Thoughts on Virgin Broadband?

[difinity]

After initial setup which can be problematic for various reasons, the quality of the service is good. I have the 50mb connection, and i get excellent dl speeds (a 700mb linux distro in about 2 minutes). The 50mb service is the only one that isn't capped and they are bringing out a 200mb service soon. Their customer support is a bit flakey, but once you're up and running their should be no real reason to call them.

[Fatmas]

Never had any problems with Virgin. Had 20mb, always got between 14 - 20mb speeds so I'm happy with that. The caps are very generous and only apply at certain times of day. (7gb between 10am and 3pm?! Not a problem at all). Even 4.5gb between 4pm and 9pm isn't bad.

 

I've always found the customer service to be fine.

 

The only reason I'm with Sky (Ergh) now is because the new flat I'm in doesn't get Virgin and is already set up to receive Sky.

 

Also, A friend who did a year at Broadcom reckons the Virgin modems (hardware and firmware) can support upto 400mbps (Hmmm).

Edited September 28, 2010 by Fatmas

[AngryTechnician]

Customer service is like banging your head against a brick wall but I think that's little more than language barrier.

 

That's not how I remember it. Is the broadband faults line still a premium rate number? And do they still lie to you about refunding the cost if it turns out to be a problem with their equipment? I was stung with that one a while ago and that was the straw the broke the camel's back. Also remember having an interesting conversation with them about how service was down, and they knew it was down, but it wasn't mentioned on the recording on the free service status number because it was "scheduled maintenance", despite the fact it wasn't on the scheduled maintenance webpage, and was in the middle of the day.

 

It was the last of many, many problems I put up with from them and I will never be a Virgin customer again.

[featured_spectre]

I am in the same place as you Angry Technician.

 

My mum has Virgin Broadband at her house, and since moving back in, I got my own BT line put in etc because, well, I play alot of games and didnt want to leach from her connection, as such BT supply me quite nicely.

 

A virgin engineer came out and upgraded my mums modem router so it was a wireless one, and he noticed a BT box sitting right next to it, he phoned up Virgin, and got them to cancel the internet and phone as there is a BT package here. It took 3 weeks, lots of phone calls (and my mum leaching internet from me) before she was back up and they understood that the BT stuff was mine and completely seperate, and the Virgin stuff was hers.

[AngryTechnician]

I said I wouldn't pay and then he got all shirty and made threats about sending debt collectors round and that they WOULD get their money in the end.

 

Oh that reminds me of the 3 separate occasions I was threatened with debt collectors by them, all for previous tenants. On every occasion they wouldn't believe me when I told that the previous tenants had moved out, and eventually I gave up trying to explain it to them and waited for the debt collectors to send a letter. Funnily enough, the debt collectors VM use are actually quite pleasant to deal with (at least when it's not you they are after) and frankly quite a relief after dealing with boneheaded VM call operators.

[kernewek-sam]

That's not how I remember it. Is the broadband faults line still a premium rate number? .

 

I'm not sure if this is any help but I've heard this site mentioned on the telly before (SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers) it's supposed to get you round the "press 1....", if they are listed there.

[AngryTechnician]

0870? I should be so lucky. When I said premium rate, I meant it. When I last dealt with them in 2007, it was an 0900 number.

 

Yes, really. Paying £7 for some prat to tell me I need to power off the cablemodem for half an hour and then power it on again before they will bother doing any diagnostics was possibly the most infuriating customer support experience I will ever have (especially when the engineer who eventually came to replace the modem told me that fault had happened to everyone who had the kind of modem I had due to configuration changes on Virgin's end).

[Andrew_C]

Not the case now. Calls to 121 tech support are free.

[LeMarchand]

Been with Virgin for years, had the occasional blip with the service - but nothing major. Rarely had to phone CS, though it's usually been the "have you tried turning it..." spiel when I have.

 

On the 20MB service and have never had any noticeable throttling, but then I'm not torrenting movies 24/7.

[kernewek-sam]

0870? I should be so lucky. When I said premium rate, I meant it. When I last dealt with them in 2007, it was an 0900 number.

 

Yes, really. Paying £7 for some prat to tell me I need to power off the cablemodem for half an hour and then power it on again before they will bother doing any diagnostics was possibly the most infuriating customer support experience I will ever have (especially when the engineer who eventually came to replace the modem told me that fault had happened to everyone who had the kind of modem I had due to configuration changes on Virgin's end).

 

£7 for that, and then its their fault. Thats at best, infuriating!

[Rydra]

Parents been with then TV wise since they were Cable TV/Telewest and all the way through free dialup. Only updated their package with them a year or so ago, and were on 10mb.... When they first got broadband they were on 512mb!

 

Virgin will periodically change the speeds of their packages as they up them.

 

In general, when they bring out a new top package, they decom the bottom package and upgrade. In 4 years I've had 2 upgrades due to this, but I'm now on the 20mb package, so will be quite some time till I get an upgrade I suspect.

 

For a heavy downloader, watching of iplayer/internet TV your going to hit your limit watching HD TV or dl'ing movies.

 

BT and most of the services based around BT will have a monthly cap on downloading that a normal user will not hit (if they aren't torrenting 24/7 or whatever). But when you hit that limit, either you get no internet till the next month, or your going to be paying a few pound per gb of data.

 

Virgin simply throttle you when you hit your limit for a few hours, a few hours later your back to the full speed again.

 

Also, BT based lines will say "Up to" on most of their packages. Though they have improved this over the years, if you buy a 10mb line, you can get ANYTHING up to 10mb, and i've known people in slightly out of town areas to barely get 1-2mb here. With Virgin you will get 8-10mb all the time, and on occasions i've clocked speeds above that which I pay for (rare though).

 

Their customer service is at times awful, and i've dealt with them a lot over the years for upgrades, fixes and queries on billing, all sorts of stuff. Although highly frustrating at times, their services have improved greatly, and they do have a couple of UK based centres. BUT, out of hours/peak time calls are handled (or supplimented) by 2 or 3 oversea's call centres. These people will fight if you try and deviate from their script. Be clear and concise, and persistent and you'll get there eventually. I've never had anything unresolved by them, just a little slow on the uptake.