Virgin media, yes or no? Only option for fast broadband

[TameRacingDriver]

Hi all

My current broadband deal is soon to be over.

Currently getting a 64mb service which is the most I can get on any BT line.

Last year Virgin installed fibre in the village so we now have that option.

However the customer support stories I've read make for concerning reading. I guess it's one of those where if you have no bother then you won't have any complaints, but people who do have bother have a right old headache getting it resolved.

So I'm in the position where I have a choice between sticking where I am with Plusnet and continuing with 64 mb, or take a service that's considerably faster but with potentially worse reliability and customer service.

Only 2 of us in the house so 64mb has been fast enough generally and even streams 4k well enough.

We also work from home so considered the business service but it's not clear whether that really improves your reliability or customer service despite some additional claims by them.

Any experiences to share before I make my mind up?

[camel_landy]

Do you _need_ to change? If it 'ain't broke, don't fix it.

...but as for reading stuff on the Internet, you'll only get doom and gloom. It's very rare that someone takes to the Internet to sing the praises of their ISP.

M

[cobra kid]

Higher number of negative report than positive ones.

I've been with them since 2003. Had it at each house. Currently on the 250mb version and it easily powers a house of 4 with two teenagers in residence.

[Countdown]

I've been with NTL/Virgin since 1999.

As you've noted Customer Service is diabolical. However to be fair the broadband is pretty reliable (IME). We have the M150 service (I think), 4 of us working from home, we all have Amazon firesticks in our bedrooms and Ipads so lots of streaming going on, plus 4 laptops/PCs.

In short the broadband seems to be able to handle fairly heavy use without much issue.

[Hoofy]

Do VM for 18 months, when they say the price is going up to £1000 per hour then jump back to your current provider or try a 5G router. Then after 12 months take up VM on another new customer deal.

[bigandclever]

The Virgin service I had was perfectly fine; it was the price gouging that pissed me off enough to leave.

[kurokawa]

I had only been customer of Sky, BT and Virgin media

in terms of customer support experience, BT was the worst and my experince with Virign were all right. Last time when I had issue with internet BT promise to send me a 4G hotspot, it takes a week to arrive, and only take them a few days to fix the internet. Virigin media send a engineer next day, he told me I need a new hub and he pick a new one from his van, told me just told the courier to return the one coming.

Performance, Virigin media always give me highest speed than any other, but not as stable as "open reach". We always have issue when there is a storm, we would always see Virgin van at the hub at the end of the road whenever we have heavy rain or storm.

The biggest reason for me to pick virigin media was their flexiblity and value, I was able to have a package with faster fibre , movie and some sport channel for the same price BT offer with lower speed and standard Freeview channel only.

Only swap to Sky because my new place have no Virgin media coverage

[GlenMH]

Hoofy said:

Do VM for 18 months, when they say the price is going up to £1000 per hour then jump back to your current provider or try a 5G router. Then after 12 months take up VM on another new customer deal.

Exactly this - it is a good opportunity to have a different providers kit installed.

I too have been with VM/Telewest for over 20years, service has been really reliable. Downtime is less than a couple of hours in a few years. I had a telephone fault that lasted a while but they paid the compensation due without quibble. I am currently on M350 and that is more than the 2 of us need and the only pain in the backside is doing the dance with cancellations every 18months to keep the price sensible. I have just renewed at about £28/month which is cheaper than Voda could supply fibre to my house for for a similar product.

For me, it just works and I only have to speak to them every 18 months.

[cobra kid]

Hoofy said:

Do VM for 18 months, when they say the price is going up to £1000 per hour then jump back to your current provider or try a 5G router. Then after 12 months take up VM on another new customer deal.

Or go on their online chat, tell them you are leaving and get it for less than you are already paying for 18 months. As I did.

[Gio G]

Had Virgin media for over 2 years, only subscribe to their super fast broadband package, apart from maybe a few hours downtime a year, they have been pretty good. Customer services were very good in sending out those WIFI boosters when I first joined.

G

[TameRacingDriver]

Thanks all. I think I'll just go for it.

Any real point in going for business over the standard? It's a little pricier and they claim you get better customer service and more reliability but also read plenty of comments from folks who say not to bother with it.

[WyrleyD]

As above, just done it via on-line chat. Upgraded to M250 from M125 for £16 less than before. I also said that the service has not been 100% for a few weeks with "no internet" twice a day for 5 mins or so between 8.00-9.00 and 16:00-17:00. Had a call within an hour to say engineer will be coming the next day, he came and replaced the cable ends and said that cuts in service were probably due to the system trying to update the modem and failing and he couldn't find our termination in the box up the road and would report back to base. Had a call the same day to tell me that Kelly communications will be coming before 29th, early last Saturday they turned up and pulled a new cable from the cabinet to the pavement outside and a new cable from the pavement to the house and all is working fine now, also, just had a call from them asking if everything is OK.

[TameRacingDriver]

Thanks all, ended up going for the M350 package for £28 a month. I think 360 mbit is overkill really but it was only £3 more than the cheaper package that was only about 132 mbit and better still it doubles the upload speeds.

Same price as I was quoted for Plusnet at 64 mbit.

Getting installed in a couple of weeks time.

[TameRacingDriver]

Well I installed and now I've been cut off.

Broadband down for 3 hours now, more than it went down in 5 years with Plusnet.

Their customer service is as unbelievably bad as I've been led to believe. Just going around circles.

Tried the chatbot. We'll send you a WhatsApp. Never got it.

Tried ringing the number, we'll run some tests and then hang up.

I've literally been cut off completely and have had to connect to my neighbours WiFi in order to even be able to write this or even try and contact virgin themselves.

What on earth am I supposed to do???

[TameRacingDriver]

Ok I've managed to get through to them now after god knows how many attempts and they've confirmed an outage in the area that may last 24 hours.

Welcome to the 21st century TRD...

[wyson]

Virginmedia was diabolical when I had it in London. Often had 2mbps down, 10kbps up, with a 10 second ping… ie, basically unusable. It was great before being taken over by Liberty Global. Very similar story with O2.

I was with both companies for a long time, and enjoyed solid service. As soon as they were taken over by Liberty Global, it went to pot in a matter of months. I gather they just loaded the infrastructure without corresponding investment to keep up with demand.

Edited by wyson on Thursday 28th November 21:34

[anonymous-user]

I can't put into words how bad they are. I had 4 good years with them, moved house and the trouble began. Once you have to engage with them you may as well poke your eyes out and set yourself on fire. It'll be shorter lived and less frustrating.

[Sporky]

Awful. Terrible reliability - it was a rare day we didn't have an outage, atrocious customer service, and constant price hikes.

[anonymous-user]

[LastPoster]

Been with VM 19 years at the same address in Bristol. I can count the number of Broadband outages on one hand. Had issues with the LL a couple of times, but it rings so rarely I sometimes don’t realise for weeks.

Customer Service isn’t all that good (ages on hold) but since I hardly use it I don’t care much

Upselling calls are my biggest bugbear, the second they call I remind them that I have requested they don’t ever contact me by phone and they apologise and ring off.