Virgin Media - New STM hours being trialled

HEADRAT said:
Nope I'd rather have regulation of the comsumer ISP industry, I'm sick to death of meaningless promises of bandwidth that the ISP knows full well they will never be able to offer.

Sure the T&C's will have been written in a way to make sure the ISP has no legal requirement to offer any throughput guarantee, they could offer almost nothing for £37 a month without breaking their T&C's (obviously they would lose customer hand over fist before that).
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If you think things are bad now, I can only imagine how bad they would get if the government stepped in....
 
The ISP's have led consumer expectation, I have no sympathy! They should just come clean and tell people there is no way that can offer the service they are currently selling in either cost/speed.
 
Visage said:
Lol, no, I just dont like people who want the moon on a stick and then want it for free....
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People are not wanting it for free, charge £45 - £50 for a much better deal and people will pay it, but they do the opposite, offer less for more there is no offer more for more like there is in most businesses, newsgroups, pay more for unlimited, tv's, pay more for bigger screen size and better quality, computer parts, pay more for the highest spec. The only thing where it is any different is Virgin Media.
 
Agreed, currently the consumer has almost no recourse when trying to argue about their level of service, basically the ISP's current attitude is "you get what we want you to when we want you to". Would we put up with the same from somebody offering a phone service, no we wouldn't and we wouldn't have to as it a regulated industry.

Until we get regulation the ISP's will just walk all over the consumer, they will offer crazy amounts of bandwidth for less and less money and cover themselves by T&C's that offer nothing!

The ISP's are going to have to be very careful, if they don't want regulation they'd be better off keeping a low profile TBH!
 
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HEADRAT said:
basically the ISP's current attitude is "you get what we want you to when we want you to".
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thats exactly the attitude i got when i complained.

my net had been poor for ages and im talking 8 months here, i moved house and virgin gave me a fantastic deal to get me to stay. XL everything for £40 (was only on 20mb for £37 previously) including talk unlimited which is worth its weight in gold when you have a gas bagging wife lol.

2 months down the line and in the new house i went through the same problems and when i phoned about them about it they basically said i was already getting a substantial discount and i should be happy with it.

i told them that they offered the discounts for the services so it's not my problem i'm getting a discount and that i should get the 20mb i was subscribed to. again i was told to "be happy with it"

i recently had a survey off them as im moving again lol and i basically told them they are carp and that i would NEVER reccomend them due to the poor speeds and these latest things like PHORM and more STM.

BT might be getting my call i think, may be slower but it can't possibly run any worse.
 
Slowcoach @ Cableforum.co.uk said:
Just got off the phone to “The Bloke in the Pub”.
I asked him about the new STM trials, his answer was,

Current STM is designed to stop the network collapsing prior to the switch to DOCSIS 3.
Trials of the new STM time ranges are testing to see what level will be required during the upgrade period in order to keep outages to a minimum. VM are trying to keep everyone connected (as much as possible) during the network upgrades, STM will be removed once all areas are upgraded, sometime late 2009.

So it seems VM had to choose to switch areas off completely for a time or spread the load and keep everyone connected, looks like they are going to choose the lesser of two evils.
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That would make sense IF it's true.
 
if that was the case then why wont they just say so, if customers knew that then they wouldn't be so angry as they would understand that they either get cut off completely or get an STM'ed connection "for a while"

can't see them dropping this STM at all. like others have said, they get charged for bandwidth and i bet they saved an absolute fortune this last year or so.
 
Visage said:
Lol, no, I just dont like people who want the moon on a stick and then want it for free....
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for £40/mth on the 20mbit plan your darn tooting we should be getting less STM than the current levels.

my STM just kicked in @ 10:30am this morning and i've used about 2gb, disgrace!

be getting on the phone later today and demanding another price cut on my package or they'll be shown the door.....ever since virgin took over it's been empty promises, higher prices and less content for tv and broadband - they're just taking a pi** over everyone.
 
marscay said:
for £40/mth on the 20mbit plan your darn tooting we should be getting less STM than the current levels.

my STM just kicked in @ 10:30am this morning and i've used about 2gb, disgrace!

be getting on the phone later today and demanding another price cut on my package or they'll be shown the door.....ever since virgin took over it's been empty promises, higher prices and less content for tv and broadband - they're just taking a pi** over everyone.
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But as i've pointed out elsewhere - VM would be happy for you to go elsewhere, as you're being subsidised by people who use less bandwidth. Your threat is pointless, as VM are making a loss on your service.
 
All of the ISP's are the same, offering speeds and services they know they can't support, they cover themselves by offering no SLA's and further covering their ass with T&C's

It will never change until it because regulated, self regulation obviously doesn't work.
 
Visage said:
But as i've pointed out elsewhere - VM would be happy for you to go elsewhere, as you're being subsidised by people who use less bandwidth. Your threat is pointless, as VM are making a loss on your service.
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if thats the case then why do they give you heaven and earth to keep you with them? i get a major discount because my net was disgracefull, which means it makes no business sense to give me a discount on my services which would cause them to lose even more money.
 
HEADRAT said:
All of the ISP's are the same, offering speeds and services they know they can't support, they cover themselves by offering no SLA's and further covering their ass with T&C's

It will never change until it because regulated, self regulation obviously doesn't work.
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I disagree. Consumer education is whats needed.

If people want a truly unmetered, high-speed line they they need to realise that they're not going to get it unless they pay a true cost thats reflective of the service they are demanding.
 
spookywillow said:
if thats the case then why do they give you heaven and earth to keep you with them? i get a major discount because my net was appauling, which means it makes no business sense to give me a discount on my services which would cause them to lose even more money.
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Do you have other services with them?
 
Visage said:
I disagree. Consumer education is whats needed.
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But the ISP industry are feeding the consumer with ever higher bandwidth connections for less and less money. They are educating the user to want more for less and then covering their ass with the small print.

The ISP's need to give people the option to buy a truly unmetered service and let them pay per Meg if that's what they want.

They need to be honest and up front about the services they are offering.
 
Visage said:
But as i've pointed out elsewhere - VM would be happy for you to go elsewhere, as you're being subsidised by people who use less bandwidth. Your threat is pointless, as VM are making a loss on your service.
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There is clearly a market for higher usage, so why don't they charge more for the people that want more use out of it then everyone wins. Nah we can't have that, actually offer what people want, too unthinkable.

And why are higher users if at all being subsidised? is because Virgin signed up too many people trying to sell and sell and sell and outdo Sky and everyone else, they had to have know oversubscription was inevitable, stop blaming the magical 5%, Virgin is to blame for signing up too many customers then blaming it on the Famous Five.
 
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