News - Virgin Media completes next-generation broadband network

[stroberaver]

...the chappy on the phone told me that all traffic shaping is going to stop on the 3rd of August on all Virgin packages. I don't know what truth is in it, but i told him that i would only agree to the contract based on that comment, and he guaranteed it would happen.

Sorry to say it but customer retentions will tell you anything in order to keep you. Unless you have it in writing, it's worthless. I wouldn't place any bets on the STM being dropped as something needs to be done about the muppets that leech their connection 24/7.

When I phoned up recently, they tried to persuade me that their V+ service was much superior to Sky+ and worth paying more for because of the HD capability. When I pointed out there is bugger all HD channels on VM she started waffling on about Ofcom and getting them to force Sky to share their content at better prices, yada yada yada - it was just all waffle. When I asked if they'd be reducing the cost of V+ as a result of Ofcom forcing the content to be cheaper at this mythical date in the future, I got no specific answer. Funny that.

[Tonka777]

Sorry to say it but customer retentions will tell you anything in order to keep you. Unless you have it in writing, it's worthless. I wouldn't place any bets on the STM being dropped as something needs to be done about the muppets that leech their connection 24/7.

Who said anything about retentions department? Although i do agree that they will often feed you any old rubbish to ensure you stay with them.

Spoke to VM again this morning to follow up a tech fault (trying to get BT to fix my crackly line - nightmare...) and enquired to two people about the supposed drop of the traffic management; The first who was in tech support said he had not heard anything about it, but would not expect to hear about such a thing in his department, the second, who was in customer services, told me that it was correct and due to happen at the beginning of August, at the same time as they plan to start offering line rental.

Now i'm not going to say i told you so, because the last thing i want to do is quote a company like VM and put my name to such a claim, but two employees in two different departments giving me their assurance that this is happening makes it pretty believable to me.

As for the 'muppets' leeching their connection 24/7 i have only one reply; If i am paying for an unlimited service and on the top package that company can offer, i want to be able to max my connection 24/7, and given the chance i will. If that company (or the company who provides the hardware) cannot give that service to all those people who pay for it then they should do two things; 1) Stop advertising for new customers to join their network, and 2) start cancelling the contracts of those who they cannot supply.

[stroberaver]

Who said anything about retentions department? Although i do agree that they will often feed you any old rubbish to ensure you stay with them.

Sorry, I assumed you were referring to retentions when you mentioned about renewing your contract with them.

Thing is, if VM were going to drop traffic management then I'd have thought they'd be shouting about it, and I've heard nothing, despite keeping up to date with cable news recently. On the one hand it'd be nice to have it gone for the odd occasion when the peak-time limit is just triggered, on the other I hope the removal of it doesn't let the muppets start clogging up my internet during peak time with excessive downloading.

As for leeching your connection 24/7, well, my contract with VM has an acceptable use policy in it. I presume yours does too. I don't believe that running a connection flat out all day every day is an acceptable use of a shared, contended internet service. If you want the 'right' to use your connection in such a way, I would think you need to go get a personal leased connection with an ISP, with 1:1 contention.

[Nelviticus]

I just don't understand people moaning about traffic shaping unless they signed up before it was in place. If I buy a kettle with "this kettle doesn't work on Thursdays" written on the box I can't complain if it doesn't work on Thursdays. If I sign up to a broadband package which includes a traffic shaping policy I can't complain if my traffic gets shaped.

[Hicks12]

Well i had broadband from NTL before they changed their name to VM so didnt have any of this traffic shaping but i cant do anything about it and i have to live with it as we maybe moving in a few months and dont have a bt line.

[bhogey]

I'm on 10mb but only during the day while at work. So poo on Virgin and there capped lies.