How to leave Virgin Media - the easy way.

mks2005

mks2005

mks2005

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First and foremost, big thanks to lorir of the thinkbroadband forums which suggested this.

I'm sure there are others like myself who are completely fed up with poor broaband service from the oversubscribed Virgin Media. I've had continual issues with speed, and in particular, latencies with my ADSL up to 8Mb service. However, I have been unable to bring myself to pay £50 to terminate my contract. I've spoke to technical support numerous times and got absolutely nowhere. I've felt stranded.

The way out is simple.

1. Pay a visit to ISPA. http://www.ispa.org.uk/

2. Submit a complaint. I went into a reasonable amount of depth regarding my problems, but theres no need for specifics.

3. Sit back, and wait for a phone call. I submitted my complaint yesterday evening. I recieved a phone call this morning, at 10:30am, from Virgin Media's Chief Exec's office. They explained that they have problems and that there is a planned fix come April. They offered me free internet til then, or a chance to cancel my subscription. I jumped at the chance to cancel.

4. Recieve your MAC code. I always thought this was supposed to take ages to come through. I was emailed the code within about 5 minutes of my phonecall. I celebrated a little.

5. Enjoy freedom of being away from Virgin Media and a the joys of a better provider. I'm planning on moving to ADSL24 now, which should be infinitely better. Even if I do have issues with them, at least I am free to migrate!

From the thinkbroadband forums it would appear many people have had the same success from taking this route. So I thought I'd share this with you guys. If you're wanting to leave Virgin due to the poor service you are getting don't hesitate to submit a formal complaint. I still can't believe that after months of putting up with it and getting nowhere, within the space of about 12 hours I'm free to leave them, finally.
 
i used ispa to get out of my bt business broadband which are by far the worst ive expeirenced ive had my issues with virgin media cable 20mb but have had noticed impovements over the last few weeks regarding speed download etc. my area is most defetinley oversubcribed but apparently new servers are being added very soon. but nice to hear u got ** mac code as from my past experiences getting a mac code from a isp is very difficult sometimes and leaves you mad and screaming while on the phone. good for you.
 
kmufc77 said:
i used ispa to get out of my bt business broadband which are by far the worst ive expeirenced ive had my issues with virgin media cable 20mb but have had noticed impovements over the last few weeks regarding speed download etc. my area is most defetinley oversubcribed but apparently new servers are being added very soon. but nice to hear u got ** mac code as from my past experiences getting a mac code from a isp is very difficult sometimes and leaves you mad and screaming while on the phone. good for you.
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Thanks!

Cool to hear you had success too - I certainly wasn't aware of this route to take and I'm hoping there are others yet to discover it too. I've heard a lot of people are happy with their VM lines but the fact is there is also a large amount of people that are having issues too - such as myself! It is nice to finally get a MAC code and like you say I'm suprised at how painless it was.
 
kmufc77 said:
mks2005 said:
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Thanks for quoting the whole of the first post, I nearly missed it!!

Secondly more people should leave. Maybe it might make my already fine Virgin connection even better.

P.S. I've never had a problem leaving any ISP (ex ISPs include Nildram and Bulldog which got faffed up by Pipex I think), though I've not really had any problems with service either. Is it because I live in London or should it be worse here because of over subscription?
 
Just informed my mate of this, he is with BT and not happy but under a 12 month contract, he is going to give it a go.

Thanks!
 
Hyper said:
Just informed my mate of this, he is with BT and not happy but under a 12 month contract, he is going to give it a go.

Thanks!
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Excellent. I can't guarantee people will have the same success with other providers, as I imagine they will differ in the ways in which they handle their complaints.

However, it's certainly worth a shot if the service being provided can be considered unsatisfactory.
 
mks2005 said:
I've heard a lot of people are happy with their VM lines but the fact is there is also a large amount of people that are having issues too - such as myself!
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Those happy people are VM cable customers, you'll probably struggle to find a lot of people happy with VM ADSL - completely different service.
 
quote clownThanks for quoting the whole of the first post, I nearly missed it!!(messed up the quote.

it amazes me how some ppl moan about the silliyist of things sorry for breathing
 
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Daegan said:
Those happy people are VM cable customers, you'll probably struggle to find a lot of people happy with VM ADSL - completely different service.
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I'm on Virgin Media cable broadband,its solid never drops a connection and I always get my listed speed,I have heard their ADSL service is a lot worst.
 
Did this last night ( complant sent to http://www.ispa.org.uk/)

This morning about 11am a really nice person from VM head office rang me
we chatted I explained how I was in IT and deal with a lot of the old Telewest contruction crews weekly for clients, she got my account up, and she could see I had had problems, and that it was nice talking to someone that undterstood whats going on atm with a lot of the UBR's been over subscribed

Long and short she gave me 6 months free BB ( I think £37.00), which is great
as atm we pay well over £100 for all our services. And she said to ring her back when its about to stop ( free), to get a update on things.

All I can say is what a pleasure the whole call was, and they have one very very happy client again. I wish all IP's had people like her working for them.

If you are not happy, and things are not right, use the OP link and complain
it worked for me, it might for you.
 
brilliant! I am so going to try this!!!

Just ran a speed test and I get 78kbps down and 375kbps up...my ping is over 1000ms to a lot of servers...it's a disgrace!

EDIT: hmm on the drop-dwon menu for complaints, they don't have an option for "Totally crap service"....which option do you think I should choose? "incorrect connection speed" to be the way to go?
 
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Munky1080 said:
EDIT: hmm on the drop-dwon menu for complaints, they don't have an option for "Totally crap service"....which option do you think I should choose? "incorrect connection speed" to be the way to go?
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Thats what I used. :) Don't think it matters too much.

You fill that form out and I have a strong feeling you will escape VM ADSL soon :D

bringans I know exactly how you feel. It felt strange talking to someone that seemed to actually have a clue, and that could actually DO something about the issues, and give you a straight answer, and some kind of compensation for your problems. It's a shame you have to go to such an extent to get any sign of this.

And yes, I'm aware Virgin cable is largely satisfactory, this thread is primarily aimed at the ADSL users, which judging by comments and reviews, is causing a lot of grief.

Service is painfully slow tonight, although pings are suprisingly good. Thankfully now my ADSL24 activation date is next week. I eagerly await (hopefully) a decent internet service, at long last.
 
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dmpoole said:
Don't apologise.
The irony is Clown telling you off and then doing it himself :)
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Actually, I think you'll find I had to manually put all those quotes in. Quote pyramids seem to be disabled on vBulletin. I'll leave it to you to work out why I manually added in all the quotes - this isn't really the place to discuss it.
 
Bump. had this email today and net is sorted for good.

Dear Mr Brown

I am writing in relation to your recent letter of complaint.

Firstly, let me apologize for the delay in our response, we are currently experiencing a backlog in responding to customer complaints and would like to thank you for your patience.

I have looked into your account, to clarify the issue it seems that your account was being capped and you were part of our fair usage policy. To try to resolve this issue I have removed the caps are you no longer on our fair usage policy. The price package that you are on is AOL Broadband Wireless Plus - Unlimited with WiFi Router and Device - £34.99. As I have removed the cap and no longer part of fup then this should resolve the issue of your download speeds. However if you are not happy or have any other concerns about your complaint please email me with a contact number and an appropriate time to call.

I can assure you that your member experience has been fed back to the appropriate managerial department and actions will be taken to help ensure we can avoid any similar incidents in the future.

Kind Regards,
Margaret Lanigan
 
Geez! you're lucky Bradley! Virgin did let me quit for free but I would have rather stayed with them and been uncapped. Good result!
 
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