I had had Tiscali for over one year, then decided to go with Virgin 8mb for £25 mth(20th Dec), the MAC code was presumably ok. I got the Virgin text to confirm that the service was 'live'.

I set up the Virgin modem, wires etc to the letter, slowly reading the inserted disc to check. Since then I never got the use of their broadband- each time I tried to connect, I got the 'error 721' message. I rang the Virgin faults team (0906 number!) several times to sort it, as I wanted it for xmas, they ran me through the obvious etc and said there should be no problem, and was ok at their end. My modem was clearly communicating with the remote but not actually logging on. Virgin passed a fault report, or something, to BT for checks.

Only two days ago, I got fed up with waiting and cancelled my service(less than 1mth) and after 5 days can revert to another provider (either Tiscali again, or Eclipse, who seemed good & also inexpensive)

What do you guys think? Is this a familiar thing, or did Tiscali 'flag' my line?

I swopped over from Tiscali to Virgin with no connection problems at all.

However, a month into my Virgin contract, Tiscali rings me out of the blue to discuss my account with them. The chap was surprised when I told him I had cancelled my Tiscali contract about a month back.

I am with virgin broadband and the last couple of days I can't get onto their site. My router is still working and I can get on the net but can't get onto their home site. Anyone else having problems loging into this site - virgin.net?

Thanks.

:huh:

Works fine here.

Thanks m8. Must be either my pc or BT!!!???
:thumbsup:

Try going straight to the IP incase it's a DNS issue.

http://194.168.54.50/

If you can get to the above ok then try clearing the DNS cache by doing the following:

Start -> Run -> type 'cmd' and press enter.
Type 'ipconfig /flushdns' and press enter - should tell you it's flushed the DNS resolver cache.
Type 'exit' and press enter.
Try viewing the page using the virgin.net address in your browser as normal.

Well, i was looking through thier new website today, and since were with Telewest, I clicked broadband, see if there's any price changes happening - Unfortunatly not, HOWEVER..

It seems that as Virgin Media - they will be offering Both Cable and DSL options, since its on the website as 2 methods to get VM Broadband..

It seems that as Virgin Media - they will be offering Both Cable and DSL options, since its on the website as 2 methods to get VM Broadband..

Virgin Broadband (already owned by ntl before their merger with Virgin Mobile) offered DSL broadband so it's just a continuation of that service for people in non-cable areas.

I wasnt aware NTL Offered DSL Services.. :O

does anyone know when virgin media will take effect?

They are launching (officially) on Feb 14th

yesterday was launch date

Some very good bundles out there. The VIP bundle is particularly impressive.

1 Hd Box
1 addl set top box
XL Tv, Movies, Sports on both boxes
Tel. Line with Tlk Unlimited, Talk Mobile and Talk International
10 Mb Broadband (DSL) with PC Gaurd.

£85.00 and an offer that never runs out.

As stated above Virgin.net was already owned by NTL. It was started as a joint venture between NTL and Virgin Group in '96. NTL acquired the rest of it a few years ago.

alright m8 i got it the other day and its spot on, first time ive had broadband aswell and ive had no problems whatso ever, they even knocked my first 2 moths bill off aswell, because i didn,t receive a welcome pack lol

Virgin/NTL was out in my postal code area Thursday moring 3am till 10am. Ever since that my connection has started to disconect. I have disable then re-enable the connection to get back on the net. This keeps happening every 6 hours or so for 10 secs untill lines reconnected.

My modems up/down stream LED's also keeps knocking off too, this has got me thinking it's hardware problems with the Modem.

The Last time this happend NTL flashed my modem to accept the 10mb speeds, they killed it by faulty firmware. The modem then rebooted over 2000 times in 24hrs untill NTL accepted there was a problem.

has anyone had this issue ?
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as helpfull as PWNED!!!!!! ;) :hihi:

is this anyuse? (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/42462-telewest-service.html)
what model modem have you got?

as helpfull as PWNED!!!!!! ;) :hihi:

is this anyuse? (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/42462-telewest-service.html)
what model modem have you got?

it's one of them NTL:250 modems. I think it's more than likley a line fault or connection from modem issue. I never turn the PC off unless i have too, this erroe only started after NTL went Dead totally due to sever issues at thair end. It may well just be glitches they still trying to sort.
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sorry i missed the bleedin obvious NTL bit.
dun-know about those ones, theyre pretty new arent they.

Is anyone else having problems since Virgin Media took control of Telewest?
I've formatted twice today and still have a speed problem,my connection is annoyingly slow,i'm supposed to be on 2 meg but it's behaving more like dialup.

Crap speeds come as standard with Virgin. Welcome to the club.

When it was Telewest i had no problems,now i feel like i'm back on dialup and paying £25.00 a month for it.

i pay for 4 meg from virgin,and every time i do a online speed test it comes back at 2.5 meg,so i am now trying to get a bt phone line because my mom has broadband from pipex and it seems faster than mine at half the price:loopy:

I'm on Virgin 8 meg over a phone line. Most evenings I get about 0.2 meg.
As soon as I can be bothered to change my email address I'm going to change to Zen.

oh well its just me who has no complaints lol

oh well its just me who has no complaints lol

I'm still getting close to 2 meg on my 2 meg connection according to this;

http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/

Wonder if Virgin is giving Wednesdayites special treatment :hihi:

I just tried link above and got nearly 3M. I'm downloading in background too, so no complaints there.

Is anyone else having problems since Virgin Media took control of Telewest?
I've formatted twice today and still have a speed problem,my connection is annoyingly slow,i'm supposed to be on 2 meg but it's behaving more like dialup.

well i'm having same but it's down to that V+ box. The wires in my home and the green exchange box are too old to take the new signal.

I had an engineer out last Thursday who tested everything as we couldn't get a picture on our V+ box and the net dropped in speed. It turns out that the new V+ box uses alot of bandwidth and it was drawing too much from everything but still not enough to display a picture.

I have an engineer comming out this Thursday to rewire the green box and all the wire from the green box to the back of Modem/TV box.

This maybe the same for you guys ???
________
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I'm still getting close to 2 meg on my 2 meg connection according to this;

http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/

Wonder if Virgin is giving Wednesdayites special treatment :hihi:
Isn't ZDNet based in the US? Wouldn't it be better to try a UK-based speed test? There's plenty around - think you'll get some much better "results" :thumbsup:

I used to be with Telewest and found their engineers to be very good and acomodating, give the customer services a ring and tell them youre receicing unsatisfactory service and get a guy out to check it over!

this test gives me as running at 2Mb which it should be, ill check later again in the evening when everybodys online.
http://myspeed.visualware.com/uk/index.html

still seems to be clocking 2Mb atm.
im in sharrow btw.

no problems here, -- But I know people who have had troubles with thier connection for months, and telewest never sorted it, and said there was no problem, theyer paying for 10mb and were getting bout 4 - Send/Recieve lights flashing constantly, they had a connection, but slow and telewest kept saying there was no problem

don't forget line contention, if they say you have a line contention ratio of 20 and 8Mb bandwidth then you share the 8Mb between all 20 users

so if they are all on at the same time and all download huge files at the same time then their average download speed will be somewhere around 0.8Mb for each user, in practice some will go faster and some will go slower

and bear in mind line contention ratios go as high as 50 sometimes so an 8Mb line with a contention ratio of 50 could go down to 160Kb/s or less

then you need to factor in the load on the server at the other end

and of course if no one else is on then it's going to fly like the wind

generally the lower your maximum connection speed the lower the contention ratio

Contention isnt as strict with cable, as its direct to them, not to an exchange then to them, so your not sharing the line, your only sharing the server...

contention is only an issue on cable for UPLOAD speeds (in theory) the way cable signals were originally split into frequencies for the transmission of TV broadcasts meant there was little need for information to go the other way. When cable companies started offering Internet access as well they were left with only a very narrow band to upload information from their customers. The way they have got around that is by using a method known as Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) this is where the upload bandwidth is divided into time slots and each modem on a connection then vies for that upload.

ADSL is different in that when your line goes into the exchange you are connecting into a stack of 50 modems which then share one line which progresses further into BTs infrastructure hence residential customers have a contention of 50:1. You can pay for a lower contention but this costs more as the telecomes companies loose out on business!

Hope that makes sense!

I've just done about 4 different speed tests and got results from 788kbps to 3.5mbps per sec (should be 4mbps) I haven't noticed it being much slower so I presume that its always been pretty much the same as this? Or should I be expecting a constant 4mbps? :confused:

Been with them since the 2nd of March and its a little slow because theyre working on their connections. Other than that, I have no complaints at all.

I've just done about 4 different speed tests and got results from 788kbps to 3.5mbps per sec (should be 4mbps) I haven't noticed it being much slower so I presume that its always been pretty much the same as this? Or should I be expecting a constant 4mbps? :confused:

Speed tests depend on how far you are away from the server, ie if its based in London you'll get a better result than from Florida or Sydney. Also depends on your other Web usage at the time and load on their server!

Im using Virgin at the moment, not having too many problems. However, I hope to god that it doesnt become problematic now it's Virgin, Telewest was reknowned for it's fantastic service, don't ruin it Branson.

ok, here's the story..

We have been on telewest for about 7 years now, started with the 512 cable, and like everyone else, we have been upgraded and upgraded again and were now on 10mb... this is great and no problems..

My uncle lives about 15 minutes walk away, up the hill in some Maisonette's and he has never had telewest in his area so has only been able to use an ISP that uses a BT line (DSL)..

since Virgin media took over, they contacted him and said they are trying to cover all the areas that are not finished, and they have done his area and he can now get broadband from them, they will give him 4mb for £10/month is he interested??

obviously he jumped at the chance and signed up... now... I queried this with my uncle, as Virgin is Telewest and NTL in one, so they can offer Cable, and DSL solutions, this allows them to offer Virgin Media Broadband to almost everyone..

so I ask my uncle if its DSL they are giving him and he says its not DSL, its cable..

If this is the case why do they quote £25 for 4mb on thier website, Even the DSL is more than £10 per month.. so i thought maybe its £10 per month for the first 3 months or something, but no, no where in his clause or contract does it state this, and he says thats not what he was told any way..

so, does this mean existing customers are being ripped off???? Will the prices drop for us to be inline with this price?

Anyone else got a similar story? or can anyone shine any light on this?? thanks!

It sounds like something alot of companies do, especially finance ones. It's not that we're getting ripped off as such, but they give introductory rates tonew customers to secure their business. It could well be £10 for the first three months with a minimum 12 month contract, before he signs up for sure he should ask a few questions. But if it's £10 indefinatly, fair play to him. :)

yeah, he says theres nothing any ways that says for the first 3 months... but i'll get him to double check, he's already had it installed and hes up and running any ways so ;)

Does your uncle live in Ruby House by any chance? If so is it definitly cable broadband he can get?
The reason I ask is I just moved into Ruby House and before I did I checked for cable broadband with telewest but they didnt supply it. But now, a few days later, Virgin do supply it.

In addition, a bit off topic I know but:
As I couldn't get cable I signed up for ADSL with Zen internet but I'm still waiting for an activation date as the local service is full. Does anybody have any idea, experience of how long that would take?

If I can get a cable connection I will cancel the Zen service.

Sorry if this is a bit OT, I know people are talking about cable rather than ADSL, but I really think Virgin's service is poor.

I get at best 0.3 meg in the evening (see here) (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/11732948976231816625.html). Virgin technical support insist this is because of the quality of my internal wiring. So how come I get 5.5 meg off-peak? Do my wires stop working after dark or something?

Been on the phone three times over the last two days trying to speak to a human being on the phones at telewest. Last night and this morning for 15 minutes each and tonight for 45 minutes and did not speak to anyone. Anyone else had such a bad experience with them. 45 minutes without hearing a voice is taking the mick.

Whenever I have called them after getting past the automated system, I havent had long to wait to talk to anyone at all, if im being honest I have always found their customer service very helpful and sorted out any problems really quickly

Virgin do DSL and Cable now, as prior to the merger with NTL/Telewest they provided services as "Virgin.net" through BT lines.

i just got ?100 knocked of my bill by telling them my services are on the blink & threated to leave them if they didn't fix it.:thumbsup:

I have No V+ service @ all, i can only watch BBC1,2 ITV1 & Ch4
10mb BB that keeps going slow
and a Phone service that sometimes cuts out

our house needs rewireing as the signals too weak to get anything the above stated so ?100 knocked off is fair for 2weeks without any services.:thumbsup:
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I tried to call them last week to get Sky Sports and it was a bit of a nightmare. I kept getting passed around and put on hold. I eventually just rang the main customer service number, explained the problem and was physically put through to someone.

From what I understand although they have combined the NTL/Telewest/Virgin customer services, you still have to go through to your "original" supplier if that makes any sense.

I think that since virgin took over they have become even more for a want of a word I can not spell crap. One of the main reasons for having extra channels was sky one now it has gone . I wonder how many people will vote with their feet and use someone else. As for customer services every time I phone them I am eventuallt after 65 mins last time put through to someone with a scottish accent or Indian and can not dechipher what they are saying as soon as I am out of contract I will change.

Been on the phone three times over the last two days trying to speak to a human being on the phones at telewest. Last night and this morning for 15 minutes each and tonight for 45 minutes and did not speak to anyone. Anyone else had such a bad experience with them. 45 minutes without hearing a voice is taking the mick.

ever since sky put the notices up about loosing sky one etc, the phone lines have been chock a block

ever since sky put the notices up about loosing sky one etc, the phone lines have been chock a block

Yeah I figured that when I was trying to call. Was just a bit miffed that I was being passed all over the place (and cut off once) when I wasn't ringing to complain but to ask if I could give them more money a month for Sky Sports!

I think that since virgin took over they have become even more for a want of a word I can not spell crap. One of the main reasons for having extra channels was sky one now it has gone . I wonder how many people will vote with their feet and use someone else. As for customer services every time I phone them I am eventuallt after 65 mins last time put through to someone with a scottish accent or Indian and can not dechipher what they are saying as soon as I am out of contract I will change.

if you phone them and tell them that the only reason you were happy to have a contract is for sky one etc. you can end your contract with 30 days notice, their terms and conditions state you can end early if they make a 'significant' change. if you tell them its significant to you, they can't do anything.

I can honestly say that from past experience , telewest have allways supplied me with great care and service.

I have noticed however that there is a longer waiting time on the phones. I think you should take into consideration that because of sky getting mean because telewest will not pay them double what they normally received they are taking those channels away from them, this has more than likely angered alot of people and this is probably the reason for the delay in answering the calls.

From what I understand although they have combined the NTL/Telewest/Virgin customer services, you still have to go through to your "original" supplier if that makes any sense.

if thats the case they are being put through to the call centre in attercliffe.

As far as I am aware they all go most of the calls from around the country go through attercliffe and I have also heard that because of the sky fiasco, they have at least 500 calls in a queue at any given time.

only the disconnections team,

other calls depend on where you live, the calls are atuomaticly routed to the nearest call centre,

Been on the phone three times over the last two days trying to speak to a human being on the phones at telewest. Last night and this morning for 15 minutes each and tonight for 45 minutes and did not speak to anyone. Anyone else had such a bad experience with them. 45 minutes without hearing a voice is taking the mick.

Yeah, it's abysmal service... actually, it'd be a compliment to call it abysmal.

I wait 5 minutes, then hang up. For the last 3 months I've incurred a 10 late payment charge because they appear to not want my money.

I have just written a rather snotty letter to them explaining how I'm unable to get any response to anything without waiting for 15 minutes on the phone.

Tried to cancel my service last night, waited 10 minutes to get through. Told the girl what I wanted and she goes "OK, I'll transfer you" and I'm back in the queue. Didn't get to cancel afterall!

Yeah, it's abysmal service... actually, it'd be a compliment to call it abysmal.

I wait 5 minutes, then hang up. For the last 3 months I've incurred a 10 late payment charge because they appear to not want my money.

I have just written a rather snotty letter to them explaining how I'm unable to get any response to anything without waiting for 15 minutes on the phone.

Tried to cancel my service last night, waited 10 minutes to get through. Told the girl what I wanted and she goes "OK, I'll transfer you" and I'm back in the queue. Didn't get to cancel afterall!

any complaints, if you address them to the attercliff address, and put CEO ofice, which i shte high compliants team, these will get dealt with more quickly than normal complaints, and address them to richard Branson

Yeah, it's abysmal service... actually, it'd be a compliment to call it abysmal.

I wait 5 minutes, then hang up. For the last 3 months I've incurred a 10 late payment charge because they appear to not want my money.

I have just written a rather snotty letter to them explaining how I'm unable to get any response to anything without waiting for 15 minutes on the phone.

Tried to cancel my service last night, waited 10 minutes to get through. Told the girl what I wanted and she goes "OK, I'll transfer you" and I'm back in the queue. Didn't get to cancel afterall!


I have been on the phone again this morning for 30 minutes with still no human voice to talk to. Do they want to try and keep my custom or what. If they knew to expect more calls after the sky issue then why not employ more staff as the call centre where I work does over peak periods. Obviously customer service is coming way down the list of virgins priorities.

I have been on the phone again this morning for 30 minutes with still no human voice to talk to. Do they want to try and keep my custom or what. If they knew to expect more calls after the sky issue then why not employ more staff as the call centre where I work does over peak periods. Obviously customer service is coming way down the list of virgins priorities.

its a pity to, as telewest had a very very good customer servcies about 3 years ago when i worked there

they cant do that, it takes 6 weeks to fully train staff before there on the phones..

I personally think that they have been under alot of stress at the moment. I think that maybe we should give them a break. It cant be easy taking complaints from people all day especially when its not personally their fault.
I am sure that they are doing their best.

I personally think that they have been under alot of stress at the moment. I think that maybe we should give them a break. It cant be easy taking complaints from people all day especially when its not personally their fault.
I am sure that they are doing their best.



I take complaints all day in the callcentre where I work, but I am obviously better at my job than telewest staff are

I take complaints all day at mine to, I dont think that I am better than telewest staff, our jobs are different and they get a hell of a lot more calls than I do, I dont think that they expected this thing with sky to go the way it did and maybe thats why they dont have as much staff as they would need, but I am sure that they are working on it.

I think they should be given a chance to redeem themselves, everyone has bad times , this is one of theirs and they really dont have many at all.

Mod note: Megathread created- 6 threads merged.

I have been on the phone again this morning for 30 minutes with still no human voice to talk to. Do they want to try and keep my custom or what. If they knew to expect more calls after the sky issue then why not employ more staff as the call centre where I work does over peak periods. Obviously customer service is coming way down the list of virgins priorities.

Finally got thru to the people this dinner time and have negotiated a third off my bill and film channels added-result at last

I think that they supply a fantastic service and have handled things as best they can and I know alot of people have the same opinion.

I certainly cant complain and I think that they need to be given a break, they have had alot of preassure and despite a few unhappy customers , through no fault of their own they really do try to please everyone as best they can., sky have caused the phone lines to become jammed, I am sure you have seen the adverts on the telly saying to call telewest and make a complaint. This is the reason no one can get through and everyone is on hold.

Blame sky, they are causing this poor service you are complaining about. If they didnt do this I am sure that the telewest/virgin media service would be perfect as usual.

Im with Irishlady on this.

Ive been with them for a week and phoned them a few times for assistance and the staff are brilliant, they even phoned me back a day later to see if I was ok.

jabberwocky wait till uve been with them for a few yrs im sure u will change ur mind about them,im sick of not been able to get through to customer services re disconnection on hold for 30 + mins 2 or 3 times a day,theres no wonder people are switching to sky, virgin need to sort things out more staff....

I'm on Orange and use orangeproblems.co.uk which was suggested on this site. They've a new website called virginmediaproblems.co.uk which may be useful. I was thinking of changing to virgin but i do not have them in my area! I think i'm changing to be

jabberwocky wait till uve been with them for a few yrs im sure u will change ur mind about them,im sick of not been able to get through to customer services re disconnection on hold for 30 + mins 2 or 3 times a day,theres no wonder people are switching to sky, virgin need to sort things out more staff....

Well we were with them when they were called NTL and they were rough and ready then and I hated them. We went to AOL and they were brilliant but decided to go to VM because of the price.
Time will tell if theyre worth sticking with, but I have a choice so if I decide to dump them it wont be a hardship.

re: v+ instalation price, virgin are now charging £25.00 for a second box,only a week ago it was free instalation,not good for virgin if they need more customers...

My service has been shocking recently, at some times of the day it's more like being on dialup.

My service has been shocking recently, at some times of the day it's more like being on dialup.

What service is that exactly? Have you run a broadband speed test? Could this be an issue with your PC?

More details please :D