OT - Virgin broadband - any good?

tgotb

My broadband speed is very slow (800kbps max). This is almost certainly because I live at the end of a very very long, very very thin piece of copper wire, so the only way of getting a significantly faster connection in my area is to switch to Virgin.

Anyone have any feedback on how good their broadband service is? Anything I need to look out for? Not really interested in their TV offering, as we already have Freesat (and don't watch much TV anyway).

Is the hardware they provide any good? We already have a very good wireless router, so we really just need a modem...

Thanks in advance!

asquithea

I was on VM for a few years - similar situation for me with ADSL.

Fairly happy with them, but I did think it wasn't all that cost effective to get BB & phone only, compared with their packages that included TV. They also called me quite a lot to try to sell me upgrades.

They provided a cable modem, which wasn't compatible with my cheap ADSL-only router. YMMV - I hear they're giving out a "Super Hub" these days, which apparently has had quite a few problems.

You get the bandwidth you pay for (unlike ADSL), but I left them because they throttle quite a lot at peak times once you go over a fairly low download threshold (resets every day).

I moved to BT Infinity, which is awesome, and didn't cost me any more for 4x increase in bandwidth (all the best VM deals went to new customers). That came with an OpenReach modem and wireless router, which I haven't had any problems with.

Gussio

asquithea wrote:

I moved to BT Infinity, which is awesome, and didn't cost me any more for 4x increase in bandwidth (all the best VM deals went to new customers). That came with an OpenReach modem and wireless router, which I haven't had any problems with.

Phew - that is exactly what I wanted to hear! Our BT hub arrived yesterday and the engineer is due next week.

Kieran_Burns

It depends which package you go for - I'm on 50Mb at the moment (and speedtest consistently shows 50Mb down with 5Mb up) which is uncapped (the first package that is) and is being upped to 120Mb (!) next month

Customer support is a bit naff when you need it and the new superhub issues are down to channels clashing - you just need to change the one it is default set to. Wired is fine.

notsoblue

We're on Virgin Media 120mbit, and the connection itself is brilliant. Really fast, lots of bandwidth available. I game a fair bit so I'm sensitive to latency and packetloss. Both of which are not a problem on VM.

The superhub though....its pretty shit. We had a problem with the WiFi on it. Kept cutting out for no reason and when it was up it slowed everything down to a halt. It was set to a channel nowhere near any others, so it wasn't interference. Virgin tech support couldn't solve the problem, so I just used another Wireless access point I had lying around instead.

The Rookie

Virgin on cable here, consistently get 19+Mb of the 20Mb we pay for, unlike when on Sky (via BT line to house) when the upto 10Mb package never bettered 1.5Mb and sometimes was sub 400kbps, to add insult to injury they dropped the 10Mb service and wanted to charge us more for the 20Mb which was no faster....needless to say we left!

Simon

roger_merriman

TGOTB wrote:

My broadband speed is very slow (800kbps max). This is almost certainly because I live at the end of a very very long, very very thin piece of copper wire, so the only way of getting a significantly faster connection in my area is to switch to Virgin.

Anyone have any feedback on how good their broadband service is? Anything I need to look out for? Not really interested in their TV offering, as we already have Freesat (and don't watch much TV anyway).

Is the hardware they provide any good? We already have a very good wireless router, so we really just need a modem...

Thanks in advance!

assuming this is Richmond in london/surrey?

800kps is woeful, my folks get a bit better than that, and they live half way up a mountain with a long line which travels though various sheep backsides etc.

I'm not that far away from Bushy Park on Virgin and it's fine no issues inlayer etc plays without problems. But 800kbs is such a area sounds like someone has fobbed you off.

tgotb

Thanks for the info guys, very helpful!

Yes, it really is ~800kps! We're in Ham, which seems to be a long way away from the Richmond exchange. Speeds we're getting are consistent with neighbours, and have been the same with two different providers. There's little variation through the day, I guess there's just a dodgy bit of cable somewhere...

spen666

When it works VM broadband is excellent.

When it goes wrong, its a bugger trying to get them to fix it

They lie - claiming its a problem with your pc etc when they have problems in the area.

gosport_commuter

on 30MB virgin here, consistently get 30MB. Upgraded from the base 10MB (now 20?) some time ago as the downloading caps were too low for me to get along with. but no problems at all on 30MB. have occasional downtimes (once every few months) but always gets sorted within a day, and time offline refunded to me (after a phone call to point out issues)

mudcow007

I use VM for both work an home

waaaay better-er that BT or any of BT's resellers (sky etc)

we have 6x 20Mb connections in my work

at home i'm on the 40mb

notsoblue

spen666 wrote:

When it works VM broadband is excellent.

When it goes wrong, its a bugger trying to get them to fix it

They lie - claiming its a problem with your pc etc when they have problems in the area.

Yup. Their first line is woefully bad at fixing issues that are to do with the superhub or the connection.

Yukirin

I have been with virgin since I moved into my own place 7 years ago and always moved them with me when I change address. Not had experience of other providers Except dialup 56k days. Customer service had always been great, cant complain about speeds, though 3g is patchy around Chiswick on the phone.
Did have problems with the super hub but was easily solved by changing the channel manually to one that is free. Seems automatic channel selection doesnt work on these hubs.

Initialised

Virgin 10MB for years, no problems really, just go to be careful when downloading since services like Steam can use the full 10MB capacity you hot the cap (2.5GB iirc) pretty quick.

TBH I know enough about the scripts their first line support use to go through the first few tests my self before even calling them. So yeah, next to useless unless you've found the fault already, but the same can be said of all support monkeys.

jejv

notsoblue wrote:

spen666 wrote:

When it works VM broadband is excellent.

When it goes wrong, its a bugger trying to get them to fix it

They lie - claiming its a problem with your pc etc when they have problems in the area.

Yup. Their first line is woefully bad at fixing issues that are to do with the superhub or the connection.

I haven't required their services for a few years, because of crap support if anything goes wrong.
Got cut off fior a month, because they lost the ID of the cable modem, and then switched off services to all the modems they didn't recognise. Of course, they said everything was working.

Ben6899

We're in a shared house at the moment. Paying for 16mbps cable broadband with Virgin.

We're getting ~5mbps and the Superhub isn't very super at all. In fact, it's wank.

In a nutshell, Usain Bolt is talking out of his ar$e and I won't be going for Virgin when we get our own place.

optimisticbiker

Ben6899 wrote:

We're in a shared house at the moment. Paying for 16mbps cable broadband with Virgin.

We're getting ~5mbps and the Superhub isn't very super at all. In fact, it's wank.

In a nutshell, Usain Bolt is talking out of his ar$e and I won't be going for Virgin when we get our own place.

Didn't know they offered a 16M service. Maybe you're in an older cabled area? Ours was pants when it was the old NTL, ex C&W, service but I went to Virgin once they'd upgraded it in my area. I'm on the 20M service and its consistently 19+ but I agree their customer service is a tad naff, though much better now then what it was when i first signed up with them. Compared with the issues my son had with Sky they are positively efficient. About to be upgraded to 60Mb in April. While BT Infinity promises much again it depends on the area. Ours was supposed to be available months ago but my nearby neighbours waited ages for an install date and its pretty flakey right now. BT's answer "leave it a few weeks to settle down and it'll get better", hmmmm... not convinced. Sounds like they went ahead with customer installs before the setup was fully tested in order to meet slipping timescales...

noodles71

It is pretty good when it works but is woeful and about as painful as pulling fingernails when ringing 1st line support. I directly support dozens of market data lines in my job so I can get quite a way through the troubleshooting when I need to. My worst experience was when the network was dropping every 2nd packet. Probably something to do with a dodgy load balancer or a core routing issue. The problem was easily spotted by pinging and running traces. I was doing all the troubleshooting on my Cisco router and the muppet at the other end refuse to budge until I could tell him which operating system I was using. When I said IOS he said they don't support iPhones. When I said it wasn't Apple he kept asking me which version of Windows my router was running and refused to go any further until I could tell him...... I said Windows 3.1. Big mistake as he then hung up after saying they don't support Windows 3.1 and I must have been trashing his call stats.

sketchley

It is very good. Just added a TiVo, £1.25 a month plus free install and free activation.... Took a bit of arguing though.

symo

Got the 20mb and V+ HD box.
Great way better than BT.

redvee

Sketchley wrote:

It is very good. Just added a TiVo, £1.25 a month plus free install and free activation.... Took a bit of arguing though.

Got a Tivo and after arguing/haggling I was paying less than without a Tivo, though the drop to 10mb was a killer. Speed was too slow and the associated daily data allowance was too small for me so upgraded back to 20mb.

mudcow007

redvee wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

It is very good. Just added a TiVo, £1.25 a month plus free install and free activation.... Took a bit of arguing though.

Got a Tivo and after arguing/haggling I was paying less than without a Tivo, though the drop to 10mb was a killer. Speed was too slow and the associated daily data allowance was too small for me so upgraded back to 20mb.

+1

me too i phoned up an asked for Tivo after me complaining about paying an installation fee, they dropped my monthly charges. So now i have Tivo plus a cheaper subscription without an changes in services. I likes Virgin

veronese68

mudcow007 wrote:

redvee wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

It is very good. Just added a TiVo, £1.25 a month plus free install and free activation.... Took a bit of arguing though.

Got a Tivo and after arguing/haggling I was paying less than without a Tivo, though the drop to 10mb was a killer. Speed was too slow and the associated daily data allowance was too small for me so upgraded back to 20mb.

+1

me too i phoned up an asked for Tivo after me complaining about paying an installation fee, they dropped my monthly charges. So now i have Tivo plus a cheaper subscription without an changes in services. I likes Virgin

Could I ask what the arguments you used were? I should have a go at that.

redvee

The story I used was my Freeview PVR was unreliable and I used it often and the choices I had were a new PVR and ditch the VM contract all together, BB, Phone & TV or keep VM and blag a Tivo. I've also got a customer loyalty bonus of £4/month on my account which negates the Tivo fee.

veronese68

Loyalty bonus? I'll have to check on that. I've been with them through Teleworst and Blueblunder so I should get some of that.

sketchley

I used the "there's an offer for new customers on the front page of your website offering free install and activation. As I long term customer I find it quite upsetting that I'm not able to access this offer".

mudcow007

Veronese68 wrote:

mudcow007 wrote:

redvee wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

It is very good. Just added a TiVo, £1.25 a month plus free install and free activation.... Took a bit of arguing though.

Got a Tivo and after arguing/haggling I was paying less than without a Tivo, though the drop to 10mb was a killer. Speed was too slow and the associated daily data allowance was too small for me so upgraded back to 20mb.

+1

me too i phoned up an asked for Tivo after me complaining about paying an installation fee, they dropped my monthly charges. So now i have Tivo plus a cheaper subscription without an changes in services. I likes Virgin

Could I ask what the arguments you used were? I should have a go at that.

i just said my parents have recently got a tivo an i wanted one. but didn't realise there was an activation fee

then i mention sky+ could record - we only had the standard non recording virgin boxes

redvee

Sketchley wrote:

I used the "there's an offer for new customers on the front page of your website offering free install and activation. As I long term customer I find it quite upsetting that I'm not able to access this offer".

I hit them with that, as an existing customer I would have paid more than a new customer and told tehm they look after the new customers better than existing loyal customers. I could have got the new customer deal but would have meant using a new name on the account or taking a 3 month break from VM at my address.

veronese68

Well that was worthwhile. I rang customer services and explained that they'd put a leaflet through my door offering the same package I was on but £14 cheaper with 3 months fee to new customers. The attitude was one of tough, you can't have it. So I asked if I should leave them and then come back and was told "yes".
So I got put through to the relevant department. Couldn't have been nicer, total contrast to customer 'services'. I am now paying £14 les than I was and can have a free Tivo when I want it. She did say it might be best to wait as I don't have an HD telly. Any thoughts on that? How is Tivo on an old CRT telly?
Thanks guys.

sketchley

redvee wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

I used the "there's an offer for new customers on the front page of your website offering free install and activation. As I long term customer I find it quite upsetting that I'm not able to access this offer".

I hit them with that, as an existing customer I would have paid more than a new customer and told tehm they look after the new customers better than existing loyal customers. I could have got the new customer deal but would have meant using a new name on the account or taking a 3 month break from VM at my address.

Did it work? If not did you follow the option on the phone for 'if your thinking of leaving us?'

veronese68

Sketchley wrote:

redvee wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

I used the "there's an offer for new customers on the front page of your website offering free install and activation. As I long term customer I find it quite upsetting that I'm not able to access this offer".

I hit them with that, as an existing customer I would have paid more than a new customer and told tehm they look after the new customers better than existing loyal customers. I could have got the new customer deal but would have meant using a new name on the account or taking a 3 month break from VM at my address.

Did it work? If not did you follow the option on the phone for 'if your thinking of leaving us?'

Yes, go that route. Worked for me, see above.