Virgin Media Broadband

[Tractorlad]

Anyone having Virgin Broadband problem AGAIN today 6th June in Barry Road area?

[Southsider]

I switched from Virgin a couple of years back after a patchy service that culminated in being left with no broadband or email for nearly two months. Umpteem calls, eons on the phone and two technician visits failed to solve the problem.

Fearing for my sanity I switched to another provider. Absolutely no problems whatsoever since day one of the switch. I didn't know life could be like that. Imagine being able to switch on the computer and for my broadband to just, well, work as it should day after day after day. As a VM customer I thought such things were the stuff of science fiction.

The thing is a properly functioning internet connection is a utility. If my water or electricity stops working properly I don't expect the provider to talk me through endless "can I just ask you to try this" scenarios. "Have you checked all the fuses in your house?", "can I just ask you to go to the manhole cover just outside your house and try turning the...." No! They don't ask that. They're the provider, the experts, and they tend to deal with problems promptly.

When your broadband suddenly doesn't work or runs incredibly slowly when it was absolutely fine the day or hour before it is highly unlikely to be something you've done or can fix. Especially after you've already tried the rebooting and switching off at the mains routine five times already. Yet, in my experience, VM's default position seems to be to talk you through endless and fruitless checks and routines.

I felt I was being treated as an unpaid, untrained on-site VM technician. "Can I ask you just to go into the bios of your computer and...." No you can't! I don't work for you. Just deliver the service I'm paying you to deliver!

As you can tell talk of VM still sparks a powerful Pavlovian response of anger and frustration in me.

[bloonoo]

our service is intermittent - sometimes it's fine, others it'll just stop working for an hour or so. i wonder if it's anything to do with the green box at the top of worlingham road - it's a virgin box but always open so anyone can go in and pull out cables.

[Adam]

The Virgin Media service has gone massively downhill over the past year or so. I will be switching provider, although the prospect of BT hardly fills me with joy.

[Sean Of Dulwich]

bt infinity is awsome guys try it if you aint stuck in a contract

[edcam]

The trouble is that I think it depends what road you're in/luck. I know people with BT Infinity who have had/are having Kafkaesque nightmares with their service. I also know people who have Virgin who love it.

We have Virgin, it's not as good since we moved but it's still better than the Sky and BT services we've had before. I think there must be some Virgin "black holes" in ED but I don't think across the board that the others are any better.

[Tractorlad]

I've some bad news for anyone in ED experiencing problems with Virgin Media slowness problems associated with this "capacity" issue. A couple of weeks ago I managed to find someone in their call centre with half a customer service brain to contact me at the end of the month with an update on their improvement work which was scheduled for completion this week. He called me back last night and sadly the latest in now, MID NOVEMBER!! He didn't have further details but I'm going to track down their customer service director to find out exactly what's going on. Like most people we had a pretty flawless service until Jan this year and then all of a sudden, drop outs, and massive speed degradation basically down to them signing-up too many people for the capability of their local network. I want to know definitively when the service will be reinstated, why do they keep registering new customers exacerbating the problem and how can they justify a further price rise next month! If anyone has any other information or names of decision makers there, please post.