Broadband

TYREMAN · Post by **TYREMAN** » Sat Jul 18, 09 3:51 pm

Just thought i would ask you how reliable your broadband is?

I am with Virgin and it has got to the point i can no longer rely on it.

It often goes of for hours at a time!and is often very slow when working.and sods law its the time i need my pc for Ebay or to send an urgent message etc.This is extra annoying when you plan to bid on something in the last few hours but you can not thanks to having no connection.

Its that bad now that when i go to my PC i wonder if there will be a connection? it went off Thursday tea time for a few hours,and it went off last night at 6pm and did not come back on again until 10 AM this morning.

Before you ask its not my PC its the cable connection i have the phone number to check

Is this normal or just a Virgin cable thing?

I have been paying £25 a month for this for the last 3 years but only in the last 6 months i have had problems.

I have recently changed my deal to £20 a month with a home phone

But that means that i am tied in to a 12 month contract of wich i have about 9 monts left to do.

But i want to cancel as i am not happy with the Virgin Service when it comes to broadband.

So because i am not happy with it recently will that give me a legal way to get out of my 12 month deal and just cancel it altogether? i have been with them for 5 years but because i have recently changed my package i am treated the same as a new customer so they say i can not cancel and must commit to the 12 month deal

I think i have good grounds to get out as it is not a reliable service so they are not providing the service i was expecting.

Do you think i can get out of it?

Cheers

Prothed · Post by **Prothed** » Sat Jul 18, 09 8:50 pm

I'm no help with the legal side I'm afraid - but I think you need to look carefully at the terms of the contract. I've never understood how broadband companies can sell, say, an '8Mbps service' when they know that no customer can ever achieve that. If you bought a tin of paint that was half-empty and then found it said 'this tin contains up to 1 liter' in tiny print on the back you would be straight round to trading standards.
Anyway, BT and Virgin seem to compete for the worst service level as far as I know.
I have used Plusnet (about £25/month) and they do provide decent customer service (even since they were bought out by BT) - at least they have a UK call center and they do chase up BT Openreach to actually check the line.
How reliable? I probably get a problem (dropped connection for minutes/hours) every 3-6 months or so.
Unfortunately, poor service is par for the course and if you want any sort of guaranteed service level agreement you have to get a 'business' connection rather than a 'residential' one.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sat Jul 18, 09 9:05 pm

Never been anything wrong with my Virgin (was Blueyonder) cable connection. Works super fast and I am only on the basic package.

I am on a 200 meg speed connection at work and don't notice any difference in download/upload speed from home.

Mick70RR · Post by **Mick70RR** » Sat Jul 18, 09 9:13 pm

I'm with Virgin and loose the connection every now and again. I just reboot the router and it's back up and running at full speed.

Kev · Post by **Kev** » Sat Jul 18, 09 9:33 pm

Don't complain until you've tried Oz InterNot!!!!!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Jul 18, 09 9:47 pm

I have the Virgin Cable service and have never had a problem, event after all the downloading..

Most broadband providers will say upto 8Meg, and this is because of a number of factors:

- Your Location, if you live in the middle of know where the data will degrade the further you are from the BT exchange.

-In alot of cases ive found in the past with some of my customers that the wiring they are still using for their phone line is donkeys years old, remember alot of the BT network will be copper wire.

But saying that as your with Virgin media the cable service i have found is normally more reliable then ADSL connections provided by other vendors.

TrevD · Post by **TrevD** » Sat Jul 18, 09 11:11 pm

ive been with most of the big players, didnt like the service, went with tesco a couple of years ago and not looked back since. any time the service has been down (probably less than 10 times in 3 years) they have informed me of a problem with the server. i would recomend them to anyone.

TYREMAN · Post by **TYREMAN** » Sat Jul 18, 09 11:26 pm

Thanks i was with BT for the phone but i fired them off when they started all this Indian call center rubbish! sadly Virgin is no better your sent right to India when you dial 150

if i had known that i would have not gone to NTL but i did not know that Virgin would take over.

Sounds like its normal for Broadband to be slower than what they state! mine when i check it us under 2meg but they claim its up to 10 Meg

its odd as you say.

At the moment I'm a little stumped because i do not have a BT line which i need to change provider.

Thanks for you help

latil · Post by **latil** » Sun Jul 19, 09 7:14 am

We are with TalkTalk,fairly reliable although at present they have a major problem nationwide,possibly due to some lightning strikes last week. Our line went off yesterday at 11.15am and has come back on during the night.
Go into a branch of Carphone warehouse and ask about the line install,our office had no BT line working and TalkTalk sorted it all.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Sun Jul 19, 09 11:12 am

I'm with virgin and its fine, well nearly, my up to 10meg is about 6, but that seems to be par for the course...
but they did used to slow me right down and sometimes knock me off if i ..."ahem" used unencrypted torrent software...
do you download any dodgy films?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Jul 19, 09 12:22 pm

whatever you do..... DO NOT sign up to any mobile broadband Bananarama!, no matter what the fool in the shop tells you.

I had to as no phone line yet, idiot in the shop checked the postcode, supposed to get 3.6, actually get a little over dial up GGRRR

If it's sunny, it won't connect (honest), if it's raining not a chance in hell

I'm with 3, indian call centre and that really Bananarama! me off big time, had an issue with ebay.com not loading ebaystatic pages in motors, so on the phone for 2 hours doing what I'd already done, despite telling the guy, done that, done that, done that, finally after another hour long call to them was put through to "tech" level 2, got me to create another profile called test, worked straight away.
Seems like the bungled software with 3 has issues and if you complain they get you to use their own connection (tech that is) so I asked why it now works, silence, he just said carry on using it till we figure out the issue.

As for getting out of the contract, there's a procedure which means you have to formally complain to the ISP, they then have a time frame to respond, check out the ofcom website.
Very difficult to get out of the contract though

Holly · Post by **Holly** » Sun Jul 19, 09 1:36 pm

I've been with Virgin (previously NTL, previously Diamond Cable) for 10 years at 3 different houses. Havn't had a problem with connecting yet (?)

It runs at 20Mbps here apart from about 7pm to 8pm, when it usually drops to 16 or so ... though I don't have any dodgy downloads (TBH I havn't worked out their appeal yet ...)

Steve Chapman · Post by **Steve Chapman** » Sun Jul 19, 09 3:12 pm

On Virgin here,no real problems, does seem to take ages to log on occasionally , not very often. Happy with there service.