Virgin media issues

[Bonjon 10]

Ghozer, do you have any opinions on their rivals? Bt claim to be truly unlimited with no traffic management, whereas Plusnet (cheaper) have no download limit but do use traffic management. I know BT owns Plusnet and they would be using the same equipment, but would most users notice any effect from the traffic management? Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

 

I'm with Sky and have no issues with speed drops at peak, or download caps.

 

I download over 500gb a month, sometimes more.

 

There is no point having 'superfast' internet if you can't use it

[tzijlstra 11]

I know TalkTalk always get bad press on here and everywhere, but I've been on their fibre-package for over a year now and not had any drop-outs, hardly any speed-loss at peak times, no nonsense about 'reached download limit' and on top of that got Sky Sports for free for three months because of the ID-theft situation that turned out to be way less malign than they first thought.

 

Customer service via their online-chat app is good, they will respond to requests to alter settings on the line... When they sneak the price up I complain and they sneak it back down, only to sneak it back up at some point in the future, complain, comes back down. Bit tedious at times but that is the same for almost any ISP.

[Buggz 10]

increasing the network/broadband capacity of a specific area when it's oversubscribed please?

 

The reason I'm asking is that I've had problems with virgin media for about 8 months with low speeds in the evening and weekends (High utilization ). I've been given a 'fix' date of 20th August and like the previous 'fix' date I'm expecting no changes. I've also spoken to four customer service 'technicians' and each one tells me something different.

 

As far as I'm concerned they have no intentions of resolving the issue but are quite happy to string me and other people along with their false promises and continue to take our money in return for poor service. So I would like to know what is involved in upgrading a network so the next time I speak to them I have some idea what I'm talking about.

Edited August 17, 2016 by Buggz
poor grammar :)

[dustLOOP 10]

To free up traffic in the area of overutilization they need to put in more lines to spread it out to ease up congestion. Put it this way, they won't even know when its finished. I remember ringing up one night twice to complain and I got told 2 different dates and information.

[bkcin 10]

There's a massive amount of work involved.

 

Unfortunately nobody that you speak to on the phone regarding your fault will be able to give you any more information than you've already had.

 

From friends I have around the country who have had similar issues with Virgin Media in over-subscribed areas it seems to be pretty much hit and miss as to whether their dates actually mean anything. Some people see improvements after the expected date passes whilst some just get told month on month that it has been delayed (years in one case).

 

Are there any FTTC alternatives available in your area? May be worth checking to see if its worth swapping in the meantime until a future date when the issues are "fixed". And if the issues are still present when you resign up, you can always cancel within 14 days of signing up without penalty.

 

There are hundreds of posts on the Virgin Media forums of people in the same situation so you aren't alone; this person has had issues "ongoing since December 2014. Next review date: 14-12-16" - http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/Why-does-it-take-so-long-to-fix-contention-faults/td-p/3100376

Edited August 17, 2016 by bkcin

[tzijlstra 11]

Think of the broadband capacity as if it was a network of pipelines to bring water to homes. The more connections you add, the more pressure needs to be on the main-pipes to cope with the traffic.

 

To deal with that pressure the pipes might have to be made bigger or other pinch-points might need resolving. Such a pinch-point could be the main distribution cupboard for your area, unfortunately it isn't easy to resolve this for a company like Virgin.

 

What I would do is talk to some neighbours and ask if they have different experiences with different providers, you may well find that switching to a BT based VDSL is actually going to improve speeds, but the best way to find that out is by talking to your neighbours.

 

If you want to get an idea of speeds in the area ask people to use this test: http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk or http://www.speedtest.com

[Buggz 10]

Thank you all very much for taking the trouble to reply to my post. It's really appreciated! Looking at all of the complaints on the VM thread I don't hold up much hope of getting my issue resolved anytime soon so I think I'll start looking around for a new provider.

 

Cheers!

 

Buggz

[louca001 10]

Hi Buggz

 

I left Virgin Media last year due to utilisation issues in the S5 area.

 

My fault was registered in March 2014 but the actual utilisation issue actually started in February 2014.

 

They gave me target fix dates of September 2014, October 2014, November 2014, December 2014, January 2015 and April 2015 all of which were missed.

 

I made a complaint in May 2014 which was resolved with £50 in July. I made another complaint in November 2014 but in December when they offered me more money I refused and told them I wanted to go to deadlock.

 

After this I contacted the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) and raised an official case against Virgin Media with all the supporting facts such as time spent on the phone, the failed promises of fix dates, the number of times I had to take days off work for them to come and 'fix' my line, being unable to watch my Nexflix and NFL subscription packages ect.

 

Virgin Media tried their best to wriggle out of the issue and I didn't get the £1000 compensation I'd asked for (all those things above added up with extras and interest) but I did get £500

 

I'd suggest getting all your facts written down, start doing speed tests on a nightly basis and saving the results etc. make a complaint to Virgin Media today then in a few months time when they come back to you go streight to deadlock and contact CISAS

 

It's a lengthy process and requires a lot of detail but it is done via email and the end result for me was £500 compensation.

 

William

[bkcin 10]

Hi Buggz

 

I left Virgin Media last year due to utilisation issues in the S5 area.

 

My fault was registered in March 2014 but the actual utilisation issue actually started in February 2014.

 

They gave me target fix dates of September 2014, October 2014, November 2014, December 2014, January 2015 and April 2015 all of which were missed.

 

I made a complaint in May 2014 which was resolved with £50 in July. I made another complaint in November 2014 but in December when they offered me more money I refused and told them I wanted to go to deadlock.

 

After this I contacted the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) and raised an official case against Virgin Media with all the supporting facts such as time spent on the phone, the failed promises of fix dates, the number of times I had to take days off work for them to come and 'fix' my line, being unable to watch my Nexflix and NFL subscription packages ect.

 

Virgin Media tried their best to wriggle out of the issue and I didn't get the £1000 compensation I'd asked for (all those things above added up with extras and interest) but I did get £500

 

I'd suggest getting all your facts written down, start doing speed tests on a nightly basis and saving the results etc. make a complaint to Virgin Media today then in a few months time when they come back to you go streight to deadlock and contact CISAS

 

It's a lengthy process and requires a lot of detail but it is done via email and the end result for me was £500 compensation.

 

William

 

I'd personally just switch to a new provider and actually receive a decent internet connection.

 

Your suggestion requires you to suffer from a poor internet service for several more months whilst also messing around logging things and writing emails/making calls all to possibly receive a small amount of compensation.

 

There's more to life than that surely! Sometimes it's better to just see the writing on the wall and move on.

 

That said, it is good to see that the ADR process worked out for you.

[louca001 10]

Your suggestion requires you to suffer from a poor internet service for several more months whilst also messing around logging things and writing emails/making calls all to possibly receive a small amount of compensation.

 

Not really, I had a connection monitor on my server so I could automatically collect speed and outages etc. the speed was largely ok during the day while I was working from home but it was terrible on an evening and especially at weekends.

 

I wasn't really doing it for the compensation, I wanted CISAS to force Virgin Media into doing the work that they promised and would have hapily continued to have broadband from them but in the end they just silenced me with money and said they wouldn't do the improvement works so I switched providers.

 

If everyone hit them where it hurt, in the profits then they'd soon do the improvement works.

[Buggz 10]

Hi Buggz

 

I left Virgin Media last year due to utilisation issues in the S5 area.

 

My fault was registered in March 2014 but the actual utilisation issue actually started in February 2014.

 

They gave me target fix dates of September 2014, October 2014, November 2014, December 2014, January 2015 and April 2015 all of which were missed.

 

I made a complaint in May 2014 which was resolved with £50 in July. I made another complaint in November 2014 but in December when they offered me more money I refused and told them I wanted to go to deadlock.

 

After this I contacted the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) and raised an official case against Virgin Media with all the supporting facts such as time spent on the phone, the failed promises of fix dates, the number of times I had to take days off work for them to come and 'fix' my line, being unable to watch my Nexflix and NFL subscription packages ect.

 

Virgin Media tried their best to wriggle out of the issue and I didn't get the £1000 compensation I'd asked for (all those things above added up with extras and interest) but I did get £500

 

I'd suggest getting all your facts written down, start doing speed tests on a nightly basis and saving the results etc. make a complaint to Virgin Media today then in a few months time when they come back to you go streight to deadlock and contact CISAS

 

It's a lengthy process and requires a lot of detail but it is done via email and the end result for me was £500 compensation.

 

William

 

Hi William

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I think I'll take your advice too. This is my 6th ISP in about 15 years and all of them bar one has given me grief. So I think it's time to take a stand give them some grief for a change.

 

Thanks again!

 

Buggz

[louca001 10]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

 

You're welcome Buggz

 

You might want to try FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet), usually called fibre broadband or VDSL (Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line)

 

It's more expensive but only uses traditional phone lines from the cabinet to your house the rest is fibre optic so quite fast.

 

A 38Mbps package is about £14 + Line Rental per month. Vodafone and Plusnet are quite competitive in this market both having packages that cost approx £310-340 for the first year (£26-28 a month) and both having all of their primary support right here in the UK.

 

Vodafone have the added advantage of a higher upload speed though, 10Mbps where as Plusnet guarantee 2Mbps.

*last time I checked

 

I've been on a Vodafone 38Mbps package for about a year and it's always 35Mbps or above and the full 10Mbps upload.