! My advice, don't waste your money on a 'fast' package. Report abuse

by Steve
at 19:49 on 24 Oct 2007

I have had a gutful of Virgin Media. I was with Virgin.Net for a long time, back to the days of 56K dial up and was happy with the service right up until those idiots at NTL got involved.

Now I get lousy speeds (up to 8Gb - Ha, more like 0.25Mb sometimes). Tonight, it could not find hotmail.com or google.co.uk. The DNS service is completely knackered. NSLOOKUP was timing out all over the place.

Interesting that the service update site is showing broadband as amber state since 19th October.

I haven't got the patience to speak to the monkeys that they put on their helpdesk. Just biding my time until the 12 months is up in Januaray, them I'm going elsewhere. Report abuse

by Graham
at 09:45 on 25 Oct 2007

Very poor.

Had loads of trouble with them.

The latest thing they've done is assumed that we're cancelling our service and so pulled the plug, even though the direct debit is still going out and I've had no contact with the. When I asked them why this was they said that someone upstairs has ordered broadband, and as he has the same address as me, they thought I must be moving (!!!!????). They now trying to reconnect me, you'd think this would be pretty straight forward but they've been at it for a few days now. Am looking into alternatives, are there any?

Oh, by the way there trains are a rip off as well, very crowded, and last time I was on one it stank!!!!! Report abuse

by chris
at 08:06 on 26 Oct 2007

Ladies and Gents ...Virgin is cable and OFCOM wont help .. Try reporting problems to BBC WATCHDOG as i am sure there are enough people posting on these boards to make a valid point over to the BBC. I got out of my contract with NO trouble or payment (admittably i was with NTL then virgin took over .. i signed contract with NTL.. not Virgin).. so that is how i got out of the apaulling service? they provided.........So if you want to make a different ..GET IN TOUCH WITH WATCHDOG and make them fight for your rights !!!!!!!!!!!

Long live B.T .. 6.5 meg 24/7 .. cant complain and glad i changed Report abuse

by Daniel Rowley
at 20:53 on 28 Oct 2007

I'm on 4MB with Virgin and my speed at this moment in time is just under 900kbs, less than 1/4 of what I'm paying for. I've been previously annoyed with my speeds getting cut in half to 2MB if I download 750MB between 4 PM and 12 AM, but now my internet connection isn't even going at 1MB during those ours when I haven't downloaded anything!

I've been with Telewest since I got my first computer all those years ago. Why did Virgin have to come along and make life difficult... Report abuse

by lord ratspeaker
at 00:03 on 1 Nov 2007

Argh - clowns one and all! Telewest had their problems but they were saints compared to the curse of Vigin Media. Charges up - service down. Try and complain 45 mins on phone listening to inate muzac (charged to you by the min) followed by a monkey in Inda reading 'stock' replies that are the 'nearest fit' off his/her pc screen. Unlimited now means until we say you have used enough. TV freezes, stutters and is full of crap 1hr channels and crud no-one has ever heard off. If ur lucky enough to get a reply to your email it will consist of cut and paste replies to the arguments that the indian lady can recognise and total ignorance of any 'embarrassing comments' or truths you may bring up. The whole experience is designed to extract more and more money out of you for a decreasing service whilst making it difficult for you to complain of even leave. This company is the epitome of the adage that a fair deal is bad business. Avoid like the plague. You have a life... Report abuse

by likeavirgin
at 21:44 on 3 Nov 2007

Hello,

Has anyone got any experiences of pushy virgin media sales men? I was called over 8 times my 'Richard' despite saying I would call him back if I was interested, my friend had a virgin media man waiting in a car outside his house and paying a pressurized 2 hour long evening call. Subsequently and perhaps foolishly we have both signed up to Virgin Media but through the call center (which has very long waiting times). Are these pushy salesmen really from Virgin Media or are they frauds on the Virgin media site it says employees should leave customers alone if they don't want to be contacted- this was not my experience.

Thanks Report abuse

by the1
at 14:46 on 6 Nov 2007

The one and only reason I signed up to virgin media is because
I wanted better competition between Sky and Virgin. That way we get lower
prices. What a big mistake that was. I signed up to Virgin Media's"slow" ADSL and it has been nothing but slow broadband. No problem on my end, No faulty wiring. Just the slowest connection between 5kbs - 50kbs on a 4mbit line at peaks times.
Yes I have cotacted the IT suppot team on several occasions with nothing but the run around.

VIRGIN WE WANT TO SUPPORT YOU BUT PLEASE GIVE US A BETTER SERVICE!! Report abuse

by Ben
at 20:39 on 7 Nov 2007

Below is copy of email I just sent to Virgin - and yes it's all true!!!

Hi,

Aount ref: xxxxxxx

Ben xxxxx

acc tel: xxxxx xxxxxx

-----------------------------
Problem:

In June / July you disconected my services by error (it should have been suspended for 8 weeks) - agreed this was your error.

You over charged me - You agreed this was your error and credited my account.

I was told that in order to re-set up my broadband account you need my details - I gave them on the provision that a direct debit would not be set up - You told me that no direct debit would be set up.

It now appears that a direct debit was set up and you attempted to take money from my bank account on two occaisions. This has cost me bank charges of £138 .

I spoke today to a lady who admitted and ppologised for this error and she transfered me to the canelllation dept - I was waiting for 25 minutes with no answer.

I am currently in Siberia, Russia. I am in a situation, that thanks to you, that I will no longer be able to return to England in December. I was hoping to transfer money into my account, via salary, so that I could pay for a return flight to England, I am no longer able to do this thanks your errors.

I expect my bank account to be credited with £138 (total bank charges) within the next seven days or contact my bank to get these charges removed.

If this is not rectified within seven days I will take legal upon my return to the UK and consider contacting the UK media - I'm sure they'll find it ammusing that someone is stuck in Siberia due to your billing errors!

Please reply to *********@gmail.com not my virgin media email.

Best regards,

Ben xxxxx
-----------------------

Wonder how long they take to get back? Report abuse

by Root
at 22:58 on 7 Nov 2007

Left Nildram's ADSL 2mb service 5months ago (must say very good company never had to phone them in 4 years) and joined Virgins Broad Band Internet service in old NTL area, had minor problems getting setup.
Modem would not synch, so called call centre, the person asked me to re-boot modem but this had been tried many times. anyway we agreed an engineer should visit, the engineer told me the cables from the box had been cut and he promptly arranged for new cables to be run in. This was done about 4 days later and the modem worked straight away.
I had purchased the 4 mb package and so far I am very happy with my DL speeds. I left Nildram only because I prefer to use cable as opposed to BT Lines to deliver my Broad Band. If im not mistaken over time the cable companies will be much much faster than those offering the ADSL product.
May I suggest those measuring their speeds use more that one speed test site as they do vary wildly and some dont work at all (i.e. saying your DL speed is 56k). Report abuse

by Ian Heath
at 08:46 on 12 Nov 2007

I have had virgin media for 6 months now with a 4mb internet connection for the lats 3 - 4 weeks I have actually had 250 - 500kbps download speed. This is slower than there smallest package.

I have also had poblems with the TV on demand service (not working 75% of the time and they doing nothing about it.)

Once my 12 months is up I will be moving to another internet provided without a shadow of doubt. Report abuse

by Jimty
at 13:13 on 12 Nov 2007

Everyone who has got Virgin Media just needs to hang in there - these issues and problems are being resolved bit by bit - the problem is that Virgin took on way too muh at once but are now adhereing to the problems bit by bit Report abuse

by dot
at 14:28 on 12 Nov 2007

virgin are adisgrace they just fob us off and gharge us 25 amin to phone thenm then keep you on the phone for 30 min with excuse es they shouid be ashamed of them seifs ribing customers off like this i think every customer how is getting fob off with them shouid hold theire payments back bet they would soon get off theire backsides and do somethimk then wouidts they Report abuse

by Nosher
at 22:07 on 12 Nov 2007

I cancelled my service today - all three of them. Afters years as a loyal and happy Cable London then TW customer. After 2 months of serious packet loss faults (>60% at times) and spending hours of my time and using my test software (I work in Network Management) to track the faults with them (bad noise between street cabinet and the UBR), I find that three closed tickets later and no improvement.. Two of whcih "shouldn't have been closed"!! The VM rententions answer - "well, you have to call the 25P a minute offshore call centre and start again..." My response? well, you can guess.... I'm not paying for that "service" anymore... appaling service, terrible broadband over subscribed and over marketed. Look elsewhere... Report abuse

by Jack
at 20:15 on 13 Nov 2007

was with virgin DSL for nearly two years, started ok but now its absolutely disgusting service, have been a net user for over 10 years and this is the worse yet, they've got no download limits though their traffic shaping policy make it impossible for me and my housemate to serf. stay well away! have just switched providers to be unlimited and a really happy.

Jack Report abuse

by Richard Branson
at 20:55 on 13 Nov 2007

You are all liars! Virgin media has blazingly fast speeds NO EXEPTIONS, our customer care is second to none and all competition is inferior! Do not fight the multinational company that is the glorious Virgin Media. Report abuse

by The Borg
at 13:35 on 18 Nov 2007

VM - We are Virgin Media you will be assimilated!
Resistence is futile.

Customer - "All I want is a good ISP!"

VM - Irrelevant
You will be assimilated! Report abuse

by Richard Branston
at 22:53 on 19 Nov 2007

Im on my "20mbit" virgin connection right now....

getting 300kb/sec from news.blueyonder.co.uk that when it belonged to telewest gave me a full 1MB/sec when I was on 10mbit. Now i dont even get that and I'm on 20. Why ? Because virgin are "traffic shaping" and capping users.

They are the only ISP to offer "unlimited" broadband and yet cap you and say its not a cap Report abuse

by Dave
at 12:50 on 20 Nov 2007

How much worse can Virgin get? I just got an email to say that there will be a 16 hour outage in mail due to maintenance. This never happened with Telewest. I mailed back and it bounced the reply because the support mailbox was full. You couldn't make up the incompetence. Any issues I now have and I have to call a high rate phone line that is routed through to someone in India who I have to ask to repeat themselves about 3 times as their accent is so strong - meaning Virgin get more money off me for less service. Notwithstanding Sky's new dirty trick of putting Champions League games on Sky1, Virgin really is the absolute pits compared to what I was used to at Telewest. The only reason I am not changing right this very second is that Sky are just a bunch of criminals. Virgin though are certainly taking tips off them in how to piss off their customers.

Rubbish!!

Avoid Report abuse

by Dave
at 12:53 on 20 Nov 2007

>maybe you should look a bit closer to home and see that the problem is your pc but you just dont want to call our pc help line to get it resolved as we charge you 50p per min. why do we charge you? Report abuse

by Rob
at 00:37 on 21 Nov 2007

Another 20mbit customer i mesured my speed directly pluged into the modem with a bandwidth monitor monitoring all incomeing and outgoing network traffic so im positive its not a problem on my end im averageing around the 256kb/s mark most of the time peeking up to 512kb/s the best speed i've ever seen was once at 4am where for an hour i got 1.5mb/s

so on a good day im geting around a 40th of the speed im paying for on a bad day im geting an 80th

Got to say im less than impressed Report abuse

by Si
at 12:49 on 21 Nov 2007

Well, if VM took on more than they can handle, then they're obviously ******* ********. Why bite off more than you can chew?
Ive gota say, The dramatic change in internet speeds, is absolutely appauling,
And its not spyware or whatever. Ive done many scans with many different programs, and my computers clean,
i can honestly say, if it doesnt get sorted out soon, then damn,
no more VM for me! Report abuse

by Si
at 12:54 on 21 Nov 2007

Oh also, my friend's Dad rang the other day, and had the worst experience, with the customer experience people at VM.
he said that, after 5 different phone calls. YES 5!!
that he was still in the same situation, and that they didnt help at all.
VM... IF YOU WANT TO HELP PEOPLE, STOP BEING ******* ********, AND STOP GIVING SUCH CRAP ADVICE TO PEOPLE OVER THE PHONE.
If this crazy ******** carrys on, i wont hesitate to ring you up myself, and
explain my anger down the phone.
i hope all of your staff, are able to deal with angry people ripping at them, cause i intend to do alot of it. Report abuse

by Fat Kid
at 19:46 on 22 Nov 2007

I love VM customer services!!!

"Its your PC!"
Yes that makes sense being my PC literally could host these peoples internt better than your company.

"Its your wireless modem"
It could be, but wait it worked with NTL, Tesco and BT (i move alot meh)

But by far the BEST advice.
"Purhaps your phone line isnt working?"
Yea ok in that case ill HANG UP the PHONE and see if my phone works.....morons Report abuse

by steve
at 20:59 on 22 Nov 2007

Virgin media ADSL is a joke! Poor response times, they love capping/limiting your downloads the people that work for their support lines are uncaring morons. Tech support are seriously misinformed and blinded by their corporations lies. I'm getting 200ms latency and 50kBs downloads when i use to get full speed when they were virgin.net (7-8mbs).

DO NOT SIGN UP TO VIRGIN ADSL Report abuse

by katie
at 23:16 on 23 Nov 2007

I think the new service is awful! My internet does not stay on for more than 5 minutes and my digital tv regularly freezes and the on demand service does not work.

Bring back ntl!! Report abuse

by ali
at 12:10 on 24 Nov 2007

I've had a very painful relationship with Virgin media.. I had moved house and thought about getting virgin media in the new place.. Two months and still no sign of phone line.. the installation guy made me wait a whole day and then called in evening only to tell me they want to re-schedule.. I've tried complaining but have had no luck.. having spoken to at least a dozen of virgin media call center staff.. I am finally fed up and want to quit.. the funny thing is that they are even not letting me quit.. really frustrated now.. I'll sue them if they want to bill me for anything.. Not recommended.. even the box is low quality.. nothing compared to sky.. it hangs up.. and very slow in responding...

do not go for virgin.. or you'll suffer like me.. Report abuse

by Zeesh
at 17:52 on 24 Nov 2007

virgin media bloody charge for customer service! is this good?? i have vista and i wanna connect my broadband to it, how do i do that? Report abuse

by Moosey
at 18:09 on 26 Nov 2007

I'm about to jump ship from virgin adsl, gonna ask for my my MAC code and switch over to be * or tiscali, Has anyone had any problem,s getting there MAC code? could use the info before i try.

At the moment i'm on virgins 8mb unlimited service, but am only gettin 1.5 mb because they lied about how much my line could handle, and after 4pm my download speeds drop to about 25kbs until 12pm! which is disgusting, playing xbox live is virtually impossible! Report abuse

by sean
at 00:31 on 28 Nov 2007

Been a loyal customer to ntl since they first rolled out broadband and cable TV in our area. Apart from a few hickups on the net line which were all solved quickly.

The transfer to Virgin Media since has turned the reliable service into a technical nightmare. Frequent downtimes on the net, with constant resets to the connection that is oviously on Virgins server side, has made downloading anything impossible.
I had more reliable internet on an old dial up modem.

And like some horific infection spread now to the television box, flickering bright white in an epilectic headache. Forced to go back to watching tv through our arial. Calling the tech support is essentially an Indian reading a textbook to you on how to trial and error your problem and charge you for the pleasure.

Suddenly the slow connections of BT seem like heaven to this purgatory. Report abuse

by chris
at 17:11 on 28 Nov 2007

Moosey... You dont need a MAC code .its cable , just switch over to a B.T line and whoever you choose ,they will supply you with code. Virgin are in breach of contract , they are failing to give you what you signed up to .. If users took this up with virgin ,then they would have to supply you with the services/speed they promised or you can leave because they are not providing you with the service you signed up to .. dont take the crap they dish out , you are well within your consumer rights to leave VM with no comebacks from them .Just cancel DD and go elsewhere give them 30 days notice and change to a B.T line ,shop around before cancellation .. I am on B.T 6.5 mb 24/7 and no problems since i signed up with them ( home hub ) , got pc connected and PS3 wireless .. no problems , and tech support if needed are excellent . I hope that helps some people Report abuse

by stella
at 20:48 on 29 Nov 2007

I was with Telewest for a few years. They were great. The service was nearly a 100% and on the couple of ocassions that a fault occured or when I had a query, there customer services were friendly, knowledgable and quickly helpful - Then came Virgin Media!!! They drove me nuts! I haven't had problems with my broadband connection (until the last few days when it seems to have slowed) or the telephone, but the TV was so problematic with them, lack of channels (that were paid for, e.g. all the movie channels), freezing channels etc. I was keen for a company to give Sky some competition, having been a pained Sky customer in previous years. Therefore, I was optimistic about virgin. Losing Sky 1 etc just made me feel I should remain loyal to Virgin. I approached their customer services expecting good things, but it was dire, truly the worst I've come across. Like a new company learning its trade and doing it very, very badly.

I tried to be patient. I stuck with it for about 6/8 months. In the end I couldn't take it any more. It was so horrible that I actually looked forward to going back to sky!!! Its such a shame for a great service povided by Telewest to come to this and lets face it, Virgin have enough experience of business to be ashamed! Report abuse

by Robin
at 22:50 on 29 Nov 2007

i have always had the top speed broadband packages.
before i took out the VIP service i used to pay over £150 a month for my tv and phone services .
Since virgin took over my speed has dropped below dialup on 20meg for long periods during the day and night and the tv service and phone are all but dead.
i rang customers services 4 wweks ago. a man came 8 days later . reformatted my v box while telling me how he has nicked the drives out the boxes for his pc.
he then went. how the f would reformatting the harddrive in the v solve a hard ware problem. the box rebooted it self 10 times so i re rang. waited without tv service again for 7 days. they took my nice silver box and replaced it with an ugly virgin branded black one.
it was faulty on fitting so he went and got another box. this one was left on the diag screen. the screen you get when holding the up and down buttons on the box while its booting. he left saying it would reboot in about 3 hours.
it rebooted alright its not stopped rebooting. when i rang 151 they sent a signal that turned my cable modem off so i had to ring that dreaded 25 p a minute number which took 5 minutes to bring my account up because of the NooB who tried to fix the V even though the error code told him the box was faulty and needing replacing again.
TheV box has since said the smart card is invalid. guess what i have to wait again with no tv service until monday 3rd because they have no engineers , i argued with 7 different people and guess what. while driving the 30 mile trip to pick my autistic son up from school they called leaving a card knowing full well i told them to ring me on my mobile if a cancellation turned up. i could now be charged a £10 for being out when they know i am only at home after 10 in the morning and 6 at night. i have to drive my son my self to his school everyday.
my bill is over £125 a month and still i get slow speeds no tv and a rubbish phone service. they even told me my tv service could be being interferred with by a local cordless phone. what a joke. they told me as i had a £15 discount last month and one in july when i also had no services that i was expecting to much. .
i have been with ntl through the 90's while in leicestershire hinckley then telewest in solihull until it was taken over by ntl and now virgin media. the speed issues's are now terrible. i even brough a new router when they blamed it on my router. it was not my router. they say its a network problem and no one knows when it will be fixed. as for the tv service i cant use on demand or use all the features of my V box because they have never worked although they used to work before virgin took over. plus now my silver lcd hd tv looks odd with ablack box stood under it .
the call center pass you around to several people and you have to keep retelling your story i was even called alier . just who do they think they are.
i told them im paying for something you cant make work. either fix it or admit you cant .
And to top it all off i cant access my web hosting company or email servers because virgin are blocking all 1and1 sites at this present time .
a security problem they say . not what 1and 1 told me.
if you use hide my ass as ip spoof all the 1and 1 sites work but you cant log in through them unless you set up proxys . why the hell should i be messing around doing all this when i pay a huge amount of money to virgin.
everytime the speed goes up mines goes down even though i have the top speed.
also they advertise get it all from 0ne place but the mobile side of things is still seperate as some people who fail to get the mobile deals know only too well.
i get there mobile service but thousands who have been customers for years and trusted with home phone lines fail a credit check. how stupid. if people are not good enough for one service then why give them other services. because the advert falsely stated get all 4 from one place but virgin mobile are actually seperate at this time. no doubt sky will spot this and another advert will be banned.
One person said think about people in africa in a post above this who are starving they are not moaning about things like cable tv not working. yes its a shame for them in africa but with all due respect they are not paying hundreds of pounds a month for something they cant use and if they did they would soon complain too.

were caught up in a child like battle between branson and sky and its us who are suffering.

no way should anyone pay for something that does not work or something they dont get.
Rougue traders should do a program and film the engineers and then film the tv and internet to prove it dont work properly and if it does it dont last long.

I dont want discounts or refunds or to spend half my natural life on 150 0r 151 or that dreaded 25 p a min number.

I JUST WANT WHAT THEY SAY I PAY FOR >
telewest had improved so much over the years and VIRGIN along with customer care (telewest used to come within hours sometimes) have took it back to the dark ages.

VIRGIN YOUR LIVING OFF MY MONEY BUT IF YOU CANT GET IT RIGHT IM DIVORCING YOU>

no tv for a month is taking piss dont you think. then being told i have to go to the back of the call out queue again.
i cant even watch the end of i'm celebrity . Report abuse

by Richard
at 21:40 on 3 Dec 2007

I Originally signed up for the 2mb connection and at first i had great speeds and pings. This connection has been upgraded several times and I am now on 20mb but I have to say recently I have found it absloutely appauling with pings of 250 - 300 and when I try a speedtest it rarely goes over 1mb unless I wait til 1am where it returns to how my connection should be. The pings make playing games online impossible unless I wait til 1am which frankly when I am paying all this money for the best package is a Joke. Have checked my router and modem and there is no problem, tried emailing virgin and heave heard nothing back. Dont get Virgin media they suck big time Report abuse

by bart
at 21:42 on 5 Dec 2007

Cant play online, eventhough server is like 50 miles away my ping is as high as 72 semetimes :S same ping as ppl from russia lol, very unstable up and down loads of packet losts, im gonna switch to BT i think.. cant be worse Report abuse

by Birmingham Customer
at 12:00 on 6 Dec 2007

Virgin Media can't meet it's own customer service targets. When they promise a call within 4 hours, they actually mean 3 days. I have been waiting for 1 month for a Broadband/Phone line install to be done. They fail to turn up on time for appointments, 1-6pm actually means 8-10pm and then they tell you they have to come back the next day. Do they think everyone is unemployed and just sits at home all week for them to turn up. DON'T SIGN UP FOR VIRGIN MEDIA SERVICES IF CUSTOMER SERVICE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. Report abuse

by concord
at 22:45 on 6 Dec 2007

well what a load of crap ntl ok vm as i said crap the tv is more trouble now my broadband useless put on pc guard as advised 25 p per min to try to listen to some indian who then says she will switch on her pc to get me up and running yipee we are on our way next day up i come on the pc pc guard inactive press button i am running too many computers i have only got one back on phone 25p per min get you runnig sahib not that day but next day there we are up and running again next day off again too many computers still only got one five times of ringing up the cost of calls now getting to around £20 at 15 mins a time just forget about it ring how to delete the thing gave me a web name
delete.pcguard.notlong.com

that is not found thank you mr branson for a load of crap Report abuse

by Stuart
at 23:57 on 6 Dec 2007

I've got vigin media XL broadband but i might as well have dial up (it might be faster).I do online gaming but not this week as my ping is like 350 when it is usually only about 30.I rung the broadband helpline today and got thru after about 15 mins of re-dialing to be told there is nothing wrong with my connection :@
So i went on VISUALWARE speedtest where it stated my download speed is 6 times faster than dial up WTF.IF THEY DON'T GET THERE ACT TOGETHER SOON I WILL BE SWITCHING ISP!!!!!!!!!! Report abuse

by Ash
at 15:00 on 7 Dec 2007

Hi,
I got my services installed within 10 days of i registered my interest with them. I did not have any problem except that the technician arrived before 10 in the morning than agreed afternoon hours. i have all the three telly, phone and broadband 2mb connection with them. But service is poorest to its standards
1. when you are on phone for more than 20 mins line drops....gosh...
2. Internet connection speed, never more than 50-80KBPS.....be it night morning whatever...as if it challenges me to test to achieve beyond these rates
3. Telly, just a piece of crap......you press the red button, set alarm and go to sleep....yes i mean it it takes that long....some times it doesnt care the red button in the remote.

i am left with no other option but to continue wiht them as my home doesnt have a bt line for which i need to pay 130GBP of installation charge....i always thought cable bb would be fast but never thought could be this slow...
dont go to them... Report abuse

by CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
at 16:45 on 8 Dec 2007

VIRGIN STAFF TO TRY THE VERY BETTER TO DEAL WITH THE LARGE NUMBER OF CUSTOMER CALLS EVERYDAY .. HOWEVER THE HOLE " I HATE VIRGIN AND WISH IT WAS STILL NTL " IS GETTING A BIT OF A RE-ACURRING PHRASE NOW ..

THE TRUTH IS, IT STILL NTL, IT WAS JUST A REBRAND OF THE COMPANY NAME , LIKE TO DODGEY CLOTHES SHOP OR TV SHOP THAT WERE NOT DOING TO WELL. THEY CHANGED THERE NAME AND BRANSON GET 25% . THATS IT .........

ITS STILL THE SAME PEOPLE ON THE END OF THE PHONES AND ALL THE SAME MANAGERS .. BUT THEY HAVE REALISED THAT THEY COULD NOT CONTINUE GIVE AWAY THE SERVICE AS THEY WERE .

NOW THAT THE REBAND IS HERE THEY ARE TRYING TO GIVE THE CUSTOMERS
A GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE BUT NOT ALL FOR FREE AS THEY WERE..

LOSS OF SKY CHANNELS WHO CARES .........

SLOW BB SPEED CHECK OUT THE VIRGIN MEDIA HOME PAGE FOR HELP ON SPEED PROBLEMS (( IT DOES HELP )) YOUR NOT GOING TO GET 20MB ALL THE TIME PROBS NEVER GET 20 BUT WITH A GOOD UP TO DATE PC YOU SHOULD GET AROUND WHAT THEY OFFER CHECK SAMKNOWS.COM

LOTS OF PEOPLE CALL TO DISCONNECT JUST TO GET WHAT THEY WANT ...

ALL YOU REALLY NEED TO IS ASK FOR A OFFER , A DISCOUNT AS YOUR THINKING OF LEAVING .. THIS WAY IS THE BEST WAY TRUST ME .. I WORK THERE ..

I HATE THE PLACE BUT THE POST SOUNDS LIKE IM STANDING UP FOR THEM

BUT IM NOT THE SERVICE DO IT FOR ITSELF Report abuse

by P O of York
at 17:31 on 8 Dec 2007

Every weekend... All's well on Friday then the Techy boys switch the lights off and go home... OK, on average, every other weekend but something goes down and we need to ring the call line - who's number just keeps changing..
0871 2251111 or 0800 0251021 or 0800 0522000 or 0845 4540000 or 0800 0681400 or 0800 5610061 or now 0906 2121111 or is it 0906 9913331 - both Premium Rate lines to call to to pay for asking the people we pay for a service to fix that service.
And before you call you have to decide if it's the Set-Top Tellebox that's screwing up your internet or the Computer Route Shooter Fruiter That needs a Booter. If you get that wrong they're telleby telleby solley but you'll have to do it all again... Report abuse

by Mark Pearce
at 12:29 on 10 Dec 2007

my virgin media box froze yesterday with the messaage 8888 on it 10 mins before the football was about to start-fab.
after 6HOURS of phone calls & wife in tears because the tools at virgin media unhelpline would not commit to a repair for us.
we eevntually got one booked for tues 11/12/07 between 4-7pm
i was told if i wouldn't be there for the call i would be charged £10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HILLARIOUS!!!!!!!
i then rang £ TIMES this morning to check for sure the repair was tomoro only to be told it's wed 12/12/07!!!!!!
can i now charge you £10 for not turning up????? NO?????
didn't think so.
also 1 made another 9.5 minute call to their rip off broadband unhelp line connection 10p call 25p per min!!!!!!!!!
to be told by a retard that there was no problem with my modem it MUST be my pc????!!!!!!!!!!!
GENIUS.
being a computer engineer myself i know how to fix & diagnose problems not let some minimum wage muppet tell me to unplug & plug back in.
basically if you want service DO NOT take up ANY offer with these idiots.
WHERE do they get their staff?????????
SESAME STREET?????????????????????????????????????? Report abuse

by josh bt bad boy
at 18:49 on 10 Dec 2007

you will not need mac code to leave vm all you need is to cancel as they use own network

the only time mac code is reqd is when you pay line rental to other provider other than vm Report abuse

by Tim Knott
at 12:39 on 11 Dec 2007

Virgin Media have turned Blueyonder in to dog pile, we were customers of Cableinet this eventually became Blueyonder and we have been with them for over 10 years.

Blueyonder had problems ocassionally but alway fixed them and were almost always polite with their customers and even gave a refund if they felt a customer was wronged in some way, now the company has changed to Virgin Media there is virtually no customer service, most of the staff are trained to say that they "understand your concerns" but really they don't and as the old saying goes 'action speaks louder than words' most of them will only help you to cancel your account rather than help you to fix the actual problem, in fact we have found that VM staff acted almost like they were working for SKY when it came to getting rid of loyal long-standing customers, they just couldn't wait to get rid of you.

This Virgin Media attitude was probably due to poor staff training and a lack of managers in general who would have been able to sort out most your problems.

We got to a point with Virgin Media in approx. May 2007 where we wanted to quit the service (or lack of it), even this was an ordeal as you were unable to contact them by phone and no response from email.

When we did get through we were made an offer to keep our service for a minimum cost of just £20 per month for almost the same package that we had been paying around £55 per month for.

Since November 2007 we have had a problem with slow internet and Virgin Media's response has been to direct me to their premium rate technical line, I have told them that I refuse to call it on principle as I know that the fault is on their side and not mine, I have also threatend to take them to the county court for a refund for each month that I have had a loss of service.

I will probably complain to OFCOM but I have found these type of so called regulators to be almost useless, they rarely take any action against an offending company.

My advice to anyone with a simular problem would be to use the online county court service and gather your evidence carefully, you can also put in a charge for your time and any software that you purchased to prove your point.

see; https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk Report abuse

by Spire
at 12:39 on 12 Dec 2007

I am with virgin media, and paying only 10 quid a month for 2mb speed with unlimited download limit. I have to say it is a fantastic service. I am having no problems. All you moaners must have problems with your computers. I have done a speed check, and it is always 2mb, sometimes it even goes to 2.2mb, awesome! Report abuse

by Arnold Lever
at 22:55 on 18 Dec 2007

I hate virgin media, well it actually still telewest, as Richard Branson is only a face they have bought for tv adverts, he doesnt own the company... Report abuse

by Zunnan
at 22:28 on 20 Dec 2007

Been with Telewest for 6 years at my mothers home, and until it became part of NTL I had years of problem free internet. The NTL switch gave the odd glitch for a day or so then settled down.

Queue Virgin Media. Never have I known such a crappy service. Changeover day my net fell over. For two days. Then I had intermittent service for a number of months, with every call to them resulting in variations on the "There's service affecting problems in your area, we won't send an engineer directly to you" line. Three months to sort out a problem affecting multiple users?! Am I understanding this right? Then it settled...For about three weeks. Ever since the service and connectivity have been tempramental at best, and STILL they insist theres a local problem so won't send someone out.

The past three days...

My girlfriend is with Virgin Media in St Helens, 90 miles away from me. Tuesday night my net drops out, so I rang her up and guess what...Hers had just dropped out too, TV as well. I think since then between the two of us at opposite sides of the country have manages a total of anoutan hour with a useable service. The monkeys in the office at Virgin obviously can't do their job and provide any form of decent service.

To the whingers who moan about BT...Try Virgin, only THEN will you have reasonable cause to bitch about something. Report abuse

by CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
at 14:59 on 23 Dec 2007

i think a lot of your problems are down to user error ..

virgin bb service is the best your going to get .

slow cheap and old pc/laptop are to going to be able to get you your 20mg bb

so dont buy it .

alot of you keep saying bring bavk ntl / telewest ..

ITS STILL IS NTL / TELEWEST , the guys were told save a customer at all costs

so you were getting your services very cheap .. and it was in danger of going bust Report abuse

by CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
at 15:04 on 23 Dec 2007

branson then stepped in .. not to take it over but to rebrand

a name change only

same staff buildings managers and the same network

with all the same issues as before ..

CUSTOMERS WANTING EVERYTHING FOR NOTHING

SO NEXT TIME YOU HAVE PROBLEMS AND CALL THEM SHOUTING BRING BACK NTL YOUR BB IS RUBBISH

CHECK YOUR SLOW OLD PC , CONNECT DIRECT TO MODEM AND NOT VIA ROUTE

CHECK OUT THE VIRGIN MEDIA HOME PAGE FOR HELP TO SPPED UP YOUR CONNECTION

AND ...................

IF YOU DO NEED TO CALL BB HELP LINES YOU WILL PAY 25P PER MIN BUT IF THERE IS A FAULT

THEN THEY WILL REFUND THE CALL CHARGES ... ...... Report abuse

by Matt
at 11:54 on 25 Dec 2007

Well as I longtime Telewest customer we hardly had any problems with either out TV or Internet service; eveything worked, was reliable and speedy and I would expect as much only being something like lesst that a mile from out nearest station, Then Virgin takes over and the quality goes down hill rapidly, the Cable box and reception die at least once a day or freeze for hours on end. The Internet connection either slows down completely or just dies and were paying out large sums of money for a service that only works some of th time this is rediculous Virgin need to get their act together.
We stayed with them after the debacle that was the lose of Sky One and others but now I'm not so sure it was worth it, Virgin Media has been terrible and i'm seriously considering leaving to find a better service in the New Year.

Oh and their Mobile servie isn't much better either. Report abuse

by Bertybassett
at 16:51 on 25 Dec 2007

Hi Folks,

How about this for service...

I moved house where cable had been previusly installed. So i rang up Virgin Media to sign up went for BB L, telephone M, TV, M and VM sim for about £37 a month. I was sent a quickstart pack in two days by courier. Got it home and no modem PSU. Rang them the next day, yes sir be with you in 2 working days... 2 working days later nothing, so i rang up, sorry sir there was a problem will be sent out today. 2 days later nothing...once again i rang up and was told cock and bull story again. Told them they have 2 days to get it to me or im cancelling... 2 days later i cancelled the direct debit and sent a letter telling them to poke it up there ass.

Clearly they either don`t give a toss or are completely incompetent. Either way Sky has another customer well done VM. Report abuse

by Jason
at 16:22 on 29 Dec 2007

Whilst the branding and offers have been refreshed, the poor customer service legacy of NTL lives on! When broadband works it's great, but if there's a fault you'll be left in the cold! An engineer has failed to keep two consecutive appointments to repair my connection in the last month. This is my third week without service! Apologies and refunds are great, but I'd rather just have the service. Report abuse

by Glenn
at 15:19 on 2 Jan 2008

With Ref to :- cutie
Feb 22nd, 2007 at 8:19 pm and her comments

As a Virgin customer and ntl: customer and diamond cable customer i know the changes that have taken place prob better than anyone and having worked at NTL: for three years i can honestly say the service levels have fallen since Virgin have taken over.

I have been and had the same service since pre NTL: and until recently have been almost trouble free. Until the nightmare hit that is Virgin.

My connection (4mb) failed every night and the upload and download speeds never reached over 1kbs this is not the service i paid for so called Virgins support line.
They advised me to restart my modem again (as i had only done this four times before calling) i explained that the connection was ok during the day but since i work this is of no use to me i needed the connection for works emails etc when i leave the office. The support staff or Tech support was no help at all and openly admitted that the modem looks fine. This went on for 2 months off and on with me calling again and again and getting the same response re start the modem and see how it goes etc. The service is so poor and the poor tech support staff are clueless. So after a while i demanded a call from a manager of the tech support centre, i was advised it takes upto six hours to get such a call back so as this was 8pm i asked if it woud happen as it means waiting up until 2am when i start work in the office at 9am? this was assured that the call was requested and a manager would call me back again the modem was tested and no fault found. 2am and no call back so i called again and requested one for 8am the same day. No call back so i called again being advsied nothing had been requested and the tech support centre do not offer call backs! so i was openly lied to by their staff again and again and made to wait up till 2am for nothing. So i demanded a manager come to the phone, some one came up and spoke to me and said there is a fault with the modem and they need to send an engineer to test my line. I explained as its been tested by a engineer aleady during the day another home visit is useless as means me taking further time off will not resolve the matter. Again i agred to this and again (bearing in mind i used to work on the faults line so knew it was pointless) the engineer turns up at 10am saying yep signals fine!
then leaves. i was promised a new modem within 3 days assured it would be there but this took nearly 8 days to arrive. The service to date has been so poor i decided to take it to head office (i know its a joke) to complain (still thinking is it just me).
They refunded me for all my calls to the tech support line but would not offer anything for the lack of internet connection at night as and i quote
"even though you have had a 1kbs connection it was still connected so the service was there"
this is a joke to say the least, it would not allow me to connect to servers as the server response time was to slow but if i wanted to wait for google home page and had 15 mins to await the virgin server to gove me an IP address then would accept this but it was not and still is not the service we as paying customers pay for.

So Cutie, with ref to your comments. As i worked there i know yes NTL: / Virgin are a great company to work for but to be a customer of theirs sucks beyond any words that i can post here. I know how to use a pc thank you as am A cert and MSCE cert but i am sure you have no idea what that even means!!! please do not assume as all your staff seem to that they are talking to people that know nothing of servers and pc's and isp connections etc this type of service is becoming common place and it high time we stopped just accepting it. I am taking complaint as far as i can not to get money back but to highlight the outstanding lack of service that this company fails to supply. Further more if all the staff that works there feel like you do i suggest we ALL take our money to a company that cares what their customers think and just dont assume that we are all stupid!

Thank you Cutie for letting us all know the standpoint of virgin on this one (please all scroll up near the top and read
cutie Feb 22nd, 2007 at 8:19 pm
her comments are quite interesting!

Happy new year all :) Report abuse

by Simon L
at 19:07 on 3 Jan 2008

I have been a customer of Blueyonder since they appeared in my area and I was very happy both with the network and the customer service.

Since VM took over both suck. I haven't had any outages (but nor did I under Blueyonder) but the speed is MUCH slower than it used to be even ignoring the bandwidth throttling which now happens every day.

I never get the speed I pay for and when I try to use what they are prepared to let me have I get penalised for it. I feel ripped off and I shall be kissing them goodbye as soon as possible.

Virgin Media - you are out of order and I hate you.

To the guy who works for them. The Caps Lock key is on the left hand side of your keyboard near the shift key - idiot. Report abuse

by sean mack
at 16:13 on 7 Jan 2008

I've been an NTL/Virgin customer for Report abuse

by Chris Hooper
at 16:28 on 7 Jan 2008

I have an account with Virgin Media (ADSL) and I assure you the standard of the broadband and the customer service is absolutely dire.

On-peak you are lucky to get 500kb/s download on most BAMs and customer services will lie to your face to get rid of you when challenged. It is also virtually impossible to leave without financial penalty (settlement of contract).

The difference between the marketing/advertising of VM services i.e. promised speeds and standards of customer service, and the actual reality of what you get is beyond belief.
and please, please, please DON'T sign up with Virgin Media. Report abuse

by pablosmaximus
at 09:27 on 10 Jan 2008

I'm a little confused here....

i'm signing upto virgin now and the installer is due to install today. I went with them because their package was the best around. I was with the old NTL some years ago and the service was great. The only bad point was that they kept screwing up my bills and thats why i left, but thinking back i had nothing but super fast BB all the time, with great download speeds.

Now what i'm very confused about is why people keep referencing the BT exchanges and how close they are to the house, etc. Cable does'nt work like that, its seperate from BT. The broadband you buy from say tiscali or talktalk is ISDN and works through the existing (often very dated) BT exchanges. Cable works via cable exchanges, totally sperate from BT and nothing to do with the phone line (hence why you dont need a MAC code when swapping over and why you old BT line is left redundant).

I rang customer service and must admit it took a couple of times before i got through to someone british, whom i could understand (i did this by going through sales). When she answered i cheered and she just laughed and was very helpful. I explained that i did'nt understand my contract, as the pricing was different from the website, but it will be correct when up and running. She did also say that if i'm not happy i do have a cooling off period of 30days after the switch on, so i can opt out if wanted.

So i'll give them a blast and see how it goes, if its crap, i'll swap......but its worth seeing, because to be honest they are all the same!

cheers Report abuse

by Anthony Jelley
at 22:36 on 10 Jan 2008

Virgin media are awful. Avoid them like the plague. I have nothing good to say about their service. The broadband is extremely slow and unreliable and the customer service is expensive and useless. Report abuse

by VM Worker
at 10:09 on 11 Jan 2008

For God sake!!! you lot are the sort of people that make me NOt want to got o work int he morning! I work for VM custoemr care and have done for 3 years now. The change over to VM is just the name. nothing else has changed. not the service, not the staff and not the policy! You are all just using the "name change" (as that is all it it) as an excuse to moan about ur old computers!!!!!

If you dont like it, bugger off to SKy, They show amazing prices but dont tell you that you have to BUY the equiptment from them, and pay for fault call out! My dad got charged £70 just for a sky tech to go to his house and say " the cables come out mate"!!!! Report abuse

by CMore
at 15:08 on 13 Jan 2008

I've been using Virgin's Size M broadband since last May. In all that time I have never had the speed drop below at least 1Mbps, even at peak times. I am always able to get online, which following two years with the nightmare that is Tiscali was a new experience.
The service, for me at least, has been nothing but reliable. I wanted to give them a fair crack at the whip before upgrading my speed package, and they've kept their side of the bargain so I'm getting XL.
The problem faced by many helpdesks is that I would imagine 9 times out of 10 the problem IS the customer's machine. Unfortunately the more experienced users face a system geared towards this as a result. It's all very well moaning about a script that appears to suspect the customer's machine as being at fault, but this is a consumer society with computers so ubiquitous that you will find people who think the DVDROM drive is for putting your cup of coffee on.
It's experts who tend to moan about the support, not the average user.
There is a lot of hatred geared towards the Indian call centres, and racism too. I have never found them to be anything other than unfailingly courteous and helpful. UK call centres have their own set of problems. Orange mobile users will know what I'm talking about here.
All in all I think Virgin Media offers a reliable service with decent customer service. If and when they do screw something up, be firm but nice and the chances are they'll give you a discount or a free upgrade. Losing it on the phone won't help you with any company, and those "monkeys" (to quote one of the more disgusting reviews here) in the call centre do actually have the power to use goodwill.
I just got a major discount when upgrading my TV and broadband to XL. How? They made a mistake, and I was really nice about it.
All those with major grievances should write, not phone. It gets results every time. Report abuse

by Scotch mist
at 00:33 on 15 Jan 2008

With blueyonder 8mg service I could download HD movies in a few hours. With Virgin at the helm this takes a few days. Speeds drop below the 56k modem days. Bunch of amateurs-broadband my a**! Report abuse

by Simon Mitchell
at 16:08 on 15 Jan 2008

If you're reading this and currently looking for a great all round media package VM is NOT it. I repeat VM is NOT it.
I'm a pretty sensible person who did all my homework before selecting a provider. VM seems the best deal financially BUT by golly will you be making up the difference in savings by:
1. sitting around at home (taking precious time off work) by waiting for your FOURTH set of 'engineers' (a.k.a MONKEYS) to sort out the rubbish the last lot left behind.
2. making calls using your mobile phone to the other MONKEYS at 'customer care' because your VM landline doesn't work
3. paying for a handyman to tidy up the shoddy work inside/outside your property left behind by the 'fantastic' installation team.

I'm all for saving a bit of cash and sending the call centre abroad BUT for VM this is NOT working. Other companies have successfully done this but VM is not one of them. The team there just don't understand customer issues. They are so obviously reading out of a manual titled 'The Answer To Everything Is To Reboot And Hope For The Best'.

The UK 'customer care' centre are no better. You will NEVER speak to the same person (even Manager) ever again. Since I've had VM, I've spoken to 20 different people (so spend time having to explain the same issues again and again). They really don't seem to give a darn about the customer. Oh, and watch the sales team who will promise you a smooth installation, great aftercare, blah, blah. Yeah, right.

I'm all for the simple life, so if you are too DO NOT JOIN VIRGIN MEDIA! Report abuse

by pope
at 18:41 on 16 Jan 2008

i am having a headache with adsl virgin media on peak times i dont get much more than 20 kbps!!! pass 1am it jumps right up2 300 - 400 rang them up so many times its useless they always blame bt. Report abuse

by A1
at 13:17 on 21 Jan 2008

I have had enough with VM. I have been vastly overcharged due to a 'computer error’ and have been assured of a refund three times now but thus far nothing has happened. Now I repeatedly phone to ask for the credit I'm owed, detailing the whole story again and again. It's as if no communication occurs. I have taken note of call times and the staff names but this doesn't seem improve their efficiency. I have asked for an itemised bill (in Dec) for which I was charged and this has not arrived. Now I have come to the end of my tether and have decided to leave Virgin Media. If you are considering it – DON’T! It works out as more expensive than other providers in the end due to the amount of phoning you have to do to sort out problems and the over billing. The internet often loses connection too and phone is not of great quality. The only good thing is the television package but this can be found with other providers.

1/10 Report abuse

by Paul
at 18:05 on 21 Jan 2008

I made the mistake of getting ADSL broadband from these idiots! Download speeds are pre-historical, staff are rude and arrogant and customer service is non existent. I am in the process of complaining to the adverting standards agency and OFFCOM. Do yourself a favour, dont get VM. If you already have it, make your voice heard. Report abuse

by Morris
at 00:10 on 27 Jan 2008

Well its midnight as i type this, it has taken all evening to check the PC, modem and wirless router to resolve a speed issue. The out come is VM are throttling your broadban connections, this was discovered after looking on the net for information on the NTL200 router, Well if you whant to find out what your connection is log on to 192.168.100.1 user name and password is root in lowercase. This will allow you to view all your setting in the modem. From test carried out today my modem connectoin is 2MB but my up load is 109Kb and gess what my down load is 32kb , i had faster connection on dial up 10 years ago. So dont be fobbed off with you pc is not working or your router has a problem ITS VM THROTTLING YOUR BB CONNECTION.

Rant over bed time Good night. Report abuse

by jason
at 17:20 on 28 Jan 2008

I endeavoured to register for your service and spoke to Nathan. He advised me that my address was not recorded, so suggested I contact another department who would change it from 37A and 37B. Although 37a exists, there is no 37B. My house is 37.

I was told this had been done. When I called Nathan back, he was rude and unhelpful and offered to put me through to customer services. However, he disconnected the call instead.

I was told that someone would visit to check the number. A week has now passed and as far as I am aware no one has been. Report abuse

by Steve
at 08:59 on 29 Jan 2008

Virgin media should also stop with the false advertising claims they make. They should stress the fact that they have speed caps which in the world today can easily be met with out doing any sort of illegal activities but from very legitimate use. These caps basically mean if you are in to your streaming web videos or download purchased videos, songs, games, software, use your connection to vpn in to work etc. you will be paying over the top for a cut down connection during the hours of the day when you are most likely going to use the internet. For example if you are on the 20mb connection and download 3 gig between 4 and 9 o'clock you will drop down to speeds of 5mbs or less for 4 and in some cases 5 hours, so you basically pay 37 quid for a 5mb connection. The excuse they use is that this is to stop heavy down loaders, which is absolute rubbish because they have actually lost more customers then they have gained in the last year. What they are doing is cutting costs offering a sub standard service.

They have also cut costs on their network infrastructure moving away from ATM in favour of gigabit Ethernet (yes this is true) which if you are offering high speed broadband is not they way to go, it is cheaper and cuts costs but is not future proof.

If you want broadband which is what it says i.e. unlimited and fast stick with a DSL variant until Virgin Media sort their act out. Report abuse

by Fly boy
at 21:31 on 30 Jan 2008

DON'T GO WITH VIRGIN MEDIA ADSL

Since i have been with VM, had problems with constant connection drops, the speed i was getting was 7.5 now non existant very slow downloads forget it. I then find out as my contract was coming to an end in a months time, i moved home within the 12 month contract period which was near to the contract ending. you automatically get entered into a new 12 month contract which there home moving department DON'T like to tell you so if move home and still in the contract you either pay to come out of the contract or enter into a new 12 months contract so you pay no matter what just another rip off britain company Report abuse

by Neil
at 00:59 on 31 Jan 2008

I've been with what used to be Telewest then Blueyonder since the days of the first 512mbit packages and things have never been so bad. Customer service is poor beyond belief and no wonder as they fired most of the more expensive technical staff and replaced them with phone answerers. To have the insult of actually having to pay a premium rate to talk to someone who has less technical knowledge than you average household pet is beyond belief.

Their bandwith throttling isn't just awkward it's badly done and effects gaming pings as much as heavy downloaders. My once steady rates have now gotten to the point where somedays I can't even use UK servers without the risk of a high ping autokick let alone the European ones I used to play on.

The TV service is laughably bad as well as being overpriced and god forbid you need a competent field engineer as it's pure pot luck that you even get one who knows one end of a screwdriver from another.

I'm dumping their TV service this week and dropping the broadband package from 20mb as it's rare you even get close to good use out of it. Report abuse

by radat69
at 12:58 on 2 Feb 2008

Lets get something straight here,reading all the comments above seems plainly obvious to me and others that virgin bb has a prob somewhere. i dont care who provides my bb, i just want what i pay for! simply as that.(if you went to a bakers and bought 2 pies but you were charged for 3 , would you be happy to pay it??) NO! you would not.i have been with blueyonder for over ten years ,dont ever remember havin a problem with them, certainly nothing worth mentioning.Enter virgin......you say its just a name change??? I pay for 2mb and recently have been receiving close to a dial up connection! (most of the time).i know this as i have tried 3 independent test on my NEW 4month old Pc. I am also a tech engineer who works with electronics and computers, i know my way round a pc or mac or linux based system......i do understand bandwidths and all that entails with all the traffic at certain times of the day.to all you so called monkeys on tech support...please dont insult my intelligence.
as for customer support, just read above comments that will give you an idea?!I could go on and on but dont think i need to.had all manner of probs with tv, phone and bb since virgin put there name above the door! I think SKY will be receiving my call in the next couple of weeks(its also cheaper than vm and i can get 16mb at the same price within my bundle)need i say anymore........................? Report abuse

by Steve,
at 00:26 on 5 Feb 2008

As most of the notes on this message board say, PLEASE don't go with VM! We had Telewest in N.London for many years and we were pretty happy with it. We moved to Surrey (which is formally NTL) and the transfer was a total nightmare. None of the old equipment would work.

For a communications company, they are pretty bad at picking up the phone. I regularly waited on their activation line for 20 or 30 minutes without then answering.

We wanted be disconnected and close the account, but they don't actually answer the line you call to be disconnected. To get anywhere you have to write to them.

We refused to pay the bills they were charging, and guess what, we received a note from the debt collectors.

The good news is that we are now very happy with broadband from Be Unlimited and good old Freeview! I hear good reviews of Madasafish and Plusnet. Report abuse

by Weed
at 20:37 on 5 Feb 2008

yep, Virgin Media are crap

unfortunately i'm too far from my local BT exchange to be able to get fast broadband over a BT line, so i'm stuck with these greedy incompetents

i was with Telewest for 5 years, who were fine, but after getting taken over by Virgin Media, technical support is now on a premium line number, their performance is lowest of all the major service providers, and worst of all i get cut back to 25% of the advertised download and upload speeds for 5 hours every night -- this seems to happen as soon as my upload speed goes over 256Kb (i'm paying an extra 10 quid a month for a measley extra 128Kb upload which i really need)

there's much better suppliers out there, so if you have a choice, use it! Report abuse

by gd
at 01:05 on 7 Feb 2008

I do NOT like Direct Debit. Used to pay around £2 a month handling fees with Telewest, Virgin have increased this to a fiver.

That's £60 a year!

Paid 3 months in advance but STILL got ripped off £5 a month, even though they already had my money!

When I complained, they responded 'you can pay anytime, any amount, any method, if you don't like us using DDs, take one out anyway and just settle it before the due date. We won't issue a payment request to your bank' (I think they're missing the point!) Report abuse

by becki
at 00:36 on 8 Feb 2008

virgin media! wot a complete utter joke!!if i have to listen to that tone they play down the phone 4 another time i swear il throw the phone! i have had nothin but problems with this company from day one! ive been with BT and never had problems before, and i never had problems with NTL since Virgin media took over its a total nitemare! anyone thinkin of going with virgin id think again!!!! there useless and cant do there job, they tell you aload of crap just to get you off the phone! i paid £25 for some man to come to my door, put the modem down on my table get a signature and go! i had to install the thing myself! they took two payments out of bank of £25 and claimed they never til i told them i would send my bank statments! i signed up 4 a contract of £10 a month and they weretakin out £18! so i cancelled the direct debit! and phoned them and told them. they said they would give me three FREE months worth of internet for any problems caused!
i agreed, but once returnin from my holiday i found they had cut my internet off after only givin me one months free! so i rang them i was then put on hold four times, put the phone down twice! and they said i owed £42 because i never paid a bill! i said thats what you get for givin me three FREE months. so i said id pay the bill and the internet would be back on in 24 hours! after 24 hours it was still not on!! so i rang again! i was yet again put on hold and jimmy as he stating his name, i found him to be very rude and very un helpful! i only wanted to no why? i told him he was very rude and he shouldnt be in that type of work if he cannot deal with customer complaints! i told him i was goin to trading standards! his reply was "go on then" and hung up! i was passed from person to person tellin me 20 minutes, 20 minutes what aload of crap that was! it took 5 people to tell me that i was disconnected! there nothing but lyers and cons and just out to make money! i dont have a good word to say about this company apart from there jokes and complete rubbish so think twice before goin with virgin!!! Report abuse

by lisa
at 00:48 on 8 Feb 2008

reading some of these comments are making me laugh! the vm workers!
of course your going to stick up for the company, you work for them!
like how one said its the old computers! so explain this to me then, my daughter brought a brand new computer! so your saying something is up with the computer when its two weeks old? i dont think so!!!! its just your crap services! you might actually want to start thinking about what people are writing about the services and company! because it could go a long way to actaully helping and you not having to deal with moaning customers!!! as you like to call us! we moan for a reason sweetheart! and if over 300 people are writing along the same lines then something as got to be up!!!! so maybe you want to actually start reading what people are writing! and one writing bugger off to sky? so what would you do if every single person did that? where would you be and doing for work? ummm yeah you vm workers want to actually take note to what your customers are saying! it makes sense, just shows what kind of people you are and who you speak to on the other side of the phone, shows how rude you can actually be!
ive had my say now. and anyone whos thinking of goin with virgin? think twice!
id pay that extra bit more and go with BT, sky, or any one else! dont waste your money! Report abuse

by becki
at 01:40 on 8 Feb 2008

virgin media! wot a complete utter joke!!if i have to listen to that tone they play down the phone 4 another time i swear il throw the phone! i have had nothin but problems with this company from day one! ive been with BT and never had problems before, and i never had problems with NTL since Virgin media took over its a total nitemare! anyone thinkin of going with virgin id think again!!!! there useless and cant do there job, they tell you aload of crap just to get you off the phone! i paid Â£25 for some man to come to my door, put the modem down on my table get a signature and go! i had to install the thing myself! they took two payments out of bank of Â£25 and claimed they never til i told them i would send my bank statments! i signed up 4 a contract of Â£10 a month and they weretakin out Â£18! so i cancelled the direct debit! and phoned them and told them. they said they would give me three FREE months worth of internet for any problems caused!
i agreed, but once returnin from my holiday i found they had cut my internet off after only givin me one months free! so i rang them i was then put on hold four times, put the phone down twice! and they said i owed Â£42 because i never paid a bill! i said thats what you get for givin me three FREE months. so i said id pay the bill and the internet would be back on in 24 hours! after 24 hours it was still not on!! so i rang again! i was yet again put on hold and jimmy as he stating his name, i found him to be very rude and very un helpful! i only wanted to no why? i told him he was very rude and he shouldnt be in that type of work if he cannot deal with customer complaints! i told him i was goin to trading standards! his reply was “go on then�? and hung up! i was passed from person to person tellin me 20 minutes, 20 minutes what aload of crap that was! it took 5 people to tell me that i was disconnected! there nothing but lyers and cons and just out to make money! i dont have a good word to say about this company apart from there jokes and complete rubbish so think twice before goin with virgin!!! Report abuse

by richard brandon
at 21:50 on 10 Feb 2008

lame slow 20mb no way! can't sustain 1mb a no go. no more people to join pls as will slow down my connection Report abuse

by richard brandon
at 21:56 on 10 Feb 2008

take 2 review

the days from telewest are gone, when technical support was free. what happens if something goes wrong, you'd have to dial a premium number to figure what's wrong, not very good for someone already paying £37 for a 20mb line.

plus they have restrictions if you passed your download allowance it restricts your speed during peak times, just when you need it most, after work!

what's the point? totally not acceptable in this day and age with fibre optic cable, virgin has got to catch to provide the best premium service. Report abuse

by Angry VM Customer
at 21:14 on 11 Feb 2008

with blueyonder broadband i was happy 99% of the time with the service.
with virginmedia broadband i'm 99.9% NOT happy with the service.
virginmedia since taking over blueyonder have wrecked,killed and
slaughtered a very good and reliable service.
My so called 20Mb connection is sometimes as slow as ½Mb, when i pay
£37 a month i expect a lot better but they dont give a toss about the customers,
all they have in there eyes is pound notes, stuff the service.
as long as we are stupid enough to keep paying it then they will keep ripping us off Report abuse

by Michele
at 11:35 on 12 Feb 2008

In response to CMore (Jan 13); I couldn't agree more - WRITING your complaint is better than calling it in generally. That's why I have just spent 20 minutes on the phone (following getting my connection fixed YET AGAIN) trying to obtain an address to write too, to complain that I have been disconnected three times now (error unknown!) and as a result have lost all my EMails and saved files for the past year and lost my old E mail address too (resulting in my having to change all my stationery and advising everyone of my new address)!!! Although my connection was sorted out AGAIN by another very helpful and polite person; that same polite person was unable to give me an address to write to or a complaints procedure and was also unable to transfer me to anyone else who might be able to do so. It is that which has led me to this site in the first place and quite frankly I empathise with all complaints made. I couldn't agree more. And one other thing; Your offence at the term 'monkeys' was taken, I guess, because you considered this term racially motivated. From my reading of it, it seems to relate purely to the level of service available, for example, "Pay peanuts, get monkeys" and not to the colour of one's skin or ethnic origin. Report abuse

by All Iwantisafairdeal
at 20:33 on 12 Feb 2008

I remember the days on NTL when the second fastest speed (600K) was adequate for gaming and downloading all sorts. Big excitement when I could save money and change to the lowest connection like I have now, 2MB, or the Medium package as they have brasoned it (sorry, I meant branded), 3 times faster than previous.... hold on, I have this 2mb connection, the whole internet has really slowed down due to the amount of traffic on it now, I'll phone Virgin and get them to check it.
2 calls to a poor english speaking call centre, 1 call to the 25p per minute help line, another call to relations department (they always speak good english here and are more empathetic,) a refund of £4.35 for the wasted 17 minute call to broadband helpline (Who incidentally told me that I had 2 PCs and a Laptop that were creating the slow connection), i received a reduced monthly charge for agreeing to 12 more months (subject to BB being sorted - your time is ticking), another call to relations to complain about connection (Who admitted it was Virgins Fault for compiling all the services from NTL and Telewest into half the amount of servers), a call back from a Technical Guy who agreed the services I and 6-700 other people on the same cable was "Disgusting" (He said it not me), an instant £30 credit and light at the end of the tunnel (given a date 2 months down the line as to when the cable would be replaced/upgraded (April)). That is about 8 days passed so far. THEN, download speeds of between 1.7kbps and 14kbps (still on 2MB at this point), A family member bought a brand new Toshiba Laptop (Intel Dual Core), zero improvement in speed, Another call to Virgin to find that relations don't work on Sundays, call back Monday Morning (Yesterday),told the only way i can get any semi decent connection is to be upgraded to a faster connection (Unfortunately they don't send out dial-up disks anymore), Upgraded to a 20MB connection for £19 per month (until Local Cable Upgraded), told it would be active within 1 hour, maybe 24 hours..Hooray....However 36 Hours later had to phone back (tonight)to find that the girl who did it only changed 1 screen internally so didn't effect upgrade correctly. Then told the upgrade should be instant with a simple reboot... I fell for it again (these jokers, jeeess) but kept him on the line.... now have agreed a new modem being sent out.. Just need to wait a week for it! In the meantime the internet is almost useless unless the page is unsecure or has simple data on it. (whole process so far about 13 days). I would respect them a whole lot more if they simply said "sorry bear with us, our BB services have been atrocious lately, have it for free till we get you up to speed" - Now that, I would admire in a company!
Beyond that, EVERY company has faults and problems, it's a shame that a lot of people blame Virgin for not supplying what people are buying, It could be a fantastic provider of services, if only they admitted truths to themselves. (Maybe the Haittowait advert on TV is a joke on all of us... Nice one Mr. B, oh how we all laughed ) Report abuse

by VoteWithYourFeet
at 20:23 on 14 Feb 2008

I am just another very unhappy Virgin Media customer. At least with Telewest they answered your requests for help. My main issue is I am unable to report a fault by telephone without incurring a premium rate call to an Indian call centre who refuse to admit there is a problem when they don't understand why something is wrong and then tell you to call customer services to get the call refunded. (This really takes 3 premium rate calls to get to the right number)
The first customer services guy didn't actually refund the third call and all 3 calls were on my next bill 12 days later and customer services refuse to even admit a major fault such as the lost email for 2 days. Of course happy they fixed it BUT why nothing to tell us what is going on?!! A second call and their systems only identified two calls until I corrected them and supposedly these will be refunded - time will tell.

The continuous dropped connections from a year ago have finally been fixed but speeds are not so hot, consistently one quarter of what I pay for 1.3Mb for a 4Mb link.

Service - very poor. I really object to not even being able to look up answers for myself as they refuse to supply any useful information. My LAN doesn't work correctly unless I disable their PCGuard firewall service and there are no helpful manuals, no replies to email requests, and the frustration of roaming around their site always returning to where you started after 3 pages. (and why does their search engine search the internet when all you want is to search their sites for information?)

(I have the minimum size M TV package as a sweetner for not leaving them last year but even that we have to regularly turn off and on again to regain a connection - I'm glad our power sockets are not at floor level!)

So as the post name suggests, had enough? - Then vote with your feet and subscribe to another service. I do not recommend VirginMedia. Report abuse

by Chris
at 18:12 on 18 Feb 2008

So its no improvement from V.M .. i left months ago .. i was on 10/20 meg service .. needless to say i was getting a whopping 512 kps ( on a good day ,inc late night early hours on mornings) . Seems nothing has changed and now they are boasting faster downloads than B.T etc ... I would suggest that this is very untrue and should be reported to BBC Watchdog . I am with B.T BB and have never had any capping, download,upload or major problems since i joined . I am quite happy with 6.5 meg speed and sticking with B.T. I do check these boards to see who has been conned into V.M services. Makes good reading .i do feel sorry for you guys/ladies but should have done homework before signing on the dotted line. If its too good to be True .. it usually is . Report abuse

by All Iwantisafairdeal
at 20:40 on 18 Feb 2008

I just can't wait till VM bring out a 1GB BB service in years to come, In theory we could all sign up to it, for say £100.00 per month, watch the adverts on TV and in the press about it being Great, and then all suffer the same Dial-up connection speeds that we have at present. Cool.
If Virgin Group ever took over NorthernRock in the recent credit crunch, maybe they could advertise 6% interest rate, and then give us 0.1% for a laugh...
Still for me, new cable modem arrives in 2 days time, and only 51days to wait till they upgrade the cable from the exchange.....come on VM, I know you are better than this - just prove it. Report abuse

by toxicwaster
at 12:40 on 20 Feb 2008

We were with ntl for ages and have always used their tv and internet packages, since they switched over to virgin media i have had NO PROBLEMS and never have. I had one broadband problem in which a fibreoptic cable was damaged after 4 years of having it.
Im on 2MB broadband package and i get the full download speed available to me, i dont know what the hell all the complaining is about.
The customer service has always been fine, quick and efficient.
When we phoned up to switch over to digital an engineer was out in 3 days, exactly what they told me, we were charged no installation fee and everything worked straight away.
I've had the odd broadband outage but after checking, these were actually planned outages at stupid times in the wee hours of the morning, im guessing this was so they didnt cause loss of service to alot of customers.
By the way im a belfast customer if that makes any difference =D,.
sky broadband here is terrible and everywhere else, i know i worked for them! Tech support for broadband, there were times when a whole customer base would lose service for days. Customers who had no connection for months and engineers who hardwired extensions into the main phone lines, which stops or slows the BB signal!

BT/Talk Talk isn't bad but i've heard a HUGE amount of complaints about it getting speeds reminiscint of 256k and lower, and awful customer service.

Basically Virgin Media with fibre optic cable broadband is the way to go, always consistant speeds, stable and very few problems EVER

=) Report abuse

by All Iwantisafairdeal
at 08:17 on 22 Feb 2008

OK. Heres the update... New modem arrived. Had to phone up again for the 3rd time to get the 20mb service switched on (it would appear this is a tricky internal procedure for VM involving training, consitency and common sense). But, it's here.
HOWEVER.. Whilst I am typing this I am achieving 15Mbps D/L speed (1.85MB per sec.. that is pretty impressive (note to self: 75% of what I am paying for), it is currently before 8am on a Friday morning. Last night I could only achieve 3Mbps (375kbps) and I am not prepared to pay for 20MB service if I only achieve 15%. So I have asked VM to put me back to 2MB service, but i feel reasonably confident that when they upgrade the (cable) exchange (which is heavily over subscribed like many cables), that I will get a speed worth paying for. so the outcome so far is - WELL DONE VIRGIN, it looks like you can (almost) deliver - BUT only 2 people out of 12 people in Virgin could tell me what the "true" fault was.. Everybody else blamed my PC(s) or me as a user.. All along it was the Virgin Kit. So I will stick with Virgin, but for others I suggest.
1.) where possile always speak to Relations department. Or the 0800 number
2.) Under no circumstances speak to the 25p per minute line - although they refund you back, you could do so much more with 20 minues of your life.
3.) Dont be afraid to tell departments (politley) they are wrong
4.) If you are not getting the speeds (within reason) then tell them about it and ask them what they are going to do.
5.) If you have dialup speeds like I did, try and talk to a "qualified" technical person at VM, ask them if the modem and the whole cable in the area you live is up to the job. (qualified does not include the people on the 25p per minute line)
6.) If Like I did you can get the technical team to call you back (UK) on a specified date and time, this is the ooption you want as these are the guys and gals who know what is going on (without the smoke screens).
7.) If you do call the 25 per minute line and VM are in the wrong, ensure you get your money back. whilst the people on the phone can read the cards quite well, they don't really have much of a clue beyond the cards.
8.) However if you call the 25p per minute line and it is your fault, then VM are more than entitled to take the money. this is what people should pay for help if they cannot resolve it themselves because they have messed up their own pc.

My 1.77GB File just downloaded in 21 minutes
Good luck all. Report abuse

by DAVID MCGILL
at 08:36 on 23 Feb 2008

Simple Summary

Ordered Virgin Media back in September 2008

After taking my money, Virgin Media mucked me around for a month, indecisive as to whether they could actually provide me with the service despite confirming this when I ordered the product

After having to constantly chase them as their customer service was disgraceful and thoroughly disorganised, they finally admitted that they couldn't actually supply me with internet access

Have written to them twice to complain (that was back in November 2007)

Received a measly, unconvincing letter on 10th January 2008 apologising for the delay in replying, yet assuring me that they were dealing with the complaint and that they would contact me within a fortnight.

February 23rd 2008. I haven't heard from them since and it's highly unlikely that I will.

If you are contemplating Virgin Media, please save yourself the stress and bother. They are absolutely useless. Report abuse

by Andrew Cross
at 23:13 on 23 Feb 2008

i signed up with Virgin media june 2007, I cant ait for june 2008. I will cease my media package with this company. It has been one problem followed very quickly by another. the problems have been endless and it is quite clear it is a company that cannot communicate with it self. I have been overcharged for several months (took 3hrs to rectify), taken of my package i had signed up to with out notice, waited 8months for V box (paid for), and when i finally get it i loose all premium channels for the weekend because ive exceeded my credit even though being in contact earlier in the day asking them if all will be ok. As regards to employees shouting up the company they work for, i suggest you go and get a basic course in business because its harder to keep a old customer than a new one. You wont be keeping me or my word of mouth advertising. I will run to sky, the professionals. Report abuse

by Daniel Potter
at 11:50 on 25 Feb 2008

Virgin Media's customer service is a complete an utter joke. I ordered Virgin Media (cable, phone, internet) towards the end of November 2007. I was initially given an install date of December 8th...however due to problems (at this stage, not their fault) this had to be rescheduled. However, the engineers carrying out the install, never raised a work order. Due to this oversight, we did not finally get our package installed until January 7th (this after many many phone calls to Virgin 'customer' care)

Even then we had no working internet connection (for some reason our cable modem was registered to a completely different person) Now, I was under the impression, that when you pay for a particular package, its only fair to expect all parts of this package to work.

When contacting customer services, 9 times out of 10 you get directed to an 'offshore' call centre (ie India) where at best they have reall difficulty in understanding what you are saying, and at worst they are completely obstructive (basically, having worked in a call center environment before, I can spot when BS is being dished out)

The only way I could finally get any resolution to the numerous problems experienced was to threaten with the cancellation of my service, at which point I was transferred to someone in the UK.....at this point it would appear that something was done, and numerous fingers were pulled out from numerous backsides.....we finallly got a working package (working digibox) in the middle of January this year (still took almost two months from the time of order)

As to whether we will still be with Virgin at the end of the year, I do no know.....Customer service is appalling, and they really don't seem to care about this face.....my advice...stear clear of Virgin...use someone like Sky instead. Report abuse

by Mark
at 13:59 on 28 Feb 2008

Have been with NTL on their Freedom service (line rental via BT as I am not in a cabled area), but have just agreed to switch to a Virgin.net ADSL and email address via my BT line as Virgin were canceling all NTL email addresses. Will I experience any of the problems that cable customers seem to be suffering, or will my new service run near 8mb due to the fact I will be using the BT line and not a virgin cable line? Report abuse

by Phil
at 21:02 on 4 Mar 2008

Don't do it..... Virgin migration from NTL is terrible. Having done exactly that our broadband speeds have significantly dropped despite our line going from 512k to 8meg - obviously our singularity has been changed. They have also just deleted our email accounts without proper warning in writing or by email - no notification to all accounts "because of privacy laws" according to their "customer service" rep. We were told they needed to be changed but "nothing needs to be done now".

It's all being done as cheaply as possible - why not transfer all ntlworld e-mail accounts over to virgin.net and ping any emails from the old to the new?... because they need the money to buy the next series of Lost for their excellent alternative to sky1.

This is made worse by the muppets in their call centres accusing me of being in the wrong. Report abuse

by Ollie
at 14:17 on 6 Mar 2008

VIRGIN MEDIA ARE RUBBISH. SKY IS WAY WAY BETTER.

now for a rant:-

Virgin media are utterly rubbish. I signed up for, TV and phone about 6 months ago. which on the face of it seemed like a really good deal, £11. For Cable telly and a phone line.

First thing was the install. I asked the engineer about internet and he assured me that there wouldn't be any problem with my existing Tiscali service. However as soon as he left it stopped working. Called and turns out that once you've got a Virgin phone line you can only have Virgin internet as nothing else will work. Anyway they offered me Virgin internet for an extra £9 which seemed like a really good deal £20 All is, so signed up to all 3. Did mean I was without internet for a week until another engineer came out to install my internet service.

Engineer arrive to install internet and because my computer is upstairs and he didn't fancy using his ladders, he installed the modem next to the tv box and said "Oh, you'll have to get a wireless router mate", assured me that you just plug them in and they're really easy and buggered off. went out and bought a wireless router for £80 tried to install and discovered I needed a wireless adapter as well, another £15, along with a PHD in computer engineering to install the bloody things. took an entire day to figure out how to install the router and adapter and get it working finally. I also discover that there's a major security risk when using a wireless router if the right security features are not installed, something the engineer failed to mention.

Finally got it all working. well not exactly working.

TV service - Diabolical
Constant inteference and jumping on the picture
Sound would suddenly go off in when watching meaning the box had to be rebooted, which takes about 3 minutes for some reason.
The On demand service was basically non-existent. At least half the time when pressing the on-demand button it'd just display a message saying it was "temporarily unavailable, please try later". Occasionally when you got as far as selecting a program and watching it, it's get a few minutes in and then freeze or the sound would disappear.
2 engineer visits and neither of them seemed to have the slightest clue what the problem was or how to fix it. Both times they just replaced the box and said to see how I get on. Exactly the same both times.

Internet - rubbish.
Had a cable modem which I was assured was a guarenteed 2mb download speed (yeah right). I reckon the downtime, ie couldn't connect at all, was around 50% of the time, and the rest of the time it was slow and would constantly keep disconnecting.
Rang Virgin to report this problem and the only way to do this is to speak to the internet "help" line which as it turns out is no help and costs 25p per minute.
After 10 minutes (or £2.50) of highly imaginitive solutions such as switching the modem off and on again and re-booting windows another engineer visit was arranged. Again he didn't really have any idea what the problem was and replaced the modem and told me to see how I got on. predictably no difference. Called the rip off line again and was advised that there must be something wrong with my computer and I'd have to re-install windows.
So to sum up, I'm already paying them for a service that doesn't work. Then I have to pay them some more money just to tell them about it and for them not to fix it because they're totally clueless.

I wrote to them beginning of December informing them that I was terminating my non-service giving them 2 weeks notice. Haven't heard anything since until this morning. They've now sent me a bill for £85 along with a Litigation warning. Rang them and apparently they've only just got around to disconnecting me so therefore I have to pay for the last 2 and a half months or they're taking me to court.

Anyone is looking for a tv/internet/phone package should get Sky, it's a million times better. TV works, Broadband is reliable, Calling the helpline is free and they go out of their way to be helpful.

Sky - highly recommended
Virgin - utter utter crap. Report abuse

by brandon turley
at 19:01 on 6 Mar 2008

virgin media are rubbish! their tv services are not as good as they make out, thier internet is never the speed you are paying to get and the customer service is just something else if they are not putting you on hold for 1 hour they are just cutting you off all together. they do not think about what they are offering you for example i applyed for the 10 pound a month contract phone deal and thy told me i could not have it but they did say that if i whated to i could have just the sim card for 10 pound per month HOW STUPIP IS THAT?. if you are thinking of having virgin media i have just one word of advice GO TO SKY. Report abuse

by brandon turley
at 19:21 on 6 Mar 2008

simpaly virgin media are rubbish Report abuse

by leeu SWINDON
at 22:54 on 6 Mar 2008

I have had a ntl internet since 2003, never had to ring for support in all that time but since virgin media took over I am now on first name terms with them. This service is aload of crap. Lets hope branson gets fed up and sells his new toy. Report abuse

by gooo edss
at 20:00 on 7 Mar 2008

look all you people who moan about virgin tv internet tv and phone , I WORK FOR them and the tvdrive is The best 80gb hd ready no service fees 20mb internet and phone. Virgin hads over 8million customers i speak to about 1000 of them a month who are tight arsed scroungin ******** who want something for nothing , virgin are a excellent value good service no problems....
NOw all you people who went to sky for lost and prison break ???? did u not realise tha it was only a tv program personlally lost prison break WHAT A LOAD OF COBBLERS if you wanna spend on say for instance180.00 extrea, If you were on Virgin and you had xl tv 2mb internet and talk week ends for 30.0WHY AND I ASK WHY would you want to pay 125.00 bt install charge if you havent got bt!!! 30.00 inst charge with sky (mon -fri) extra on weekends! when old bt lines cant cope with a decent reliable connection when aol talk talk tiscali sky ect are using the lines and virgin are the only one using theires,. all i can say i try and save people money all day but if they are sad enouygh to want to pay over a hundred pound a year for lost and prison break you deserve to be disonennected
!!!!!!! Britain stop beign a nation of moaning tight Arse!d gits and pay for what you get like everyone else your not exempt from anything 12months the lot!! like , many think they dont have contracts, all i can say uyr sad if you would save over 180 on virgin yto go to sky for lost /prison break when u can buy it on box set and watch it 1nce and not watch it again for less go away the company doesnt nned you neither does any one wanna spend time talking to some idiot like you sky this sky that whooopde dooo sky load of crap.com Report abuse

by aint branson
at 23:39 on 13 Mar 2008

yeah ur right 2mb is the best service to get

no point spending on the 20mb package when it's throttled to 512kb, complete expensive and waste of money, more importantly slow.

their tv not bad with catch up service Report abuse

by Mr Kendall
at 10:52 on 17 Mar 2008

Hello All,
Just reformatted my hard drive for the 100 millionth time due to virgin media connection. We are still constantly getting disconnected from virgin and usually after 5 minutes the modem can redial and run ok for a few hours or until I disconnect from the network. Until 15.37 Pm 17/11/2007 when the modem refused to redial and the ADSL light kept flashing . When I keep getting disconnected from the network I cannot download the torrents (e.g. tv shows etc). After reformatting the hard drive I have to reinstall windows, internet security suite, service pack 2 for windows xp, Mozilla firefox, electronic mail programmes (outlook express and Mozilla thunderbird). I have to start all my downloads over again. I cannot even streamline online radio when using either windows media player or real player version 8.0. For the staff that work at virgin.net.BY THE WAY CUTIE I DO KNOW HOW TO USE A COMPUTER. I HAVEN USING COMPUTERS AND LAPTOPS SINCE MICROSOFT WINDOWS 3.1 SO ALL THIS RUBBISH ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW HOW TO USE A COMPUTER IS A COMPLETE COPOUT . EVEN THE TECH SUPPORT DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. VIRGIN ARRANGED FOR BRITSH TELECOM OPEN REACH TO COME AND CHECK THE LINE BECAUSE THE MODEM WAS NOT WORKING AND BRITSH TELECOM COULD NOT FIND THE FAULT AND THEY WANTED TO GET IN TO THE MAIN BOX WHICH IS UNDER THE HALL FLOOR TILES. As soon as we took up the hall tiles as requested the VIRGIN tech support sorted at they end. Tech support should had done what they did in the first place and fixed at they end. So we are stuck with half a dozen hall tiles some are damaged. YEAH CUTIE WHAT IS LIKE TO TRY AND BOOT LICK YOUR WAY TO THE TOP. If this the attitude of a VIRGINE employee what does this say about the whole company Report abuse

by Mr Kendall
at 16:23 on 17 Mar 2008

The blog was finshed to 4 days after I changed my to brand new one running microsoft windows vista home basic. The poblem occured when I had Dell inspiron 2500 laptop running microsoft windows xp home edition with service pack 2. Report abuse

by BULB
at 15:47 on 28 Mar 2008

i work for virgin and i also have the bbi on 20mb now i can understand what you are all saying about the speed seeming slower. As mine is running on average 19.96mb. it seem so slow i can only download an album in about 30 sec oh my god how will i survive.now you all do know that we have only increased the speed and changed the name of the company, why dont you check out the current bbi ratings online join sky if you wish great tv pack crap bbi so good thay have to piggy back bt lines. Report abuse

by BULB
at 16:29 on 28 Mar 2008

your connection cant be that bad going by the novels of complaints you have put on this site. you have to remember all the ones on the 10mb were upgraded to 20mb for free.can i ask on the 8mb through bt line do you all get 8mb or does it ever slow down and also did your ever complain about that. Report abuse

by Anthony Stephenson
at 19:59 on 2 Apr 2008

cutie,
Basically you just summed up the support service you offer and with that attitude i wouldn't be wanting to phone you, i bet the majority of customers phone up to cancel or inform you that you're sellling 20mb cable which syncs at 512k/256k. The virgin media network is congested, you throttle gaming traffic, you are one of the worst companies around. Go tell Richard Branson to get his finger out his ass and do something.

Join Virgin Media if you want to make endless calls to a bunch of idiots who have no idea what they're doing and never accept the fact that they have a pathetic service, instead blaming it on your computer as proven in Cutie's post near the top. Also join if you're interested in paying for 20mb broadband which you can't actually use achieving speeds of dial up, and that, is when its actually on.

- Anthony. Report abuse

by all iwantisafairdeal
at 20:23 on 2 Apr 2008

Has to be said... Since Virgin have provided me with a new 255 modem, everything on Broadband seems to be ok at present.. They are changing the cable in the area (supposedly) in a few days.

Two things I feel I must add though,

1.) Over the last 6 months we have had Virgin out on 6 occassions, 2 for the phone, 3 for tv and 1 for BB. TV now keeps freezing, no data, loss of picture, on demand doesn't always work.. let me guess though, Virgin will probably eventually blame my TV or power socket for their service not working in my home, they are currently Adamant that our ntl box that is about 7 years old is perfectly fine... they said the same about the modem too...Virgin just be honest with your customers, we would respect you a lot more and give you better referrals.

2.) Virgin BB might seem bad at times, But I have had to deal with Pipex at work for some issues there, Pipex Customer Services take the biscuit. Virgin is much better in comparison for service (even though it is currently 2nd rate).

PS the Virgin engineer that came out for BB has BT 8mb himself because he is an a non cable area. He has the BT Exchange literaly 20metres behind his back garden, he gets 1.2MB at best - normally I wouldn't believe such a thing about the competition, however I used to be a mate at School with this guy - albeit I haven't seen him for a few years. Report abuse

by william
at 09:47 on 3 Apr 2008

i am switching from sky to virgin media, but holding onto sky sports via virgin.....is there anyone else who has done this, if so, how good a quality is the virgin tv.............I have had virgin broadband and phone since it was launched and have never had any problems, except for charges..........so im interested on hearing from anyone with the virgin media xl tv package, with sky sports as an extra....... Report abuse

by lol
at 00:53 on 5 Apr 2008

GUYS GUYS,

YOU'RE ALL GETTING HILARIOUSLY TROLLED BY THESE "EMPLOYEES" AND "FORMATTED MY HARD DRIVE" CUSTOMERS...

It's all funny and ironic. Learn to internet. Report abuse

by Lex
at 14:17 on 9 Apr 2008

Virgin Media is a fuggin joke... There is NO customer care, as they simpy don't care, they couldn't give a flying fug about their customers.... All they want is your money... I have for the last month been battling to get some help from these retards.... I should be on 20meg broadband.... I on average get to 9meg? Tops? I am being tested to the limits by these fugging retards.... If you can use another company Virgin sucks ass... I wish I never joined these fugging clowns..... I want to find that bearded asshole and kick two ton of shite out of him....... Report abuse

by Patrick Bateman
at 00:20 on 13 Apr 2008

DO NOT JOIN VIRGIN!!!!! THEY ADVERTISE AN UNLIMITED SERVICE YET THROTTLE YOU IF YOU DOWNLOAD TOO MUCH. THEY ARE CROOKS!!!!! Report abuse

by Tee
at 17:29 on 18 Apr 2008

Ugh, we'd had horrible experience one after another with Virgin. The service itself is fine, but the billing and customer service people keep turning me over to collections due to problems on their side. It's at the point now of being completely ridiculous! I finally gave up and wrote a blog to document and vent the frustration. Report abuse

by Trevor (no, not Trevor Elliot)
at 10:26 on 22 Apr 2008

Virgin Media is by far he worse company that I have ever dealt with. Their customer services are terrible and unhelpful, I dont' care that the calls are free because i'am getting sweet FA for sweet FA! The overseas broadband helpline is 25p a minute and that is also useless, they have never sorted anything out for me. I am losing the will to live! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!! Report abuse

by Jack
at 10:38 on 22 Apr 2008

I am 7 years old and Virgin sent my Dad`s bill notice to my E-Mail address? I thought that was supposed to be private? Anyway, I would like to ask if there are any jobs going at Virgin Media, because my Dad keeps saying hat a 7 year old could do a better job than them! VIRGIN, YOU SUCK! Report abuse

by Charlie
at 10:51 on 22 Apr 2008

I am onli 2 yers oldand I fink dat I cood do a beta job dan dose retards at Virgin. Wat has hapend to dis cuntry, wy do British compnees giv such bad serfiss? I am shor dat dis wil be apreshated by Virgin starf as it is about at dair levall of comunekashon scils. Cutie, yo ar a bum bum licka, ar yu shor dat yu ar not Richard Branson in diskies. I av got to go now, I need my nap! Report abuse

by Trevor (no, not Trevor Elliot)
at 10:54 on 22 Apr 2008

IT`S SIMPLE GUYS, LETS ALL STOP PAYING OUR BILLS AND HOPEFULLY VIRGIN MIGHT SIT UP AND LISTEN. Report abuse

by BRENDAN
at 17:55 on 26 Apr 2008

THIS IS THE WORST BROADBAND COMPANY i have been with them for less than a month and they say unlimited downloads but when you do download they cap your line mine was 1945 capped at 70kbs if that is unlimited its bull should have stayed with bt they never capped my line no matter how much i download i'll give it a -0 out of ten
anything is better than virgin media broadband Report abuse

by Kingster
at 18:49 on 28 Apr 2008

I was supposed to be on Virgin's 3-4-£30 package, TV, broadband & phone for £30 per month. For the first 4 months was fine (apart from the irritating fact that they take my TV & broaband money in the middle of the month & my phone money at the end - they've told me they can't take it all at once, bit too complicated for the likes of CUTIE et al. to sort out). Then in month 5 they took out £37 in the middle of the month, & then a further £20 at the end of the month. When I phoned their call centre in Delhi or wherever it is, I was told to call 150 & choose option 4 as I had come throgh on the wrong option (option 1 - question about your bill). I called 150 again, & found option 4 was for enquiries if you are moving address - In no way related to my problem/enquiry! I went back on the original option I had phoned & spoke to a guy who was a lot more helpful, & he told me that My broadband had been upgraded to 20Mb 2 months previous, despite the fact that I had not requested this. I asked if it was standard practice to upgrade broadband without asking customers or even notifying them, but no real answer was given as to why this has happened. I was then told to call back in about a week because they are upgrading their systems, & they will be able to refund in full anything I've been overcharged. I will get it back I can assure you, but given mine & other's experiences of dealing with Virgin, I don't expect I will get it with out a fight.

BTW, Virgin Media, 20Mb broadband is it ... ... IS IT??? - - - - - - Is it ****. Report abuse

by Bob
at 11:07 on 1 May 2008

Been on Virgin Media for about 6 months now.
No problem with the top level internet, I'm a gamer and its speed and reliability are vital. I get no lag at all. Good stuff.

I've got the Virgin TV aswell. Box keeps freezing and the 'OnDemand' has to be reset once a week by unplugging for 10 seconds and rebooting. Would get an engineer out but i only have a mobile rather than Virginphone and it costs a bloody fortune to chat to the Customer Service, and they refuse to talk to me from work as they want me 'by the box' so they can try a few things before sending out an engineer.

Very strange thing I'd love to hear from a Virgin employee about. Ondemand gives you the chance to watch TV you missed, also has top series to watch when you want.
Catch up TV has all my favourite programs; Dr Who / Torchwood / House etc, but none of the Virgin One programs ; Sarah Connor Chronicles / Chuck etc. How Weird is that !!!
On the 'OnDemand' option you can pick the channel you want to see programs for - BBC = 7pages of programs, Ch4 = 4pages, HBO = 3 pages, VIRGIN = 3 programs.
Just 3 programs. PATHETIC and bizarre.
Virgin dont even support there own programs. I've missed all the Sarah Connar, caught 1 Chuck and cant see the others.
I cant imagine Sky doing that with Lost, 24 etc.

Anyway. thats my experience. hope it helps someone. Report abuse

by ken
at 11:20 on 2 May 2008

They came to my flat last week, ignored my instructions about where the cabling should go, then drilled huge holes into my living room, stapled cables to my door frames totally ingoring all the trunking routes. They caused my about £1,000 worth of damage, I was then told that my broadband would not work until 5th May! as they were upgrading. Needless to say, the contract is already cancelled and I am waiting for compensation... Report abuse

by Che
at 14:19 on 2 May 2008

Bob the reason they may not show certain programmes is due to broadcasting rights, yes they can air the show once but have no rights to repeat it in anyform. The same problem exists with bbc i-player, there has to be some formal agreement with both the production company and the networks, and a lot of content is from abroad such as the USA. It's weird I know and yes frustrating. Report abuse

by boots
at 14:24 on 3 May 2008

Take their discount package to stay with them what a joke. Got offered a discount in November, specificly asked them if Iwas entering into a contract, was told by them I wasn't and i could cancel at any time. Got offered free everning calls which I never got and the discount was reduced to what I should off been paying anyway. Came to cancel and their saying im in a 12 month contract that I aparently agreed to and that they sent it in post (2 times would you belive) their breaking consumer laws I would have better experance with sadam hussanes complaints line. Cable modem has to be reset often slow speeds going to adsl as soon as I can. Report abuse

by Pete Taylor
at 10:22 on 8 May 2008

Virgin ADSL service complete rubbish!
peak times slows to 28k thats half dialup speed, sometimes you can't even load google!
but at other times ie 2am 3000k but i don't need it at 2am!!!
too many customers not enough bandwidth! or may the invisible fairies move my house closer to the exchange at night, then put it back before the morning!
sick of writing to them to complain, they do nothing about it. been writing and calling for 5 months.
i'd rather drink cold sick then stay with virgin, so i'm waiting for my mac code to leave them, which is over due WTF they can't even do that right.
and the activation of the mac code serves as the start of the 30 day notice period, but your new isp will go live i about 7 days, so they charge you an extra 23 days to be an ex customer.
Don't Use Virgin ADSL Report abuse

by Bob
at 12:18 on 9 May 2008

Thanks Che,
didn't know that at all. Just makes Branson a tightwad for not chipping in for the rights then it seems. Pah to that, lucky I have internet for some serious downloading :) at least till i can stump up for the service. Report abuse

by Bob
at 12:19 on 9 May 2008

Edit: that was stumping up for the Plus service by the way Lol. Report abuse

by Che
at 14:41 on 9 May 2008

Ken, firstly this question was you present during the install, if not you should have been or someone you know well should have if circumstances didn't allow yourself to be present. When I had the services installed they also stapled the cable along the door frames and skirting and that's all they are required to do, ie a basic install. As for damages of £1000 how have you arrived at this figure? Report abuse

by Che
at 13:09 on 15 May 2008

I have seen on other various forums that sky and virgin media are back in negotiations to bring back the sky channels to the virgin media platform. I hope that they do not drag the process out to long. I do miss having sky one but would not resort having sky installed again especially when we get heavy rain or snow, virgin media is piped into my home regardless of the weather so i am happy. Report abuse

by JOE
at 15:16 on 23 May 2008

DO NOT SIGN UP WITH VIRGIN

WORST SERVICE EVER. I signed up in april I am still waiting for them to send wireless router and then disconnected our phone afte rthe first week. customer service hang up on you or tell you theres a fault so they cant do anything now.

They have now sent us a bill with aload of made up charges including postage and packaging for the router we have never recived. Report abuse

by Will Hall
at 22:14 on 25 May 2008

I joined virgin media about 2 years ago. the quality and speed of their connection is great when it is working. but i often find sometimes it not loading certain web pages and it cutting off completely and me having to wait till it comes back.
The main reason that virgin media are so bad is for the last year every 15-30 minutes the internet has been cutting out, meaning me have to restart the modem and wireless router. This is so frustrating and virgin need to sort it out. Report abuse

by David
at 20:18 on 26 May 2008

Wanna laugh read on....
Virgin Media Broadband is anything but reliable their customer services being a total waste of time and say this with first hand experience not once, not twice but on several occasions, customer services will try and fob you off as quickly as possible or have you dialing unnecessary premium rate numbers, usually without results.

One classic experience I had was that I was without Internet and phone service a day and half and so was a elderly neighbour, this was after another breakdown a week earlier, “we’ll have to get an engineer down and it’ll be in a couple of days time to check your wiring�?, I felt anger and frustration creeping in especially after explaining that a neighbor was without phone as well and that it was a network fault – being an electronic engineer I shouldn’t expect to be all that dumb!

Another classic was when the phone and Internet was off, again I checked with the elderly neighbor a few doors down, I’d just wasted £7 pound on a mobile phone I’d just topped up and wasn’t pleased; complaining about this I was told… “You should have dialed 150 it’s a free number�?… “What�?, I just exploded having more than a bellyful, “don’t ever take me as an idiot�?, I screamed, “You tell me how the hell I can use ‘free phone’ when the network is down?�? After all I did tell her the phone down the road wasn’t working as well which indicated a network fault?

What prompted me to write this article was my recent complaint to customer services of slow out-going emails twice in about a week, it’d been fixed the day before, I persevered over the week end the second time … it’s usually a waste of time contacting customer services they are ever eager to get you to call a premium rate number where you can be holding on for at least twenty minutes or so, after several complaints and getting nowhere I decided to fill a on-line complaint form at ISPA Representatives at http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/complaints.cgi.

My advice do try ringing customer services first, get your facts right, tell the truth and don’t lose your temper, send a letter recorded delivery to Swansea, Customer Concerns requesting a confirmation date when the problem will be fixed... then you have 'ammo' to contact the ISPA or CISAS ( http://www.cisas.org.uk/ ) you have nothing to pay and nothing to lose, with CISAS you download a 3page PDF and fill it in.

But Customer Services do wind you up with their cloth ears making you wanna tear your hair out. Report abuse

by che
at 19:41 on 29 May 2008

Can i all ask you a question, Are you on ADSL or Cable connections? The only reason i ask is due to myself being a virgin media customer. I have viewed various forums and most of the complaints are those who depend on ADSL for their connection. It's simple the BT phone lines were never designed for fast internet, and what infrastucture there is left is old and in need of replacement. BT is carrying this out over the next few years under the 21CN and this should hopefully help a majority of people. Cable users often see a massive drop in speed when traffic shaping is enforced at peak times this doesn't mean that the service becomes unlimited cause it is, unlimited refers to the amount of data you use not the speed which some people on this site are getting all mixed up about. And please nobody else say it's Richard Bransons fault, as the company is still NTL but using the brand name of Virgin Media. Things will improve with network upgrades and new modems will become available when the 550 meg service is rolled out nationally over the next year or so. Report abuse

by Tony Wiltan
at 13:55 on 2 Jun 2008

I was a telewest customer for many years, and took the broadband when it first came out. I thought the package was pretty good- support was poor but i never needed it. I had a rock solid connection.

Since virgin took over, 3 things have happened consistantly.

1) The price has gone up

2) The service has got worse

3) The reliability has gone down.

Now i find myself paying 37 a month for a connection that is pretty rubbish, with support that's an utter waste of time. Ive finally had enough and will be cancelling tonight and moving to sky. The initial cost of getting a BT line etc is a pain. But im fed up of being ripped off.

If your considering virgin, DONT do it, i promise you that it will be a decision you regret

Tony Report abuse

by Ibrap
at 23:03 on 13 Jun 2008

Its almost 12 at night. I have the 4MB service.

No other computer or laptop is using my connection at present. My computer is clean and i take extra precautions and use a virtual environment todo day-to-day tasks.

I have attempted to load the BBC's Website and it has taken me 3 minutes (178 seconds) to fully load it.

I just want to say,
Fibre optics? Bull****

Id rather have 56K Dialup instead of this discussing service.
Virgin Media Sucks.

and with their new Traffic management schemes i can only see things getting worse.. Report abuse

by lee
at 10:28 on 16 Jun 2008

i had virgin now for 6 mths and the v box ecellent service never had a problem 10/10. Report abuse

by frillyfairies
at 13:34 on 20 Jun 2008

virgin media are useless. no ifs no buts. i moved house after having my crummy virgin services for about 4 months- and they have made me take out a new contract of 12 months!! because i moved house!! and they are w*****s cos they know i'm screwed either way- i either pay for the services i don't want, or i cancel the services and my contract and pay the same amount until the end of the contract anyway!!� i don't even need any of it cos i moved into an annex in my mums house- she already has internet and phone etc anyway!

bastards Report abuse

by Really Grumpy
at 20:54 on 24 Jun 2008

I cannot believe how appalling Virgin Media really are. My set top box died so i arranged an engineer visit. As they can only provide 4 hour slots, and the first one available is the afternoon, I had to take a day off work. After a previous no-show debacle, I called an hour after my '12-4' slot had begun to make sure it was booked. Indeed it was.

By 4pm -- no show. I call again -- and am told (after waiting 15 minutes for the opratore to check) that the technician has been held up and will call me when he is on his way. 5.45pm -- still no show. I call Virgin again and get routed to the call centre in India. After explaining the situation and how unhappy I am, I am told that the ticket was not logged properly so no-one was ever sent.

After again explaining that I had checked and doublechecked the booking, the agent says she will call dispatch -- I get get put on hold for 20 minutes. I cancel the call and call again only to be told that (after waiting another 10 minutes) that they can't locate the technician and they have left voice mails for him. Would have been nice if they had let me know!

Then I ask to speak to the manager and after again being put on hold for a further 5 minutes (Why, oh why, can't they change the music), I finally speak to a lovely lady who is unable to really help me except to say she can re-book my slot. When prompted she says that they can make me the first call of the slot but cannot gurantee the hour. Priceless! Not only that, she is unable to give me a direct line or to tell me who I can contact to complain.

Thanks for ruining my day virgin -- I will be terminating my account as soon as I can actually speak to someone that can help as the complaint form on the website sends you to a dead page! Report abuse

by Richard Cunning
at 10:31 on 25 Jun 2008

"We're making some changed to Virgin Broadband which might affect the speed you get"

"Have you noticed your bb is slowing down recently?" quotes Virgin, of course we have!

Take a look at these statistics and your questions will be answered.

Virgin Media are now capping daytime and evening, so this will explain your slow speeds. If you exceed your threshold your speed will be reduced.

Reduced Maximum Speed(RMS)
Daytime Threshold(DT) 10am - 3pm
Evening Threshold(ET) 4pm - 9pm

20Mb - Reduced Maximum Speed 5Mb - DT 6GB - ET 3GB

10Mb - Reduced Maximum Speed 2.5Mb - DT 2.4GB - ET 1.2GB

4Mb - Reduced Maximum Speed 1Mb - DT 2GB - ET 1GB

20Mb - Reduced Maximum Speed 1Mb - DT 1GB - ET 0.5GB

Hence why doesn't Virgin just advertise it as the 1Mb broadband service for all it's packages.

Virgin business plan seems to just get customers with luring cheap "initial" prices and up its prices while lower the quality of service it provides.

Virgin is definately not a brand to be associated with cutting edge. Remember the cola, records and stores. Where have they all gone? Disappeared. Report abuse

by Greg
at 02:34 on 30 Jun 2008

I write this using my neighbour's wireless o2 connection while my Virgin Media broadband connection has been down for over 3 hours. I used to be a very satisfied Telewest Blueyonder customer, the service was extremely reliable and at the time offered a decent package at a decent price.

Since the merger with NTL and the name change to Virgin Media, it has been utterly shocking. Practically every day I am guaranteed to lose connectivity at some point, usually for a few minutes, sometimes for hours or a whole day.

Calling the broadband helpline is pointless, what used to be a free technical help line with curteous and sympathetic technicians who tried to resolve your problem as soon as possible, now has a call connection and per minute charge, when you do get through you will be greeted by a guy with an Indian accent who will first spend over a minute explaining to you that you're being charged by the minute, he will then hear your problem tutting and commenting "ooh that's very bad, very sorry" only to tell you you've been forwarded to the wrong department since he deals with ex-NTL customers and not ex-Telewest customers. You'll never get a call back, you'll never get your issue resolved or ever forwarded to the supposedly correct department.

The competition has moved forward while Virgin Media has stood still or gone backwards. 99% hype and marketing, 1% quality. They are the Walmart and Starbucks of ISPs. I feel sorry for anyone who has been duped by their glossy ad campaign into signing up for their expensive and inadequate service. Report abuse

by Bob W (Nottingham)
at 16:43 on 30 Jun 2008

30 June 2008 - We have been Diamond Cable, NTL and now Virgin Media subscribers. We did not believe that the service from Virgin Media could have been any worse than that provided by NTL. We were wrong.....Virgin Media and the fancy promises from from Mr Richard Branson are taking the p**s. We were foolish enough to be conned into the VIP (Complete Package) at a cost of £125.00 per month.

The Phone (landline and Mobile) is just about the only thing that has worked properly. The Broadband (not really sure why they call it BROADBAND because the supposed speed of up >20MB is actually slower than a dial up service. We have never achieved anything above 5MB and that is only on very rare occasions. Each time we report the problem, we are taken around the woods with stupid tests that we know are going nowhere. Those idiots in the Indian Call Centres appear to be little more than badly trained monkies who read from a script. With few exceptions, they have no idea!!

The TV pictures on the V Box was pixillating and the sound poppoing and fizzing for over 18 Months before one of the engineers found a bad kink in the cable and some corroded connections in the junction box. This is despite repeatedly reporting the problem and having Engineers visit on a number of accasions. Some of these Engineers leave much to be desired.

As for the Technical Support and Customer Service staff in India - don't even get me started on that again. It is difficult to communicate with people who read from a script and have very little Technical knowledge about the product.

A couple of days age one of the Call Centre guys in India told me that the SLOW BROADBAND CONNECTION is down to Engineering works to upgrade the Servers. The work will be completed by 15 July 2008 and all will be well.......where have I heard that before? ............everytime they upgrade the service the results get worse.

Mr Branson, you need to get your act together and stop taking the p**s. Fancy promises and clever marketing campaigs are all very well but where is the delivery.

SKY may yet get another customer...........not by choice but by necessity!!

Bob W Report abuse

by steve
at 13:37 on 1 Jul 2008

I have had virgin media phone and broadband since February and have had no problems with the service.I recently took out a tv xl package and they came and fitted when they said they would. I have now decided to take on the virgin media plus box, and so far I have had no problems with the normal box.

I have had cause to call the customer service and during the day this is no problem.
One thing that puzzles me about all those who say they range here and there to virgin?? if you make a call from a virgin phone you dial 150 and the call is free. If you are ringing from a bt line, why should virgin not charge you?
after all why should a company like virgin give freebies for another company.
get a life and stop moaning. Report abuse

by Richard Cunning
at 08:55 on 3 Jul 2008

I am glad that people are taking note of Virgin's slow speeds. Hopefully they will be able to change this or else 02 broadband will take over.

This time Virgin's controversial "traffic management" policy has landed it in hot water, after the company over-egged the time it would take customers to download a TV show.

BT claimed Virgin's data caps would prevent customers downloading the TV show in the claimed time.

http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband-news/2008/07/02/virgin-media-broadband-download-ad-rapped/

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/209982/virgin-censured-over-broadband-ads-again.html

Last August complaints were upheld against Virgin on six different counts, ranging from misleading comparisons to rivals' services to misleading pricing in advertising. Report abuse

by Richard Cunning
at 12:57 on 3 Jul 2008

It also appears Virgin Media have detracted away from their broadband business and concentrated more on their music business, hence why they may have lost focus on the quality of service it provides.
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Virgin Media are the only company to sign up to an initiative whereby users are subjected to a "three strikes and you're out" policy.
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The letters arrived in an envelope marked “Important. If you don’t read this, your broadband could be disconnected.�?
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Rival ISP Carphone Warehouse refused to sign up to the initiative. "We believe that a fundamental part of our role as an ISP is to protect the rights of our users to use the internet as they choose." Report abuse

by Reza
at 16:52 on 3 Jul 2008

My broadband line is experiencing intermittent disconnection issues and packet loss. Upon jumping through their phone loops I was put through to a sorry excuse for a tech support department. To no surprise this was an outsourced department so I was routed to somewhere on the other side of the planet. After being told by three operators “have you tried deleting your cookies�? I finally spoke to someone that made some sense, ran some proper tests on the line and booked a technician to come round to the house.

I booked time from work in order to be in during the silly 6 hour time slots to which the technician was to arrive….and did he…of course not. I was not contacted to be informed of any cancellation.

The line still has problems and I am stuck in one of their silly 12 month contracts.

The TV line is border line acceptable, the software is very slow. As for the phone, despite several promises this still has not been installed.

Thanks for reading.

/signed one very unhappy customer. Report abuse

by VIRGIN MEDIA 20MB IS A SCAM
at 21:11 on 3 Jul 2008

Well one word APPAULING. i am on the 20mb package.. guess what speed i can get max.... 500kb/s!!! now with the new throttling service at most times i get 100kb/s KB/S - i should be getting at least 15mb/s!!
DONT JOIN VIRGIN THEY ARE RUBBISH!!!

p.s. if you think its just me getting bad speeds... google it so many people are being scammed dont let yourself join them. Report abuse

by frike
at 11:23 on 4 Jul 2008

VM are utter **** - do not use them!!! Report abuse

by Blah blah blah
at 13:05 on 5 Jul 2008

I ordered Virgin Media 10MB cable services some weeks ago, after some Virgin guy called me saying I could get the service in my area with minimum work done to connect a wire 10 metres up a wall to my T-box, I booked an appointment and was quickly signed up, though he did get me with his sales line "you can get a phoneline installed for no extra cost, it's £22.50 a month so it works out the same" even though I had a BT line, I thought what the hell, if it's 'free' it might be useful. This was infact lies, the broadband I signed up for was only £16.

Anyway, he went away and 2 days later I recieved a wireless router through the post (so good so far), and then the next day I was given a ring to book an installation date; 10 days away which is about average compared to most ADSL installations anyway. In the mean time I found out about the £22.50 free phone deal, and cancelled the phone easily, at which point they also confirmed my speed to be 2MB, errrr no, I have my contract here and it says 10! So they changed it, I hope. I counted down the days of getting my "superfast cable". Finally, the day has come (today) and it feels like christmas, I took the day off work so the engineer could do his thing. I was finally gonna get off 56k dialup and get some real speed. The installation was due 1pm-6pm, at 11:15am I recieved a voicemail (missed the call)- "there has been a problem with 'hits' (?) and so you wont be able to recieve service for a couple of days"- no probs a couple of days is fine, "... so I have rescheduled your installation for the 18th" 13 days!

So I rang VM services and asked them to confirm what was going on, and they did explain well, so I asked a few things.
1. Can I have a more convinient date? - No, that's the earliest available
2. Can the engineer that was cancelled still come and then when the network is up I'm already installed. No
3. Why? I'll put you through to someone else... "but....!" - oh I'm on hold
4. Can I get FREE non-cable broadband until you connect my cable? I was reconnected before finishing my sentence, this guy asked my what was wrong, my account number, name, address etc again and then connected me to someone else, and the same, I went through 8 people in total and listened to what seemed like a whole album of their coldplay/blur (dunno what it is) on-hold music. Somewhere in the middle I was told that I could pay for it, but it would not be on for 3-4 weeks anyway (wtf?) and advised me to get the ADSL line anyway as that 6.5mb my line was capable of was better than the 10mb I had ordered. hmmm.
5. Can I cancel? No, no, no, call back later after you have thought about it (though tbh this guy was the best out of the 9, he actually answered my questions)

In my conclusion/experience:

- GOOD POINTS - apparently it's the fastest broadband because it's fibreoptic and not slowed by the amount of traffic on the network, but I wouldn't know, I never got connected, and half of this review board disagrees anyway. The signing up was easy and my router came fast, that's it I guess.

- BAD POINTS - where to start... the customer service is apalling, they fob you off to different departments so fast you don't get chance to complete your sentence, so all theyve heard is "my installation got cancelled"...please hold while I connect you to reschedule your installation..."...and I'd like to enquire about ADSL broadban... WAIT!...". They fail to do what they have set an appointment to do, rebook for a time that is highly inconvenient and refuse to install the service even though an engineer is probably sitting at home enjoying his cancelled appointment. They would not compensate me despite it being 100% their fault and incompitentcy (lol spelling).

ADVICE - get dialup :D Report abuse

by Jim
at 16:43 on 19 Jul 2008

NO NOT GET VIRGIN MEDIA BROADBAND!

I had the NTL broadband before they where bought by virgin and everything was fine until then, i had the 20mb package.

Since Virgin took over, my speeds have decreased dramatically and unacceptably.
During the day my speed is about 50kbs,
WHICH IS AROUND 1% OF THE BROADBAND SPEED I AM PAYING FOR!
Unfortunatly i do not browse the internet at 3am where my speeds get faster.

Needless to say i will be finding a new broadband provider ASAP. Report abuse

by Debbie
at 19:24 on 21 Jul 2008

Was originally a telewest customer when I lived in a shared hosue and never had any problems. When I bought my own flat decided I wanted to get internet etc so signed up to telewestntl on their three for £30( tv, bb and mobile) just as it was being taken over by Branson.

No major problems for my first year other than loss of sound and occasional freezing. However in june was offered as a loyal customer the chance to add to my existing package the phone line all for £20.00 for the fisrt six months, this was talk weekend and evenings, and then this would go up to £23.50. As this was what i had been paying roughly for my package since my original deal had ended I thought this was not bad.

of course how wrong could I be!! Fisrtly they changed my TV to the basic package, pratically freeview, as the TV package I used to be on no longer existed with them. After writing to their complaints department this was resolved by they could provide me with the channels I had lost and more for £25.00 per month. As this in the long run was onl be £1.50 more than I curenlty paid I went ahead.

Then I received my bill where I have been charged for two months like I would be if I was a new customer. I have also been charged for my evening calls. On phoning customer services (that is a joke in itself), I was told that my package did not include evenings and that as far as she could see there had never been any packages such as this available!!

So once again i am writing to the infamous trevor Eliott to try and get this matter resolved, i am not holding out much help.

By the way has anyone noticed that on thier website they say you can make a complaint by phone but each time i have called I have been told I have got to put it in writing! Report abuse

by Debbie
at 19:27 on 21 Jul 2008

PS I am still paying £10 for the mobile. Although the reception in my flat is rubbish hence wanting to get a land line where I would not have to pay much for the calls as I was unable to use my free minutes on the mobile! Report abuse

by Chris
at 15:22 on 22 Jul 2008

I am willing to GUARANTEE you that 90% of those complaining about internet problems have MALWARE problems that are nothing to do with their ISP and everything to do with their lack of care for their PC.

Visit www.merijn.org or www.spywareinfoforum.com

SORT YOUR LIFE OUT ONCE AND FOR ALL!

AND SPREAD THE WORD! Report abuse

by EX BT WORKER
at 15:06 on 26 Jul 2008

I used to work for BT Buisness BB Tech, our customer services were bad enough, well terrible infact! Residential Tech was in india and far worse! I have allways been in tech jobs and i do what i am doing, how ever BT do not like you using your own skilled knowledge, its a scrip and 9 times out of 10 the scrip will generate a report saying "cust equip err" in that case we would basically tell the customer to go away, even knowing there was a line fault! I have allways had great service with telewest and no change when they became virgin (execpt the black and yellow tv menus). I would highly reccomend virgin, i had sky once and would never go back! I would love to work for virgin if they had a tech help centre in bristol! i think the guys are great and if you lot arent happy because you cant use your own pc's then change to somone else, but bear in mind i cant reccomend any ADSL connection (the up to 8mb could be 1mb, its only up to 8mb)

VIRGIN CABLE BB 10/10 ANY ADSL 3/10 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Report abuse

by SCF
at 16:19 on 8 Aug 2008

I signed up for the Virgin Media fibre optic XL Broadband and phone package in early July. Installation was due to take place today between 8am and 1pm. I called customer services at 1pm to find out where the installer was but guess what....the installation had been cancelled BUT NO ONE TOLD ME! What makes it worse is that today is my final day of annual leave and I've wasted it, waiting for something that was never going to happen. I know I live on a cable street (I've even opened the access panel on the front of my house and can clearly see a cable going into the ground - looks like a sat/cable TV cable so was probably an NTL one) but apparently I'm not in a servicable area...even though the Virgin Media website tells me I am! I'm so furious.

Some of the worst customer service I have ever received from any company. Report abuse

by Elinka
at 15:57 on 9 Aug 2008

Dear all,

I got so angry today, was the last drop of horrible Virgin service and their care for customers.
I am reading here all your stories and I am also one of the unlucky ones, that had to experience this **** - excuse my language. I have been waiting for 4 months for setting up a simple internet connection, they were always pushing my installation date further and further, when agreed, 3 times they did not show up, one time someone came and said that he forgot the cable and left, the saleman was not even picking up my phone calls and was always excusing himself - I am busy, family problems, football match with his favourite team and he was hoping 'I understand'.
I have been living in USA for 5 years, and I never ever seen such crappy service from a company, that present itself as one of the best. Using celebrity faces to sell then.
If I were in states, I will sue them. Not for the money, but just show them, how customers are taken care of. I worked on complain desk and complains are taken seriously there and resolved to the best. I called several times, complained twice on their website and after second time they called back, not even apologizing and transfering me to people, who had no idea what I wanted, ....is unbelievable. Today, after 5 set-up dates and times, I am waiting home to receive my wireless router, and the courier called me in the morning stating, that he does not know where my address is and he is not coming....he will send someone on Monday, where I am at work and the waiting will carry on. Can you believe it?!
Is absolute rubbish, he was giving me exact description of the street and area, where I live..
And according to their record, I received the router in May!!!!
You call customer service, are on hold for 20-30 minutes and then it cutts off.
I would never recommend anyone this company, few of my friends told me that i should not use them, and I did not listen.
I am very angry and dissapointed, and please please please all of you, don't use Virgin.
They let you sign the contract, take the money off your account the next day and you can wait forever like me.

Good luck you all and hope you get the best service, from some other company!!!

Nice day,
Eli Report abuse

by jdiamond
at 04:21 on 25 Aug 2008

dont know what happend to my free 10mg upgrade
I kept on phoning them to make sure it was not a con
and they kept on saying that was right it wound stay the same at no extra charge hey guess what it is a con my broadband was £18 pounds and now it has went up to £25 pounds a month because of this so called free 10mg upgrade
thats the reason why it has went up to £25 pounds free upgrade no I dont think so I think I will just go to bt broadband because virginmadia is just one big ripp off if I went to them I would get more speed for £25 pounds they are just pure out of order that richard branson conman. Report abuse

by Templar
at 23:40 on 27 Aug 2008

I was given a new modem due to the old one being out of date, so they tell me, fitted the new modem and wow, yes still getting 5Mbps istead of 20. phone for help and I am put through to India, this is a joke, Branson should be here satisfying his customers not joy riding in a ***** baloon or flying aircraft, he is spending our hard earned cash, the service I am getting is non existent, fraud comes to mind, perhaps I should take him to court under fraudulent actions, perhaps we should all do that.
I have to laugh at Cutie, is he giving her one or what!!! Report abuse

by aufwindian
at 09:19 on 6 Sep 2008

Impossible to contact them by phone at weekend, which is just not good enough. Also, takes too long to get through to a human being. Not impressed. Report abuse

by Welly456
at 12:48 on 23 Sep 2008

We've been with Virgin 15 months now and chose it for digital TV because we could not get a decent TV signal due to a block of flats between us and the transmitter. Set up went OK and the service is fine although we too frequently have to reboot the set top box and the on demand isn't always demandable but for £30 for TV, phone & broadband its good value.

However I noticed the bills shot up 3 months ago. It seems my "bundle" was only good for 12 months despite costs in the industry falling rapidly. I've now down sized from XL TV to L TV which keeps the cost the same but any atttempt to get a refund for 3 months when I was overpaying fell on deaf ears. I was told we can't help it if you don't read your Contract. AS .

As an example of good customer service and how to keep a customer for life this is a disaster. I've gone from an ambassador to to someone who feels cheated in 10 minutes. If they had sent an email (they have my email address after all) saying your special offer is ending do you want to sign up for a new one I would have been impressed but this just smacks of sharp practise and profiteering.

Moral of the story: Read the small print and write on your calendar the date the offer ends. Report abuse

by unhappy!
at 17:29 on 23 Sep 2008

vigin media adsl braodband is slow!
In the evenings my speed goes down to mere kb's even bytes. this is totaly unacceptable!! Dial-up is faster than the speeds we get, even in the evening our speed should be way faster then around 8kb/s. Hope your happy VM, your a total rip-off!! Report abuse

by Croppstain
at 12:15 on 24 Sep 2008

I don't se what the big deal is with you lot????

i have been with VirginMedia for over 6 years and have never ever had a problem. Granted the internet can drop a bit sometimes, but what are you using your internet for???

I can browse the Internet and chat to my gf over skype using a webcam coz shes at university and it still runs smoothly.

I did a broadband speed test the other day and I was goin at 10mb which is what i'm paying for. Sometimes depending what I have on can affect it but its nothing to moan like you guys are.

Switch to Sky and get ripped off!!! Saddos! Report abuse

by Sean
at 13:08 on 28 Sep 2008

Virgin media are useless, my router keeps disconnecting me continuosly meaning i have to reset it and start any downloads from scratch - continuously. They seem to have a problem with their hardware knowledge, ie its obsolete, in addition they whole network comes to a grinding halt at peak times, stay away from them!! Report abuse

by tom
at 18:26 on 2 Oct 2008

Ive been pretty happy with virgin media until last week that is.
Okay yeah, the internet used to just stop working occasionally, but i mainly got it for the tv package anyway. On demand telly is fantastic and I have enjoyed watching episodes of my favourite programmes that would have cost me a fortune to buy on dvd.
My complaint comes however, from their misgivings in the customer care sector.
I recently decided that I could afford to buy my own home after 6 months of renting (I got virgin when i started renting and the man on the phone said it was no problem when moving house). I moved out of my rented house and into my parents house to save on rent whilst buying my own property. When I rang Virgin and explained that I would like to suspend my contract until I was in my new house they said they didnt suspend contracts but if i moved in one month and rang back they would re-connect me and re-imburse me. Now anyone with any form of intelligence knows that even with no housing chain and cash to buy let alone a stable housing market can not possibly be settled in one month!!
I asked if i could continue my service at my parents house then, but no, they dont provide service in that area.
So what I have had to do is cancel completely and will incur a charge of £170. To add insult to injury I was asked when would be a good time for an engineer to pop round. When I asked what for the reply was to collect your media box and modem!! I paid £70 extra for the V box and dont even get to keep it! (sky dont ask for their boxes back, i know that for a fact)

It seems that im a victim of clever small print misgivings, but I am so annoyed now that I will not touch anything to do with Virgin ever again and will strongly reccomend anyone i come into contact with to do likewise.

When I do move, i will be installing sky. Its better and cheaper anyway if you opt for the top package. And you get sky1 with all the best programmes!

I feel like I have been bent over and taken forcefully by Branson himself!! Report abuse

by david
at 08:56 on 12 Oct 2008

virgin media (tv services) they have never been the same since they bought ntl if i paid my bill they same way the provide a tv service i would be getting disconnection letters, it is about time they got their act together and give us all the service they promise......sky and the new bbc broadband tv are looking a much better option!!!!!!!!!! COME ON BRANSON PULL YOUR FINGER OUT AND DELIVER Report abuse

by david
at 09:06 on 12 Oct 2008

EXCUSSES EXCUSSES.....AND APPOLOGIES THATS ALL YOU GET WHEN YOU DO FINIALLY GET TO TALK TO SOME ONE................BUT NO HELP!!!! Report abuse

by miss g
at 16:07 on 12 Oct 2008

Cutie is a a product of our dumbed down culture...yes she should be cleaning toilets and would be if Virgin Media didnt employ people that time-share a brain cell !
Strange how people like me with 2 computer science degrees dont know how to use my computer!!!! My short and sour time with Virgin media consisted of a speed of 24kbps, lesss then dialup speed when promised 8 meg which I got instantly when I changed service provider!
Bt is equally bad and lie about their speeds. Which magazine are pretty spot on with their top choices of isp's Not many complaints on the net about any of those! Report abuse

by Ms Unhappy
at 08:40 on 21 Oct 2008

I have read with immense interest all the above posts.

I was first with Blueyonder and then NTL when I moved so in total this was for some 10 years and was never any problem, the service was great etc. etc. Ok occasional internet probs remember internet was a very new thing back then but overall I had no complaints.

In rolls Virgin and problems started so ultimately I changed to O2, wow was the service quick or what, only problem was getting the mac from Virgin but once I had this, O2 sent me a modem and a connection date and all I had to do was plug it in, it's very cheap, very reliable and very fast. When I had problems, they bent over backwards to help me and ultimately supplied me, again free of charge, a new updated modem and I haven't had a moments worry with them.

I would never ever go back to Virgin, here is an example of their help desk, lost all internet connections, after hours of telephoning got a lady in I assume India who hardly spoke a word of English and what did she say "can you ping" there was no internet connection what was I supposed to ping!!!!!!! Report abuse

by Anon
at 13:00 on 14 Nov 2008

Virgin Media is awful...I have more broadband downtime now since they took over Telewest than ever before - Telewest were good!! No Joke! at least 3 hours per week of downtime with no explanation of why on their website...and the call centre in Mombai!! well enough said!!!.... Avoid Virgin like the plague! Report abuse

by Anony Mouse
at 16:20 on 19 Nov 2008

My experience with Virgin Media have been terrible. Not the service itself, but the customer service. It took us over 2 months to get broadband and we just got our first bill. Overcharged by £20! Report abuse

by ordinateur
at 15:26 on 24 Nov 2008

I was with ntl and have had good service since it was taken over by Virgin.
However when I noticed that the cost of my ADSL Bundle 1 had dropped by £4 for new customers I asked for a reduction in my tariff.
They couldn't offer a permanent reduction - so I asked for a MAC code to transfer elsewhere.
I received an email telling me it was on the way. That was 6 weeks ago. Despite chasing I'm now told that the MAC request was cancelled because of a billing problem.
That was total rubbish - I've always paid my bills on time by direct debit.
I did get a letter in the post, however, telling me that they were adding the word 'National' to their name - what nonsense is that ?
They have 5 days now to deliver the MAC. If it doesn't arrive I'll have to ask Ofcom to help out. Report abuse

by Jim
at 10:34 on 28 Nov 2008

Same as most others. I have had intermittant broadband for months now. I am a Chartered Information Technology Professional yet get idiots on the help line all the time with no wan knowledge or skills blaming my PC (dual core 4200 with 4 gb mem and a gigabyte network card) or my network or the weather, the date etc.etc. ANYTHING rather than admit there is a fault on the cable somewhere OR they have oversold the available bandwidth (my personal theory)- hence the 3 minute time-outs. Report abuse

by jaytee
at 20:36 on 1 Dec 2008

We have now been without our Virgin landline for one week.
We are told it could be a further 3 weeks before they can caome and fix it!
So far we have spent at least £50 on mobile calls without any satisfaction.
What more can we do?? Report abuse

by Les barrett
at 14:14 on 6 Dec 2008

I see that this board has been running nearly 2 years now and people are still complaining abot the same things they were when it started. Nothing has changed except Richard Branson has got richer and the flashing adverts on the home page have got more annoying and intrusive.Don't you love it when you are paying £35 a month and they are offering the same thing to new customers for £10 ? Report abuse

by Ilona
at 21:33 on 7 Jan 2009

My husband and I are absolutely disgusted with the appalling customer service that we have received from Virgin Media. We placed our order and paid our money but nobody turned up to install (despite a letter saying they were coming to do so). We have rang them every day for the last four days. Phone has been put down on us twice, nobody returns any calls and they clearly do not want the custom. Have complained twice by email and had no replies despite the website promising a reply within three days.

I think it is a bad omen if a company treat you in this way before installation has even taken place. We have now cancelled (wonder how long it will be before our refund is processed!) and are returning gladly back to Sky. Been with them for 6 years now with no problem and would never consider Virgin again for anything. Will be warning friends and family too. Report abuse

by Ilona
at 21:39 on 7 Jan 2009

PS. Like a previous writer, I too feel like I have been taken forcefully by Branson. To be honest, I am really surprised as I thought that the customer service would be good. It was, in actual fact, the worst service I have ever encountered! Come back Sky, all is forgiven and I cannot recommend them enough - no problems at all in 6 years. Report abuse

by bryn
at 19:48 on 8 Jan 2009

do yourselves a favour and give virgin media a miss ,they will only #### you off in the end! Report abuse

by Donald H Taylor
at 15:14 on 9 Jan 2009

Telewest was good (back in 2000). Virigin are rubbish. Rubbish at providing a service, and then rubbish at supporting it with decent customer service. And the worse thing is that they put on this front of being down with the kidz. Oh just drop it, Branson. I don't want some actress telling me for the tenth time that 'this phone call is absolutely free'. It wastes my time - especially when I'm having to repeat the call endlessly to get a decent response. Just put me through to the right person, first time, and get the thing sorted. Actually, don't. You won't have to. I'm switching. Report abuse

by kajompa
at 23:00 on 16 Jan 2009

Lots of negative comments about Virgin here, which is interesting because I can't really say I've had an amazing experience with BT, which controls pretty much the entire ADSL market through its wholesale broadband products... i.e. BT is the ONLY real alternative!!

Because even if the ISP is not BT, chances are 90-95% odds are that the ISP rent the ADSL off BT. Hence the requirement for a BT landline for the vast majority of ADSL products.

Of course it's hilarious when the ISP you complain to e.g. Pipex, Eclipse, etc. blame their technical problems on the BT Wholesale infrastructure. I mean seriously, don't waste my time!

On the other hand, now all the cable/fibreoptic infrastructure is owned by Virgin. Makes it a two horse race in my book. BT (in some flavour/"franchise" or other) with the copper wires or Virgin on the fibreoptic side.

BT's own broadband have even been rubbish for me. They gave me a nearly-useless 50-100kbps downstream for several months until the ADSL line "settled down" despite numerous, numerous complaints where they basically told me to reboot my Homehub or reboot Windows (oh, but I'm primarily a Linux/Mac user ffs!!).

Even when they fixed the speed (just 2 megs in zone 3 of south London, I mean, really!) they then traffic-shaped like bastards until 1am, it seemed.

So I'm going to give Virgin a go. I'm sure that as much as bad experience is down to subjectivity, luck must play a pretty huge part. I totally lost faith in BT a couple of years ago. It'll take a LOT to make me give them another chance considering the cr4p service BT have put me through.

What could possibly be wrong with that? ;-) Report abuse

by Avoid Virgin Media
at 10:42 on 19 Jan 2009

The customer service with Virgin Media is terrible and probably illegal! They are offensive and just want to get you off the phone ASAP rather than actually solve any problems. Report abuse

by Steve Bradley
at 16:49 on 20 Jan 2009

Virgin offer a Phone, TV and Broadband offer for £16 £11 line rental.

All of the small print does not mention the £30 intallation fee, £7.50 wireless router handling fee and the extra £1 for not doing something on the net.

I am now in the position where I am locked into a 12 month contract I don't want to be in.

I just feel as though as a consumer I have been mislead. Their advertising is actually incorrect, misleading and someone needs to do something about it.

Oh, and I've gone back to using teletext to find out the football results because it's quicker and more reliable!

I hope this can help highlight the problem.

Steve Report abuse

by Pam
at 20:04 on 21 Feb 2009

I have several complaints about Virgin Media internet. I have given Virgin Media(VM) ample opportunities to redeem it's self but it is simply not happening and I am not a person who complains willingly.
I am totally exasperated by the mediocre service provided by Virgin Media. I never signed up to VM services as I was switched over from NTL, who I might add provided are very efficient,trouble free service. They were able to collect my money(the correct money!) every month, by Direct Debit, without a glitch so why is Virgin media are unable to do this?? They have had several problems, in 2008 and recently 2009, withdrawing money from my direct debit account. The money is all there !! VM then has the audacity to charge me a 'fine' for late payment because they are unable to get the money from my account! The problem is at their end!!! Not mine!!. Then there is the problem with internet connection. It is a very poor connection. I often loose connection as it often switches itself off! And this is all if I am able to connect to it in the first place! What exactly am I paying £20.00 a month for when it does not work!
I have telephoned Virgin customer services several times only to each time get though to automated machines and become totally lost in a maze of tranfers. How totally rubbish! Can they not employ people to answer the telephones??
This is the final straw for me. I am discontinuing my account and all services with Virgin Media immediately. No doubt this in it's self with be a hassle but completely worth it. I, no doubt, will reach an automated machine and be tranfered several times. I will not recommend Virgin Media to anyone, in fact will gladly suggest they do not go with Virgin Media and save themeselves a lot of hassle and (illegal) overcharging. I will be switching to Tiscali as soon as I break free from Virgin Media as I've heard they provide an excellent service. Do yourself a favour DO NOT do internet with them!! Report abuse

by Reece
at 01:35 on 7 Mar 2009

Been on virgin approx 4 years now its been fine since the last 6 months where my internet was getting capped when I went over my bandwidth limit, It reduces from 10mb to 1mb... from 4pm until 12:00 which is the hours im on the computer.

Apart from the capping virgin media is fine but i suggest they remove 50mb as they cannot handle it if they are having to cap users to balance speed.

1/10 Report abuse

by John
at 07:57 on 23 Mar 2009

Don't even think of going to Virgin, save yourself the grief - even BT are better (can't believe I typed that). Worst firm I have ever done business with. Report abuse

by becky79
at 13:45 on 27 Mar 2009

Virgin Media are incompetant and more to the point they lie to the customer if they are not sure how to deal with a problem. My BB went down on 19th feb and I was told so many different things by different people there, it was amazing what they will say to get you off the phone. Its finally up and running again, on 26th March! 5 weeks without BB and surprise surprise it was me calling them every other day because they never called back when they said they would or gave deadline after deadline of when it would be sorted, and never kept to any of them!!
Cant believe the virgin media person on here slagging customers off!!! Its nothing personal love, and are you sure VM would be happy with you posting comments like that about their ''valued customers''.
(what a laugh) Report abuse

by Stephen
at 13:25 on 9 Apr 2009

Steve,
Your supposed to read the small print and regarding the installation fee they offer to let you install it yourself, also they offer to send out an engineer for free if you're having trouble setting the equipment, the modem they charge you for well... they do not have to give you it for nothing other company's may do this like BT but you get what you pay for and their hardware is s**t to put it lightly lol. Report abuse

by xafeec
at 00:25 on 12 Apr 2009

Virgin media also block sites they dont approve of, the speed of connections varies from minute to minute but is never even close to the advertised speed except at stupid o clock in the morning. Try logging into private-eye.co.uk just one of many sites they block, they also took part in the orwellian 'phorm' test without telling any customers and actively interfere with connections, slowing some down and increasing the speed of those who pay them a premium. Much as i dislike mr murdoch, since we changed to sky we have had zero problems. virgin is bad, avoid if you can. Report abuse

by Pir8 Pablo
at 16:35 on 23 Apr 2009

Virgin Media are useless. Customer service is appalling and expensive, the internet is slow beyond all concievable perceptions. Right now, the internet runs at 1/4 speed of what we pay for for 5-6 minute bursts punctuated by a minute or so of nada. Which is a bountiful pain when you play COD4 or use Skype as regularly as I do. Don't pay these b*****ds anything. Report abuse

by Ess
at 20:29 on 17 May 2009

1. Virgin media website online ordering, it does state a one off payment before actually ordering anything.
2. It does come with the contract letter.
3. You had 30 days after installation to cancel your contract.
I rest my case :)
Happy Virgin Media worker :) Report abuse

by Call Center Staff
at 14:45 on 22 May 2009

Hi all,

As a member staff at various call centers, I don't quite think several of you understand how demeaning it is to be called a "phone-monkey"! I mean, if it wasn't for us who else would you abuse? How would you get an ambulance, fire engine, policeman, gas, electricity, entertainment, booze in the pubs and supermarkets, roads repaired, train timetables, how would you find a number for a lost friend and a million other services call center staff supply to you, without complaint, argument or abuse in return.

think about it please. Report abuse

by pussy cat
at 23:58 on 25 May 2009

Virgin Media "pants" - dont go there. Off back to AOL Report abuse

by Graham
at 18:12 on 4 Jun 2009

They are the worst company I've ever dealt with, they do lie, and I'm sure their way of tricking you into another 12 month contract if you change anything must be illegal. In the past you had to sign a contract, there was a reason for this, to legally state that you've read the contract and agree. Now it seems that if you say 'yes' on the phone, that's it you are in a 12 month contract that will cost you hundreds. Virgin media should be avoided at all costs. They are now telling me that I have to pay for months even though I'm leaving the country because of a 12 month contract I never agreed to. Report abuse

by Mike Meade
at 21:56 on 27 Jun 2009

Installed today 50MB, eqipment doesnt work with 64bit computers, hoever I got around that by doing everything manually. Then, i got disconnected 2 hours later and called them up, on hold for 30 minutes, finally spoke to an indian guy who said I was suspended because I haven't paid!! I have only had it 1 day and I gave them all my bank details 30 days ago! I paid £100 on card to cover this month and next month, they apologised and fixed it, 30 minutes later I got cut off again, I called up, again on hold for 30 minutes and they said that I was suspended for non-payment again! They transferred me to the currect department that was closed and they hung up, tried to ring again and couldnt get through after an hour!!! I am cancelling first thing tomorrow and demanding all my money refunded.

I have never had such a poor service in my life, and to think that it costs £50 a month and I only had it 4 hours and Im cancelling!

Do not go with virgin media! VERY VERY POOR SERVICE! Report abuse

by Captain Peedofff
at 21:09 on 29 Jun 2009

Hey mr call centre staff, we know how demanding call centres are, but heres an idea, if you all wearn't so rude and untrained except in the art of lieing then maybe we all might give you a break - learn your job, stop lieing, and speak to us repsectfully and you might find your job improves.

I have had the 50mb service installed recently, I only had the 20mb before no phone or tv as I have sky. I upgraded online - through "My Virgin" thing and went for the phone, 50mb (£30 installation), clicked on the free M tv option (no installation charge) , so why did they just charge me £30. I rang up two weeks ago, complained and was told that is would be refunded - lie - still on my bill.

I have had cable for internet for about 8 years now, ntl now virgin, even now they still mess up your direct debit, if you dont check your bank account every day you dont notice then they cut you off for not paying your bill - no letter - no emails - nothing just disconection - arseholes.

When I had it installed the engineer to the feed from the broadband box socket screwed a metal splitter to my skirting board gave me a coil of about 10metres of cable and drilled a hole in my wall to send the cable through to next door. No boxes on the walls just a hole and a nasty metal spliter screwed to my skirting board - and they charge £30 for this - they will be coming back FOC until it's done to my satisfaction.

Keep away from these idiots - there bad news! Report abuse

by Richard Branson's beard
at 19:25 on 11 Sep 2009

I'm considering whether or not to cancel my broadband package at the moment. I was with Telewest previously so came to Virgin by default. I've had my problems with them but to be fair, they have relaid my cables when I had a major problem, and the service is generally good. They've even stopped throttling so severely in the mornings/early afternoon.

BUT I currently pay £25 per month for the L package. They have an offer for new customers which means they pay £20 after their initial three months paying £15. I don't think that existing customers should be paying more than new customers once their initial 3-month introductory offer is over, and have told them so in two e-mails for which I have as yet received no reply. I will probably get round to calling them next week but I am fed up with their attitude to existing customers which is always screw you, you're hooked already. I either pay the same as new customers for the same service or I go somewhere else. Report abuse

by Chris (Mr Angry Virgin Customer)
at 22:04 on 19 Sep 2009

I have XL TV/Phone/20MB BB service, recently upgraded to 20MB broadband because I was fed up having my service throttled by 75% "fair use" policy, or should I say "fairly useless" service policy. This I was told will stop my BB from being throttled - guess what, yes that's right, 8 times in 3 weeks 75% throttled again, now they say the 50MB service will not be throttled? enough is enough; Richard Branson will take my money but not give me the service I pay him for. I will be reducing my BB payment by 75% unless I get a gaurantee of no more throttling of my service, or I will be leaving Virgin for good and go to a Broadband provider who do not care about "fair use" crap and have better customer care. Report abuse

by Draylynn
at 20:40 on 24 Sep 2009

I'm a long term user of broadband from Virgin Media, right down to it's roots as Diamond Cable before NTL. Diamond Cable were fab, awesome support, few problems but hastily fixed. NTL were fab, awesome support, again few problems but hastily fixed. Virgin Media have done absolutely nothing but cause me problems.

I spent a year having to repair my own cable outside my house because the technician's never came and now I'm on ADSL with Virgin Media they lied to sell me it, it's got an appalling connection stability issue after 4pm. The support hang up, never help, say they're sending someone and never do, their fancy remote assistance is just as bad as phoning them up, they disconnect the session, give you the run around and never actually really help. I can't get by for one week without a problem, a lag night, something to spoil my fun online, it's shocking!

Now I know how to turn on a computer, analyze tracerts and pathpings, but apparently the call center can't do anything to help if you have a genuine problem.
I know alot of people in my area who are on VM get treat like first time pc users and told it's their firewall, their computer, their cables and ignored, especially when a tracerts showing 800ms in manchester. I bet your one of them Cutie.

No offence to Virgin Media, but stop taking customers if you can't accomondate them, which clearly your network can't and these silly rules "prioritised services" Web Browsing racks up more bandwidth than VOIP and Online Games, yet other services get shunted for the browsing. Release it all, abide your "Fair policy useage" and stop adding hidden rules into your connection lease. Report abuse

by tony
at 15:35 on 4 Oct 2009

virgin media are a joke customer services are a joke technical support the supervisors and most other people you speak to. i had b.t. they was bad so i phoned v.media told them what i wanted no lag for online gaming. they said you might lag but its very rare i had 20 meg fitted oh deary me lag lag lag phoned tech support virtually every day. unplug your modem wait 2 minutes thats all they know i was advised to go for 50 meg so i did oh deary dearest me worse. i plugged my next door neighbours virgin 10 meg it ran perfect so i went down to 10 meg oh my dearest of deary things it was trash they must be stupid to think thers nothing wrong with my cable outside the house. why they dont just put a new cable in i dont know today ive just got a bill for £110 for 50 meg bband which is now 10meg. well they can whistle - do you hear me richard? Report abuse

by J
at 10:38 on 11 Oct 2009

Do not use Virgin ever! Since I move to virgin I had nothing but problems. The connections is completely unreliable and the customer service is apauling. You will have to wait at least half an hour in a wating line and when you actually speak to someone they usually are untrained and will pass you to another departemnent ( meaning another 20-30 minutes). Also the support email is very unhelpfull as it just tells you to ring!!!! I will cancell the contract as soon as I can and I would rate them with less 2or 3 stars if I could! Report abuse

by mr carter
at 01:24 on 15 Oct 2009

my god how true,virgin are by far the worst (wtf) I too have problems with them hmm!! i pay for 20meg but at best i seem be getting 1.5!!.its 1.4 am uk time and acouding to speedtest.net my speed is .5.02 thay have sent me a new modem lol its a twentypence replacement to keep tabs on you ( u have to register it to activate it). anyway i look forword to my soon to come if ever 20meg in disgust. Report abuse

by mr carter
at 01:49 on 15 Oct 2009

ive bean with virgin from the old telewest ripoffs `hwo took your money and ran` and my god, virgin has to me past the worst for a ripoff service for the lenth of time i have bean with them.i dont know what the f to say. :i Report abuse

by jason l
at 20:05 on 20 Oct 2009

i must admit i did have isues with my 20mb service from vigin media as it was being throttled and capping out at around the 10mb mark what did upset me just a little. i have since upgraded to the 50 mb service and by god does it move. i am constantly hitting 50.2mb on speed tests and 1.4mb upload rates,
as it has no limitations on the service as such. hope this helps people who are thinking of upgradeing or getting this service. Report abuse

by Junaid
at 20:51 on 28 Oct 2009

Over past 6 years experience I had lots of patience with the Virgin services. I would say NTL had little more better service than horrible Virgin service. Now finally I have decided to look for other service providers where Virgin is trying to be too cheeky with their free 10meg upgrade for so called "free" where you will have to sign up for another year contract. Where as NTL did free upgrades with no futher contracts. Their customer service is horrible, they took 3 months to move my house and started with another year contract without informing me. I would have gone for 6 months half price offer if I would have informed their renewal of contract. Their engineers blams their horrible system. Once when I moved my house I was not on their system at all, they lost all my details. But they were providing service and taking money out of my account regularly. I work for a retailer selling Virgin and Sky, and I used to hear lot of complains about Virgin service. Now I know VIRGIN IS AIMING FOR EXCELLENCE IN LOSING CUSTOMERS!!! Report abuse

by Nas
at 19:01 on 30 Oct 2009

My experience is that at the moment Virgin Media is giving worse service to its customers. In the last 12 days, I had been without internet for 8 days. Reply.... 'engineers are working to sort out the problem at the earliest'..... and the work goes on for days and days. No remorse shown and continuous dodgy arguments. Time to move on to better services. Report abuse

by Exasperated, London
at 11:06 on 3 Nov 2009

I am exasperated beyond belief with the service I receive from Virgin Media. I could rant for hours but I'm going to do my blood pressure a favour and keep it short.

They're completely disorganised, their telephone support service is a joke and if you manage to even get through to speak to someone you're met with a total imbecile.

Appalling, appalling, appalling. Report abuse

by James Conway
at 15:18 on 15 Nov 2009

last year we had virgin media installed in the holylands area of belfast . we payed a 10er a month for freeview??? dont ask me how but those cheeky b******s have the balls to charge you for freeview t.v. the only extras you get is that you have the choice to " buy" songs or movies for extra money. they also charged us 50 pounds extra. when we brought the point up they said they would be happy to refund us.

this year when we wer unable to get sky we had to get virgin media again. ( basically because we needed the internet) and opppps .. no internet for the last 2 weeks, cant do any assignments so i have to live at my parents home!!

and that 50 pounds if your wondering ... well we quizzed them about it and what a suprise.. they seemed to think we were retarded, and hadent a clue what we were talking about because we moved house.

all in all virgin media is a complete joke.

you can tell this anyways immediatley when you read the flyers , as they say stuff like

£ 25 virgin hd box ( with sky it costs 45) and other cheap shots at sky... but at the end of the day its clear for everyone to see Virgin Media is an ill organised joke!

dont even get me started on customer service hotline... and also... when you go to post a comment.. they edit it .. and try to persuade you not to be too hard on them !!! laugh out eff in loud. Read this:

" please try to be polite.....

think about all aspects of the package, such as speed
...
We reserve the right to edit comments "

big middle finger to virgin media... never again Report abuse

by anthony wadsworth
at 22:26 on 26 Nov 2009

virgin media are a joke dont get virgin media if you want to play games on xbox. after being with b.t. i couldnt wait to end my contract with them. i phoned v.m. the lady i spoke to said its brilliant for xbox gaming oh my god it was the worst mistake i made for on line gaming. lag lag slow speed jitter slow ping customer services a joke technical support ha ha technical engineers even more of a joke i was advised to go for 50 meg had it installed oh deary dearest me i had it took out after a week made no difference still trash ive had enough ime out of there; ime going to pay to get out of my contract early it says on the vans how fast do you want to go it should say how fast slow stop start reset your router 3 times a night do you want to go. we pay for the garbage service;bye bye virgin Report abuse

by Dave
at 19:37 on 23 Dec 2009

Don't get me started on these bunch of idiots at Virgin Media. In 4 years I have had every excuse under the sun for the cock-ups and insults they spout.Like why did I want a telephone if I was hard of hearing.Or the cable that an engineer deemed knackered and taking 12 months to replace.Or a simple upgrade in Broadband speed not happening and yet being charged for it.I could go on for hours.Do a Broadband test.I did and found my 10 meg broadband was in fact not even 3meg.Idiots of the worse kind with customer services that hardly speak clear English! Report abuse

by Tony
at 09:15 on 8 Jan 2010

Having just read all of this, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I ordered the full package a few days ago from VM, but got a really bad feeling from the call. I tried to call back with a simple question over the installation- 3 further calls and 2 hours later I was told that the installation team wasn't "customer facing" so I couldn't get the answer. At that point I got cold feet and cancelled. So thanks to all who've posted on here, I think you've saved me! Report abuse

by J
at 13:03 on 8 Feb 2010

A superb service. Had 10MB broadband installed and that's exactly what it is. Report abuse

by seon
at 19:59 on 14 Feb 2010

We signed up for Virgin's service after having them at our previous address. We wer assurred that we would be connected within a week or so. We then found out that the outside line is broken. It's still not been fixed though. Following one month of phone calls and waiting on engineers to arrive Virgin Media have started withdrawing money from my partner’s account despite us having had NO connection and service from them. We were assured that this would not happen. We’re now scared that if we seek an alternative supplier that they will continue to demand money. Report abuse

by Matt
at 22:03 on 27 Feb 2010

Avoid Virgin Media like the plague. Over time we ended up having the full package - 20 MB boradband XL TV and phone package. The broadband is never anywhere near the advertised speeds - even top speed test sites often report under 5 MB! The TV package is pretty good - its just the technology behind it. Often, changing channels results in a massive delay and the system ends up playing catchup - also takes ages to boot up and load menus if switched off. Service isn't actually interupted all that often - although a few times is enough for me. The tech running the whole thing and the level of customer service seems budget to say the least. After days with no service and a complaint we were assured our bill would be reduced. 1 months later - same bill and a charge for a new remote becuase the rubbish VM one fell apart. With the money you pay for VM you;d get more from Sky - as soon as the next bill is paid we're off to Sky - and running at that. Report abuse

by george
at 11:25 on 3 Mar 2010

had o2 broadband for years never a problem but had a bt telephone line and was paying loads for a line and never used the phone so ended up stopping bt line which also stoped o2 broadband which i have to say was great was getting 6to8mb down the phone line adsl2..now have gone to virgin telephone and 20mb broadband no way i'd have their tv..they came out to do the installation all well but went to use the phone 2weeks later and was not installed properly plus 20mb broadband is no where i mean no where near 20mb 6to8mb tops and it times out at peak times..now i was getting the same speeds from o2 for a fiver a month..virgin say it's computer and the way wireless is set up i remember years ago ntl were saying when things were going wrong with there broadband is it your firewall same problems different answers..now after googleing a bit you find out that virgin just don't have the bandwidth for what we pay for rubbish really rubbish service!!.. Report abuse

by trac | registered | 1 post
at 01:19 on 19 Mar 2010

day 2 on virgin media. just wondering if other suppliers were subjected to bbc2 freezing every two seconds tonight.. apparantly the 50mb internet broadband is actually somewhere between 15mb and 20mb, but to be honest, surfing the web and using facebook is no faster now than when we had sky 2 days ago. so annoyed we are actually paying more money for a service that barely exists. might get myself a separate sky connection! Report abuse

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