Virgin Media respond to complaints of slow evening service

[[Grevane]]

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1746854,00.html

Much more info

edit - beaten!

ha ha ha, quite an interesting read... only Richard Branson would publicly refer to the ability to provide TV, broadband internet access, fixed and mobile telecoms services as "four-play".

[bobbyzero]

Just useless. Finally they got the speeds up to acceptable levels, then they go and slap this stupid policy on the customers who've stuck with them.

Looks like I will be thinking about a MAC again.

[Agent]

MAC, on cable?

[BUFF]

VM do DSL in uncabled areas too.

[Agent]

That explains it then

[unrealrocks]

I have had VM in my house in brum for just over a year now and it has been shocking. Funny thing is the only time it actually ever hit 10MBps was when using P2P - torrents hit 1MB/s quite often, LOL.

I have cancelled now I am moving to my new house and plan to have Be and Sky, heh.

[[Grevane]]

Just useless. Finally they got the speeds up to acceptable levels, then they go and slap this stupid policy on the customers who've stuck with them.

Looks like I will be thinking about a MAC again.

How does using a MAC make NTL/VM better than when using a PC? I really don't understand the connection...

And besides, don't get me started on MAC's... I'll work on them, network them if needed in a business enviroment, but I'll never agree they are anything but overpriced "posing pouches". I'm so fed up with hearing MAC users trying to justify a one button mouse as being better than an ergonomically designed multibutton mouse. Not to mention all the "Pro-MAC" reviews that demonstrate how a MAC can, for example, render quicker than a PC but when you look closely at the article, the 3.0Ghz G5 Dual Processor MAC is being compared to a DELL 3.OGhz Single CPU. Apple just market an average product and make their minimal client base feel they are using an exclusive "designers" tool and pump the price up to make it seem even more "exclusive"...

Anyway, I'm stopping there before I mention the iMAC (Ha Ha Ha!!)

[funnelhead]

ROFL

MAC = Migration Access Codes

Mac = Apple Macintosh


hth



f

[bobbyzero]

Is this a really clever joke or is it funny for the other reason?

Seems an odd place to go on an anti-mac rant anyway

[[Grevane]]

ROFL

MAC = Migration Access Codes

Mac = Apple Macintosh


hth

HA HA HA!! Doh!

I get ya now...

Sorry, had a non-techinical MAC user preaching to me about how great his one button mouse was and how superior MAC's were to ALL pc's recently, so I guess I saw red when I saw the words MAC...

Heh hehe, looking back at your post, I think it was just the way you wrote...

"Looks like I will be thinking about a MAC again."...

and i was thinking... "nooooooooo, don't do it man! lifes not that bad... nooooooooooooooooo!"

LOL... whoopsies...lol

*whistles innocently* tum tee tum... la la la...

[bobbyzero]

And to make things even better, I got two identical letters today from them, saying as I haven't paid them for two months then they're cutting me off.

Which would be fine if they'd bothered to mention that they'd lost my card details at some point before now. Grrr... I know I updated it when I got a new card, I would expect a real company to contact me before it gets to this point!

[BeoWulf]

I was(/am.. only the names changed really) on telewest. Occasionally there will be contention issues, ie. a few hundred K off the top, but for the most part its 100% solid. Only time I had issues was about a year and half ago when the modem was really getting on and giving intermittant errors, someone came out about a week after reporting (when i finally got through to someone on the phone whilst it was happening). Must say ive never had a issue with the customer services. I guess its a matter of how you speak to them and who you get on the other end (read that as, how bad a day they are having).

If you have a valid complaint say your thinking of leaving, they will bend over backwards to help you. I got all the movie channels and sports channels (i dont even watch sport..) for free, and they knocked some money off the monthlies too for the life of the account. Well impressed

[stroberaver]

VM are testing my patience, too. I get broadband, tv and phone off them.

The service in principle is fine - especially the broadband. My 4 meg service is ultra-reliable, slows a fraction during 6-8pm but that's to be expected, the rest of the time it's quick and latency is decent.

But the transfer limits are rediculous. 750MB in an evening? So if I download a new linux distro, watch some junk on youtube and someone sends me a couple of emails with large attachments, then my service is crippled for the next four hours? Bollocks to that. I can understand them needing to target those who leech bandwidth and abuse their connection by running it 24/7 with torrents, but a blanket 750MB limit is rediculous.

Then there's the broadband support line number changing, to a premium one. Bollocks to that too, I'll still call 150 for free if their services fail.

Then the tv - my set top box is crap, some kind of relic from the '80s it seems, made by Pace. I swear my scientific calculator has more cpu horsepower than the box, judging by how slow it responds. And the loss of channels... where's my bill reduction now that VM don't have to pay Sky anything?

If you have a valid complaint say your thinking of leaving, they will bend over backwards to help you.

I was planning on ringing their retention line, and offering to pay the same as what I do now, but they give me top grade tv again (I went from top to middle when they jacked the price up by £4 per month for no obvious reason), with V+, until I discovered that the waiting list for V+ boxes is so long that it was unlikely to be successful. Maybe in a couple of months...

[Jay]

VM are testing my patience, too. I get broadband, tv and phone off them.

The service in principle is fine - especially the broadband. My 4 meg service is ultra-reliable, slows a fraction during 6-8pm but that's to be expected, the rest of the time it's quick and latency is decent.

But the transfer limits are rediculous. 750MB in an evening? So if I download a new linux distro, watch some junk on youtube and someone sends me a couple of emails with large attachments, then my service is crippled for the next four hours? Bollocks to that. I can understand them needing to target those who leech bandwidth and abuse their connection by running it 24/7 with torrents, but a blanket 750MB limit is rediculous.

Then there's the broadband support line number changing, to a premium one. Bollocks to that too, I'll still call 150 for free if their services fail.

Then the tv - my set top box is crap, some kind of relic from the '80s it seems, made by Pace. I swear my scientific calculator has more cpu horsepower than the box, judging by how slow it responds. And the loss of channels... where's my bill reduction now that VM don't have to pay Sky anything?


I was planning on ringing their retention line, and offering to pay the same as what I do now, but they give me top grade tv again (I went from top to middle when they jacked the price up by £4 per month for no obvious reason), with V+, until I discovered that the waiting list for V+ boxes is so long that it was unlikely to be successful. Maybe in a couple of months...

I have the old TVDrive (its now V+ as you say) don't bother with it, its crap.... it simply has fits every other day etc etc and is so slow at times it makes me angry. Also the sky movies 12 and 15 crashes the box, my sound and picture breaks up etc, also they offered to replace my box but said that I wouold lose all my recordings so whats the point?

My internet goes from out standing to totaly rubbish for no reason and a mate of mine in Ireland on their NTL cannot connect to me as for some reason there is no route beween us at all! oh and at times I get loss to all website, times outs etc.

nightmare, it was OK until it became VM.

so in short...........

Phone (never use but cheaper to have it than to not!)

TVDrive (terrible picture, bad sound, crazy software, slow, mind of its own, crashes, no Sky 1, SSN etc)

Internet (free upgrade to 10mb.... but never hits 10mb at times under 3mb [Slower than before the upgrade], time outs, loss, routing issues [I mean come on, for a top IP provider thatis really bad!] and first line suppoer is bad, they don't even seem to know about known issues!)

[funnelhead]

Just useless. Finally they got the speeds up to acceptable levels, then they go and slap this stupid policy on the customers who've stuck with them.

Looks like I will be thinking about a MAC again.

That is where people started thinking about Migration Access Codes. and others about apple macs

[IainB]

Couldnt find a specific thread, but for anyone on NTL who using a Proxy Server are you getting a page showing you how to disable this, before allowing you to navigate to the page you want!!