Since it’s spat with Virgin Media over the price of supplying TV channels, Sky has been waging a hard-hitting campaign to persude Virgin customers to ditch the cable company and switch to Sky.
Both companies offer a bundle of digital TV, broadband and phone calls but Virgin Media customers no longer have access to basic Sky channels including Sky One which is currently showing the latest series of Lost and 24.
So what should Virgin customers do? Stay put or defect to the competition?
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
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.
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!
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/
But is it worth the hassle of getting a BT line back in? Isn’t it expensive to install after ceasing it for cable?
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.
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.
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…..!!!!!!!
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.
Virgin Media is UK Best Boardband and alway will be and soon will be the best for on demand
Virgin Media is UK Best Boardband and alway will be and soon will be the best for on demand tv
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!
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.
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,
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….
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
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.
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
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.
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!!
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
loks great
Looks Great
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
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)).
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!.
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.
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
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.
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 …
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
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.
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…
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”
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..
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,
I think both sky and virgin are rip off. Waiting for a alternative.
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.
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.
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 !!!!!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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
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….
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
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!
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)
well why would VM not match the prices with sky and everything will be sorted, after all it’s all about money we pay!!!!!!!!!!
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
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
I’m in my daughters bedroom at the moment, using the neighbours wireless connection, the sky units in the bin!!!
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.
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:(
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.
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.
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
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!
……..and another thing. My Mum always said “never trust men with beards”!
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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 /;
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 *****
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
Started phone & Internet with Cable London, then Telewest, NTL and now VM. Internet s