Virgin Media Broadband

[TheChairman]

Keen to put pressure on Virgin Broadband in whatever way possible to sort out ED. I joined Virgin before Christmas 2014 and the connection was great as was the case in Jan 2015. Then, it went abruptly downhill. They've told me it'll be resolved in June...

50Mb connection and I'm getting 1-2Mb

50Mb Virgin Broadband users pls follow this link to test and capture your connection speed:

http://www.speedtest.net/wave/79a7f9c6d803c859

[EDdownunder]

Yeah its unbelievably bad, my internet hasn't been this slow since I had to plug the telephone line into the laptop. Shame too as I quite liked VM compared to Sky, especially the superfast broadband but they need to sort it out pronto.

[urbanfox]

I'm getting an eyewatering 7mbps on VM for a supposed 50Mb, starting to wonder whether I should send in my online grocery shopping via royal mail.

[KidKruger]

If you multiply this out over the ED (and other affected) area, Virgin are raking in a hefty combined monthly subscription against a service that they would not have sold if advertised at the existing speeds. When I've got fed up with it after a couple of weeks and called asking about compensation I've been told they'll only compensate me for that day as I have not called on the other days and, for all they know, my service could have been working fine. But I guess they must know the area is affected, not just this customer.

[TheChairman]

When my speed plummeted in Feb 2015, I phoned VM broadband tech several times over the period of a couple of weeks and each time, explained my situation / diabolical connection speed (1-2 Mb/s) and asked for an update when they would resolve it. I asked they keep a record of the call against my account.

Having laid the complaint at a technical level, I spoke to customer services. Annoyingly there is no 'customer services' option in the phone menu system so when you do get to speak to someone, you just need to ask for them to refer you on. I told customer services that I was prepared to wait for the fix but I wasn't prepared to pay the broadband charge (I have a phone line with VM too - which I do pay for) - and that if they didn't agree to drop that charge, I'd move provider. They agreed to drop the charge but I have to call them each month when the bill arrives to request this - they can't apply the cancellation in advance.

They're doing this for me. I suggest anyone who's got a consistently poor connection in ED do likewise until they upgrade their infrastructure.

[curlya]

Just to add to the last post that we've had a similar refund from Virgin for the same issue although they have also backdated our refund to March last year (when the problem actually began) and they have agreed to partially refund us for broadband each month until May 2015 when the problem is supposedly going to be fixed (I know!).

According to Virgin, when questioned as to why they haven't informed all customers that there would be a problem from March 2014 - May 2015 (and that connection speed would be appalling low regularly rather than the very high speeds they are still claiming in their persistent advertising) they said it is available on the website (I've yet to find it).

I would suggest all those affected just keep phoning them and their non existent customer services department (what is that about??) and threaten to leave too.

[bcam]

It's an total joke this evening. 0.07mbps for a fibre service?!?!?!

Goodbye Virgin.

[Salsaboy]

It's only fibre to their box in the street. It's copper from there to you.

[Ron70]

bcam Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's an total joke this evening. 0.07mbps for a

> fibre service?!?!?!

> Goodbye Virgin.

I had a letter through the door recently stating that the service would be interrupted sometime between 23 - 25 Alr due to essential maintenance, guessing this is what you're experiencing?

Ron70

[BikeChick]

I live in West Dulwich and have their fibre optic service. I get speeds of between 80mbps and over 100mbps all the time, day and night. I am confused about it being 'copper from the box to my house' - is that right? I am worried my service may go downhill, though it seems fine right now. Is it different in different areas?

[Shellbell76]

I'm just moving to the area so sorry to hear your issues guys but gives me something to think about in terms of which provider to go with! Thanks!

[urbanfox]

Service now completely down, was assured it would be fixed by 5pm, seemed to come back on but then went off around 6.3o with a fix time of 3.40am on thur. Now fix time of 4pm thur.

[morgy]

Hi urbanfox - did you get a letter through the post telling you service would be down yesterday? I did and made alternative work arrangements (work from home) . Like you I thought it would be back on at 5pm but wasn't. I rang them - on hold for 20 mins then spoke to someone who was unaware of the planned maintenance that was going on - said it would be back on at 3.40 am - and it is on again now. Did you mean 4am or pm in your message?

The thing with the way they run these downtimes is that they are so erratic that you're never sure when you'll get a consistent service. I find them just unbearable to deal with - have had engineers in about ten times since moving to ED a year and a half ago. I'd move supplier if it didn't mean loss of service for a few weeks in the interim and when it comes down to it I reckon they re all much of muchness

[Jacqui5254]

Service completely down 8am this morning. Spent 40mins on phone to VM. Was eventually told that a "ticket" would be raised as this was the first report they had received. Advised it would be fixed by 31st March....

Went away and sobbed. Service returned half an hour later.

[jem10nz]

Groan.....

We had an ongoing saga with Virgin Media over terrible internet speeds which finally ended in them discounting our internet connection charges by 50% until June when it is supposed to be upgraded. This took a lot of calls/emails to the customers services further escalation with emails to the CEO's office etc, typical terrible run around, we would have changed to Sky but were just so over it we were beaten into exhausted submission. We have about 7mps each evening.

If someone is writing again, send the company a link to this thread, it will make them sit up and take notice.

[TheChairman]

Jem10nz - they offered me 50% off and I told them it wasn't good enough. As mentioned previously, I suggest phoning tech support 2 or 3 evenings in succession, report your speed and ask the same question - when can you expect to see an improvement. Then when you receive your bill, phone and tell them you'll pay phone but not internet as they are effectively in breach of contract. It's then up to them. If they insist you pay, tell them you're quitting and they'll back down.

I haven't paid *any* any internet charges since Jan. I see no reason why anyone else enduring poor connection speed in ED should pay either.

[Tractorlad]

We've had Virin Media on Barry Road since 2012. Other than a painful installation they've been pretty good. Like other residents though, since January we've experienced near dial-up speeds at certain times of the day. We have the 100 MB package which we've never been near although regularly we hit over 50. Every evening though (when we actually want to use it) bang goes the speed, often down to 1 or 2 MB. On one occasion the sped was .25 or in other words .25 % of what we're paying for! Last night a 100 MB file took 3 hours to download. Initially we were told "upgrades" were occurring until Feb, then March and now end of April. I'm even reading here June! All I've been offered was a ?15 discount. Based on reports here I'll be calling for a complete rebate on my broadband piece of the bill from beginning of year until it's fixed or leave.

[JohnL]

BikeChick Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I live in West Dulwich and have their fibre optic

> service. I get speeds of between 80mbps and over

> 100mbps all the time, day and night. I am confused

> about it being 'copper from the box to my house' -

> is that right? I am worried my service may go

> downhill, though it seems fine right now. Is it

> different in different areas?

Seems to be Co-Axial from outside box to Set-top box

http://my.virginmedia.com/discover/welcome/get-set-up/during-installation.html

The issues with some on here are contention due to too many subscribers (or am I wrong)

Edit: Virgin seem to be doing some trials of Fibre to the Home.

[Fwomble]

I just moved to ED & Virgin signed me up for broadband & took my money When the installation engineer found my road was not cabled he left & that was last I head from VM - but still charging me!

[Tractorlad]

Fwomble - We had exactly the same problem when we moved to the area in 2012. We had a 3 month wait to get installed. Giving out on Twitter seemed to spur them into action and I've just had a rant about the recent speed issues which seems to have prompted a response this morning. I also find if you're getting nowhere, getting in touch with the CEO usually expedites things. Tom Mockridge is the guy and you can find his email address on this useful website. [http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=9632]. Once things were installed we had a pretty good broadband service, until now!

[Tractorlad]

I've been liaising with Virgin Social Media team today. Bad news for any Virgin Media customer in the ED area. As others have said the slowness is related to "high utilisation" but won't be completed now until July!! They have offered me a refund and allowed me to leave without notice, which I shall be doing. The fault reference is F003228321.

[ka.chapman]

I too live on Barry Road. I've had Virgin Media for 4-5 year with no problems until this year. Two months of intermittent service, with speeds of 5 mb/s which i thought was bad enough but now for an entire week zero broadband service.

I have spent hours on the phone to Virgin media's terrible tech support team and non existent Customer service every day. Each day they promise service will be resumed in 4/5 hrs, each day it is not.

Have been refunded my broadband but i just want the service to work or a realistic estimate on how long it is going to be down. i run a business from home and the lack of broadband is a disaster.

They will not commit to how long this service will be out; has anybody managed to get a realistic date out of them?

[Chapman]

I have had a recurring problem with not being able to get channel signals. But I have been reassured that a Virgin Media engineer will be around shortly.

[ribrob]

I did what Curlya did and complained to Virgin.

After months of them telling me to reboot or move my modem, change the wifi channel and other such time-wasting and ineffective things, they finally admitted there's too many people on their system in the area and they've known this since at least the start of the year.

They anticipate resolving the issue late June when they lay down additional fibers.

After much harassing they finally agreed to refund 50% of the monthly broadband fee to cover Jan to now, and to continue to do so until the issue is resolved.

Definitely worth the call, and definitely worth cutting to the chase and just telling them you know they are telling customers that they area is under-served and giving refunds.

Had they simply done that for me at the beginning rather than making out it was something about my setup i'd have a little more respect for them.

Rob

[Tractorlad]

Ribrob, I'm sorry that you're also having problems but I'm not surprised. Fingers crossed they get this work completed by June if not sooner. I too was initially given the run around with the old "switch it off and on" conversation before they finally admitted this over utilisation problem. In the end they have also refunded 50% on my BB from beginning of the year until fixed. To be honest the service has been usable for the past two or three weeks. Prior to that we were at dial-up speeds in the evenings. What perplexes me though is that with this known problem, why do they still put flyers through my door trying to drum-up more customers, exacerbating things? Hardly fair on their existing loyal customers?!