Virgin media

quiet_riot said:
Pity to hear all these tales of woe, hope my virgin doesn't go the same route. Bit of a monopoly as Virgin seems to be the only provider where you don't need to fork out a line rental on top of the BB cost.
Click to expand...
Zen offer it.

The problem with Virgin is it's all or nothing. Either you get the speed you pay for, or get something abysmal, and it's all down to overselling their product. Their call centres really are awful. I was once advised that I could fix my broadband speed by just not using it at peak times. When I complained, they gave me a £1 credit for my trouble. They lie consistently (or at least make things up). They said there were no known issues in my area and couldn't explain my low speeds, then 2 minutes later confessed there had been a utilization issue since Sept 2015 (actually since Feb 2015 I then found out). Then they put my bill up over 10% but justify it by increasing my line speed from 50 to 70MB, sometime in the future, but isn't available at peak times to me anyway. The fix date keeps going back. They changed their billing cycle for mobile from paying in arrears to paying in advance without any notice.

I've been with them for 15 years, but they seem to concentrate on new areas and let others degrade. My advice would be to ask any neighbours for their experience.
 
Unfortunately I've only just entered the 12 month Virgin contract. Had a quick look at Zen and they charge £5 extra per month to NOT have a phone line?! Speeds 'only' go up to 76Mbps too, so unless my Virgin goes wonky within this year..they're not selling themselves.
 
quiet_riot said:
Unfortunately I've only just entered the 12 month Virgin contract. Had a quick look at Zen and they charge £5 extra per month to NOT have a phone line?! Speeds 'only' go up to 76Mbps too, so unless my Virgin goes wonky within this year..they're not selling themselves.
Click to expand...
Virgin have a worse pricing model for their broadband and line rental. £30.25 for 50MB without, £19 with (£17.99 line rental). The reason for this is to price out the offerings from Skype, Vonage etc which use broadband connection for calls.

Zen are particularly expensive, I agree, but they have much better customer service than any of the others (especially in the non-cable group).

Regarding speed, when I get 50MB from VM, then it copes with three heavy users (eg 1x gamer, 2x streaming movies) no problem and I can still update phone apps, check emails etc... Those who are super-heavy (constant multiple downloads, peer-to-peer, uploading, 2 or 3 gamers simultaneously) may need a higher speed.

For gaming, it is latency that you need to consider. I'm told that VM fibre has the worst latency. Someone more technical might know more.
 
I'm on the 152Mbps broadband package which will be changing to VIVID and going up to 200Mbps.

My connection goes really weak around 6-10pm and drops from 150 Mbps to about 30Mbps this is due to the high demand in my area it seems there aren't enough cables to support everyone in my area which will take time but Virgin have been happy knocking £20 off my monthly bills whenever I ring up and complain.

The broadband is one of the best and with their AC network SuperHub 2ac wired and wireless connection speeds are fast as fuck and the download rate is ridiculous (On steam I downloaded a 40GB game in around 40 minutes)

Virgin Media have some of the best customer support and I've never had a single problem with them.
 
On wifi I get about 50mb-75mb downstream and 12mb up in Withington. On a lan cable it jumps to 184-210mb up!
 
willy eckerslike said:
This is my "50MB" results ...

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5102412881
Click to expand...

This is mine now with 3 wireless devices in the house connected and two devices streaming

5102430185.png
 
Always read the small print to check your ISP doesn't throttle your internet during peak hours. If they do you're forking out a fortune for shit internet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.