Virgin Broadband randomness

miss annie

BT is brilliant in SG, I've had it in my last 3 flats, never lets me down. Highly recommended. I like Mr Branson, he employs several of my pals, I'm told that the banking service is splendid and his airline is not at all bad. Pretty much everything else that Virgin do is awful though.

Arkady

Just to mention that, while it seems to get bad press, I really rate TalkTalk. I've been with them for years, and have never had a single problem.  Really fast, and for a smal additional fee they have something siilar to BT Infinity now (which I'm yet to try).  I rate their customer service too.<br>

Fin

Having waited for phone calls which never appeared for literally years I finally got some redress from Virgin Media via twitter. Worth a go, @virginmedia for those who want to try it.<br><br>I also alerted them to the existence of this thread.<br>

J_V_MacGyver

I followed the steps mentioned by @boxrunner and wrote them a nicely worded complaint about the unreliability of their service etc. Few days later I got a call from a manager and got a whole month worth discount on my next bill ie. free internet for one month. By mid-October they expect these problems to be fixed, we'll see.

hopgreen

Sent the web form last week and have received telephone calls from one of their reps over the past couple of days. Will be getting a credit added to the next bill.

Ali

<P>seems like they have other issues </P> <P><A href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/virgin_media_superhub_still_failing_punters/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/virgin_media_superhub_still_failing_punters/</A></P>;

boxrunner

Predictably enough, no contact from Area Service Manager.  I'll be following my own advice and submitting my complaint today.....<br>

boxrunner

...complaint submitted.  I'll update when/if I receive a response.<br>

J_V_MacGyver

<p>I suppose I'm not the only one who's not getting a connection right now...</p><p>Something is pretty screwed as the power readings I get from the router's data site are pretty bad, also saw two Virgin vans around.</p><p>I'm starting to feel they do this to me deliberately. I only lose connection when I want to watch my team's game on stream. Like now. </p>

Roy

Funilly enough mine has been pretty solid for the last few days.  (Having said that, it will now go down, of course.)<br><br>roy<br>

rosesky

apparently Stroud Green is notorious for issues. This info came from a senior engineer at VM . A lot of media people moved into the area in recent years and they can't cope with the demand. downloading overnight is one of the main issues......evenings and early hours are the worst times.<br>

rainbow_carnage

We are those people. We do everything online - shopping, Skyping, watching TV. We don't download overnight, but we're definitely heavy users.<br><br>I would be happy to pay a bit more for a fast, reliable service, but I've yet to find a provider that offers it. For every person praising BT, I can think of several friends who are constantly complain about it. Also, I resent having to pay for a landline, which we don't use. Nor do we need a TV package.<br><br>How happy you are with your service provider mostly depends on your expectations. I don't care how many 'media people' are online. I expect my internet to work perfectly 24/7. If it goes down for even five minutes, I get furious. But other people seem more willing to accept that their connection will be slower at certain times of day.<br>

boxrunner

...so 10 days later and no calls from anyone at virgin media, not the area manager, not the customer service rep, and no response to my virgin media complaint form completed on their website. well done virgin media, very well done...

gardener-joe

@ rainbow: For every person praising BT, I can think of several friends who are constantly complain about it. Maybe so, but seemingly none of them is in Stroud Green, or at least they are not posting about their BT experiences here. If we take the evidence of this site as indicative of Stroud Green as a whole, far and away the Virgin service is highly unsatisfactory, while the other providers (BT, TalkTalk, &c) draw almost no negative comments on the rare occasion they are even referred to.

harpistic

That possibly has more to do with the membership of the forum than of BT itself. And this forum's members only represent a small number of BT's customers in the area. I've heard so many complaints about BT from friends, and had such a horrendous experience with them in my old flat that they really don't seem to be much of an improvement on Virgin.....

miss annie

How long ago were your problems with BT in Stroud Green @harpistic? I'm genuinely surprised that your Stroud Green friends have BT issues, where in SG are they? We were the trial area for Infinity so it should be good pretty much everywhere in N4

rainbow_carnage

@gardener-joe - Ah, well, I may not have experience with BT broadband, but I've had plenty with TalkTalk. We were with them for over two years before switching to Virgin. For the first year, they purposely strangled our speed. It never went over 0.5Mb, despite us paying for 10Mb. I called them many times to complain. They insisted that it was a problem with the line, until one day the person admitted that they were limiting it on purpose. After that, we got a fairly consistent 4Mb. When we finally left, our account was in credit due to their inability to count. They kept promising to refund the money. After three or four calls, I gave up on it.<br><br>We've also had billing issues with BT. Back when we had their landline, they mistakenly passed our account to a collections agency, even though we paid all our bills via direct debit. Took ages to sort out the mess.<br><br>It's possible that SG is some kind of a magical zone where BT works differently than in the rest of the country, but I doubt it. I don't think this thread is necessarily representative of the area. Perhaps the unhappy BT customers can't get online to complain.<br><br>We get a 30Mb connection from Virgin for £21.50 a month. I'll still whinge when it doesn't work, but I don't think we'll do any better with BT.<br>

Mirandola

I had an awful time with BT a few years ago, but they've been excellent here for the past year. 

Ali

<P>Depends what  you get for your £21.50  ie calls etc  BT Infinity is I think around £18 for 79MB download speeds,</P> <P>if you want to find out about copmplaints  go here <A href="http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/telecoms-research/complaints/q2-april-june-20121/">http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/telecoms-research/complaints/q2-april-june-20121/</A></P>; <P> </P> <P>If you want something less detailed go here <A href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/26/ofcom_quarterly_complaints_report/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/26/ofcom_quarterly_complaints_report/</A></P>;

rainbow_carnage

Yes, but in addition to the £18 you pay for broadband, you have to pay for a BT landline. That's fine for people who use a landline, but we never do. So it's a waste of £14.60 a month. Also, the £18 package has a 40GB usage limit. We'd easily exceed that every month, so we'd have to get the £26 unlimited package.<br><br>Basically, we'd have to pay £40.60 a month, instead of the £21.50 we pay now. Is BT twice as reliable as Virgin? I'm not convinced that it is.<br>

Ali

<P>It seems like the chaotic coalition has deliverrred  yet another farce with the  West Coast.  I wonder if tricky dickey will deliver on this promise?</P> <P><A href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/26/richard-branson-first-group-virgin-west-coast-main-line_n_1831265.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/26/richard-branson-first-group-virgin-west-coast-main-line_n_1831265.html</A></P>;

Arkady

Labour should pul their finger out and call for renationalisation.  There's a good mechanism for that now with Directly Operated Railways which already runs East Coast and will now run West Coast from December; they should just let all the franchises expire when they come up for renewal.<br>

boxrunner

The Directly Operated Railways may not, not, run the West Coast line from December.  Following today's announcement it's possible it will remain Virgin-run in the short-term.<br><br>I do agree though that the railways should be renationalised and this 'market' farce can be put to bed.<br>

Ali

Bet you it goes to DRO so the governmnet can get the profits to pay for the mess. They?/we are  making £200m on the  East Coast a Year.

Ali

Short  term  will be the 12 to 18 mths it takes to rerun the bid process

Arkady

DfT are saying it will probably be DOR.<br>

boxrunner

<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/15/virgin-continue-west-coast-rail">Virgin to continue running west coast rail</a> in the short term.<br>

Roy

Either Virgin's just started being random this evening, or sg.org has.  Not sure which yet, but somehow I suspect the former.<br><br>roy<br>