Im leaving Virgin

Lethagized · 17 Sep 2008 at 15:02

The time has come to leave virgin media. I started out with Telewest's blueyonder 10 years ago, but IMO, since virgin have taken over, the internet has become 'unstable' Dropping connection for hours on end, when it is connected, it slows down a helluva lot from 4pm onwards untill 10pm. Trying to watch a 30 second youtube vid takes 3 minuits, it's just unacceptable on a 20meg connection. I've never seen 20Megs. Most i ever get is 13. The TV on the other hand is faultless, but thats going to be replaced with a freeview or sky box. I was paying £41pm for the XL-TV and XL-NET. Im swapping to O2 broardband because the missis has the mobile, so im going for the £10 a month offer (normaly £15). What is the best basic tv package to go with? Virgin or sky?

something daft already!! · 17 Sep 2008 at 15:04

Freeview!

Lethagized · 17 Sep 2008 at 15:12

I want the discovery channels mainly

Neodite · 17 Sep 2008 at 16:24

Have you tried watching BBC's Iplayer? buffers every 10 seconds for me lol.

Where abouts do you live BTW? ive googled slow speeds on VM, and apparently a lot of people have the same issues, and VM have replyed with saying it's due to people around you area downloading a lot, lol

Lethagized · 1 Oct 2008 at 00:53

I live in the black country. Dont get me wrong, i used to download a TON of stuff using VM 20meg BUT i haven't downloaded anything huge in months, but they still cap me every night. There is no way i can be in the top 3% or 5% of top downloaders in the area.

Anyway my contract ends this friday, so it's bye bye Vm and hello O2 & sky

pingwing · 1 Oct 2008 at 01:03

Everyone gets a slow connection at those hours, its really really stupid! (apparently the "highist users" have their connection slowed to accomidate averyone else.... though this is silly if ewveryone is a main user...)

Anyway, head on to sky really (or splash out on an expensive freview box that can record as iv been impressed with my mates one). You'll probably find sky a bit ott as theres a lot of rubish on it and the sky boxes tend not always to be the best quality, but it does offer some of the best channels at the basic tenner a month price

Dist · 1 Oct 2008 at 03:03

RobRX-7 said:
I live in the black country. Dont get me wrong, i used to download a TON of stuff using VM 20meg BUT i haven't downloaded anything huge in months, but they still cap me every night. There is no way i can be in the top 3% or 5% of top downloaders in the area.

Anyway my contract ends this friday, so it's bye bye Vm and hello O2 & sky

the 3% or 5% thing doesnt matter. What matters is if you go beyond the traffic mangement limits mentioned on virgins website here: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

Basicaly, if you download more then 3GB during the evening on the 20Mb tier, VM class you as being in that 5% and so slow you down. It doesnt matter if you never downloaded much before, if you go beyond 3GB during the times stated, then that that moment you are a heavy downloader.

If you download more then it says, you get capped, simple as that.

Also in your first post you said when virgin took over. They didnt take over anything. NTL:Telewest took over virgin mobile, as part of the terms of the take over NTL:Telewest had to take on the virgin name, and so they renamed to virgin media.

Lethagized · 1 Oct 2008 at 07:56

Dist said:
It doesnt matter if you never downloaded much before, if you go beyond 3GB during the times stated, then that that moment you are a heavy downloader.

If you download more then it says, you get capped, simple as that.

This is why i think it's unfair. If i download a demo game between 16.00-21.00 just once, i get limited FOREVER and branded Top 5% of heavy downloaders for the duration of my contract. VM say they do this on a daily basis. Im getting limited every single day. I can understand if i exceed the amount on a daily basis then fair enough, but if i exceed it once i am classed as a heavy downloader and ultimately screwed. 3gigs is nothing these days, and it can easily be passed. If this is how it's worked out, i would imagine a LOT of people would be exceeding the daily limits and getting traffic managed. Maybe thats why loads of customers are compaining about limited speeds, even when they haven't even used the computer. VM have lost a stack of customers, but they are also drawing new ones in for the on demand stuff.

Dist said:
Also in your first post you said when virgin took over. They didnt take over anything. NTL:Telewest took over virgin mobile, as part of the terms of the take over NTL:Telewest had to take on the virgin name, and so they renamed to virgin media.

Ok, fair point. Maybe i should say then that since NTL/TW have taken the Virgin name, the internet service has gone downhill.

Dist · 1 Oct 2008 at 13:14

You dont get branded as a heavy download for the rest of your contract, as far as virgin is concerned, after the 5 hours of traffic managed speed for going beyond 3GB, you become a regular user just as anyone else, and will only slow your speed the next day if you download another 3GB during the times listed.

Even if the download is just a 1 off, and wont happen again, you should still be traffic managed because at that moment in time your heavy downloading can negatively effect other users. If they let people off traffic magement penalties just because it doesnt happen very often, then that means people can get away with potentialy degrading other peoples service and get away with it just because its a 1 off thing for them.

If you get slow speeds even on days you dont download, then thats not traffic magement, its either a problem with where you are downloading from, a problem on your side, or you are in an over subscribed area.