Virgin Broadband randomness

Idoru

I thought BT Vision only got you the digital channels rather than the satellite channels? So you get eg E4 and the extra ITV and BBC channels but no Sky One or Syfy etc. I would never, ever advise anyone to go with TalkTalk. <br>

Ali

<P>You can subscribe to sky1 and sky 2 </P> <P> </P> <P>see <A href="http://www.digitalchoices.co.uk/article.asp?id=get-bt-vision&kt=44098&_$ja=cgid:1524671071|tsid:38827|cid:21641209|lid:927503008|mt:Broad|nw:search|crid:14561842981|bku:1&gclid=COvZg5LCrbICFYFo4AodtwEAZQ">http://www.digitalchoices.co.uk/article.asp?id=get-bt-vision&kt=44098&_$ja=cgid:1524671071|tsid:38827|cid:21641209|lid:927503008|mt:Broad|nw:search|crid:14561842981|bku:1&gclid=COvZg5LCrbICFYFo4AodtwEAZQ</A></P> <P> </P> <P>or   <A href="http://www.btvision.bt.com/">http://www.btvision.bt.com/</A></P>;

gardener-joe

@quince: I was told by Virgin that i had to give one month's notice.It will add instult to injury if they then whack on a charge. But, to be honest they are such rogues I will probably pay up just to get them out of my hair. I wlll spare the room the details of the almost hystetical woman at Virgin who took my cancellation call, offering me all kinds of deals to stay. Deals-schmiels! As far as I am concerned offering deals is akin to trying to polishing a turd.

boxrunner

(ho ho ho)<br><br>So I waited in this morning for the VM engineer like a good little monkey.  Obviously the appointment was cancelled because an area fault had been diagnosed.  Obviously they didn't tell me.  Obviously.<br><br>I ranted a little at their customer service who will phone me back next week to update me on their conversation with the area manager (who's heard this before?)<br><br>If they do actually recognise an area problem then this may all be worthwhile.  If.....<br>

Fin

They've done that to me before, the old book an engineer appointment then cancel it without telling you routine. <br><br>They never, ever call anyone back. Systematic corporate lying, plain and simple.<br>

Harmony24

My internet connection has been intermittent since been installed in May.  After a lengthy complaint/discussion, the technician explained that there is a fault in our area and that it won't be fixed until sometime in October!  Like everyone here, I have been very, very inconvenienced and am going to suggest that I should not be charged for a service I am not getting consistently!  I'll let you know how that goes!

kreuzkav

I sent them a complaint via email about their service a few days ago.  Received nothing back from them apart my standard monthly direct debit bill.  Time to disconnect. <div><br></div><div>@ Quince.  Is the £87 due to you breaking your 12 month contract early?  I've heard dodgy stories of them renewing people's 12 month contract if they ask for add-on or different package.  And that could be just an increase in your broadband.  Be careful!  </div>

gardener-joe

...

Ali

Apparently BT Infinity is comming to Stroud Green (Hollaway Exchange)  with download up to 71.mb and upload 20mb to start with from 30th September £18 a month

Roy

Hmm, it's Friday evening and.... Virgin broadband just stopped working, five minutes ago (after having been fine earlier in the evening)<br><br>grrr<br><br>roy<br>

hopgreen

ditto!

kreuzkav

I got a very nice call on Wednesday two or three days after my email complaint about their shoddy service.  The very friendly customer service rep (not some really horrible call centre rep from India, not racist but this is my experience of call centre reps from there) offered me a reduced £7 less monthly if I took on a 12 month contract.  I declined because I am moving soon and don't like the service.  Got £5 off this months bill.<div><br></div><div>My view, they know they're shit and will take on your custom at a lower rate because they just want your money.  Cowboys!</div>

Roy

They're not cowboys, they just inherited a network designed for (analogue) cable TV and nothing else, and built by dozens of different companies to varing standards and specifications.<br><br>You don't have to like them, you don't have to use them.  But go on, convince me you can set up a company that can build a better cable broadband network - bet you can't.<br><br>roy<br><br><br>

kreuzkav

They may have inherited badwired network but they could just try to reduce the amount they have on the network until they sort things.  I guess that's not capitalism!  And I think they've been good up to late July.  So I'm about to lose them and not use them.  I'm just waiting to find out when I'm moving from this god forsaken road (Stroud Green) with all its problems..noise, bad internet, sirens, drug dealers, dodgy shopkeepers.........

Roy

(a) it's not at all clear to me that the problem is caused by too many people on the network<br><br>(b) if it is - how should they go about reducing the number of people on the network?  (But if you're leaving, then thanks for doing your bit to reduce the numbers <br><br>roy<br>

kreuzkav

Roy, ISPs limit people's use of the net so I imagine the more people using an internet service the greater the strain on the network.  I think if this is the case Virgin Media could just stop advertising so aggressively and make sure the service they provide for existent customers is sufficient.

miss annie

Virgin's service is terrible all the way through to Crouch End too, people moan about it constantly on Twitter.

kreuzkav

@ miss annie.  Not part of the twittering class yet and Crouch End is hell to me!

gardener-joe

@Roy: "They're not cowboys, they just inherited a network ... ". Inherited? I love your conceit that Virgin Media is some kind of ingenue dealing with an unexpected and somewhat problematic gift. Meanwhile the customers are f***ed on a daily basis. Doubles all round in the Virgin Media boardroom!

ADGS

"What's that, Uncle Godfrey's dead? But I didn't know I had an Uncle Godfrey! And he's left me...a haunted house, a truculent llama called Clive, and an analogue network?"

miss annie

Believe me @kreuzkav, five minutes on twitter will show you that it's about as far away from an exclusive club as it's possible to be! All you need is a computer and you're in. It can be brilliant, good fun and another way to get involved in your community or it can be pointless and infuriating. As with most things, it's what you choose to make of it.

kreuzkav

@ Miss Annie.  It was only a joke.  Know lots of people on twitter, and I'm sure I'll be on it at some stage.  I hope all is good with you!

harpistic

Phoned them again this afternoon, there are three faults in the area, and all will be fixed by 10 October. Expect crappy service until then. <br><br>In the meantime, if you're looking to invest in a dongle, avoid T-Mobile at all costs!<br>

ShaunG

@harpistic - thanks, that's helpful. It's so irritating when it keeps going down, but it's particularly annoying that it is obviously some sort of planned works (because it's happening so much, always at weekends) but they don't tell us. It wouldn't be hard, Virgin has all its customers' email addresses.

JoeV

<P>I've been Virgin-free for two years now having switch to BT phone and broadband and making do with a 10 pound Freeview box from Argos and an indoor antenna for TV. I only have had slow speeds on BT broadband on maybe 3-5 times since I started and it's never been down entirely. Same for the telephone.</P> <P>Previously, I used Virgin for telephone, broadband and cable TV. The service was awful, much like the experiences above, and expensive. I originally signed-up for a package deal that cost 30 pounds a month for all three that eventually rose to between 70-80 pounds a month before I ended my contract.</P> <P>There were always outages. There wasn't a month where at least one or more of the services was down from a few hours to up to a week. I was on the phone to their customer service every other week about something and to my embarrassment it often ended in me yelling down the line to say no, I don't want to book an engineer's visit when the problem was obviously in the network on their end.</P> <P>@harpistic and ShaunG -- There is no 'planned works' it's just another excuse for rotten service, I was told that same crap loads of time and the service never improved. I say either except that crappy service is what Virgin offers or switch as fast as you can.</P>

quince

Spoke to a nice lady at the Virgin call centre who managed to take the £57.90 charge off my final bill.  Apparently I'd been signed up for a 'new' contract when my router was replaced in March.  Bit naughty that.  A result of sorts, but I think I'll be looking at BT Infinity/BT Vision next time around.  <div><br></div><div>All these service woes sound very familiar but, after periods a while ago of patchy connection and several days of outage here and there, things most recently seemed to be a lot better.  Mind you, I lived in what I believe is referred to here as the 'Upper East Side', or as I preferred to call it, 'Crouch End', and there was never any shortage of Virgin vans about the place - so maybe they finally fixed it...</div>

Ali

<A href="http://www.stroudgreen.org/profile/Roy" rel=nofollow><FONT color=#637f44>@Roy<;/FONT></A>: "They're not cowboys, they just inherited a network ... ". Inherited?   I belive they bought it so buyer beware !  They have had plenty of time to invest to make things better  I have been  with BT for 18 years and I can't rember the last time it was down.  I am getting up to 17mb on ADSL and will get 79Mb when I move to BT Infinity

gardener-joe

No Virgin internet at 7am this morning so could not check my project and email it in the hour before setting off for work ... dashed to work to use IT there, but inevitably then pestered for this that and the other so project much delayed ... the Virgin service hell goes on ...

Roy

@Ali: you may have been lucky, but I know many people who've had real nightmares with ADSL, too.  And I'm pretty sure you haven't had BT ADSL for 18 years!  BT voice maybe pretty reliable (it's what the network was designed for - Virgin TV is pretty reliable too, for the same reason)<br><br>ADSL is delivered over a network designed only for voice and which is, in places, incredibly old.  BT have much the same problems as Virgin, at least in places.<br><br>I'd love affordable residential fibre-to-the-premises, similar to Verizon FiOS.  Broadband, over an infrastructure actually designed for it.  Maybe we'll get option one day, but I'm not holding my breath.<br>

boxrunner

@Roy: "Virgin TV is pretty reliable too" - Noooo...............<br><br>The vast vast majority of our problems (all 6 in the past few months) have been related to TV predominantly, occasionally also taking down phone and broadband with it).  It may be that hte service was originally designed for TV, but it is not currently trustworthy and can't handle the services Virgin Media offer us like iplayer and movies on demand.<br><br>I'm still waiting for that call from the Area Service Manager......... Virgin Media, do you realise that this thread (and many others like it) are searchable on the Internet?<br><br>