Virginmedia Broadband - TV, Phone, TiVo

[Heart108]

We have been using Virgin Media Broadband for more than a decade. Although it is getting better and better and more reliable ( SE22 near Peckham Rye) the service is vastly overpriced - I am sure they could provide it much cheaper.

We have a package consisting of obligatory phone line with Virgin Number ( used to be for FAX but now never used and when it is connected we constantly got spam calls so just unplugged it).

TiVo medium package ( which is very useful to be able to record programmes etc)

and 100Gig broadband package which is mostly very reliable.

I have kept a computer file since 2010 noting down every transaction, every outage and every problem - it also details the times when I get sick of paying so much money and threaten to move to another provider and they give me a little present of ?10 or ?25 pounds off my bill, and enough to keep me sweet and not actually take the risk of moving the whole lot over to another provider.

Because I am self employed and rely utterly on a fast reliable broad band connection I dare not change, especially as we have the cable coming into the home.

I have also found that when we have had a problem, Virgin Media have been outstanding at sorting it out and coming round, installing a new modem or whatever is needed to improve the system.

The cost is between ?52 - ?56 per month.

* * *

I throw all this into the ring just to see how others feel about Virgin Media

.. and one final thing though, which might be useful for people to know:

when your broadband is down, and none of the modems in the home work, it is usually because they are repairing some major thing in the area. The problem is that they dont tell you .. and then your broadband is sticky or non functional and you dont know when it is going to back on.

The technical number is 0800 052 0431

They will tell you if there is a problem .. but unless you ring you dont know.

The other thing you wont be told unless you ring, is that once the technical problem is over, you need to switch off your modem and switch it back on again. But how would you know to do that unless someone had told you in the first place that the problem was fixed ?

This means that you could be thinking it was out for days and in fact it had been fixed but you didnt know.

So this means to be sure - when you have an outage, check with them by phone and once it is done try switching on and switching off. They often dont tell you that is what you need to do although it is on every recorded sound message

[twinhunters]

I'm contacting other providers at mo as have no Virgin internet or tv since last Friday , and can't get one consistent answer to problem . Fix date keeps being moved , although I don't want to change I feel as I have no other option . I'm in Se15 4el

[gsweet87]

You should get a "price rise" email or DM every year informing you of a ?3.49+ price hike for your service. The terms of this include the fact you can cancel your contract qsap at no cost. When you get the email, phone them, say you want to cancel, and they will generally put you on the introductory rate for a year. Rinse and repeat every year.

[Heart108]

@gsweet87 - thanks! good tip