Virgin Media terrible service

[SammEl]

Haven't had internet for the past 3 days.

Moved house on Saturday, and they installed it all, got a new modem, so took PC out of the box and tried the internet, it didn't work, and the Ready light was flashing, so they said that's a connection problem, they said they will try and fix it within the next 24 hours, and if it doesn't work, they will send an engineer out Tuesday morning. Engineers came Tuesday morning, had a look, and stated that they would need to activate the modem their end in order for me to receive a connection, and it will take around an hour. An hour went and still no connection (light flashing still).

Rang them up last night, went through everything with them, got transfered to Security Support or something, they tried to access the modem but they couldn't, I told them the enginner stated that the modem needed to be activated their end, the women said that it's impossible for her to activate the modem if she cannot get access to it, so she said she'll send out an Enginner Wednesday morning.

The guy came a few hours ago, accessed the old router via my PC and it seemed everything was ok, he rang VM up and asked if they could activate the modem their end, and still no connection, he went out and got a new modem, replaced it, activated the modem with them over the phone, job done.

Wohoo!

Bit of a delay, but finally have the internet. Good times!

VM seems great here, it was a delay, but the service we recieved was pretty damn good. I guess it depends where you are located.

[BUFF]

Can you seriously not see how your wording;



Implies that the not advertising on the basis of being uncapped but rather as unlimited is predicated on them having run it past the lawyers and that would imply that they would be on less solid legal ground if they did advertise it as uncapped.

Nope, capping (as used within internet/ISP circles) & limiting are different. To be precise VM advertise unlimited downloads.
This is correct as they don't limit how many downloads you do but potentially the speed at which you are able to download said number.

[mehmeh]

... a 10Mb service would exist that only allowed you to download just over a single Gb in almost a whole day...

AFIAK the different STM periods are seperate, allthough I did read some news that said they were trialing a sheme in some area's were stuff acrewed in one period would count in the other. At the moment though, on 10Mb.. 2500MB down daytime and 1200MB down/700Mb up, peaktime IIRC.

I just don't think Virgin Media should be allowed to advertise a "high-speed" service that, when only 5% of it's subscribers actually use it to the capacity they pay for, stops functioning for the other 95%. Surely that is proof that they cannot deliver what they advertise?

I realise I'm just ranting but I'm really having problems getting my head around how they can get away with doing what they do.

I couldnt agree more and it baffles me too. IMO the whole UK Broadband industry needs a monumental kick up the rear end and Virgin are deffintly one of the biggest offenders. Recently they've added the "upto" rubbish to their speeds (but its Cable?!) and with the STM looking like its going to be further tightened before the year is out, I dunno how they are getting away with it. Me reckons if it wasnt for the TV, phone and all the fancy bundles which some of are decent value, they wouldnt be, as as a broadband supplier and comparing their standalone prices, they fail...

...Speaking of,

This thread:

[revol68]

Nope, capping (as used within internet/ISP circles) & limiting are different. To be precise VM advertise unlimited downloads.
This is correct as they don't limit how many downloads you do but potentially the speed at which you are able to download said number.

Yes, I fully get this distinction it doesn't however change the fact that your post whether by design or accident definately implies that Virgin don't advertise as uncapped for legal reasons implying that they couldn't get away with claiming so, which in turn would imply that they aren't uncapped.

[BUFF]

I think that you (& apparently only you) are seeing something that isn't there.

[SammEl]

Virgin engineer stated I would be lucky to get near to 10Mb, but I am getting the full 10Mb.

Happy days.

[revol68]

I think that you (& apparently only you) are seeing something that isn't there.

Well point out the part at which I take a ridiculous leap of logic.

it hardly matters much but there is a principal to uphold here, namely that I'm right.

[HermansArmpit]

Yeah mehmeh I definately agree on that. Can't really afford to get my own BT line in and the familia dont want to lose the telly so I don't have much choice but to stick with them for the time being until they become so evil that noone can deny their evilness and my folks are as alarmed as I am by them, hehe. It will probably be some time.

[aaronsheff]

I do not pay to share, I pay for a 10Mb service. Sharing is what you do with sweets and toys.

Your ignorance of how residential broadband works is clear from your post. You talk as if you have a leased line yet you don’t as your on VM. All residential broadband is a shared connection its what’s called contention and its how they get the price down to a level that is in reach of most consumers and not just business.

If you want your own dedicated 10mb line then pay the thousands of pounds per year that it would cost for it. If you want to pay a affordable amount then you have to accepts that its not a free for all and there has to be limits somewhere and all ISP’s need to impose some form of management whether they admit it publically or not. I prefer the way VM do it as its clear cut, I know how much I can use and when, to avoid the restrictions outside of that I can download as much as I want without having to worry about going over some hard cap and being billed extra or having my service cut.

[how1]

VM are great in my area.

[aaronsheff]

They've been hit and miss with me. Had a bad patch at the end of last year but since then no other problems.

[goku127]

I've had plenty of problems with Virgin especially when my broadband gets disconnected. Continously waiting for the Modem to stop blinking so that I could use the internet. I was originally with Telewest which I never had any problems at all until Virgin took over.

[manwithnoname]

Just to say my VM connection (had it about 3 or 4 years) has always been as advertised, I've not noticed throttling but if I do a speedtest I can see I have been "throttled"

Love the capping and throttling sub thread, well done people. Just to stir it up a bit: it depends on what you mean by those words. Afaik VM have not been kill customers with guns or strangling them. You people who a getting bad product need to move to another dealers corner for your fix ... sorry been watching the wire too much

[moogle]

Afaik VM have not been kill customers with guns or strangling them. You people who a getting bad product need to move to another dealers corner for your fix ... sorry been watching the wire too much

Some got no other ISP's to go to (Maybe no better ones in their area), and you're right quite alot have the other packages like phone and tv and don't want to switch but they'll still moan about it.