Should Virgin Media customers switch to Sky?

by Julian
at 08:34 on 28 Mar 2007

Defect to the competition i already have and ive go one of sky's cracking Sky boxes, its a big jump up from NTL, they are more reliable, the box never locks up, you can record, i love the extras on sky sports, the internet is 16m and its way cheaper than NTL, also to have more than one box in your house it only cost £10 for as many as you want whereas NTL charge £10 per box

Oh and one really cool thing you can even set the programmes you want to watch on record from your pc or mobile phone wherever you are.

So i say if your thinking about it yes definately change

The sky convert Report abuse

by Joey M
at 08:44 on 28 Mar 2007

In a word....YES. Disgraceful service from Virgin. On 4meg service from NTL for years with no problems. Just ran a connectivity test after not being able to connect then very slow loading pages: 11kb's!!!!!!! It's not like the infra-structure wasn't there in the first place!

OFCOM HERE I COME. Report abuse

by Paul
at 16:45 on 30 Mar 2007

Personally, i disagree with both of you. For an extra £5 a month virgin have upgraded us to every channel there is, and upgraded our box to the V box, which is there version of the sky box and we got to keep the old box and set it up in a different room!

Currently where i live, providing your area can accept the connection, virgin has begun upgrading everyone for free to 20mb connection speed!

Lastly, sky only removed FOUR channels from the service, Sky One, Two, Three and Sky Sports News. Personally i only watch Sky One and everything on here i can watch on the net anyway!


I think its far too early for anyone to make a decision on virgin, there just starting to set everything up how they want and upgraded various bits and pieces in their service. Give it a couple of months, let everything settle down then ask the question if you should switch or not! Report abuse

by david
at 23:59 on 1 Apr 2007

NOTICE!!!
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 hackgenie
at 13:32 on 4 Apr 2007

But is it worth the hassle of getting a BT line back in? Isn't it expensive to install after ceasing it for cable? Report abuse

by grimm
at 08:43 on 6 Apr 2007

if you still have the bt line installed reconnection is free.
I was with telewest for four years until they let me down, changed to sky tv and broadband package which was a nice easy switch, apart from the now virgin media groups inabillity to cancel my account on the day specified so i find myself still paying a subscription after they have collected my hardware. i especially liked the way BT did not gloat over my return. Report abuse

by DX
at 13:21 on 9 Apr 2007

Definitely NOt. Virgin Media customers are constantly complaining about the loss of Sky channels and faults with their services. The loss of the Sky channels is a confusing mess between the two companies and unfortunatly its affected VM's customers. There seems to be two sides to the argument but I think its clear that Sky is to blame here and continue to be arrogant, throwing adverts in VM customers faces forcing to switch through decieving communication.

Fautl wise, nothing is perfect. Sky has only recently set up broadband and currently has very little time or experience to allow many faults to occur. But these will happen with services. If you're a broadband fan then obviously go for Virgin Media. They are upgrading to 20mb next month in comparison to Sky's 8mb.

Both companies seem to offer good value services in general. If you're interested in a package deal to save money with all services, you'll save with Virgin Media. And as I said previously, if broadband is improtant, go for VM too.

However, if you're after a good quality TV service, go for Sky. They've got their Sky One, News etc channels, plus plenty of HD versions of their own channels. You're going to need to spend a few hundred on a box if you want HD channels though, plus a little extra per month on top.

The argument between the two companies has raised the question should I switch or which company should I go for, and its baffling customers. At this point, its down to what the individual customer wants, not whether one company is better than the other. Don't forget that switching may come across as easy but it may take time and some problems may occur, no matter which way you go.

Virgin Media are a very promising company, and seem to have a good future ahead of them; while Sky have experience in high quality TV service and will continue to offer for years to come. Report abuse

by Gods Apprentice
at 23:57 on 14 Apr 2007

I totally agree with you DX, Im a happy Telewest oops sorry Vigin Media customer. Ive got to say that the loss of SKY ONE is the only thing that bothers me but Im not about to jump ship because SKY are trying to pull a fast one. I only actually watch TV about 3hours a day anyway. I very happy with the services I receive and still advise friends family and colleagues that the broadband service is second to noneand will be for a long time.....!!!!!!! Report abuse

by James
at 15:23 on 15 Apr 2007

People keep saying VirginMedia is slow and freezes up, well its not true NTL:Telewest is slow and freezes, virgin has had the pace box redesigned and made by SAMASUNG, it is as fast as sky's boxes and also looks alot tidier than their boxes made by thomson, futhermore virgin have redesigned the tvdrive box to V and it never freezes and is as fast as sky, also you can only get four normal sky boxes in your house or two sky boxes costing £10 per month per box one off box charge (£99-£399) whearas you can have as many as you want with virginmedia for just an extra £5 per month per box, the only downfall with virgin media tv is their hd content, they only have one hd channel (bbc hd) but do have alot of on demand hd. Report abuse

by jim
at 02:38 on 25 Apr 2007

Virgin Media is UK Best Boardband and alway will be and soon will be the best for on demand Report abuse

by jim
at 02:38 on 25 Apr 2007

Virgin Media is UK Best Boardband and alway will be and soon will be the best for on demand tv Report abuse

by Wilks
at 12:00 on 29 Apr 2007

Lol @ all these Virgin Media employees coming on spouting nonesense ^^
Nice 1 Jim, your company is unbelievably abysmal.
Internet speeds are slow because there is between 20 & 100% packet loss at peak times. Customer service is none existent and arrogant / insolent.
Go with Virgin Media at your peril! I am in a guild of 300 people and a clan of 40 people and they are all switching providers if they are unfortunate enough to be with this set of n00bs!
You have been warned! Report abuse

by tez
at 13:22 on 1 May 2007

I have both Sky month by month, which I just have the free channels, and Virgin Media.

Virgin Media, to me is the best, for at least 2 reasons.

1. I loose all my channels with Sky, when there is a thunderstorm, very annoying.

2. Virgin Media's ondemand service is great.

Regarding faults, you do get faults with any company, with Sky I am on my 3rd box, and have had a lot of freezing, sqaring pictures. With Virgins new Samsung box, and their new software, it's a lot faster than before. Report abuse

by Monkey
at 16:14 on 3 May 2007

Have to agree with wiks, been a customer of Telewest for many years with not a single problem, then along comes virgin media and screws that up completely
Poor service, a box that freezes every time the wind changes direction, incorrect billing (still with no admittance of blame from VM), the worst customer service i have ever had the misfortune to have to use, responses ranging from arrogance, incompetence to down right lies.
My Internet speeds are very substandard, Report abuse

by nice
at 10:32 on 4 May 2007

Vigin-media told me by phone that my area is serviced by them. Well, after 2 requests (2 weeks between them) through their web form I never got any reply. So as I got no reply 2 weeks after the second web request to become a customer I phoned them again. They told me bluntly that my house number is not serviced and there is nothing they can do. They mentioned that only BT can service me.... Report abuse

by Example FM
at 14:07 on 5 May 2007

I had NTL for 3 years with NO internet data loss, NO billing problems, NO crappy customer services, NO High bills.

Now we have VM I cant stream to our server because of data loss, We are getting billed in March for services we had in December and have already payed for, NASTY customer services, Extremely high bills that footballers would struggle to pay.

BRING BACK NTL

DOWN WITH RICHARD BRANSON AND HIS USELESS VIRGIN MEDIA Report abuse

by colin
at 13:22 on 6 May 2007

As it was mentioned before, sky have removed sky one from virgin, but dont forget who owns all the other channels such as bravo challenge and i think sci-fi aswell, they were all telywest channels, now virgin media, and also consider that you will only get 8 meg broadband from sky if you live very close to the exchange, my phone line only supports 2.2 meg maximum. Report abuse

by GY
at 15:19 on 6 May 2007

My NTL speeds were just fine but since Virgin have taken over 10Mb has dropped to 2.5Mb and so the promised, but not delivered, 20Mb for the outrageous sum of £37 per month is just a big, fat, greedy, dishonest joke!

Virgin are trying to get everyone to settle for the slower speeds so they can cram more TV channels through the fibre. They are only interested in customers who will take all their services from them.

It's a shame as cable has the most potential for broadband but now that Branson has the monopoly on cable in the UK (whatever happened to the competition commission?) forget it!

I'm off to another provider.

G Report abuse

by Pigmisser
at 22:21 on 6 May 2007

Virgin Media have so far been a pain in the arse! I have now phoned them on six occasions regarding the same thing i.e. they are taking money out of my account every month even though I'm in credit with them. And because they take more out of my account than the actuall bill they're just adding more and more credit. Everytime I've called they've assured me that its a common problem and that they just delt with the same thing earlier and that it will all be okay now. Guess what? Yes its happened again, now i don't know if I'm just being taken for fool or they really couldn't care less. I imagine if you did this to a few thousand customers you'd be making pretty good interest on it. Report abuse

by K
at 12:38 on 7 May 2007

A recently diappointed customer. Internet problems, freezing tv pictures wee just about bearable.
I wanted to change phone options to free 400 minutes any calls a month after a whopping bill, rang and changed seemingly OK, but after another big bill discovered they had no record of me changing tariff. Unfortunately the customer is not always right I was offered a measly £12 off my bill instead of the correction being made to the date I was told the new service would be effective. Will be looking at a new BT line asap, despite the hassle and am considering ditching the rest to make do with freeview!! Report abuse

by Rainman
at 01:00 on 9 May 2007

I tested my Broadband about 20 times today, not had 1 result over 1.4mb. Pretty poor for a 4mb connection.
The loss of Sky channels is not a great problem, but the cost per month should reflect the loss.

Like many people i am also frustrated with the Lock-up and freezing of the Cable channels. I dont care if they are updating, my cable still locks up.
The promised 20mb upgrade is a joke. if they cannot maintain the service to there present user base, how are they going to be able to maintain 20mb..

Virgin Media must be making far more money now, they a not paying Sky. They need to spend some of those savings on Bandwidth.


I have also noticed reduction in the speed when downloading mail.
The service seems to be going from good to very poor..


The cost of phone calls seems to have risen also..
Pay more, get less with Virgin Report abuse

by Desmond Walker
at 16:01 on 12 May 2007

loks great Report abuse

by Desmond Walker
at 16:01 on 12 May 2007

Looks Great Report abuse

by VERMIN-CAT-NORWICH
at 19:52 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 tim@newcastle
at 00:03 on 17 May 2007

VM have caused me some trouble with the switch from NTL:Telewest.
Most noticablly (please excuse my spelling) as mentioned, internet speed coupled
with major packet loss at peak hours.
With NTL:Telewest i had none at peak hours and would push a good 7Mbps which is reasonable. now with virgin i'm lucky to see 2mbps and if i really push somthing with multiple connections i might see 3mbps if i'm very lucky with very high packet loss.
However i'm going to give them until august to rectify the problem.
But they have now made another mistake too with they're "traffic shaping". which comes into effect when the 20Mbps is enabled meaning. as shown below.

low teir(2Mbps) from 4pm-midnight has a limit of around 200Mb before
being restricted to a measly 512kbps down and a worse 128kbps up.

Medium(4Mbps) same time limit. with a download limit of 350Mb before
being restricted to a low 2Mbps and a slightly but still pethetic 194kbps up.

Top Teir (10/20Mbps) same time limit. Dl limit of 3Gb before
being restricted to a reasonable 5Mbps and pathetic 256Kbps up.

This will be murder for me as i'm in a house with 3 other students. Of which out of the 4 of us, 3 are heavy users with our peak usage between 6-midnight. So i might if i'm lucky see my full connection for a couple hours in the evening before being throttled. Thanks Virgin media. if it wasn't for this one i might consider staying but as i said i'll wait until august but this was just kicking a customer who's trying to stay loyal when he's already down.

(speeds are not a direct quote from the website as i'm tired and don't want to look it up but they are around this area (and i think i got the upload speeds correct)). Report abuse

by Nick
at 11:16 on 19 May 2007

Well, i have been a NTL customer for 2 1/2 years. I was very happy with them, then Virgin Media came and i am even more happier!!!

I lost the Sky channels BIG DEAL!!!! Virgin Media's programmes on UKTV Living and Virgin Central are far better than what i used to get with Sky One. I watched 24 and The Simpsons. Thats it!

24= Buy the box set for around £25
The Simpsons= Watch on Channel 4

I did used to have Sky World £40 a month for every channel. I didn't have any internet or phone from them. I really wanted cable at the time of when i subscribed, but Cable & Wireless didn't have it in my area.

2 YEARS LATER...

I noticed on my way to work, and bunch of men and women in suits knocking on doors. They told me who they were, and what they wanted to do. I told them "This whole area is a Sky dominated area, mainly because of the fact no one has a areial on the roofs!" 2 weeks later, they installed cable. And everyone switched.

Fast Internet (not broadband)
Digital TV
Phone
£37

Now i got divorced and moved house, and this house i now live in. Doesn't have a BT line, so i signed up to NTL. Broadband Phone TV £30.

Later on they merged, so i have the same service Broadband, Phone, TV £30. But now i have a whole range of programs like Hustle,Spooks,CSI,New Tricks. and the best CATCH UP TV!!!! I would like Sky one, but i won't switch to Sky.

I think FOX should be shown on Virgin TV, or at least buy the channel rights for all the Sky programs.

I never liked Sky, and hated that black minidish!. Report abuse

by Jason
at 10:59 on 20 May 2007

I have been a online Gamer for years and have found ntl/virgin media services very good and the coming upgrade to 22 meg broadband a very exciting prospect.
I cant comment on sky broadband or sky tv cause Ive never had it.
I wont be changing over though (sky seems to be the villain here forcing unreasonable prices on virgin) as im dont watch much tv and the missus is happy with all the living, uk gold channels, cooking channels etc plus the kids channels are there. Report abuse

by Sam - Edinburgh VM customer
at 13:17 on 20 May 2007

EXTREMELY disgruntled customer here.

I've been a Telewest, NTL-Telewest, and now Virgin Media Customer for 3 years, having been on their fastest service (Internet) for much of that time.

Being on a 10mb connection I'd expect to get a fast service, but, since Christmas I've been getting barely dial-up speeds. My max download speed on a 10mb connection has been around 40-50k and internet browsing is unbelievably slow.

Sites like bbc.co.uk take about 10 seconds to load!?!

I've phoned repeatedly and their best advice is to downgrade my service. How on Earth does a company intend to prosper by recommending people downgrade and pay them LESS money? It's surreal.

I'd wholeheartedly agree with others in this thread...complain to OFCOM.

At the very least, call customer services and DEMAND a refund. I've been refunded 4 months worth of £35 (now £37) internet, but to be honest, I'd just rather have had the service they quoted me for.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/internet/isp/other/

Phone BT and ask them to check your address for a previous BT supply. I did and found out that I can be reconnected for free as there was once a BT line!

With internet services from companies like 'Be' with 24mb for £24 a month, why pay £37 for an over-inflated, under-performing service from an incompetent company?

VIVE LA REVOLUTION! DOWN WITH VM!

Sam ;) Report abuse

by Alan
at 07:38 on 21 May 2007

virgin customers should deffently go with sky. i hade a v box installed a week ago and its taking them a week to put my chanels on i kepted ringing and ringing and they kept coming up with a pack of lies each time i think virgin media customer service is rubbish they dont care about your promblems. Report abuse

by Mark
at 22:07 on 23 May 2007

Well

There is always that 1 or 2 percent that is unhappy with a service, I've been with telewest, ntl:telewest and now virgin media since before they even offered broadband, I went from 1mb to 2mb to 4mb to 10mb, I sometimes have had packet loss problems, but since they switched me onto UBR after sending emails to their tech support my connection has been OK, touch wood its been great since I started, barely any downtime whatsoever, and its unmetered, unlike ADSL products where you have unlimited downloads but you are subject to fair use policies, I work for an ADSL provider myself, so I know the score on both levels.

I'd go for cable, and stick with it ... lot more hassle changing than its worth sometimes.

Only reason I used to watch sky one is because the last half of the final season of stargate was being aired here first, and last two episodes I missed because of that, but half of you dont realise you can watch most tv programs (that are popular) either on streaming video, or download the episodes from various sources.

Packet loss is annoying though, especially while playing online games ... Report abuse

by stew
at 13:03 on 24 May 2007

I have how stupidly slow my internet has become, at first i thought it was just me downloading too much (i know its meant to unlimited) cos i use bittorrent for downloading linux with.

but even when i behave myself with my internet like just browse websites its still slower then a turtle on dope. i just got on this page by chance by typing "virgin internet being slow"

when i ping a website i get a 20% - 50 % packet loss when i need the internet to maintain my computers and stock

is "virgin" meant to be an ironic title for services that are always ****** kinda like their train service Report abuse

by Chron
at 13:31 on 24 May 2007

Lately I've not been able to play the Online Games I play

I can only connect to the american servers, but not my English Servers because of the terrible PacketLoss (6.6% - 10.0% - which is unplayable!)

Virgin Media are no doubt the worst ISP's you could ever go with, I wouldn't recomend them to anybody, unless they sort them selves out by fixing/helping people with these problems. Report abuse

by Martin G
at 12:19 on 25 May 2007

I'm currently waiting (ten mins and counting) for the Virgin call centre as I phone to give them one final chance to fix my on-demand which has been down in the Glasgow area since Christmas 2006. I'm loathe to give my money to Sky/Murdoch but the poor service NTL/Virgin provide is giving me no option. Just been cut off by the call centre, decision made... Report abuse

by marcus
at 18:27 on 28 May 2007

It does seem that Virgin Media has a Broadband problem big time in some areas of the country. For nearly a month now, the service has deteriorated to the extent that this week my wireless enabled Laptop will not connect hardly at all, just showing at times 1.0mbs ... lol ... and at it's peak 18.0mbs.
I have phoned Virgin 3 times already, and the same excuses keep being told over and over again as they read from their manuscripts in front of them. ( You can insult someone's intelligence some of the time, but not all of the time).
I mean, does it really take weeks to change their Database and solve Broadband diagnostic problems. Has it come to the stage that technology is advancing to quickly for the technicians' to keep up with? Or could it possibly be, there's not enough of the old school left? I wonder.
My advice is to contact customer services and ask them for a rebate, if you have been affected by broadband. We could afterall re-name it SLIMBAND ...lol ... Report abuse

by apple
at 21:55 on 28 May 2007

cant help but agree with the majority. Having been really satisfied with Telewest broadband phone and TV for 5 years. Virgin is driving me mad. We have complained twice and had no response either time. The TV channels go blank for up to a couple of minutes at a time. The box freezes regularly especially if you are watching a film on filmflex (thats if you can actually get past all the problems we have trying to get one ordered!). Broadband is slower. The TV guide is often non existent. Very disappointed and looking at alternatives. Report abuse

by John
at 19:07 on 29 May 2007

a have been a customer with Telewest, now virgin media for about 10 years. I have never had any problems with VIRGIN MEDIA or TELEWEST. I am currently paying for 4MB and i am getting 4.5MB n it never goes slow and i think the company is really good. Report abuse

by Lukas
at 16:01 on 3 Jun 2007

dude wtf its just like the airlines they over-suscribe and get fined. The ISPs the over-suscribe and we get our internet thottled. Also they do not state this clearly. I'm only on 2mbit broadband and my mum wont upgrade(yes i am only 14) and i download 350 meg just on youtube. This is stupidly low limits and i get up to 2mbit on a speed test. However when its throttled i get up to 350kilobits. Great one Virgin thanks a ****** lot. Report abuse

by Lukas
at 16:02 on 3 Jun 2007

dude wtf its just like the airlines they over-suscribe and get fined. The ISPs the over-suscribe and we get our internet thottled. Also they do not state this clearly. I'm only on 2mbit broadband and my mum wont upgrade(yes i am only 14) and i download 350 meg just pissin about on youtube. This is stupidly low limits and i get up to 2mbit on a speed test. However when its throttled i get up to 350kilobits. Great one Virgin thanks a lot. Report abuse

by michael
at 18:57 on 4 Jun 2007

hi everyone i have been a telewest customer for 5 years now and been very satisfied until about 3 months ago i upgraded to 4mb when it came and then 10mb when it came along and my download speed was always about 9.5 mb so i was very happy i am a heavy user and i won't apologise for that i was told when i joined them that they keep their connection ratio to 20.1 which enables all on that connection the full speed from what i can see they have gone over that now since renaming to virgin media and the traffic management system is now taking the piss also the customer service i received from telewest was excellent now its abismall waiting ages to speak to someone and then when supposedly being transfered to someone else getting cut off i don't have a phone with virgin so its costing me a fortune just trying to complain i'm sick of virgin media but i have checked and if i change to adsl my phone line at the moment will only support 2mb when my exchange is upgraded i will definately be leaving virgin unless they get their act together i also changed my connection down to the 4mb as its £12 a month less so they have lost £144 a year from me so far. i have a friend with be internet paying £24 /month for a 24mb connection he is getting between 16mb and 20mb constantly and he downloads about 300gb per month without a word from them. i have been on a lot of forums recently and signed all the complaint forms that are going to virgin there is a serious amount of people out there unhappy with virgin and they don't seen to care i sent an email 3 weeks ago and still no reply. Report abuse

by Ann
at 16:46 on 8 Jun 2007

I was a Sky Customer for several years because I had to be as there was no cable in my area. Then I moved to Telewest in 2005 and therefore became a Virgin Media cusotmer. Sky TV (I didn't use their other serices) is great untilthere is a problem. Dealing with their Customer Services is enough to make a person lose the will to live. It is without question the worst customer services I have encountered. They are excellent at chasing new customers, but there appears to be no policy concerning retaining them. Once they have you, they don't give a bugger! Calls to the Customer Services are charged and become very expensive (to the wallet and the mental health) when you are required to spend ridiculous amounts of time 'on hold' and ringing back because you have again been cut off!!

I have no problems with Broadband speed or telephone with VM. I have experienced a few teething troubles since Virgin took over and yes, my telewest box freezes sometimes, but their Customer Services are free, responsive, polite and helpful. Sky made me a very tempting offer to return to them. It would be a cold day in hell before I would do that. Instead, I rang Virgin Media Customer Services (free) and asked them to better it. They did, so I'm still with the better company (in my opinion) at a better rate. Report abuse

by AK
at 23:02 on 10 Jun 2007

Well, when the whole VM/Sky battle started, I decided to stick it out with VM, figuring that Sky were just being muppets, who'd spent too much money to keep Lost & 24, and were trying to recoup their losses by passing the buck over to VM.

All seems well for a while, then i notice my broadband is starting to do strange things, when i'm playing online games, a few routetraces, and notice a load of packet loss within the VM network. okay, few glitches, they happen, paid no notice.

Now i find out, that with their traffic shaping, my 20meg line, is no longer a 20meg line for most of the time that i'm online. last test i did, 2.5meg, not quite as bad as some reports of dialup speeds, but compared to what i'm used to, rather pants.

So, slightly miffed, i read up a bit, and think, okay, if i want to download, i'll do it at night, i have the ability to do this, so no problem.

Then came the "new & improved" tv guide. Annoyed is not the word.

It was bad enough to discover my channel order had been messed up, imagine my complete disbelief to discover that you can no longer change the channel order, the kids are constantly nagging me to change channels, because they're so used to just going up a few channels from where i usually watch, to go through god knows how many channels, to get to the 700's where all their programs are.

Cheers VM, thank you for making my decision to stick with you, a foolhardy one.

I really don't want Sky, I don't want a BT phoneline, but all i'm seeing is one mistake after another, I really can see no choice.

I'm going to phone VM tomorrow, when i'm not quite so annoyed, and insist that they stop messing with the service that i originally signed up for, otherwise i'll have to go elsewhere. And if they threaten me with a £50 disconnection charge, i'll be down to Swansea, quicker than they can say "Irate welshman" Report abuse

by tessa
at 16:01 on 12 Jun 2007

shall i tell u why cust serv at virgin is so *****. they outsource all there telephone services to call centres where agents are paid a fiver an hour to listen to all the crap under the sun. they dont get paid sick pay etc, if they fail to meet their impossible targets they are hauled over the coals and if they are one or two minutes late starting or coming from a break or lunch they are made to make the time up or lose the money. they train their staff for two weeks and you are very lucky indeed if you receive further training (even when new processes or products are added). some may think i am talking about eastern or overseas centres. unfortunately i am not. so please if u do call cust service, etc please remember that we are only very small fish in mr branson carribean ocean> please do not print my address as i cannot afford to lose my job.. Report abuse

by chris
at 01:08 on 14 Jun 2007

sorry people but you can slag cable off all you want , i have had both sky and cable installed for the best part of ten years,cable downstairs and sky up, also bt phone line and cable phone lines for the same time
christmas just gone i let sky go for ever, and put my dish on astra @ 19.2 deg for the free stuff,, ok sky are being petty at the moment, with removing the few channels that they have, even after all that, virgin are doing a joint venture with sentanta sports, for a new sports new channel for cable, but virgin are not being petty, they are even allowing it to be broadcast on sky,
on the internet side, i have had bt broadband and sky broadband, max line speed on both 500k, and i have been told that this will not improve with the roleout of the 21cn service,
but i have always had cable broadband as well, when i was on the 10mB service i got the full 10 mB always 1.2mb transfer rate when downloading, maybe down a few k's the odd times but not often, i am now on the 20mb service and although i have never got the full speed yet, it vary's between 18mB - 19.2mB, with a very good transfer rate of approx 2.4mB per second, dependant on download site, but has never been lower that 2.0mB per second, ok i wont say they are perfect in what they do, i am lucky i am an ex telewest customer,and the service from telewest in my area has always been great,
people dont seem to realise that virgin is a mish mash of compleatly different networks and systems, and somehow they have to get them all working os one system, this is going to take a while to get right due to the ntl infrastructure being different than the telewest infastructure, and considering the vast difference between them , i think virgin are doing a great job, ok from what i can see and have read it's the ex ntl service that is suffering the most at the moment,
but it will even out and get resolved as both systems get inagrated,, and i also dont like what they have done with regards to spped restrictions at certain download points, but on reflection it is one of the fairest at the moment,the amount you can down load is still unlimited, it's just the speed at which you can do it,
and lets face it, capping or what ever you call it is now a reality for all broadband no matter who the service provider, and this is the way it will always be, due to the lack of investment in the telecomms industry in general, it seems to be the norm in british industrie and commerce, to charge a LOT but spend LITTLE, Report abuse

by Deen
at 15:18 on 20 Jun 2007

I think both sky and virgin are rip off. Waiting for a alternative. Report abuse

by Josh
at 20:01 on 21 Jun 2007

Well we got the telewest TV when it first went Digital in the UK and the second that broadband was available we got that from Telewest aswell, I think it was back in 2002 I cant quite remember, but we were on 512k. That seemed extremely fast back then compared to dial up. Ive been a Telewest customer from the start and the service has always been the best. I'm now on 4mb and I do get 4mb nothing less. The TV service is excelent, forget SKY-ONE there so far behind fox. Its easier just to watch Simposns on the net 2 weeks before SKY-ONE. I definately wouldn't change to SKY, "oh yes we can give you cheap £10 a month broadband but you need BT £12 a month land line." Virgin will sort its problems out it has all the potential. Don't change or you will regret it when Virgin really does offer the fastest internet, it will happen. SKY will never beat virgin as its using the 60 year old copper wire. The fibre optics will prove the best in time. Telewest lost all their money laying fibre optics throughout the country, now Virgin just need to push them to there potential. I think the speeds are dropping because they are upgrading too much at once. It will be worth it in 2 months when VM has 20mb and the SKY has 8mb. Report abuse

by James
at 22:21 on 24 Jun 2007

Virgin Media is on its last legs, it was the sky channels that drew many people to them and now they havent even got that and to make matters worse, there have been many complains to Virgin Media's traffic management which has annoyed so many people who had a good internet connection which is now worse than dial up. I've been with Virgin for years, but it just seems by aquiring the other companies it has forgotten about its original adsl service and given its original customers the finger. Looking at the virgin media advert on tv, it goes on about how the speed of your connection does not lessen the further you are from a telephone exchange, but look at the small writing "Virgin cable broadband", like they couldnt care less about their adsl customers. Since the merger I have been unable to play multiplayer online games because there is lagging at any time during the day, I could be in a server 10 minutes and then my ping jumps to 300. Virgin Media, you give a cruddy service and you are pathetic, you are a disgraceful ISP so quit now before Sky own your ass. Report abuse

by ok branson pays
at 21:21 on 25 Jun 2007

After reading these post where do i start!
Here we go i have been a telewest tele/ntl customer
for 8yrs i use my pc for gaming never had much bother,
until bransons babies took over i have 10mg line but every week it just goes mental. Have phone tech supp since march
most of them said no no nothing wrong, then in april 1 guy from scotland said ohh yes you have a problem its been ongoing since MARCH!!!!! AAArGGGGGGGGH
it was never fixed. i was back on the phone last night.
the guy that i spoke to was very informative. He said "ive spoke to the second line tech and hje agreed there is a problem in you immediate area however you are due to get the 20mg upgrade so (WE ARE NOT PREPARED TO FIX YOUR PROBLEM UNTIL THEN) can you believe this crap and to ad insult to injury next week we are gonna be charged 25 pence per min a call to tech support.
sorry this is the last resort they have taken away programmes and channals from my tv now they are gonna charge me to report a problem bit of a liberty consedreing i never had a problem until they took charge !!!!! Report abuse

by che
at 10:23 on 26 Jun 2007

What i hate is the fact on the virgin media service status page, it shows those with 20 meg connections are suffering from slow download speeds unless they have motorola or scientific atlanta modems. This means they are aware of a fault but keep putting back the resolution date back all the time. It's like this Mr Richard Branson, you're charging everyone for a service and they are not getting it full stop. We don't want excuses we want answers, OK what is OFCOM doing, what i see very little right now. Solution OFCOM slap virgin media with a heavy fine, as for Virgin Media refund all your customers. Seems we always get shafted here in the UK by companies who keep making changes which aren't in the interest of the customer. Report abuse

by Peter
at 23:46 on 26 Jun 2007

Have had NTL for years and usually reasonable download rate if not what I was paying. VM renaming of company, increase to 20Mb and I am running at 5Mb maximum. Three engineer visits in the last seven days..............nothing he can do. The fault is with VM. Have got discounted line rental for the next three months after about 8 phone calls which tells me that no change in this dreadful service for the next three months. Dont tell me NTL were good at service they were not; however compared to VM they were the united nations. I have never been told more blatant lies by supervisors etc on the line than my recent experiences with VM.. You will occasionally get a good one like I did on Saturday but eventually I ended up back in India with a very arrogant Mr Kumar who told me I was not listening to him reading me a load of rubbish off his script. We eventually agreed who the customer was.
I still have a 2.5Mb connection today! Report abuse

by tracy
at 11:20 on 29 Jun 2007

i have had ntl now vm for nearly 3 years, i have had non stop probs with freezing pics since i got it, i have had 10 engineers out all faffing about , 3 stb, cables changed once, they also said they worked on the lazer near my area, changed a few connectors on their side and im STILL HAVE PROBS, but now it seems im loosing both tv and cable channels aswell as bb. i get the same old crap from the peeps on the phone , i am now at my wits end. i must admit, when u write a letter and ask for a refund of some sort they do it. but it dont solve the problem.

i want to switch but as i have read it is more hassle than its worth. i have been told that sky is more expensive that vm. connection fees ,line rental and after a year the box belongs to u so therefore any probs u will have to pay for an engineer, im all about saving money. and it seems these companies are all about making money and stuff the customers.

if this continues and im not locked up i will be phoning about getting lots of info about switching. Report abuse

by Helen
at 15:06 on 30 Jun 2007

Have been with Telewest for years and then moved house about 3 years ago. I've had to get the set-top box replaced 4 times since then. Customer services were alright until I decided to downgrade from tv/phone/broadband to just the phone/broadband in February (sorry, but Sky One was the deal breaker for me).
Haven't been able to get through to them on the phone, so tried other methods. I wrote 2 letters and 2 emails letter today, which didn't deal with the problems that I was having and they even had the cheek to say that they had been trying to reach me for weeks but couldn't get through!
I don't have a problem with my phone or broadband and I don't want to go back to having a BT line, but Virgin are getting on my last nerve. Report abuse

by keith
at 15:44 on 3 Jul 2007

Hi,

I am also having problems with virgins service. When it was NTL I had no problems and I have had there broadband for over 4 years.
But now, I keep having problems with disconnections and slower speeds. I phoned them and they sent out a modern and they said it would be faster and better because the signal would not have to go through the set top box. Its still not right.
I think they have a cheek also to introduce charges for their broadband help lines.......that's to deter people from getting their help, anyway why should you have to pay for their so called great service.
Also why are these helplines run from India or somewhere else foreign...we need to understand what we are being told in English, its hard to understand most tech talk in English as it is. By the way I have read in other forums that sky broadband is as bad.
Why in the UK do we pay sky high prices for substandard services, I wish this government would do more to protect us. Report abuse

by steve Randall
at 16:15 on 4 Jul 2007

Virgin Media are a shambles and a joke!

Unbelievably bad customer service. They just don't know what each other are saying and no records kept of calls made. All I want to do is cancel my account and get out of there! My only option as I cannot remember my password is to move (as I am) and allow the bills to mount up and let them find me. NTL were not good (I was with them from 2000) but since they were taken over by Branson's lot there has been a massive price increase (with no warnings), a very expensive rate help line introduced and a drop in customer care. Somebody really needs to shout about this and then get all of us (as I am) to vote with our collective feet. Branson is right to sell the company to a private equity group and get shot (even though I notice that he is still going to be the majority owner). Report abuse

by time to pay update
at 21:04 on 5 Jul 2007

My god i hate virgin they have NO customer support there attitude is just beyond the point of reason.
i have been promised 3 callbacks i am still waiting
i have been told that the problem with my net is the junction box at the end of my street so i am now going to take a pickaxe to it and get it fixed and the 1st manager to knock on my door shall get knocked on his arse please excuse my mouth but i have been at this for 5 months. Report abuse

by David
at 22:23 on 5 Jul 2007

I went to sky long ago and never looked back, still have cable phone... even that's alway's going off, infact the whole network was down for a day and half couple of weeks ago..!

Trouble is with cable TV, more so with Freeview set top boxes the video signal is that compressed it makes the face skin tonal quality look like they have plastic skin.... things are much improved with sky until you come across an American channel that is.

They try to cram as many programmes as possible in a narrow space.

David
Nr. Manchester UK Report abuse

by Alex
at 23:02 on 5 Jul 2007

Virgin Media BB is a joke. Massive packet loss in evenings and weekends mean playing online games is practically useless.

Indian call centre staff who don't have a clue whats going on and can't even understand you over the phone line.

20Mb connection? Think I'm maxxed out at about 1.5Mb... useless.... Report abuse

by Harry
at 19:48 on 7 Jul 2007

Have had various probs since Virgin took over NTL, put up with having to reboot my box about twice every evening, l thought as they were improving the service l would be patient.
TV service went down about 3 weeks ago an engineer said fault was due to rejigging the services and would settle down in next 24 hours, 2 weeks later lost TV service, was told it would be 3 days before an engineer was available, after much complaining he arrived next day, took 2 minutes to fix fault which was unknown, one week later (now) TV service down again this time l've been told the earliest they can send an engineer is next saturday, 8 DAYS WITHOUT A TV.
Don't have an ariel which is why l'm with cable.
Will miss Wimbledon, last episodes of Heroes etc.
Is this really acceptable from a Service Provider.
Looking for other options now for all 3 services but do begrudge paying BT line rental for doing nothing and as BT was a Public Utility Company and lines were originally funded by taxpayers money before privatisation. Report abuse

by Aaron
at 10:23 on 13 Jul 2007

I'm a University student and have been with Virgin Media/NTL for only a year. i signed up for the 3 for £30 deal at the beginning of August last year. Service had been so-so, with the odd TV freeze and internet packet loss expected with Virgin Media/NTL's reputation.

I was a bit gutted when Sky pulled, in my opinion, their best channel; Lost, New Simpsons... But the on demand feature seemed promesing, and at first it was. I don't know if anyone else has had the same problem but sometimes when you try to watch some catch-up TV it started up fine, with the play, fast farward... icons in bottom left of screen, but the desired program never started. Also I have noticed that the choice of pay-per-view movies has become somewhat more limeted than the initial build up of the fairly new and classic.

Anyway, getting a bit cheesed of with Virgin's service going downhill I decided that when I moved flat's at the beginning of July i wouldn't take the service with me, I would simply get disconnected and pay for the last month of my 12 month contract up-front. I beleived that doin this would be no problem as Virgin's terms and conditions state that if a contract is canceled before the end of the contracts minimum period you simply have to pay for the remainder if the contract. But when i rang Virgin to arrange this it was a diferent story. After being reffered to pretty much every department you could think of, i was told that i would have to take my services to my new home and complete my 12 month contract, before i could cancel. As I had read the terms and conditions I could see tha trap that Virgin was settng, as a new address means a new cotract, thus another 12 month before i can cancel my services. But apparently my knowledge of this issue made no difference as the manager, who I was speaking to at the time, told me that i must allow my services must be re-connected in my new preoprty, but assured me that a note had been made on their system that after moving i will not start a new contract and that I intend to cancel my services at the end of July. I reluctantly agreed, asuming that this was Virgins last ditched attempt of keeping some custom.
Ha!
On the 3rd of July I rang Virgin to confirm cancelation of my services at the end of the month, I was treated as a new customer and told that as I had just started a new contract I must continue services for 12 months or pay for the whol year in advance; no notes had been made on their system and the man I arranged it with, over several calls, could not be contacted. It seemed that I had taken the bait and fallen into Virgin's net.

As an attempt to resolve this matter, I contacted Traiding Standards were I was advised that according to The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations, any new contract made via long distance methods; phone, internet... allows the customer a 7 day period, from the date in which the services are installed, to change their mind and cancel their contract without penelty.
Another phone call and conversation with a manager later, and I am told that I am indeed entiteled to cancel my contract under the cooling off period, and asked weather i would like to end my services today.
Yes!
Now the 13th of July and my services are still active, after ringing them almost every day about this issue, nothing has ben entered to the system of my intention to disconect, and yet again the manager in question cannot be contacted. Also, no-one else can help me because I am over my 7day cooling of period and the only evidece I can give of my cancelation within the 7 day's, is dropping the name of a manager who obviousely had no itention of ever stopping my services.

I have now canceled my Direct Debit to Virgin and put all of their equipment in a box. I am sure that they will contact me when my payments are due.

My property has a BT line, so when this is all sorted I intend to connect to BT and get Sky's, See, Surf, Speak, package. Virgin Media Suck! Fact! Report abuse

by time to pay update AGAIN
at 20:03 on 16 Jul 2007

Well they are just taking the lash now i was promised an engineer to fix the green junction box but all the sent was a fitting guy whos first question was what do u expect me to do then shrugged his shoulders checked connection's and left hurry its fixed you wonder "ERMMM NO" even worsebut i have now been informed that it is the UBR on my network needs fixed or upgraded however they wont tell me when this will happen simply not good enough now going to contact ofcom but for all disgruntled customers here are 2phonenumbers 0870 0433951 complaints dept head office
and also0207981 3040 ofcom Report abuse

by John Cameron
at 07:58 on 17 Jul 2007

Sky's standard free ( NETGEAR) Wireless Modem/Router is a joke, but here's the biggest joke. Sky's broadband is encrypted, meaning, that, you are tied to Sky's free modem as there is no alternative.

The standard free ( NETGEAR) Wireless Modem/Router that I received works similar to remote control - line of sight - as when it's line of sight you get a *very good to excellant signal, but the minute their is an obstacle, then you get a very low to non-existant signal.

* at least Upto 10 metres.

I spent 1 hour 3 minutes asking Sky's technical support if and what high street alternative it was safe to purchase.
After I managed to speak to a line manager; I was informed of the encryption.
Sky's technical support is absoloutely useless. THEY JUST DON'T LISTEN. Report abuse

by Kestor Wun
at 16:45 on 24 Jul 2007

The loss of Sky One is a minor annoyance but not, in my opinion Virgins fault (I blame the Government who gave Murdoch BSB & the satellite monopoly). However, the failure to decrease the TV charge, the recent increase in my bills, the appalling reliability of the TV service and terrible customer service is VMs fault.
The trouble is that it seems to me all communications companies are just as bad. I have just given up trying to move my line back to BT as their email system is currently faulty. On the phone they state free to switch back, in their letters they list a charge of £124.99, when called they say this is a mistake but will not put that in writing.
If I do ever get my line sorted I will not switch to Sky, but will move to TalkTalk & get a Freeview box. May also have lousy service, but at least is cheap. Report abuse

by Bacca
at 18:09 on 27 Jul 2007

It's unbelievable that people think that the re-branding of ntl:telewest has caused the drop in service performance, they simply change the promotional material and took on board the dying virgin.net system.

What most people are actually encountering is a massive reconstruction of the UBR's across the country not only for people to receive 20mb, but to also receive the forcasted 50mb that they are currently testing.

This has been in the pipeline a long time ago.

Customer service issues is due the movement of 85% of calls being taken offshore, this I think is to clear off the debts the ntl and telewest merger created.

This has also been in the pipeline with a lot of other companies too, it makes financial sense.

Lastly, the 25ppm charge is to deflect the morons that call in about their printers, PC hardware/software that cause huge cues; infact 70% of calls are nuisance.

I've ran a solid 10mb (1200k downloads) for the last year, although I have configured my Firewall and Router correctly, something i notice in forums that a lot of people don't bother doing.

I haven't really tried their TV system as such, but from experience I believe Sky's is better.

Imo
Sky = Good TV System
VM = Good future proof Broadband utilising the fiber optic network

*sky use the old copper wire system, this WILL become obsolete! Report abuse

by phatflaps
at 14:37 on 2 Aug 2007

I had ntl a few years ago in belfast, mainly for broadband. the service was good for about 4 months, then service dropped off the scale from a 30 ping to a uk server i was getting 500 constant. Months went by as they claimed that the problem was at my end (my computer). The last techie that came to my house to "fix" my problem told me that they were over subscribed severely so the only time of the day when i could be assured of my 30 ping was at 4am.
I left them went to bt, then went back to virgin due to the lack of freeview in this area.
my 2 meg service was quite good. so i opted for the 4meg which was also good for a week. I now get 20% packet loss on all my tests and couldnt be assed phoning a virgin call center. Tried to many times before.
So, if you want a more reliable broadband connection go with adsl/bt (my adsl was sweet as a nut for 2 years) Report abuse

by PHIL
at 17:25 on 13 Aug 2007

well why would VM not match the prices with sky and everything will be sorted, after all it's all about money we pay!!!!!!!!!! Report abuse

by Liamf2
at 03:34 on 14 Aug 2007

I've been with Telewest/NTL ever since 2003, when I moved here. No problems whatsoever, only to find Virgin come along with the clear sole intention of taking everyones money, and snatching it out of our hands. 4pm-12am users are all capped, given speeds that are quite simply appalling. Lucky to get over 800k, which clashes a hell of alot with their FASTEST BROADBAND IN THE UK approach on things. 2MB is what is being payed for, and 2MB is what Telewest/NTL gave, NO PROBLEMS! Only VirginMedia would screw it up even after adopting a perfectly good working system! The only reasonable speeds I get are after BLOODY MIDNIGHT. I've read enough on this page, to not even try contact them in any way. It will be like getting milk out of a rock. The connection gets so weak MSN won't even sign in, or xbox live comes up with the message "CONNECTION TOO WEAK". Oh yes, well done virgin media. They are theiving ********, and I think everyone agrees, and everyone is fed up with their TAKE YOUR MONEY, DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM attitude. Seriously, how is this even still legal? I hope OFCOM shuts them down, or hoses them down with machine gun fire. Either way suits me! I'm considering going over to SKY, need to find out if they are available in my area.
But yes, GO TO SKY EVERYONE! ANYTHING! ANYTHING AT ALL IS BETTER THAN THIS ABSOLUTE PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A PROVIDER!
Virgin Media, absolute disgrace.
Would please me to see them choke. Report abuse

by Aaron Alderson
at 14:51 on 17 Aug 2007

I have been with Telewest Broadband full package ever since 2004, the service and quality was brilliant, the TV guide was quick and easy to use, Filmflex was at its prime with loads of up-to-date movies to watch. But earlier this year, when Virgin Media took over NTL, Telewest and traditional "Cable" the quality declined and service became crap, with Sky One disappearing it became a living hell, my broadband internet has been not working, unable to connect to the sever a numerous of times, but because I am a highly qualified computer technician I have modified the Motorola SB510E Surfboad Cable Modem Box which is now a mixture of a Belkin Wireless Nimo Fusion (best speed in the world)(yes it is wireless my cable modem) and Motorola crap.

Yes, I do sell upgraded (my version) virgin media software.

I would be please to see Virgin Media shut down then becoming Telewest Broadband again! Report abuse

by XYZ
at 18:54 on 17 Aug 2007

I have just finished a 3 month IT contract working for VM - From start to finish it was a complete and utter SHAMBLES!!!

The place suffered from extremely low staff moral - I visted a number of VM offices during my time only to find empty desks everywhere. The staff numbers have been decimated - I rang a number of staff one week only to be told the next they were "on gardening leave".

I would say they were the lucky ones....!!!

Numerous projects were either canned or delayed due to resource problems or financial problems.

I cannot wait to work for a 'proper' well run company!

RANT OVER!!!!



XYZ Report abuse

by I have no name
at 18:16 on 24 Aug 2007

I was told I would get 10MB broadband, its 6 months, and I still sit with 4MB... (Virgin Media) and Sky has so many channels, and I am starting to doubt that Virgin Media use fibre optic, I think its all copper... the net and the TV freezes up, and I've had so many price increases, and the phone service freezes up often when I call to certain areas in the UK. "Sorry there has been a fault, please try again". Richard Branson needs to run that place. He'll to a much better job I think.

I am phoning BT today for a line switch, just not looking forward to those reported "Thunderstorm Freezing" cases, but I think it will be fine, not many thunderstorms down south here in London. Report abuse

by I have no name
at 18:35 on 24 Aug 2007

And oh yeah, I forgot one thing... Sky will soon (if not later) probably start looking at using fiber optics for phone and broadband, and probably also offer a cable option, but this will come MUCH later, if ever. Report abuse

by sv
at 13:20 on 29 Aug 2007

I'm just about to quit sky, I've had problems from day 1, now at the end of my contract, the broadband keeps dropping out and I have to switch off the box and then reconnect, I'm fed up with ringing sky about my problem they continue to say another dept will contact me but they never do!!I'm on the 10mbs but on average it's between 1 - 4.5mb, it seems all providers don't care. Any one got details of the bt package Report abuse

by sv
at 13:23 on 29 Aug 2007

I'm in my daughters bedroom at the moment, using the neighbours wireless connection, the sky units in the bin!!! Report abuse

by Mark
at 17:47 on 31 Aug 2007

I regrettably chose to leave Virgin Media last week.
I really did not want the hassle of having to reinstall and rewire all my phone points but I had no choice, Virgin Media had become a no hoper.

Without warning they increased my monthly subscription to £44 (I had been paying £26) This was for 2mb BB, free weekend telephone calls and their medium TV package ( so not a particularly great package anyhow)

I was told that they could not continue to subsidize my subscription because it was not fair on other customers, but it was they who 12 months previous, had offered me this package to prevent me from switching to Talk Talk.

And on this they renegaded on the BB, I was initially told I could have 4 mb, but after signing up was told I should not have been offered this.
I was also billed £32 per month because they had no record of me being offered the package at £26 PM.
I had to fight nail and tooth to get the £6 rebated.

upon informing them that I was leaving I was passed to their customer loyalty Dept and was informed that I was getting a good deal from them, they guy on the other end of the phone didn`t even attempt to offer me a better deal.

To my annoyance they also cut my phone off immediately, but they did apologize and put me back on within the hour.

I have now had Sky installed along with up to 8 Mb BB & free evenings and weekend calls for £26 PM ( I have to pay £11 line rental to BT on top of this) so £37 PM.
Ironically somebody from VM telephoned me today and offered me their top package of TV, BB and free weekend & evening calls for £30 PM if I canceled Sky and stayed with them.
A little like bolting the stable door after the horse has fled. Report abuse

by Tel
at 15:35 on 1 Sep 2007

I recently moved from Tiscali 8Mbps broadband (on copper) to VM and my service dropped to around 2Mbps.
VM Talk service should be OK when it's switched over - I've only been waiting 37 days so far.
The 'Free' VM Freeview digital box I received is faulty and doesn't work and I have had totally useless tech support from VM over all these issues.

I can't wait until my contract term has ended - another 11 months to go:( Report abuse

by Smirn
at 13:46 on 2 Sep 2007

VM are the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to 'buy' from.
My telephone has been off for over a month. I rang them from a mobile phone to be told it was ringing at the exchange. OK fair enough, I had gone out and brought a new handset I knew it was not my equipment. £5.50 worth of credit later the guy (in not very good English) said an engineer would be sent out. Credit went on the mobile, call was terminated. No engineer for a Week, sent an email from the PC, to explain the situation and the fact I do not want to waste more money phoning from a mobile telephone.
Got a letter a week later saying, 'We are sorry you are unhappy with our service'. 'Normally it takes 10 days to sort a problem but as the number of occurances is high it will be a minimum of 15 days before we can process your request'.
This last 7 days we have had no broadband for 5 of those days. We are unable to report this fault as we have no telephone and I fear the Email a problem approach is 'not very good'.
This service costs me £82 a month. The equipment will be going out the window and launched onto the front lawn if it is not sorted by next weekend.
Off to get a BT line this week they can stick thier service up where the sun dont shine. Report abuse

by awconnor
at 13:04 on 12 Sep 2007

The only thing that's 'good' about virgin is the fact that there is a button on the remote that takes you back to the last channel you were watching before you turned over.. That's the ONLY thing I miss about Virgin.

The TV service is useless, box locks up regularly and has far fewer channels than and a lot of the 1 channels are missing which are really useful.

The broadband service is also RUBBISH. I am a high volume user on the '20mb' line which in fact is only a 20Mb line AFTER MIDNIGHT. Prior to midnight, the best you can expect is 15-16Mb sometimes as low as 10Mbs. I can accept contention on a ADSL line but on fibre ? This is particularly annoying since Virgin sell this on the pretence that it is the fastest available - all the time - clearly it is not. You will SUFFER as much with LOW SPEEDS ON VIRGIN as with ANY other ISP.

The REALLY galling thing is that 48 hours before they rolled out the 20 mb upgrade (which incidentally was free to ALL 10mb users) they started charging something like £1.50 per minute for broadband support when previously it had been FREE... Talk about a money spinner.. lets screw up the newbies connections and charge them £1.50 a minute to sit on hold while we count the money... Brilliant, at least it would be if the motives weren't so obviously mercenary and transparent.. That REALLY sticks in my throat. So all in all, Virgin are a bunch or rip off merchants who are systematically tweaking down the desirable freebies and quality of service in favour of profit. Sky on the other hand are increasing the freebies and quality of service whilst REDUCING their prices. So if you are thinking of signing up to Virgin because you think the tv service or broadband quality is better than elsewhere that costs less, DON'T BE A FOOL, keep your money out of Richard Branson's pockets and pay less for Sky tv and get yourself broadband from BT or BE. You can send me half of the two or three hundred quid that you'll save too if you like. :) only kidding, spend it on your significant others or a Sky HD box. Report abuse

by edmund
at 18:42 on 14 Sep 2007

Please do not switch over the Virgin, I was a customer of Cable London which changed to Telewest, but I am now pulling my hair for not jumping to BT quick enough.

They are simply money grabbers Report abuse

by JB
at 21:19 on 14 Sep 2007

My service has become progressively worse since VM took over a trouble free Telewest. My BB gets slower by the day and most TV channels other than the core BBC1 to CH5 can freeze so often that they become unwatchable. I am paying £48 a month for a basic all in package plus phone calls that aren't included, for what on paper sounds good but in reality is little more than dial up internet speed and blocky TV, I had that 8 years ago before I went cable with my 56k modem and freeview box. Some progress! Well done Richard Branson! Report abuse

by JB
at 21:21 on 14 Sep 2007

........and another thing. My Mum always said "never trust men with beards"! Report abuse

by Warren
at 10:52 on 15 Sep 2007

I was thinking of VM whole package just to save money, after reading this lot, its time to stick with Orange Broadband and mobile. 650 mins AN, 1000 text and free broadband, speed about 1mb-2mb. Report abuse

by Ian Darley
at 10:44 on 17 Sep 2007

I'm just coming to the end of my first twelve month contract and I'm now considering my options. I have never had any technical issues or slow connection problems, my only issue relates to customer service. I booked the installation of VM's V box, was given the standard reply ie, we will attend on either 24th or 25th between 8am and 1pm so I booked time off work and the engineer did not turn up. After 4 emails to VM and 2 months I have still not received a reply. Report abuse

by Mr Angry
at 12:02 on 17 Sep 2007

I have had persistent packet loss on and off for the last six months. Some days i get over 50% loss, i.e. a non working service.
Virgin Media "support" line is fruitless, always claiming there are "maintenance works going on in your area", but when pressed for details, there are none. It's a scam. I've only stayed this long because i'm moving house soon and didn't want the hassle, but my service is not working, so I am forced to change. What Virgin don't realise is that in my job I am asked for my opinion on Broadband providers all the time. My first recommendation would now be "Not VM". Report abuse

by Brenda
at 13:20 on 25 Sep 2007

Do not touch Virgin Media with a bargepole. Never have I come across a more useless service provider than these. Its so frustrating as like above I intend to move early next year and am not keen to go through the process of changing but again being without TV or internet the second time this month it is totally unacceptable.

Rubbish service. Report abuse

by huh
at 14:13 on 25 Sep 2007

I am sick to the back teeth of all this. If virgin are not giving me the service of broadband I originally took out with them are they not breaking their own contract?

i dont care what they are doing in the future. I am paying for a service now - a 100% fully working service; when you buy a pair of shoes you dont take the shoes if there are no laces do you? why? cos they wont stay on! the same with broadband - im paying for a service that works....all that virgin does is SUCK.

Ive complained over and over again about this via phone. I get through to a recording, which gives me new numbers to dial, then they pass me from one number to the other....WASTE OF SPACE & TIME. oh they offered me £3 refund for the inconvenience of the call.....what ABOUT MY INTERNET i cannot log ONTO???? do i get a refund for that? SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH.

i cant do my internet banking, so im penalised with a fine, i cant run my business, so i lose customers, i cannot answer emails I CANT LOG ON.
AAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH. Report abuse

by richard
at 21:22 on 3 Oct 2007

i have telewest for 5 years on broadband had great connection for most of those 5 years as soon as virgin took over , im getting crap connections to nl and some major uk gaming servers.

Now when i ring up to complain , im charged 25p per minute , to talk to some indian in another country , shame virgin took over im now serioulsy having to think about changing isp for first time in last 6 years .

call center go abroad because its cheaper for the companies to pay some indian , so why the bloody 25 charge a minute for me having to complain about there crap connectivity

virgin obviuosly cutting corners trying to go cheap as possible , id rather have what i had at the cost of 5 pound more /; Report abuse

by Aidan Rosenberg
at 13:29 on 9 Oct 2007

Virgin is awful, their TV on demand does not work frequently making it useless if you plan to get mates round to watch a film. The broadband is slow. They dont turn up when engineers are booked meaning unecessary time off work. They have billed me £100 for my 3 for £30 package - I contacted them in writing 2 months ago, they wrote back to say they were very busy and would get back to me!! I still havent heard and now they have cut me off for not paying £300 in the last 3 months instead of £90 as it should be -basically they are ***** Report abuse

by Three
at 16:36 on 14 Oct 2007

Ive had cable since the street were dug up about 10years ago and have never had a problem, from analog to active digital to telewest broadband to virgin media the service was allways to notch. and the FREE Setanta Sports
i think alot of knock cable for no reason, i can watch digital tv in a heavey storm, but with your little low bandwith lnb you cant. still the 500 movies on demand kills skys 12 Report abuse

by John McGee
at 12:54 on 15 Oct 2007

I used ot have virgin media (cable) which was a fantastic service for internet, I moved home into a non-cable area and thought I'd stick with VM with their ADSL service.
I am completely dissapointed with their adsl service, I'm meant to get up to 8MB depending on the usual factors, etc, etc but I'm less than half mile away from exchange on a excellent quality line (as theyve said on many occasions) your lucky if I get 1MB on a good day. Really is appauling. I'm now looking at switching to someone else just need find the best provider. Report abuse

by C
at 22:05 on 24 Oct 2007

I have just spent a frustrating 2 hours being passed from pillar to post by VM customer services and given a different answer every time. first they tried to charge £150 to replace a viewing card, saying that they had to replace the box as well. This was later changed to £50, even if we cancelled because they said without the card the box was considered damaged and only leased to us therefore we had to pay for damage to their property. Again this was changed - now £25, but we had to wait a week for the engineer to come out and insert the new card into our existing box (like we can't do that ourselves). They then conceeded to send the card out by post, hopefully within the next few days. We'll see.
Do they just make this up as they go along? Where is the continuity? Why the charge anyway? Other companies will just send through a free replacement card, what makes a VM piece of plastic more expensive. It's certainly got nothing to do with quality of service or even viewing. The box freezes for apparently no reason, the menu takes far too long to load up and some of the nicities that other companies offer (ie to be able to see what programs are coming up after 4am the next morning, or linking series).
Terrible service Report abuse

by birky bob
at 15:11 on 28 Oct 2007

Just ended my 12 month contract with virgin 3 for £30 bundle (tv-m package, broadband 2mb, phone line rental only). IT has now jumped up to £36 and the package is not as good as the latest bundle that new customers receive when they sign up. (tv-xl package, broadband - 2mb and phone - free weekend and evening calls) Is there any suggestions where if any, that will offer me a better deal. Report abuse

by Mark Breivold The Hit Man
at 22:08 on 30 Oct 2007

I have just moved into a non-cable area and the Virgin Media broadband (ADSL) is not good at all, i am supposed to get up to 8mb, don't think i get a fart fume!! (Not Virgin medias fault, i blame BT for the crap copper line. When i was in a cable area the broadband was brilliant and i had no complaints was able to download a film within the hour and now with the ADSL, it takes 5 days plus. Please lay the cables in the SA5 7HG area, i will be very pleased and i promise never to make another complaint to you again!! I am now with SKY, who i never wanted to go to after what they did to NTL, taking sky 1 away. I only watched the stupid channel for Lost, i called NTL and they bumped my broadband speed up for free, so i started downloading it, excellent. Please lay cables Mr Branson Sir. Report abuse

by Mr unhappy
at 20:44 on 22 Nov 2007

Virgins broadband service is the pits, i thought it was bad when i was a member of AOL.

i have speeds at peak times of no more than 250kbps (should be up to 2meg) i have complained, as i'm sure many of you have, but its just a waste of time.

today i rang them to ask for an email address, so i could make a complaint. can you believe it, they gave me a false address......!!!

i then rang to complain about this, and they told me that the only avenue of complaint was the Royal Mail........Cmon, i thought Virgin Media was a Broadband/telephone company. this is like being told that i have to send a pigeon to Royal Mail if i want to complain about their service, anyway when i expressed this to the moron in customer services he slammed the phone down on me...

they are obviously laughing at us all, they have no route for complaints, so they don't essentially receive any. Report abuse

by ali
at 11:58 on 24 Nov 2007

Big difference in customer service.. SKY team is friendly and gets to the point immediately..

Virgin is being managed by a bunch of rookies.. I've had virgin for 2 months now.. still have not been able to get the phone installed. I've launched 3 complaints but no one bothered calling back.. I am trying to discontinue but even that seems to be an impossible task.

the only option is to instruct the bank to not honour any bills .. maybe they will call me then.. its a nightmare.. seriously.. don't go for virgin .. you'll regret like me.. Report abuse

by Smee
at 21:21 on 26 Nov 2007

Interestingly...

At least 3 people who actually work for the Virginmedia ADSL Faults / Provisioning dept have swapped their free Virginmedia ADSL service for a paid Sky service.

:oD they can't even give it away.

Love,

A dude in the know. Report abuse

by Rob
at 22:47 on 1 Dec 2007

I've had enough of Virgin Media broadband. It's completely unfit for online gaming with massive packet loss and frequent peak-time disconnections. I was with NTL for years and never had any complaints - until the VM takeover. They even have the gall to charge for calls their third rate third-world broadband support line. Why should I pay to diagnose their faults for them? I dont like the idea of lining Murdoch's pockets, but its the best way that I can think of to flick the V at Virgin Media. Report abuse

by Someone
at 21:34 on 7 Dec 2007

Rob: "They even have the gall to charge for calls their third rate third-world broadband support line. "

The support line's actually based in Newport, South Wales.

I'm sure the people of Newport will be pleased to hear they've been promoted. :) Report abuse

by Grazza
at 23:47 on 14 Dec 2007

Started phone & Internet with Cable London, then Telewest, NTL and now VM. Internet speed has increased from the original 512k to 4 mb over the years, and it is 4mb, or near enough, so very happy with broadband.

Have had Sky & multiroom for a few years, no service issue's, but they charged me an EXTRA £400 in the last year, for not being able to call back to my phone. When I queried this billing, i was told that they had informed me of the extra charges, well they had issued warnings 6 months after first charging the excess charges. I had also engaged the tech support dudes on many occasions, but this did not wash. I wrote to sky subscription services, and received a very unsympathetic letter back, this prompted me to can all sky services on principle!

So, I decided to put all my eggs in one VM basket and ordered the VIP package, based on the broadband experience, the VIP package is due to be installed at the end of this month. True to sods law, immediately i had ordered this new service, I had a fault with my cable modem, now this problem was sorted out swiftly, (once i could speak to someone in the UK call center), as i knew it was a power supply problem with the box, a new cable modem was supplied within two days, I installed, registered the mac address, no problems. The real problems started when the phone line went dead (2 weeks ago now) this was/is interesting. I somehow managed to log a call without calling the 25 p per min line that i was supposed to, we agreed a date & time (AM) for the engineer to call, he didnt!
When i tried to contact VM (which was impossible for one whole day) I got through to the offshore call center general help line the next day and explained that because my VM landline was dead, and my VM mobile could not call the premium rate number, and I was at work, so still couldn't call the prem number, because it was blocked, could he log or transfer me to the support number, which was the only way I could rebook the engineer. Well he tried, but the line was busy, (surprise - surprise), he suggested I phoned back in 15 mins, I asked if I would be transfered to the support line to log the call when I called back, he now said no. I asked him how I should log the call, given the circumstances? his reply was, " i cant comment", flabbergasted, I asked to speak to someone who could, and was put through to his supervisor, who suggested I called from a pay phone and requested that I request VM to call me back on that number, now I don't know about you, bit I haven't used a urinated call box since I was a kid! and was not about to. Subsequent calls then gave me three versions of events! I could go on, but Im sure you get the drift.

In conclusion both companies have failures, if reporting problems with using any VM services, try to get a ID of one of the UK call center guy's, then when calling in, ask the guy who ans the phone to email that person with your phone number, I have found this to work. The offshore guys don't have a clue whats going on however i did read the comments above from one of those guy's, and do appreciate their dilemma.

Dont trust sky, they will rip money out of your account, and then say, I told you so, when they did not!

i now have access over my good broadband connection (soon to go to 20mb, hopefully) to the footie games, and will be investigating using a local co to set up sat.

I do believe the future technology advantage lies with cable, however at the moment, its hard to reconcile. Report abuse

by Bev
at 10:09 on 17 Jan 2008

Just reading all the postings as I'm about to change to Virgin Media package with a V box. Always had NTL/Virgin broadband and telephone and had no problems (Including my son who plays online gaming all the time) - maybe I'm one of the lucky ones.

Had a mobile contract with Orange which was a complete rip off and we've now terminated to go with Virgin. Had a sky box. Although I do like Sky I've had lots of trouble with the sound, an engineer has been out and can't tell us what it is and they won't replace the box so I have lived with this problem. On top of that by going with Virgin Media's 4 for £40 I will save myself £100 per month.

Hopefully this will all work out!!! Report abuse

by Stu
at 01:43 on 27 Jan 2008

No company is perfect and it greatly depends on what area you are in.

I have been with TW/VM for over 8 years. As soon as it came in to the area I got it, and I have probably phoned them with internet problems about 3-4 times over these years, and only once have I noticed a significant drop in internet speeds enough to complain. Usually it is near 100% the advertised speed.

And yet some people have nothing but trouble.

I really do think it depends on which region you are in.

I think that the loss of Sky One to VM is no big deal and maybe Sky is surprised at the lack of people moving over. When the channel was dropped my fiancé asked if we should change to sky until I pointed out that it was only Nip Tuck that we watched. So I downloaded it on my superiour internet connection over the ADSL tahat we would get being nearly 3 miles from the local exchange. And lets think about it Sky One is hardly a cutting edge channel. Every one of their "major" shows started out on another channel first. Lost C4, 24 BBC2, and they have just bought Heroes rights. Talk about jumping on the band waggon. Report abuse

by Mike
at 11:45 on 9 Feb 2008

Hello All;

I have been with Sky since the Beginning, I spent last year on Chemo Therapy ABVD for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Stage 3; and let me tell you I hope none of you healthy people ever need it? (Chemo That Is)

I still tried to run my business from home even though I was really ill, and I lost nearly all of my customers and we where really struggling as I am sure you will understand; but I still would not claim because of stupid pride!

Anyway what’s this got to do with Sky? "I Hear You Ask" Well I Telephoned them and explained I need to downgrade because of what I explained above, I received a Scottish Guy who asked why I was downgrading after I had already explained? And I told him again and he Shouted "WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE???" In A Talk Down To You Manner!

I lost my temper and told him I would like to speak with someone in Pakistan who could Speak English.
He started shouting and left me hanging on a call that had already cost me £4.25 after spending nearly 17 Minutes pushing buttons before I was connected.

Anyway because of the way I was treated I left Sky and moved over to NTL (Virgin Media) And So Did My Daughter, 4 Sons, My Eldest Grand Son, And many other Relatives who where disgusted in the way Customer Services Treated me especially after the year I had just been through!

Kindest Regards To You All.

Mike Report abuse

by Phallica
at 20:22 on 27 Feb 2008

Well, the customer service is ****, the internet speeds are derisory, they're ultra slow (taking a week to give us a phone number after installing the line, anybody?) and they actually DON'T care for your plight.
Oh, but say that you're going to leave them and they'll give you loads of offers and beg for forgiveness.
The trouts. Report abuse

by Steve
at 14:45 on 11 Mar 2008

VM = no service for 10 days now.... BT hear I come !!!!!! Report abuse

by Rich
at 20:45 on 11 Mar 2008

Nothing wrong with Virgin Media.... £20 a month for TV, phone (with unlimited calls to 01 & 02 numbers any time of the day/week) and 2Mb broadband. They are always helpful when i have any questions. Only 2 issues I;ve had is strange phone calls when i first set up account (they changed my number for free) and the installation engineer didn't set box up correctly (but they refunded me DOUBLE my installation fee!!)

Becuase I'm with cable i don't have a BT phone line to pay for - unlike with SKY.... So theres another £10 I'm saving!

How much is it from Broadband, Tv and Phone? Report abuse

by james
at 20:01 on 16 Mar 2008

i was a ntl cutomer when it first came out then virgin media came along . im currently a 20mb customer but i very rarely get over 2mb i have been complaining for 6 months now . constantly phoning technical support had engineer after engineer to my home but all i get is excuse after excuse not one person at virgon media cares just take your money for a bad service , as soon as my bt line is up and working im leaving its the worst the service has ever been since it came out as ntl . and to make things worse i here virgin media are bragging about releasing a 50mb service dont make me laugh richard branson your internet is poor very poor Report abuse

by Sean Harrison
at 22:07 on 31 Mar 2008

Hi, I dont work for virgin and dont want to big them up, I love Sky &SkyHD there lovely fast menus and simple to use software, nice boxes, Excellent Programming.....BUT.....

I have Virgin aswell....I have been with virgin media since the analogue cable days since they dug up the streets, NYNEX then Cable&Wireless then NTL then NTL:Testwest and Finally Virgin Media. I've always had TV and Phone with them, then Broadband once they became NTL. And Recently V PVR with HD.

I have never once had a problem with any of the services, There Customer Services are friendly, Fast and do know what they are talking about. I have there 20meg Broadband Service which i use for Steaming Specialist High Definition Video(720p) from the USA, 360 Xbox Live Gaming, And alot of uploading of large video/media files. My service is really fast. doing a speedtest i get around 18meg 99% of the time but never drops below 15meg. also P2P is extremely fast downloading most of the time at about 2.8mb/s...

Okay, now the TV service, Yes of course i was very sad to see Sky One leave the service. but dont day it will return, Sky and Virgin are currently in new discutions over there services, Virgin now own all the UK Channels (UKGOLD, UKLIVING etc) & Bravo and Sci-fi. and they want to refuse them to sky. so hopefully sky will let virgin have the channels back.Also i have read they are also talking about offering virgin some HD channels.

V & HD Service at the moment is limited to VirginHD & BBC HD Channels, But they have alot of HD Content avaliable On-Demand. They have OD programmes from BBC, ITV, and Channel4 in HD. Also Channel4 HD is coming to virgin media soon, it is currently in testing in there beta testing areas. Also There is a good collection of HD Movies on Pay-per-View.

I have to admit the Black Virgin Software slowed the old Pace set-top box, but within a few days of the software being installed they called me, and informed me that i would need a new set-top box and we will send someone out to install it. when ever is best for me, 2 days later i a new samsung box and its was really fast again.

I have never had any problems with picture defects, freezing or quality.

I also have the V PVR with High Def. in a second room, I dont have to pay rental for my original box but can still use in cloning the package i have on my V Box. I have had no problems with Recording any TV Shows or Films and no problems with recording HD Content either,

Just a few weeks ago they called me and told me since they will soon be upgrading the 20meg broadband to 30meg in the next few months and 50mb before Christmas (2008) and i would need a new cable modem to support this. I was told they would be sending a new modem out to me in the post. It arrived the next days by courior.

This seems to be something new they are doing now, they can now post out new hardware, also my friend moved into a new fast that already had the cable sockets. Called them for a new installation, and they just posted out his Cable Modem and Settop box, with Clear, Easy Instuctions and disposable tools.

No more waiting a week for engeneers. I like that...

I have never had any problems with the phone services, and they always call me every few months to make sure they are offering me the best packages for my needs.

I really like the services i get from virgin, I know some people do have faults and problems, i guess i have been really lucky, i just wanted to let you all know that it is not everyone having trouble. I would highly recommend Virgin Media. unless you really want Sky One!!!

One thing i have notices alot on forums is people blaming virgin and richard branson for the problems. please do correct me if i am wrong but Virgin do not own or run Virgin Media, NTL merged with Telewest a couple of years back, then eventully rebranded at NTL:Testwest. then NTL:Testwest just merged with Virgin Mobile as they where already running the mobile services for them. and along with that just brought the Virgin Brand Name. It is still NTL/Telewest running the whole network. just re-branded.... Again, please correcting me if i am wrong....

Okay. I have got to be fair because i pay for Sky HD and Broadband aswell.

it a long story why i pay for Sky and Virgin, TV, Phone, and Broadband. but its all to job with my job paying for me to have Broadband with a BT Line.

I love the Sky Services and there hardware, I can not fault Sky in any way (other than them not giving virgin back the sky channels). They have the nicest TV Setup to use. Lovely clear menus, easy to navigate, lots of content. its easy to record stuff and series link stuff. Picture quality is always stunning. They always keep your hardware upto date. and replace hardware in a couple of days with an engineer. (Im have had 1 sky box go faulty on me, it was replaced quickly).

Sky offer alot of High Definition TV Channels, Content and Films.

There broadband services is good, i'm on the 18meg service, I connect at about 12Meg never any higher. i find uploading video large files very slow, but download rate seems quick, well apart from Youtube(Youtube buffers about 10x faster on virgin cable for some reason)...

Never had any major problems with TV, Phone or Broadband.

Both Companys offer Quality Customer Service & Services

The iome infomation i had talk about has come from other sites and forums. I have tried to confirms most of it with Sky and Virgin Media. There is alot you can get out of them by calling there Customer Services and Technical Support lines. I find if you call there tech support teams, they seem to know more about new servies coming out. also you can call there head-office's and query them about new services like TV Channels and Broadband speeds, the head offices seem to let you know more than the call centres.

little tip for you all aswell. if you want to save money and call british call centres try www.SayNoTo0870.com type Sky or Virgin Media. And the site will list all there 0800 and local rate, and local area numbers.

Hope this has been either helpful or just interesting, or maybe just a waste of your time, but either way i just thought i would inform you.

Cheers

Sean Harrison (Wirral nr Liverpool)

42" Sony 1080p Plasma
50" Panasonic 1080p LCD (second room)
Denon 8.1 HD Surround Sound
8.1 Denon Speakers
Xbox 360 - Wii - PS3
Quad Core HTPC (Vista Ultimiate x64) /w Free-to-air HD Satelitte
Virgin Meida (V XXL - 20Meg Cable - Phone, Second TV Box)
Sky (SkyHD, XXL - 18meg DSL - Phone) Report abuse

by Dan
at 18:47 on 7 Apr 2008

Do not use Virgin media they are useless you will be ripped off and get no support whatsoever. At peek times it is totally and utterly unuseable and it will drive you insane.

I constantly lose connections to sessions based applications, DNS times requests time out rendering surfing impossible and the bandwidth pluments to NIL every few seconds.

All day last sunday I had practicall no service at all, and recently at peek times the same. Oh and they have stopped answering their support line it now just rings and doesnt even connect to a machine anymore. Great and im paying for this bull****. Report abuse

by David
at 13:13 on 9 Apr 2008

Have been a telewest / blueyonder customer ( telephone and broadband ) for years. I have never had a problem with my broadnband speed and over the years have only lost the service two or three times due to line faults. These incidents are all a long time ago. I used to be a sky customer for TV but switched when telewest brought out their version of sky plus. Yes I had a few issues with the box initially but as I did not own it the customer service guys just replaced it. I am a massive internet user, frequently in our house there will be two computers on the net as well as the xbox online gaming. My kids both play online games on the PC and the Xbox. I have never had a slow down in service that has affected the gaming and I have not lost a connection since VM took over. Yes people all have different experiences with differnt organisations. Sky was fine ( except in heavy rain when the picture broke up and eventually disappeared ) I did find that they would put their prices up on a regulat basis and price was one of the reasons for leaving, not only the price of the service but the price of buying another box and having it installed. I have to say that aside from SKY 1 and Lost ( I have not missed an episode and still dont ) I do not miss Sky at all, and this is more than compensated by the fact that VM have the excellent on demand services on both the V boxes ( record 2 channels while watching another, very clever )and the regular box. I may one day go back to Sky but at the moment I am very happy with the service I have recieved from VM for all three aspects Phone,TV and Broadband. Report abuse

by Wayne
at 22:32 on 9 Apr 2008

I agree totally with Dan !

Do not use Virgin media they are useless !

They lie to you, stating that your complaint (I have made a total of 5 complaints) has been resolved verbally over the phone, when no contact was made, they even stated that in the conversation that the TV Service was reinstated, a complete lie as I don't have there TV (SKY Is defo the way to go!)

You will defo be ripped off with obscene additional charges and then get no support whatsoever.

Richard Branson spend your millions on better customer service rather than paying Samuel L Jackson to advertise your useless service, I refuse to pay for there incompetence ! Report abuse

by steve
at 12:17 on 21 Apr 2008

virgin media id NOT owned by Richard Branson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

richard branson only has shares in the company!!!!!

NTL:Telewest have rented the Virgin brand from Virgin.. From what I understand it is on a 15year agreement!!!

so all you guys that keep dragging richard branson in to it should try reading up on the company first!!! Report abuse

by Damo
at 23:00 on 1 May 2008

Had Telewest broadband internet and tv for over 6 years with no problems as regards speed and customer service, Virgin Media take over and I have had nothing but problems and no help whatsoever. I am so p$%sed off with the situation that I am switching over to BT at a cost of nearly £200 and am cancelling all Virgins services, I give them -5 and urge people to steer clear. Report abuse

by Che
at 13:24 on 2 May 2008

To many people here are keen to blame Branson for all their problems. As Steve has said, and I have also said myself the service is still NTL/Telewest, most of the complaints are people who have ADSL, sorry guys you need to wake up to so many factors such as line quality, distance from the exchange, how busy the server maybe, not just blame the Name of a company. Virgin Media have listened to their customers and dropped the 25p per minute support line, how many other providers are willing to do that, erm none i bet. OK you go on about SKY being better well all i can say is fine go with them, then maybe i shall see your comments aimed at them also in a few months time if not sooner :) Report abuse

by Ray
at 23:49 on 20 May 2008

I've been with this outfit from the outset. Yorkshire Cable phone & 56k dialup, then Telewest and the first class broadband service form 512k to 10m. In all that time , never had a single problem, always ON connection, top end of the speed range, first class support, recommended to many people. Then a few years ago was shocked to hear that NTL had got their grubby mitts on us. Since then they have dragged the broadband service, tech support and customer services down the pits in which they had dwelled for years. Constant service issues, my 20meg has never been above 12 and for the last couple of months around 6/7 with regular outages yet I still have to pay for 20. Lie after Lie about the cause, same excuses today as 12 months ago, noise on the line, open tickets that never seem to get closed, no idea of fix dates no plan of action - NO ACTION. It does appear that the known shoddy customer service of NTL has won over that once first class offering from Telewest. I too understand that Virgin is just a big name used to re-brand, I'm just supprised that RB is allowing his once good name to be dragged into the gutter by this bunch of buffoons. In my work in IT services BT has always been the joker with their pathetic approach to customer services, move over BT !. How long can this go on ?, I never thought I would say this but it may just be time to move on. Report abuse

by Garth McKagan
at 22:56 on 23 May 2008

I have been with Virgin for 2 1/2 years now and I have to say that it is absolutely c**p. The phone service is ok but the broadband is slow, the tv is s**t and the cost of this is ****** unbelievable! VM keep adding new channels for a week and then taking them away the week after. So far I have lost E!, MTV, Paramount Comedy 1, FX and many more. I used to watch Sky One every day until those Virgin Media ***** took it away and I can't believe i've even put up with VM for this long. Report abuse

by VIRGIN MEDIA RULES
at 17:06 on 30 May 2008

Hi i work for virgin media broadband, virgin media is the best because soon we will be bringing out 50mb speed, that means you can download your music in a whistle, plus never mind about Sky One we still have Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 any questions just ask me though this blog Report abuse

by Tony
at 23:32 on 3 Jun 2008

Well ive also been a customer for a very long time (previously telewest) and i have to say the connection seems unreliable now.

My main beef though, as an existing customer, im paying 37 a month for my broadband, and 11 a month for my phone. Yet new customers get a permenantly lower price??. I dont mind special 12 month incentives, but why am i paying more for the same service permenantly?.

Will cost me a fortune to get bt back in and sky installed, but this has annoyed me to the point where im changing Report abuse

by Ted
at 17:30 on 8 Jun 2008

I was an internet NTL customer since 2001 with a FANTASTIC internet service. Mind blowing speeds, never had downtime or limits. It was a joy to use and friendly UK customer service.

Since VM took over its gone SH*T.... My browsing is really slow, im always having to reboot my modem and I just cant be arsed phoning Virgin Customer services after the last 3 hour wait to India....

I stupidly took their TV package too and that is crap. The menus are very slow, the TV on demand menus are soo slow at peak times that I just give up and put a DVD on.

Everytime i bother calling Customer services they tell me to reboot, reboot , reboot which usually does work but I SHOULDNT HAVE TO REBOOT DAILY !!

The only reason im still with them is that I dont want a BT phone line or satalite on my house. Report abuse

by Lee
at 18:36 on 11 Jun 2008

I have had Sky TV before and Virgin media (Telewest) for 9 Years and was one of the first people in my area to have 512k broadband installed. I have always been very impressed with VM until last year when they stated speed throttling see: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/10/virgin_media_throttling_update
And now they are going to speed throttle more hours. 3Gb might sound like much but I can do this is 20 minutes, so why should I pay for a 20Mb service when after 20 minutes it goes down to 5Mb.
I have the VIP service with VM and 2 extra boxes for the TV, my bill is nearly £100.00 a month, I don’t believe I should pay for a high service and get a limited service.
The final straw was yesterday when I read a report on BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7444390.stm
This says that virgin are going to start monitoring where you go and what you download, why don’t they just listen to me phone calls and read my mail. I can’t believe that this is not a breach of privacy
I am now going back to sky and I do not have a BT line, so this is going to cost me £124.99 to install. But Sky said that if I send them the receipt they will refund all the money.
I have always thought that Sky TV was better than Virgin media TV, but never had any complaints about the phone service or broadband. On changing to Sky and BT, I am saving nearly £40 month, OK it is not a 20MB service but it’s a lot cheaper and not limited. Report abuse

by matti
at 20:30 on 11 Jun 2008

yes definately stick with virgin media they are the best. the best at screwing everything up that is. engineers turnd up a week late to install the damn thing, worked for 5 minutes, lost all channels from the EPG due to me not paying a previous bill. hang on, a previous bill? VM you only installed the stupid thing that day, how do I owe £200 already!? so a few calls later service restored. very apologetic though, the patronising sort, of how its never their fault, always the customers. i think i'll ring my mate on the also insatlled virgin phone line. oh that doesn't work! so a week spent waiting for that to be fixed. but i mean the engineer realy doesn;t have to wire the phone line in for it to work... does he?! obviously not. all well for a few weeks, lost all channels and phone again. another billing mistake. so the first bill arrives. i have the call plan with anytime calls free. so why was i charged £50 for landline calls?! again, ring customer services and another system error. anyway, back on track for a month and half, no problems, box sometimes locked up but thats expected occassionaly seeing as its made by samsung (use a samsung mobile, you'll see!)... anyway last week i made the mistake of ordering V (yes, i really AM that stupid!) and got installed today. box a little on the chunky side (think of a life-size bus under your TV). very nice indeed, very speedy EPG and.... oh wait.... ive lost all the channels again! customer service time. "sorry but ordering the V box has put you over the credit limit". hang on, i payed by credit card upfront how can this increase the bill? current account balance £109. credit limit £160... how is my balance above a credit limit!? so a few hours later still no service resumed. HD TV was great for the 2hrs it lasted! no point calling customer services to be diverted to india where people really havent got a clue about what to do. hopefully i can find something in the contract that theyve broke so i can disconnect and move to sky as ive had enough of been treated like a lemon.

when virgin works correctly, it is really good and has a lot to offer, but until they sort out how to run a damn cable company properly, avoid at all costs. not the service i expect from the virgin group at all, richard branson sell up while you can! Report abuse

by Stephen
at 16:30 on 12 Jun 2008

Ok if you want to get the best price with virgin media, phone customer service and tell them you want to cancel your virgin media service.
They will offer you massive discounts to stay I would recommend people to do this once a year when there contract expires. Report abuse

by rory
at 19:35 on 18 Jun 2008

Was a Telewest customer from 1994 up to VM take over. Customer Service no-existent. Came in tonight to find TV not working. Looked like it was in the middle of a reboot and not going anywher. Did all the usual things - checked cables and then rebooted box. No difference. Rang fault line - absolutely ridiculous. (Is it based offshore?) After 25 minutes of going nowhere - rebooted it whilst on phone, repeated numerous times that screen was blue. Final straw was when she couldn't understand it was connected by SCART - kept saying I must have to press some button on TV to put cable on. Also said it would cost £30 for engineer call out.

Wife rang later - managed to speak to someone who booked engineer in 30 seconds BUT have to wait until Saturday for engineer to come.

Time for a change I think.. They've been too complacent for too long with existing customers. Report abuse

by James
at 13:38 on 21 Jun 2008

I've just cancelled my VM (TV/Phone/bband) after getting Sky installed.

VM TV service well overpriced for what you get.

VM cable broadband was rubbish. In the evening it would slow to 50K or less! Only advantage was the fixed IP, which was handy for an FTP server.

VM Customer service hugely variable. Foreign call centre manned by those with a poor grasp of English. Nearly everyone seemed to have no technical knowledge whatsoever, and just followed a script. (To be fair though, once in a while I did get through to someone who really knew their stuff.) Report abuse

by james
at 21:18 on 1 Jul 2008

to the person VIRGIN MEDIA RULES , im sorry but they dont the broadband is awful the tv and phone are ok but the broadband is just rubbish £37 a month for a poor service that never runs over 10mb at best of times, most of the time my 20mb service runs under 4mb and many times drops below 1mb . all i here from vm is 50mb service come on get real , read the complaints on this page read the complaints i have sent to you over the past year , vm lost in a world of false advertising Report abuse

by Adam
at 15:37 on 4 Jul 2008

Virgin Media! what a name for a company who F#*@ks all there customers (not very Virgin like).
They are giving out information to the record industry and using traffice management without informing there customers.
I am leaving Virgin and will never use any of there products again. Come back Telewest. Report abuse

by David
at 16:32 on 10 Jul 2008

I spend considerable money with Virgin every month. They have me for largest size broadband, tv and phone and their customer service still doesn't care. Automatons and can be rude. Service people whether broadband or phone are rushed and abrasive. Report abuse

by Hayley
at 08:23 on 15 Jul 2008

I have had virgin for a few years now (before it became virgin) and always thought they gave a great service.If ever I rang with a problem,it was always sorted,even offering me discounts.Recently though,the broadband service has become increasingly slow.It is so frustrating that I have felt like throwing the laptop through the window at times..I havent rang them as yet but will be doing so asap.I dont really want to change suppliers but I cant carry on with the broadband as it is. Report abuse

by Jp
at 12:50 on 18 Jul 2008

Recently I have subscribed to Virgin Media service unfortunately.
I never seen such a pathetic service in my life.I suppose to get 3 for 21 combo with wireless router. they suppose to deliver it on 8th. then they changed to 15th and no one has courtesy to inform. i need to ring up them when no one turned up. And asked to be there at home. then they shifted to 16th at their convenience. But you know what, they delivered equipments in part. Ok, i thought of trying broadband connection at least. "Activation Servers" are down. Call us tomorrow. Tomorrow never dies for Virgin. Just now, I got a response from them, it will be done by today. letz
When I asked about the procedure for cancellation. Customer Care executive was so keen in doing the same. He was very rude in conversation. Anyway, I dont want to deal with them anymore. If it doesnt work today. I am going throw their product on their face. such a ridiculous support. they dont even know hte basics of "Customer Care". No wonder why Mr. James Weekle accept this obvious truth about his own comapny

Virgin Media's head of internal communications has admitted in public that the cable company has a history of "crap service" and ''very tired people", and has been stuck in "synergy hell" Report abuse

by Loopchef
at 10:32 on 21 Aug 2008

I have had NTL/Virgin for approximatley 8 years, its been ok, the old NTL Boxes were just poor, me being a gadget and home cinema fiend it was a nightmare as it had no stereo output even? It was like 1970's technology and years behind Sky.
When it changed to Virgin i thought he we go we will obviously catch up with the times, old Branston is the man, i pay huge money for an ok service with my phone, Net and TV, The HD senario pains me hard, i have had it since the day it came out and still have the half of a channel i had at the start, its just poor!! I have read all the stuff about the picture being upscaled and whatever else but its nonsence, my blu ray player compared to a normal Virgin supposidly upscaled picure is like my Mum's TV and not what we should be getting in 2008!!
Now nearly 2 years in to my HD box, still one channel or this half a channel, this is just poor again, if i could i would convert to Sky, but i live in an apartment on a river bank and the management company will not let us have Satalite dishes, i have tried to design ways to do this but just cant seem to do it yet, all i say to Virgin Media is sort it out and get with the times, soon you will be classed like NTL and that wont be good for you or your image, soon Sky will be making flat panel dishes and you will be history!!! Report abuse

by Rachel
at 20:53 on 16 Sep 2008

We've had Vm for years now, previously telewest, never had any problems with telewest but now i HATE HATE HATE vm with a passion, and "virgin media rules" guy, why dnt they try making their broadband actually WORK before they make a bigger one?!
I hate the tv, it freezes, the menus don't work, its slow and rubbish and the on demand hardly ever works, the phone costs a fortune (even tho im supposed to have free weekend calls, which i don't....) and I'm sick of the thing, we have a bt phone line and are definitly thinking about switching bk to sky.
Im going to ring vm and demand they give me a better deal, im paying a lot more than i would for sky but get less and its all rubbish anyway! If not, il leave, simple as. Rubbish customer service, rude and useless. It cudnt b possible for sky to suck anymore than vm do so i think il take the chance. Report abuse

by Michael
at 15:14 on 15 Oct 2008

Saw this ad thought I would leave my tuppence worth

I have to admit that prior to the VM take over my NTL account was quite stable and the broadband speeds (albeit I am on the basic package) were consistent with good quality of service levels.

Now, I regularly have my broadband speed drop to 1mb or less and see quality of service levels hovering around the 70% mark.

Had to have the digital box replaced twice before they finally gave me one of the silver samsung boxes. Still not perfect and the flaming thing takes notions when it won't even respond to the remote.

I don't contact them by phone as their 1st line staff (poor sods get the most basic training and those bloody question and answer scripts which are useless) can't deal with anything other than basic billing queries and "I'll send a reset instruction to your box".

In truth though, I have had the most horrendous experiences dealing with BT (did multiple broadband set-ups/ installations for an organisation) and the one experience I had with Sky (my mum in law's new set-up) revealed some worrying problems with their technical support which resulted in over two months of frustration; of course I was the one telling my mum in law her life would be great with broadband - wonderful...

To finish, I think that all the current broadband offerings are over priced, badly provisioned and have poor to pathetic customer focused support, often caused by the pressure on 1st line staff over their call length times and wrap up time - nope I've never worked in a call centre but did tech support for a lot of people who did.

What we need is a government based system to really screw everything up so we can feel good about the services we currently have :) Report abuse

by At least 1 happy customer
at 12:41 on 19 Oct 2008

Admitedly never been with sky, was with NTL until they become VM.

Yes, there were a couple of minor problems when I moved house at beginning of 2007 but it didn't take long for them to be sorted out. As for compensation over the issues they couldn't do enough for me. You cannot possibly say that Sky would never give the same issues ever and when they do would do as much as a follow up service

Ever since then they have been giving a VERY reliable service and I've not had a single problem with them.

As for the sky plus box, yes it sounds great, would be nice to have a box that you can record onto, pity that VM don't provide one. Oh, wait a minute - yes they do. The V box does exactly what the sky box does and also gives high defintion.

As for the virgin helpline etc, yes they may be offshored, but how many companies can you name that don't have their helplines offshored?

Prices are very similar to Skys because when looking them you have to remember that the BT connection and rental needs to be included. A friend of mine is with sky, they have less channels than me and the rest of the services are exactly the same, they had more problems than I did when the service got set up and also pay more than I do.

If only sky weren't so pigheaded about the Sky 1, 2 etc channels or overpriced the channels so that other companies refuse to pay and therefore provide them (and you say that VM is overpriced). A few of my friends have said that if the sky channels were included then they would switch to VM tomorrow as they are fed up with the service that sky provide.

I simply cannot understand why the people above have such a problem with VM. There may have been one or two problems when they first took over, but they were having to sort issues out. As I say I have been very impressed with VM and would certianly recommend them and I know I'm not the only one. Report abuse

by Kevin
at 13:21 on 29 Oct 2008

I have just switched from Virgin to Sky.
I had the full monty with Virgin & my bill was over £100 per month.

I had a sky rep knock my door & like a fool I let him in.
Bottom line I was going to save lots of money, full package £75 per month.
£75 up front for installation. They do eveything - hassle free.

Sky HD box installed on time & going well.

Now the bad bit.
Called sky to ask when phone & internet would be installed.
Said I had not ordered phone & internet.
I had a copy of the form in front of me that said otherwise.
I also had a call from Virgin saying BT had requested to carry my phone number across to them - so someone somewere had done something.
But still told by sky help on the phone I have to ring up & order once I have an active BT line.
Could take up to 15 days once virgin has switched off to get back on line with sky.
Have to wait now unitl 5th of november when virgin turn off all my services
to see what happens next.
If you want my advice don't switch - talk to Virgin to get your package price down.
No doubt still got more hassle & operaters who don't know whats going on to go through before I get my package sorted out. Report abuse

by Sarah
at 17:46 on 1 Nov 2008

We use Virgin Media as our ISP and have now had no connection to internet for 12 days. This is utterly unacceptable. I spoke to VM again yesterday after waiting half an hour in a queue to speak to someone and they were only able to tell me that there were no updates on the fault. So, none the wiser. I depend on being able to use the internet for my work and I am falling behind as a result. What should we do? We have broadband connection via ADSL modem because we live in a conservation area where there is no cable connection. We have a sky box for TV but don't pay for any extra sky channels or anything. Anyone got any good advice?
By the way we have two computers one which works via ethernet to the router and the other is a mac via airport which is wireless. Report abuse

by tj
at 20:22 on 4 Nov 2008

with any service you will have good & bad experiences, the fact that sky pulled the plug from VM with its basic Sky programs showed it had little respect of the viewing public in general. VM broadand cant be beaten for the overall web surfing public, however there are issues in their network which requires attention, however the overall product along with its TV packages is overall in my view a good product & will continue to receive my vote of confidence. Report abuse

by Kyle
at 21:11 on 24 Nov 2008

I've been with TELEWEST for over 3 years, we had 4MB broadband, it was lightning fast, we stayed loyal to Virgin Media, until the day Branson came and f****d up everything, first we had our beloved Sky one removed, because virgin media claimed "Sky have thrown their toys out the pram" something like that anyway, then we have our internet speed cut for some reason, from 4mb to 2mb, and to make things worse, they didn't give us an explanation. Then, when we finally decided to take action against VM, they send a stupid 19 year old chav who knew nothing about what he was meant to do, then he came and f****d up our internet even more, now we get speeds worse than DIAL-UP, our boxes, upstairs and downstairs keep freezing, the channels are unavaliable whenever the wind gets a bit heavy, and all because some money hungry brainless idiot comes and f***s up everything. Report abuse

by Srpayo
at 16:37 on 2 Dec 2008

I have Virgin Media because I didnt have a BT line where I moved in so I only had 2 choices:

1-rent a BT line and get Sky
2- get Virgin Media through Cable (no BT line needed)

I went for the latest although I regret to say the service is very bad. I suffered from the "common" frozen chanels, specially at the time of a football match was going to start and also lost my internet connection several times.

When there is a fault you have to call (because I dont have phone line it costs me ££ to call Virgin Support, only to be talking to some indian guy who doesnt know what the problem is or how to solve it.)

Also a very IMPORTANT thing, they offer SKY channels but they never told me that the INTERACTIVE option to watch several matches at the same time would not work with Virgin. I called them when I wanted to watch my team playing and I wasnt able to do it with the red button. They said its Sky's fault that they dont give Virgin customers this option!

But Im with the dilemma of switching to SKY because it will be more expensive to also pay for a BT line apart from their services...aaaaaagh!

Sooo: dont get Virgin if you have a phone line. Report abuse

by phil
at 01:21 on 16 Dec 2008

why do peeps keep slagging vm, i was with sky for 5 years and ended up threatening to take them to court over my phone bills.i was getting itemised bills that totalled for eg £55 , but when i calculated the calls myself i was getting billed nearly double every month. when i called each month they said there had been a technical error and they would re emberse me, but the same thing would happen the next month.also if it rained the picture was bloody awfull. as from 3 weeks ago we now get all the lost channels back.also the broadband i normally get 2.4 mbs actual down speed, 700mb film in 6 mins. the problem with broadband none of them give you all the facts, you cannot get a fraction of down speed if you are downloading from p2p or torrent sites,because there servers cant handle the the load. if you want to take advantage of fast downloads pay a monthly subsciption to a newsgroup. there are some great ones out there for £10 per month, with no speed or download limits Report abuse

by phil
at 01:31 on 16 Dec 2008

ps, the v box i think is great, you can actually record 3 channels as compared to skys 2. also i have just been in touch with vm and they have told me i can have the 50 mb for the same price as, i am on the vip package. thats top tv, unlimited calls 24 7, 50 mb broadband , and 2 v boxes for £96 per month.also the v boxes where only £30 each if on the vip package.see if sky can beat that lol Report abuse

by phil
at 14:14 on 16 Dec 2008

i have just been in touch with vm ,and have been told there is no traffic managment with the 50mb tier Report abuse

by bernie
at 13:21 on 19 Mar 2009

I have had virgin as my ISP for 10 years. Last December was the first time I had recourse to complaining and I am appalled at the poor/absent level of Customer Service. They do not acknowledge my complaints let alone do anything about them. I am supposed to have 8MB speed on my broadband. I'm lucky if it makes 1MB. Many days the service disappears for the odd hour or becomes so slow as to be unusable. Any attempt to call and complain is met by a 40 minute wait charged at 5p per minute. In December they lost my broadband completely for over 3 days while doing a "free upgrade". I racked up over £15 in call charges while they sat on the backsides doing nothing. I'm currently trying to find an alternative but reading the above Sky does not seem to be any better. Report abuse

by Matt
at 13:04 on 30 Mar 2009

I would warn anyone considering Virgin media as their ISP to search elsewhere, they have been a continual nightmare for me. I was with blueyonder for many years and had no troubles at all. Since Virgin media took over the service has been awful, very slow download speeds and incredibly slow upload speeds , certainly not as they have advertised , the broadband service also failed for one week and it does not matter how many times you complain you get nothing back from them. They have also been over charging me i was supposed to be paying £29.00 and they have been charging me £50.00. Do not use them - they are rubbish and arrogant on the end of the phone when you have legitimate complaints.
I use the speedtest. net to test the system and when you are asked to rate the service which i do , with one out of five the results still say this is telewest , so the results of my rating are not showing up on Virgins rating. Go elsewhere , they are a nightmare Report abuse

by Ron
at 01:04 on 2 Apr 2009

If you are blind, partially sighted or disabled in some way that you are entitled to the 'free 195 directory inquiries' service, then be warned: Virgin Media have just started charging £1.10 per min for connection using this service - with BT it is completely free!

If you phone Virgin Media and ask why they charge they will deny they are charging you, they will lie to you and fob you off. The RNIB are currently looking into my complaint as Virgin Media have proven to be quite unwilling to admit that they are excessively charging disabled people for using this 'free' service. Report abuse

by Russell
at 23:07 on 15 Apr 2009

I was with NTL for 3 years with no problems then VM took over with no problems until they started charging £5.00 a month for standing orders,
I paid on the first month, set up a direct debit, it never took out my money, they charged me for a second time am month later, I once again set up the direct debit.
A third time the direct debit never left my account, I wrote a letter of complaint, I never even got a response.
So i left them. Report abuse

by u need to know
at 16:56 on 12 May 2009

all I see is people trashing down VM, well guyz, I've been with virgin media, after being with sky, and before that AOL, and before that BT (which was actually the worst, but I heard they've improved)

at first, the connection was rubbish, and I was'nt getting any help, or the help that I thought I deserved, but I realised that my connection was crap because more people where picking up my connection!
Virgin don't secure your modem for you, u do it yourself, not like AOL, or SKY. After securing my connection with WSP password, plus turned on the access control on with another password, My broadband was what they said it would be, but not in peak hours. The broadband connection was extremely fast, download & upload, so guyz before complaining about your connections check if its secured or not, cause I have the 20mb, but at first it was like 4mb or 8mb in non peak hours, imagine what it was in peak hours, lol.
but when I secured my connection (making sure it is'nt picked up by anyone) I got what I paid for and can't complain about their broadband, I don't have a phoneline cause I don't need one....got my virgin mobile with the package, and am looking to get the 50mb thats out now to see the out come as the 20mb is superb after securing it.
Most of you that are complaining probably have another 5 people using they're connection and you don't even know about it! So make sure your connection is fully secured, if u still have problems then probably they're's to many people using virgin in your area so change to something else. Report abuse

by Mat | registered | 1 post
at 22:23 on 29 May 2009

I have been a Virgin Media customer for over 3 years during which I have used their 10Mb connection with close no problem.

I realised I was paying more than new customer, considered leaving but realised that an upgrade would give me access to a faster internet and to a new customer tariff. It wasn't worth going for ADSL as I don't have an old BT line or socket connected to my house.

Since last week I have switch to 50Mb and ask to get their Medium TV package with HD. Since I have lost my internet connection all together and got the standard TV box.

Regarding the TV box they wanted to charge me an extra 50 pounds to schedule a new install so I could get the V+ (the HD model they claim I did not originally ask for) when it was their fault for not taking it into account. I called their cancelling department and suddenly the rules had changed. They since scheduled a time (in 3 weeks time) to install the V+ and canceled the additional installation. What a customer service...

Anyway the HD TV was the least of my problems, here is the real problem: no internet connection for a week (and no sign of any fix so far).

In a week, I have made numerous calls to their call center in India to which I have to re-explain again and again the same story. All they seem to be able to do is ask me to re-start my modem and make an appointment with a technician within the next 4 days. Sometimes they add insult to injury by asking to provide my credit card details in case I do not turn up for the appointment. Every time I or my partner have to take time off work to open the door to the technician.

So far 2 technicians visited the house (actually it was the same technician who came twice) who kept repeating the same: the fault is coming from their exchange. No one in the area has 50Mb yet. It will be fixed today. However he doesn't seem to be able to escalate the problem very far.

Every time on the phone it is the same story. They really don't have a clue, ask you to repeat your issue from the start. (they visibly do not take notes on their system) and then go through their same patronising scripts (un-plug replug modem and restart, tell me what lights are on... etc). No follow up, no help and no way to escalate the issue at any point. It feels this could go on like that forever. This is sheer frustration.

I feel stuck because I'm committed for another 12 months since my upgrade, I cannot cancel later than after the initial 7 days and anyway I feel it will take me a long time to turn around with another provider as I don't have any BT line in the house (previous loggers have always used Telewest it seems). During that time: no internet connection, I have to use my mobile phone with 3G to send this blog entry.

I really feel left down. What can I do to get out of this? Report abuse

by John Clarke
at 12:20 on 31 May 2009

I'm sick of paying for broadband which is frequently not available and which drops out at the most inconvenient times. Does anyone provide broadband monitoring software to record lack of service in a way that can be used in court to sue for refunds? This might concentrate the minds of VM's directors. At the moment there is not a level playing field as VM lift the money from our accounts without any adjustment for poor service, or l total lack of it. It is fraudulent to take payment for goods or sevices which have not been, or are not subsequently provided. Perhaps, as the payments are taken from credit card accounts, we should apply to our credit card providers for refunds under the credit card payment protection rules. Report abuse

by Michael
at 11:37 on 3 Jun 2009

I've been with VM for 3 years. Since the "upgrade" the service is so poor that I can't even explain. Since early January I've been with no connection for an entire month, had disconnections a week long or 12-15 disconnections per hour.

Customer service is very poor and they have not resolved the issue yet despite me opening 6 fault tickets and chasing them every other day.

Only when I threatened to sue them the fault has finally been escalated and they replaced the equipment in the exchange. However the problem is not solved yet. 5 months and counting Report abuse

by Supermac008 | registered | 1 post
at 22:32 on 5 Jul 2009

Been with Virgin Media for 11 months now. Can't wait to leave them. We've had slow, intermittent internet connection for so long and Virgin have done nothing. I will be advising anyone I can to stay well away from their "service" and by the looks of it many other people will be doing the same. Pathetic waste of time and money. Report abuse

by Karl
at 14:42 on 20 Jul 2009

To be clean and simple with this matter - Virgin Media are absolutely PATHETIC. They are robbers who bill you more than you bargained for.

When we joined the services in 2006 it was ntl: and we had no problems what so ever with the services.
As vm took over ntl: in 2007, the bills were more expensive and the services increasingly got very poor and internet connections were disconnected occasionally.
The bills were in the hundereds for no apparent reasons and they were still billing us when the services were switched off. They accused me of not paying the bills scince february when i remember paying a full bill in april of £188. these bills are out of order!

I seriously advise anyone to join sky before virgin media! Report abuse

by Brian ex Virgin
at 08:44 on 17 Aug 2009

Virgin Media has got to be the worse Company complaints Department ever.
I cancelled my Broadband in March they keep taking the same amount out every month since and over 20 phone calls, although they say they will refund this amount? they pressed the wrong button (so they say) and sent me a bill for this amount instead of a credit, they owe me and have even sent this to a debt recovery agent Moorcroft who are just as bad at sorting out any problems.
They now have my money and have put me on a bad debt list.
Please don't deal with Virgin!
Brian ex Virgin
Report abuse

by Martin
at 23:39 on 10 Sep 2009

Are Virgin for real? has Branson got the same net problems as me? Virgin Media are an absolute f***ing joke im sorry to say, intermittent network problems for months, phone them to try and deciper what the customer support people say (none are even english) and get the same response each time "pls reboot your modem" email the customer support for broadband problems and get ignored or finally after 5 emails over the course of 2 weeks get a reply asking you to ping their site and on recieving 50% packet loss they still do nothing....

Now today a DNS problem has again taken down my net for the last 6 hours, finally got back only to get disconnected every 2 mins....

Dont even get me started on the TV package...our control didnt work we couldnt turn over the box, phoned support and it took 2 months and 6 phone calls to get a new control sent and constant arragant replys on the phone from them saying it has been sent and we will recieve in 3 days. maybe 3 days for them is 2 months in our time?

Still with these bunch of muppets at the moment but my advice to others is dont deal with the Virgins. Report abuse

by Claire B
at 15:13 on 15 Oct 2009

I have to agree with the latest posts - stay away from Virgin!

I am currently a Virgin customer but after months and months of problems I've just phoned Sky only to find out they're cheaper.

I have had nothing but problems with Virgin – with both my TV, broadband and phone.
I can't begin to tell you how many hours I have wasted trying to resolve the problems – from waiting on hold for literally hours to speak to some robot in India who's advice was only ever to reboot either my TV or internet (longest time so far has been over an hour before I even got to talk to someone!) to taking time off work to wait for engineers. And I'm still experiencing problems – nearly every day in fact. This morning I couldn't access the TV as my set top box was frozen and the only response I got (after being told to reboot of course) was they would send out an engineer but that would take 5 days! My internet access is sporadic at best and when I can actually get on-line I'm often disconnected after a short space of time.

All of this and it's costing me nearly £50 a month for the privilege!

I have had enough of being treated like a mug and will definitely make the switch. Dealing with Virgin only ever leaves me frustrated, angry and hugely disappointed. Don't do it!
Report abuse

by tony wad
at 00:24 on 7 Dec 2009

virgin media are a joke if you want to play xbox live dont go anywhere near virgin media. lag slow stop customer services are a joke installers joke technical side of things yep its a joke dont touch them. Report abuse