Virgin Media Discussion Thread

Cob said:
Router delivered this morning as promised. Nice to see they’ve switched to plug-in connectors. Now just waiting for my Volt bonus to activate for 1gb goodness.
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Volt kicked in some time this afternoon. Basically took a long weekend.
 
How do you guys actually see what speed VM are giving you?
Speedtest.net tests the speed to my PC, but that’s limited by my WiFi connection and not the incoming broadband speed.
 
So guys, thinking of switching from BT to Virgin.

What's the overall views here, happy with the service?

Neighbour is with Virgin and they are happy.

I currently have the 80mbps with BT.

1000mbps will get with Virgin.

Where do you actually notice this difference other than maybe downloading from steam?

I read online that people say the Virgin customer service is diabolical.

True?

I've been with BT for years and never had much of an issue. Other than its expensive.

I pay £125 for phone, broadband and tv.
 
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One question I do have, does the TV box need the fibre optic cable to go in to it or can it get it's connection over wifi?

My plan was to run the cable up to my loft where the router will be but the tvbox is downstairs.

The current setup with BT, has the broadband going to the loft where the router is and we use a wifi disc to plug-in the tv box in the living room downstairs and it gets it connection over wifi.

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Ok, so looking on line I can see the tv box requires an IEC cable with looks like a fireoptic cable.

That I guess an engineer can sort out for us.

But the ethernet cable will need to be over wifi. Do you know if Virgin do wifi discs like BT does?
 
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Do VM have a tendency to throttle if you download a large amount, or has anyone experienced a severe loss in speed and stability after downloading a lot?

I upgraded my SSD to 4TB recently and reformatted, so I went a bit crazy installing games on Steam. I downloaded about 8-9 hefty games (~90gb each), so probably close to 700GB+ within a day or two, and now my connection is completely shot. Constantly dropping connection, barely able to finish loading pages etc.

I've power cycled my router twice already, no difference. Do I just chalk it up to being a bit greedy and wait it out, or is there something else I can try?
 
Smeghead said:
I upgraded my SSD to 4TB recently and reformatted, so I went a bit crazy installing games on Steam. I downloaded about 8-9 hefty games (~90gb each), so probably close to 700GB+ within a day or two, and now my connection is completely shot. Constantly dropping connection, barely able to finish loading pages etc.
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If you're on their HFC (coax to the house) service have you checked power levels in the superhub?

I've also never experienced throttling on VM.
 
Smeghead said:
Do VM have a tendency to throttle if you download a large amount, or has anyone experienced a severe loss in speed and stability after downloading a lot?

I upgraded my SSD to 4TB recently and reformatted, so I went a bit crazy installing games on Steam. I downloaded about 8-9 hefty games (~90gb each), so probably close to 700GB+ within a day or two, and now my connection is completely shot. Constantly dropping connection, barely able to finish loading pages etc.

I've power cycled my router twice already, no difference. Do I just chalk it up to being a bit greedy and wait it out, or is there something else I can try?
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You've conflated two unrelated issues. VM don't throttle, and haven't since shortly after they sold out to Liberty Global (2013). Report the fault and have it dealt with.
 
opethdisciple said:
One question I do have, does the TV box need the fibre optic cable to go in to it or can it get it's connection over wifi?

My plan was to run the cable up to my loft where the router will be but the tvbox is downstairs.

The current setup with BT, has the broadband going to the loft where the router is and we use a wifi disc to plug-in the tv box in the living room downstairs and it gets it connection over wifi.

---

Ok, so looking on line I can see the tv box requires an IEC cable with looks like a fireoptic cable.

That I guess an engineer can sort out for us.

But the ethernet cable will need to be over wifi. Do you know if Virgin do wifi discs like BT does?
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Virgin Media TV boxes run on coax cable.

As do their superhubs, apart from the 5X used in Virgin FTTP areas.
 
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opethdisciple said:
So guys, thinking of switching from BT to Virgin.

What's the overall views here, happy with the service?

Neighbour is with Virgin and they are happy.

I currently have the 80mbps with BT.

1000mbps will get with Virgin.

Where do you actually notice this difference other than maybe downloading from steam?

I read online that people say the Virgin customer service is diabolical.

True?

I've been with BT for years and never had much of an issue. Other than its expensive.

I pay £125 for phone, broadband and tv.
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Find out if you’re in a coax based area or fibre. I’m on fibre and an 80mbps BT connection is looking pretty good right now. I have major issues with the fibre router (Hub 5x) and the internet/DNS is a bit hit and miss. It blocks some sites despite no filtering and is doing some weird DNS interception. No choice as there is still no option to use your own router. Also performance on my 1Gbps plan is strange. Throughput and ping test really well, but in practice some things still load slowly. It’s not my hardware as it is faster on my 20Mbps BT connection that I still have. Could be VM network or their terrible router. One example is Youtube thumbnails. They’re just slow not sure why. Other random sites and things too, like certain image hosts. That said I can max out the write speed of my hard drives downloading games from steam, which is cool. Will probably cost me more money to move to solid state..

Edit: VM customer service makes BT’s look good. Which is really saying something. My ‘BT’ connection is actually Plusnet - they are excellent on support.
 
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Smeghead said:
...I've power cycled my router twice already, no difference. Do I just chalk it up to being a bit greedy and wait it out, or is there something else I can try?
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I had an issue for a little while with dropped packet and inconsistent 1Gb broadband. Last Friday I tried to call through to tech support but VM seem to have made it very difficult to actually speak to somebody and just disconnect the call after telling you to reboot the router even after trying to get through 4 times.

I then tried the live text chat and got to chat with a real person. They said some silly stuff like my IP address should change regularly and it was impossible for me to have had my current IP address for a year, which I most definitely have but the best thing they did was to book an engineer who came out really quickly - the next Monday.

When he came and checked my connection, my Hub5 levels were way out so he replaced some of the bits where the cable enters my house and when he was done all my levels were where they should be.

The internet is working way better now, so my advice to you is get an engineer out to do a proper check on your equipment.
 
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Good start with Virgin. Ordered broadband a while ago, about a month ago.


Requested the router be delivered today.


Text 1, this AM:

The new kit is due to arrive today, go to virginmedia.com/bbsetup for your step-by-step installation guide.



Text 2, shortly after:

We regret to inform you that your delivery has been delayed due to circumstances beyond our control. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an exact delivery date at this time but are working to get your order to you as soon as possible.



Extremely tempted to cancel and go with someone else.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Good start with Virgin. Ordered broadband a while ago, about a month ago.


Requested the router be delivered today.


Text 1, this AM:

The new kit is due to arrive today, go to virginmedia.com/bbsetup for your step-by-step installation guide.



Text 2, shortly after:

We regret to inform you that your delivery has been delayed due to circumstances beyond our control. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an exact delivery date at this time but are working to get your order to you as soon as possible.



Extremely tempted to cancel and go with someone else.
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There has been an incident at their distribution warehouse.
They either do not have access to the warehouse, or the stock stored there has been damaged.
So at the moment nothing is being posted out for delivery.
They where blaming Yodel for the failed deliveries or the busy Christmas period.
But it was lies.
They do not have a date for when deliveries will be processed again.
I cancelled my new account after they lied to me about the reasons for the delays again.
Hope you have better luck.
 
Caged said:
Customer service is absolute toilet, they will take the mick with the end of contract renewal quote and you'll have to cancel. The connection seems fine in most areas now.
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Yes agreed, I couldnt wait to get off them, but they are by far not the best in our area, we have quite a bit of choice, VM, BT, BRSK, Sky. the trouble with VM is although they make the download speeds look good, the upload speeds might as well be dial up speeds, for the 1gb connection you get 100mb/s upload, so adding anything large to one drive for instance takes forever, this also effects ping rates quite a lot, I dont think my ping ever got any better that about 34ms, current supplier is 8ms.

One or more of there services are always down in our area too, especially at the weekend when everyone really wants to use it.

And then a couple of weeks ago when I had 30 days left, I gave in my 30 days notice, the customer services adviser......when I decided not to renew then filled me with a load of bull, he said I would have to get in touch with my new BB company, who would then get in touch with them and they would deal with each other to make sure I wasnt without a connection, I simply told him its already installed, my new BB company has nothing to do with you guys, and just end my contract, this was after being on the phone to them for about 2 hours to get out, so they had certainly got my temper up when all I wanted to do was leave without the BS, im currently with Sky Stream for the TV and BRSK 900mb down and 900mb up for the BB, thinking of upgrading it to the 2gb up and down service.

They also told me that my final bill would be £68, but then 30 days later I will get a refund of £63.......umm what......in that case you keep the refund and i'll pay you £5, he wasnt having any of that, but I didnt give him a choice.
 
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I’ve just spend 1 hour 27 minutes being passed from pillar to post, nobody able to help me understand when I’ll be able to get a router.


Asked to speak to supervisors, on hold for 20 minutes and another random person picks up.


Absolutely wild - can’t wait for proper competition and for VM to disappear.
 
MrRockliffe said:
I’ve just spend 1 hour 27 minutes being passed from pillar to post, nobody able to help me understand when I’ll be able to get a router.


Asked to speak to supervisors, on hold for 20 minutes and another random person picks up.


Absolutely wild - can’t wait for proper competition and for VM to disappear.
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You are wasting your time calling Virgin.
They have no stock of modems on hand to send out.
They will only be able to send you a modem when they can be restocked again or can get access to their warehouse.
Your only chance to get a router at the moment is if you can book an engineer visit as they will still have some modems on hand.
But they will soon run out of them as well.
At the moment you will be told ,, it will arrive in 48hrs ,, 7 days ,, 2 weeks.
But there is nothing going to arrive.
 
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