Virgin Media Broadband - consistently inconsistent!

[MacBoobsPro]

Is anybody else having major problems with their Virgin Media (cable) broadband connection? If so please reply with a brief description of your problems and location. Here is why:

Since the very same day Blueyonder changed to Virgin Media their service has been abysmal. The service goes to my parents house so I dont get time to check things out when it goes down I just get the phone calls saying "Its gone again". I knew it was bad but now that I am spending more time at my parents I can now see that the service is infact bordering on Virgin Media being in breach of contract because we are paying for a service that we cannot use.

I have friends and family that also have many problems with this service. I am based in Sheffield. My sister who is based in Brighton also has major connection problems as do family members in Lincoln and various friends around Sheffield.

It is 12.12pm as I write this. So far today the connection has been lost no fewer than 4 times and for over 2 hours on one occasion. Sometimes we go for nearly a whole day without a connection.

I have also noticed that when they were Blueyonder that their status page used to have the odd 'fault' and it told you were it was and when it was likely to be fixed. With Blueyonder the status page averaged around 4 or 5 faults a day nationwide. Now with Virgin Media the status page shows close to 100 faults a day nationwide. Although recently they seem to have regionalised the page somewhat so you cant see all the faults at the same time making it look like there are less faults.

I have Network Diagnostics open as I write this and while I have been typing away the connection has once again been lost... no wait its back.
Download and 'Get Info' on the 2 images and you'll see the times of the screen shots to show you how lame this connection is.

It is definitely a problem their end as my network remains usable. Usually the last 2 lights on Network Diagnostics go out not just the 'internet' light you see in the screenies. Both my routers work fine I've used them elsewhere it is definitely a Virgin Media problem.

Is anybody else experiencing this? I will be calling them later today after I have collected a list of down times and various reports from other people (thats you guys) to try and get them to sort this crap out. If they show the slightest bit of disinterest or say its something to do with my side of things I will be cancelling the direct debit my side. And going elsewhere, after sending all my findings to Watchdog.

 

[stomer]

I was a happy NTL customer for about 6 years until Virgin took over. In June of last year we had our internet service disrupted for over 24hrs, although our service eventually came back it was never the same.

Mostly in the evenings, our internet connection would become unusable. Pages would take minutes to load, some wouldn't load at all. I phoned them about the problem, they responded by sending out an engineer to replace the cable modem. That didn't make a blind bit of difference. So in August we left them.

Crap connection.
Crap support (costly too since they change to a 09xx number).
Crap traffic management (my 4MB connection gets cut to 1MB if I download at full speed for only 26mins)

Add to that the fact that they signed an agreement with Phorm and they've agreed to hand over customer details to the BPI. I'm glad I left when I did.

 

[Neutral Gamer]

Although I've never had any problems with NTL or now with Virgin Media, a couple of my cousins have. It turned out that on both occasions with my first cousin it was the broadband modem that had malfunctioned and each time it had been replaced it worked perfectly well.

My second cousin though has a more inconsistent problem. Sometimes the connection will be perfectly fine and then for an hour or two it just won't work, no matter how many times you reset the modem. The problem of course is if an engineer comes round and it happens to be working okay then they can't detect any problem!

Let's not forget the fact that you have to pay to call the customer support line for broadband and worst of all end up being connected to an Indian call centre. In fairness if the problem's simple enough then there's no problem but anything out of the ordinary and it's a hard time trying to explain it. Mind you I find American and European accents pretty damn annoying as well especially when I had to call the Xbox Live and the Napster call centres. Scottish accents are strangely relaxing though ...

Anyway, MacboobsPro (is that the greatest name ever?!) have you contacted the call centre yet and if so what did they have to say? Most of the time they should be able to detect if there's something wrong with your modem or connection through their computers and arrange for an engineer to come round - although you'd probably have to wait a week.

 

[OllyW]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago (Telewest now Virgin) which was fixed by a replacement modem.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago (Telewest now Virgin) which was fixed by a replacement modem.

They want to charge me for a new modem even though if you read the contract I dont actually own the modem I have and will not own the new modem even if i pay for it. It is only on lease and technically I would have to give back the modem if I ever left them. Why should I pay for something and then lease it too?

Just to clarify for people that don't know Telewest and Blueyonder are the same thing. They were then bought by NTL (or they bought NTL I cant remember) then Virgin Media bought them and now the service is disgusting. If you call the 090 number it costs 25p per minute with an additional connection charge which varies depending on your phone supplier. Average hold times before getting through to someone is around 20 minutes.

Because of the blatant rip off call charges I am getting as much info together before I give them the ear chewing of a life time. So if more people can comment on their experiences with Virgin Broadband and their locations I will have much more chance of getting something done about it and if these problems are wide spread I may hand the info over to Watchdog so they can look into it a bit more. Anyone one remember Bulldog?

 

[bartelby]

They want to charge me for a new modem even though if you read the contract I dont actually own the modem I have and will not own the new modem even if i pay for it. It is only on lease and technically I would have to give back the modem if I ever left them. Why should I pay for something and then lease it too?

Tell them you're going to leave then. Of course, they could call your bluff.

 

[Mikey-]

When Telewest changed to Virgin Media I had problems nearly everyday but since I've got my mac my internet has been fine, not one problem.

 

[stomer]

Heh. They never asked me for their modem back. In fact I still have an old NTL Pace decoder, again, they never bothered to ask for it back.

NTL were never able to send me a correct bill, it was always £75 - £75 = £0. I didn't care because the amount taken from my account each month was correct. Anyway, I cancelled my account with them and at the same time I cancelled my direct debit. I didn't want the buggers to continue charging me.
About 3 months after I had cancelled with Virgin, I received a debt recovery letter from Moorcroft, apparently I owed Virgin £30+. Virgin confirmed that the £30 debt was erroneous but weren't capable of informing Moorcroft of that fact. In the end Moorcroft were the ones who contacted Virgin to confirm that the debt was erroneous. It took 3 months for that particular saga to end.

 

[Neutral Gamer]

They want to charge me for a new modem...

What the hell? Why on earth are they trying to charge you for it? That's completely unacceptable; it's their responsibility to fix it if it breaks down. Everytime anyone I know has had a problem, Virgin have always replaced the modem free of charge (that goes for TV setup boxes as well) albeit they do take their time sometimes.

I think you need to speak to someone higher up or send them an official letter of complaint but the situation shouldn't be like this.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Tell them you're going to leave then. Of course, they could call your bluff.

I will possibly be leaving no matter if the problem is rectified. I just need to find out if Telewest cut the BT wires to the house when they installed their phone lines. We are with Telewest phone too which my parents want to leave and go back to BT but a BT callout charge is minimum £109. If the line is connected then it will cost us £109 for nothing, so we dont quite know what to do yet.

What the hell? Why on earth are they trying to charge you for it? That's completely unacceptable; it's their responsibility to fix it if it breaks down. Everytime anyone I know has had a problem, Virgin have always replaced the modem free of charge (that goes for TV setup boxes as well) albeit they do take their time sometimes.

I think you need to speak to someone higher up or send them an official letter of complaint but the situation shouldn't be like this.

They dont usually ask for them back but they are on lease not yours. Or at least thats how it was when I signed the contract in '93. :shock:

 

[scotthayes]

Oh bugger, I've got them coming in tomorrow to install broadband. If the service is up and down like yours I'll cancel. It's costing me more, but I'll still have BT Broadband for 2 months, they will give me some back up if Virgin are crap.

 

[OllyW]

Oh bugger, I've got them coming in tomorrow to install broadband. If the service is up and down like yours I'll cancel. It's costing me more, but I'll still have BT Broadband for 2 months, they will give me some back up if Virgin are crap.

You shouldn't have a problem. I've had my broadband with them since 2001 and it has been very good. Just because a couple of people on an internet forum are having a bad time, it doesn't mean everyone else is.

They didn't charge me for my replacement modem, nor the replacement TV box I needed a couple of months ago.

I must agree with one thing, now the technical support has moved to India, it is absolutely crap.

 

[OllyW]

Just got an email from them announcing they are dropping the 25p per minute technical support charges.

For some reason, it wasn't very popular

Hi there,

Do you remember filling out a survey for us a while ago? Well, we always try to listen to what our customers tell us, and you told us that you didn’t think the premium rate call charge for our technical support helpline was right. So we decided to do something about it.

That’s why we’re dropping the 25p per minute charge to call our broadband technical support line. From 1st June, we’re replacing it with a number that’s free to call from your Virgin Media phone, plus a separate, local rate number if you call from any other phone. That means that now you can get the help and support you need, totally free, just like you asked!

To call our new broadband technical support number from 1st June, just dial 151 for free from your Virgin Phone Or, you can call 0845 454 1111* from any other phone.

And we’re not stopping there. It’s really important to us that you keep sending your feedback, good or bad! Although we can’t always reply individually, we promise we’ll always listen to what you tell us, and use your comments to make improvements where we can.

And we’ll always make sure that the people in our customer service teams see the comments about them, so they can work even harder to give you the great service you deserve.

Keep your feedback coming!

The Virgin Media team

 

[scotthayes]

You shouldn't have a problem. I've had my broadband with them since 2001 and it has been very good. Just because a couple of people on an internet forum are having a bad time, it doesn't mean everyone else is.

They didn't charge me for my replacement modem, nor the replacement TV box I needed a couple of months ago.

I must agree with one thing, now the technical support has moved to India, it is absolutely crap.

Had them install my connection on Wednesday and 3 days in... Pretty happy, now to wait for then to upgrade the 4Mb connection to 10Mb.