Virgin Slow Down

I pay £37 for a 20MG broadband and the maximum I can get is 12MB
The advertisement is pure lie.
Their helpline is very poor
Which court should I complaint to cancel such a bad contract please ?

virgin are really pathetic, ntl were never a problem, even though they were slow on gaining information( such as new channels etc) they were really reliable, my virgin i slow, my ps3 is always telling me the server is down, when im playing call of duty 4 it cuts off, online trying to do some work it cuts off, someone needs to sort this out as its only getting worse, fisrt it was half a day, then a day, today is sunday, its been off since friday, this is serous, and im from woolwich and they are telling me things like i have no reception, tell us the truth and stop lying virgin

Regardless of what the cable companies will tell you, yes it does slow down at peak times.

Cable is connected in groups called Nodes. The more connected to the Node, the slower it gets.

My Cable slowed down so much, It took 15 minutes just to download the Google Logo (about 0.1Kps - Yes Kps!)

After 2 hrs on the phone to so called support, after the 20 minutes phone around to find out who actually to call these days, their support said there were no issues with the line etc. as they drone on about the ping tests.

Ping tests send 1 bit of data. This means it does not test Data Packets which the Internet operated on. Whilst they insist the ping proves the line works, it doesnt prove that Data Packets can get through.

After having had enough of them, I called Customer Services to ask for an engineer, who promptly advised only Broadband Support can order that, so back to the phones again.

Now its not the fault of the person who answers the phone, which was New Delhi as it happens. But after the crap they feed you on the phone, and them saying again that they need to line checks with you on the phone first, it kinda frustrates.

So they got it both barrels and after 5 minutes they gave in and ordered an engineer. He arrived (from England surprisingly!) and after a whole 2 minutes with a laptop plugged in, discovered a line fault, rewired the box on the outside wall, and hey presto, back on again.

Somehow I dont think I will get my money back for the phone call though!

I would just like to add that anyone whose thinking of switching to Virgin for gaming, don't!

This is quite a long detailed set of events but if it stops one person from going through all this rubbish then its worth it.

I was previously with NTL on their Freedom (ADSL) contract. Virgin put an end to that and asked me to sign up to their contract. Figuring the bills would be paid elsewhere but otherwise things would stay the same I didn't hesitate.

I really wish I'd switched supplier. So far I've had 3 months of sheer frustration, anger and inept tech support. The problem is the Internet works ok for webpages and downloads. Twitch gaming online is a basic no go area.

From around the 16th of March until the 11th of April, my pings never dipped under 500ms unless it was very early weekday morning (I don't work Wednesdays or Thursdays). In that case I sometimes got close to a 150ms ping... not even as good as the 56K modems I put up with over 10 years ago.

After a lot of crap tech support I finally convinced them to lower my line speed because they had put me onto the up to 8mb package whereas I was previously only on 1mb (I live miles from the exchange). So a week later I was on a 1mb speed limit. The first decent phone support I got actually said, "sorry for the difficulties, if we can't get your line stable after the speed reduction please phone us and we'll cancel your contract with no penalty fee." Great... or so I thought.

Pings reduced a little, I now had a max of 500 on a bad day but still only a shade under 100 on a good day. Whats worse, I began to notice that from around 4pm until gone midnight the pings would at least double. After another round of tech support (I hate these guys, why would emptying my cookies make a difference?), with excuses of "well it takes 10 working days to bed in so wait it out" and the best one "it rained last night" I finally got told that I'd have to pay £90 cancellation fee.

At this point I felt like finding a nice machine gun and going postal in the Virgin support offices but anyway... another 20minute waste of time to tech support and they say "according to BT's records your line can only handle 512KBs, we'll have to switch you to that, it will take 10 working days then up to 10 working days to stabilise"... wow another month down the drain.

The day after this, my internet stopped working completely. Almost 2 weeks went by before the 512kb change kicked in and it was working again. Quickly logged a few games and superb pings of 25 - 60ms.

At this point I was just relieved things were working and thought nothing else of it. However all was not well. Peak times my pings are back to 100 - 300ms. Tech support have given up and now its time to war with the accounts cancellation people... (they're insulting and take every opportunity to blame BT for a bad line so be warned if you find yourself in this situation).

[dchiniuk]

I have seen this article on PC World News relating to Virgin Media revealing that subscribers may be offered broadband speeds of up to 200Mb per second within four years.

This sounds wicked, as I'm thinking that my 10Mb connection is now slow. Has anyone heard anymore regarding this possibility?

I have just spoken to someone at Virgin regarding this article and they seem very optimistic although they wouldnt give me much detail

PC World News - Virgin Plans Superfast Broadband - Computing News

Anybody have any thoughts?

[Moderator] Do Not Triple Post.

I HATE VIRGIN BROADBAND. oh how i long for the day when my contract runs out.
it you're thinking of taking on Virgin Broadband, think again. A WASTE OF SPACE. I've been stuck in a contract with them now for 3 years, and oh how i wish i'd never started with them

[spud47]

Originally Posted by dchiniuk

I have seen this article on PC World News relating to Virgin Media revealing that subscribers may be offered broadband speeds of up to 200Mb per second within four years.

This sounds wicked, as I'm thinking that my 10Mb connection is now slow. Has anyone heard anymore regarding this possibility?

I have just spoken to someone at Virgin regarding this article and they seem very optimistic although they wouldnt give me much detail

PC World News - Virgin Plans Superfast Broadband - Computing News

Anybody have any thoughts?

[Moderator] Do Not Triple Post.

I did read that BT were quoting 5 Billion Pounds to upgrade all exchanges to offer upto 100mb and that this upgrade will not be happening in the near future due to the overall cost. I would say that this sales pitch from Virgin is a tad bit enthusiastic of them and anyone who holds their breath will be doing it for a very long time. Judging from what was written, I would say we will be lucky to have 50 Mb speeds in 4 years, as a whole.

[spud47]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I HATE VIRGIN BROADBAND. oh how i long for the day when my contract runs out.
it you're thinking of taking on Virgin Broadband, think again. A WASTE OF SPACE. I've been stuck in a contract with them now for 3 years, and oh how i wish i'd never started with them

I cant understand how someone can get into a contarct for 3+ years! What did you sign to be stuck on this and also is it a rolling contract? It may pay to ask them the overall cost for you to obtain a MAC code and end your contract with them.