BE?

Teal · 13 Aug 2007 at 12:14

Sounds good. Do you have a BT line at the moment then rather than the full Virgin cable service?

Sic · 13 Aug 2007 at 12:18

yeah, it's just a BT line - when I cancel with Virgin, I'm going to try and get an MAC rather than full on cancel it because it'll probably just take longer! I can't wait until this is all sorted, it's been driving me mental

tomanders91 · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:49

Teal said:
Hmm... I would call BE and get a speed estimate but the lack of a current BT line may mean that it is a pretty rough estimate based only on the post code..

If the straight line distance is that long then the odds are the actual line length is at least 3Km if not longer so 10Mb may be difficult.

aww, so theres no point in getting it.

At about 2.3km what sort of speed would i be getting?

Senture · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:58

Just so you can get a rough idea, I'm with ukoffline and my cable length is 2km, I sync at 15mb (can sync at 17.5mb but I had the noise margin raised)

Sic · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:02

Senture said:
Just so you can get a rough idea, I'm with ukoffline and my cable length is 2km, I sync at 15mb (can sync at 17.5mb but I had the noise margin raised)

that's great, thank you. my distance is 1.6km as the crow flies, so I could probably be looking at those speeds too!

Teal · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:10

I would always advise that people phone and check with BE as actual line lengths can be a lot longer than the straight line distances.

It is better to get what is usually a conservative estimate from BE and be pleasantly surprised than it is to assume a good result and be dissapointed.

Locky · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:25

can you get an estimate from be with just a post code?

tomanders91 · 13 Aug 2007 at 17:58

Teal said:
I would always advise that people phone and check with BE as actual line lengths can be a lot longer than the straight line distances.

It is better to get what is usually a conservative estimate from BE and be pleasantly surprised than it is to assume a good result and be dissapointed.

If i ring them what should i say to find that out

.

If it suits my needs (im currently on 4mb, so anything above that and im happy), i will switch to them, so what would the proceudure be? Ring up VM and cancel, ring BT and get the phone line sorted, then give BE another rind asking to subscribe? But ive heard you need to do it all online so i dont really no

Sic · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:03

well, that was pretty painless - Virgin Media just cancelled our service with 5 days to effect, and BE seem to think that we can expect 10Mb, which is totally fine with me!! oooh, excited to maybe get some decent service!!

It's really annoying that companies put all of the staff with decent customer service skills on retentions! it's too late by then!!

Locky · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:27

btw people if you ring up and place the order with BE u sometimes get free conection, depends on the op.

but i have a discount code for this for ordering online, not going to disclose it here as it might be in breach of the rules.

tomanders91 · 13 Aug 2007 at 20:05

Sic said:
well, that was pretty painless - Virgin Media just cancelled our service with 5 days to effect, and BE seem to think that we can expect 10Mb, which is totally fine with me!! oooh, excited to maybe get some decent service!!

It's really annoying that companies put all of the staff with decent customer service skills on retentions! it's too late by then!!

Really? Ive been ringing them, and all i get through to is people from asia that i cant understand, and when we said we wanna cancel they cut off?

But i will give BE a ring, what did you say to get them to check the approximate speed? Plus anyone know how good that wireless modem thing they give you is?

It is a router that will work with Xbox live and PSN stuff wont it?

Locky · 13 Aug 2007 at 20:43

tomanders91 said:
It is a router that will work with Xbox live and PSN stuff wont it?

yes the speedtouch router they supply is quite good

tomanders91 · 13 Aug 2007 at 20:56

TiZoR said:
yes the speedtouch router they supply is quite good

ok nice one, hope il lget around 8-10mb from BE.

tolien · 13 Aug 2007 at 21:05

TiZoR said:
but i have a discount code for this for ordering online, not going to disclose it here as it might be in breach of the rules.

If you mean a referral code, then it isn't allowed and I'd wholeheartedly discourage anyone from posting referrals. I've removed more than plenty of late.

On the other hand, if you go through Quidco, you'll get £24 cashback (less the £5 fee if you haven't signed up already, but £19 is still better than a kick in the teeth).

tomanders91 · 13 Aug 2007 at 21:25

ok i rang them, they said they cant tell me what speed i would get until i get the BT line, but its 2.4km, which im sure is higher than my current 4mb connection isnt it? Although atm the speed is about 56k lol.

Sic · 13 Aug 2007 at 22:14

tomanders91 said:
Really? Ive been ringing them, and all i get through to is people from asia that i cant understand, and when we said we wanna cancel they cut off?

just fyi (even though you're a dirty thread hijacker!!

), the number I called was 0845 045 0709, and it was about 6:30pm - was on hold for about 8 minutes, and the guy was incredibly helpful - I was just lucky that we've been with them a very short period of time.

refer them to this link: https://client.virgin.net/cancellation/number if they get funny, as that's the source of my quote above, basically stating that you're not tied to a 12 month contract. I think it also helped me telling them about all the technical problems I've had, all the dropping in service, and that I'm generally incredibly unhappy with their service, even after only a week of having it! I will also be writing to Ofcom to complain about the terrible quality of the ADSL and the customer services, and if you're unhappy, I urge you to do the same.

Teal · 13 Aug 2007 at 22:33

tomanders91 said:
ok i rang them, they said they cant tell me what speed i would get until i get the BT line, but its 2.4km, which im sure is higher than my current 4mb connection isnt it? Although atm the speed is about 56k lol.

Roughly and I emphasise roughly as there are many variables, a 3Km line will give around 6Mb/s on ADSL2+.

The problem is you don't know how long your line really is and the odds are it is at least 3Km with a straight line length of 2.4 and quite possibly a lot longer than that.

So it could be better than 4Mb but the odds are, not a lot better.

So much will depend on the quality of the line as well.

Tony Williams · 13 Aug 2007 at 22:38

I got free connection when I migrated to Betheeereee!

Fr0dders · 13 Aug 2007 at 22:56

tomanders91 said:
ok i rang them, they said they cant tell me what speed i would get until i get the BT line, but its 2.4km, which im sure is higher than my current 4mb connection isnt it? Although atm the speed is about 56k lol.

my line is about 2.4km i believe

and i get 10/11mb

but thats line length, yours may be longer. My mate is about 3.5km from the exchange with twice the line attenuation (60db) and still manages 8mb.

Teal · 13 Aug 2007 at 23:32

8Mb with 60dB att. is remarkable, he is very fortunate indeed as most people could only expect around 3Mb at the most.