Virgin Media

[Furmedge]

These bastards turned up unannounced outside my house last year and proceeded to dig up the pavement right up to the top of the street leaving the street looking a mess. When we complained, the council said theres nothing they or we can do as there is a law for service providers to be able to do this. Although we didn't agree with it, we had to accept it but the council said they'd be getting them back out to redo the mess they'd caused.

 

Anyway, my broadband was up for renewal the other day so I called virgin to see if I could blag a big discount. Turns out that despite tearing the street up 12 months ago, we can't actually get Virgin after all and our street still looks a mess. Bastards

Same here, had about half a mile of the street ripped up and made a shitty job of restoring the pavement and verges.

[Jennings]

Got a call on my mobile last night. I wasn't really in the mood for a sales chat but I grudgingly persevered.

 

Summary:-

 

Caller: This is virgin media. Is that Jennings from TLW?

Me: yes.

Caller: Can you tell me your postcode please.

Me. No. I don't give out personal detail especially seeing as you phoned me.

The caller then told me things about my account that only VM would know. I gave him my postcode.

Caller: What VM services do you use your mostly?

Me: Broadband and TV.

Caller What do you use your broadband for?

Me: Porn and TLW of course.

Caller: Anything else?

Me: Illegally streaming footy

Caller: Ok, I can knock a fiver off your monthly bill...

Me: I'll take it.

Caller: ...and get you some more fooltball. You can have Sky Sports free for the next six months. After that you'll need to cancel.

Me: cool!! I love you. Bye.

 

That seems really good customer service, unless I have missed a catch? Just checked and I now have the sports channels. WooT!!

[Furmedge]

Probably hoping you keep the extortionate sports package.

[VladimirIlyich]

Got a call on my mobile last night. I wasn't really in the mood for a sales chat but I grudgingly persevered.

 

Summary:-

 

Caller: This is virgin media. Is that Jennings from TLW?

Me: yes.

Caller: Can you tell me your postcode please.

Me. No. I don't give out personal detail especially seeing as you phoned me.

The caller then told me things about my account that only VM would know. I gave him my postcode.

Caller: What VM services do you use your mostly?

Me: Broadband and TV.

Caller What do you use your broadband for?

Me: Porn and TLW of course.

Caller: Anything else?

Me: Illegally streaming footy

Caller: Ok, I can knock a fiver off your monthly bill...

Me: I'll take it.

Caller: ...and get you some more fooltball. You can have Sky Sports free for the next six months. After that you'll need to cancel.

Me: cool!! I love you. Bye.

 

That seems really good customer service, unless I have missed a catch? Just checked and I now have the sports channels. WooT!!

Looks like they are splitting all the sports channels up into dedicated channels for particular sports,although the f**ty ones are being split further. I see higher prices and new package offers on the horizon.

[Juniper]

Our service used to be great, never had any problems for years then about 6 months ago our broadband would pretty much cut out between 10pm-6am.

 

Called several times to complain to be told different reasons for each time.

 

Eventually got hold of a management type, he sent out one of the those super hub 3 routers as he thought using an older router was the issue.

 

The cut offs no longer happen but now every time I play multiplayer online with my Xbox, no matter the game, I loose connection to the game server. Every time.

 

Fucking shite

[Chairman Meow]

Our service used to be great, never had any problems for years then about 6 months ago our broadband would pretty much cut out between 10pm-6am.

 

Called several times to complain to be told different reasons for each time.

 

Eventually got hold of a management type, he sent out one of the those super hub 3 routers as he thought using an older router was the issue.

 

The cut offs no longer happen but now every time I play multiplayer online with my Xbox, no matter the game, I loose connection to the game server. Every time.

 

Fucking shite

 

It's a problem on some of the new hubs, they have a fairly new Intel Chipset on them (Puma 6) and it causes ping drops. For general browsing you're fairly unlikely to notice it but when you're gaming it's more noticeable as the latency will become an issue.

 

What you will find with normal browsing is that making the initial connection will be slow because of the ping time and you'll be getting time outs but once you've actually connected it will be fine i.e. if you open a big video on YouTube it might take a while to establish the connection but once the video starts and is buffered it will still run smoothly.

 

If it wasn't for the fact I am not the one who pays the bill we'd have BT in now purely because of this.

 

For most of your online gaming your connection speed doesn't actually need to be more than a couple of meg, it's low ping times you need. 

 

I've gone from a consistent sub 10ms ping to about 25ms most of the time and drops into the hundreds when it's playing up. 

[Jennings]

It's a problem on some of the new hubs, they have a fairly new Intel Chipset on them (Puma 6) and it causes ping drops. For general browsing you're fairly unlikely to notice it but when you're gaming it's more noticeable as the latency will become an issue.

 

What you will find with normal browsing is that making the initial connection will be slow because of the ping time and you'll be getting time outs but once you've actually connected it will be fine i.e. if you open a big video on YouTube it might take a while to establish the connection but once the video starts and is buffered it will still run smoothly.

 

If it wasn't for the fact I am not the one who pays the bill we'd have BT in now purely because of this.

 

For most of your online gaming your connection speed doesn't actually need to be more than a couple of meg, it's low ping times you need. 

 

I've gone from a consistent sub 10ms ping to about 25ms most of the time and drops into the hundreds when it's playing up. 

 

Wow! That's bad. I mostly play games. I have a ping of around 40ms-50ms to CSGO servers. Most of my chums have around 25ms.

 

I don't really wanna go with BT because I hate them (previous bad experiences).

[Juniper]

It's a problem on some of the new hubs, they have a fairly new Intel Chipset on them (Puma 6) and it causes ping drops. For general browsing you're fairly unlikely to notice it but when you're gaming it's more noticeable as the latency will become an issue.

 

What you will find with normal browsing is that making the initial connection will be slow because of the ping time and you'll be getting time outs but once you've actually connected it will be fine i.e. if you open a big video on YouTube it might take a while to establish the connection but once the video starts and is buffered it will still run smoothly.

 

If it wasn't for the fact I am not the one who pays the bill we'd have BT in now purely because of this.

 

For most of your online gaming your connection speed doesn't actually need to be more than a couple of meg, it's low ping times you need.

 

I've gone from a consistent sub 10ms ping to about 25ms most of the time and drops into the hundreds when it's playing up.

Thanks for that, Interesting and the usage experience matches what you're saying for sure.

 

Any workaround that you know of? Been meaning to call them for a while but the customer service experience is a ballache and a half.

[VladimirIlyich]

Our service used to be great, never had any problems for years then about 6 months ago our broadband would pretty much cut out between 10pm-6am.

 

Called several times to complain to be told different reasons for each time.

 

Eventually got hold of a management type, he sent out one of the those super hub 3 routers as he thought using an older router was the issue.

 

The cut offs no longer happen but now every time I play multiplayer online with my Xbox, no matter the game, I loose connection to the game server. Every time.

 

Fucking shite

Sometimes there is a problem where it blocks certain content but all you have to do is go into the router settings and turn it off,sort of an explicit ratings thingy. Maybe whats stopping your connection?

[Chairman Meow]

Wow! That's bad. I mostly play games. I have a ping of around 40ms-50ms to CSGO servers. Most of my chums have around 25ms.

 

I don't really wanna go with BT because I hate them (previous bad experiences).

 

Same, I've always found Virgin much better than BT was. It's not just a Virgin issue, there will be other providers with the same hardware.

 

Thanks for that, Interesting and the usage experience matches what you're saying for sure.

 

Any workaround that you know of? Been meaning to call them for a while but the customer service experience is a ballache and a half.

 

I can't find the link right now, but when I was looking into getting a Netduma router I found references to it on there. 

 

There is supposed to be a firmware update coming for it at some point.

[Mook]

My nearest boozer is 20 minutes away & with the missus due this week I'm not going out to watch the game.

 

Just called these bastards to check how much it would cost me to add Sky Sports & it was up £38 to £113 a month, robbing twats. (new customers get the whole lot for £75 a month).

 

Needless to say it'll be 5 Live at half 4.

[lifetime fan]

Don’t want to tell you I have all sky sports, movies, everything else, phone and 250mb internet for £78 a month.

[Hand Shandy]

But your missus has got a Harry Potter tattoo so, you know, swings and roundabouts...

[Brownie]

I use VM for my broadband but only because they’re the only fibre provider where I live.

 

If I had a choice i’d use someone else as their customer service is fucking atrocious.

[lifetime fan]

But your missus has got a Harry Potter tattoo so, you know, swings and roundabouts...

I take it you’ll pay my solicitor fees for the divorce then?

[Champ]

Don’t want to tell you I have all sky sports, movies, everything else, phone and 250mb internet for £78 a month.

Multi room?

[Hand Shandy]

I take it you’ll pay my solicitor fees for the divorce then?

Surely the money you're saving on Sky will cover that?

[lifetime fan]

Multi room?

Of course.

[lifetime fan]

Surely the money you're saving on Sky will cover that?

 

Not when the solicitor discovers he needs to defend the hitman too.

[Champ]

Of course.

With Virgin?

 

This is a source of torment to me. He holds the reins when it comes to the TV package but I do all the bills and the money we shell out to Sky (about £125/m) pains me, especially when the WiFi is slow (currently 6.14mps), patchy round the house and prone to falling off.

 

Can I change suppliers without inconvenience to him. He won't want to change his email address

[lifetime fan]

With Virgin?

 

This is a source of torment to me. He holds the reins when it comes to the TV package but I do all the bills and the money we shell out to Sky (about £125/m) pains me, especially when the WiFi is slow (currently 6.14mps), patchy round the house and prone to falling off.

 

Can I change suppliers without inconvenience to him. He won't want to change his email address

 

Yes with Virgin. Was with sky for 6/7 years and they tried to fuck me over with new deal. Said they wouldn’t do anything and wouldn’t match Virgin, ended up having a row with the guy and calling him a cunt for accusing me of lying.

 

Virgin offered me the package I wanted but my monthly bill did go up £5 which I wasn’t happy about.

[The Golden Eel]

With Virgin?

 

This is a source of torment to me. He holds the reins when it comes to the TV package but I do all the bills and the money we shell out to Sky (about £125/m) pains me, especially when the WiFi is slow (currently 6.14mps), patchy round the house and prone to falling off.

 

Can I change suppliers without inconvenience to him. He won't want to change his email address

 

They don't scrap an email account if you cancel your TV package, surely?

[Champ]

They don't scrap an email account if you cancel your TV package, surely?

We’ve currently got the full package with them and am wondering if you change your broadband supplier do you have to change the account name

[Dougie Do'ins]

My nearest boozer is 20 minutes away & with the missus due this week I'm not going out to watch the game.

 

Just called these bastards to check how much it would cost me to add Sky Sports & it was up £38 to £113 a month, robbing twats. (new customers get the whole lot for £75 a month).

 

Needless to say it'll be 5 Live at half 4.

That fucking pisses me right off. We've been with virgin since it took over from the old telewest and all we get is fucking price increases. They blame the price increases on sky as that's who they get the footy from. Was shopping around on the day of the City game and ended up calling them to see what the options were to get the monthly bill down. 

 

My argument with them was I'm fucking pissed off at continually seeing new customers getting the same package as me but for half the price. I said can I close my account and rejoin as a new customer ? Surprise, surprise the answer was no.

 

In the end, the only viable option to get the price down was to fuck the sports channels off. They tried to offer me a shit deal not to do that so I explained that apart from Liverpool, I don't watch any other live footy and that day was a good example. I was paying them the for a game I was going to Anfield to watch so whats the point ? In the end I told them to turn off the sports channels.

 

On another point but still about vergin. I've heard the bastards are trying to block VPNs. Anyone else heard this ? 

[stringvest]

Threaten to leave. Their Retentions department will offer you a much better deal. Play hardball.