Virgin Media Discussion Thread

[NexusK]

What did you say? Just threaten to leave?

Yes, i usually just tell them i want to stay and ask what they can offer me as they're normally good about it. But this time with Sky and BT having such good offers on at the moment i was willing to actually leave if they didn't offer anything decent.

 

[lettuce]

Hmmm, anyone else having issues with BB speeds, mine craps out at about 40meg according to speed test and never seems to finish the download speed test. Have tried powering off then on the router

 

[craig_t]

I'd call Virgin if I was you.

Can you download a file ok from somewhere with a decent download speed maybe steam game?

 

[pumaz]

I've been with Virgin (Diamond Cable/NTL) for well over 15 years and have mostly been content, I'm currently on their big kahuna which is going up to £73pm. I simply can't justify spending this much money anymore, prices seem to go up twice a year at more than twice the rate of inflation and in truth I don't use the phone and 99% of our viewing on the slow and clunky TIVo box is BBC1 as we tend to prefer streaming box sets etc. However I do love the Internet service as I download quite a bit of stuff I.e. Games for Consoles and steam etc. But accept for photo's and videos for the cloud have little demand for uploading.

Can't continue with this package any longer so looking at my options. I could drop down to the Big Bang package at £56 which loses me some channels and drops my BB from 150 to 100 but my understanding is this will be upgraded to 150 soon. With virgin price rises this package will likely be over £60 this time next year and I'll be in this position again

Another option would be to go 100mb broadband only for £35 and buy a decent freview+ HD box. I'm guessing I'd need to spend about £200 on a decent box which is something I have no idea about. I'm quite tempted with this option as I'm only dependant on virgin for broadband but initial cost of freview box is slightly off putting.

Also of some concern is wether I'm going to notice the the drop to 100mb broadband, as anybody done similar and regretted it?

Just to add, I did do the whole retention thing a few years ago, they gave me £10 off my package for a year but after 3 months it was back up to full price and no amount of arguing with them did any good. I'm really not that keen on retentions!

 

[Chong Warrior]

I've been with Virgin (Diamond Cable/NTL) for well over 15 years and have mostly been content, I'm currently on their big kahuna which is going up to £73pm. I simply can't justify spending this much money anymore, prices seem to go up twice a year at more than twice the rate of inflation and in truth I don't use the phone and 99% of our viewing on the slow and clunky TIVo box is BBC1 as we tend to prefer streaming box sets etc. However I do love the Internet service as I download quite a bit of stuff I.e. Games for Consoles and steam etc. But accept for photo's and videos for the cloud have little demand for uploading.

Can't continue with this package any longer so looking at my options. I could drop down to the Big Bang package at £56 which loses me some channels and drops my BB from 150 to 100 but my understanding is this will be upgraded to 150 soon. With virgin price rises this package will likely be over £60 this time next year and I'll be in this position again

Another option would be to go 100mb broadband only for £35 and buy a decent freview+ HD box. I'm guessing I'd need to spend about £200 on a decent box which is something I have no idea about. I'm quite tempted with this option as I'm only dependant on virgin for broadband but initial cost of freview box is slightly off putting.

Also of some concern is wether I'm going to notice the the drop to 100mb broadband, as anybody done similar and regretted it?

Just to add, I did do the whole retention thing a few years ago, they gave me £10 off my package for a year but after 3 months it was back up to full price and no amount of arguing with them did any good. I'm really not that keen on retentions!

Read my post #11867

That was a simple 10 minute call, no threats to leave or retentions.

 

[robfosters]

I have just done a test and maxed out at 208mb/s.

Well pleased. Truth is though, I probably only use 10% of the connection 90% of the time.

I imagine that streaming, like Netflix or Prime, only uses as much as it needs? It won't max out a 200mb connection to get the best picture possible?

 

[ToejaM]

Currently getting 7mbs on a 152mb connection.. just rang them up and its supposed to be fixed by 23rd Dec.. they've offered me £12.50 off for the last 3 months this has been going on for.

Waiting for a call back from the complaints dept as currently only getting <5% during peak hours is a joke.

I can game fine but if anyone else in the house does anything online it lags me out.. constant ping spikes just when people web browse let alone youtube/netflix it.

 

[NexusK]

Currently getting 7mbs on a 152mb connection.. just rang them up and its supposed to be fixed by 23rd Dec.. they've offered me £12.50 off for the last 3 months this has been going on for.

Waiting for a call back from the complaints dept as currently only getting <5% during peak hours is a joke.

I can game fine but if anyone else in the house does anything online it lags me out.. constant ping spikes just when people web browse let alone youtube/netflix it.

When they call you back try and get them to reimburse the whole cost of the broadband. They do it all the time when it's that bad.

 

[NexusK]

I imagine that streaming, like Netflix or Prime, only uses as much as it needs? It won't max out a 200mb connection to get the best picture possible?

Nope, Netflix for example only uses 5mbps for 1080p HD or if you are streaming 4k 25mbps.

 

[ToejaM]

When they call you back try and get them to reimburse the whole cost of the broadband. They do it all the time when it's that bad.

Good idea, thing is I pay 34.99 atm a month, from January I'll pay £41 a month.. this is all for line rental, tv and internet lol. Im really not sure how much of it is "internet" as its in a bundle, its not clear on the bill tbh.

Still no call though.. I'll give it to Tuesday when I'm off work again and ring up.

This is one of the few times I've ever had an issue with Virgin in almost 10 years

 

[ChrisD.]

Makes you wonder from reading this thread why Virgin don't spend money on making the existing infrastructure work properly rather than headline figures.

 

[Vengance]

Anyone else still on a 120mb vivid connection?
Just got off the chat with them and apparantly there is no free upgrade available in my area, wanted an extra £12 a month + £20 for the new super hub.

Talking to them about a new deal...

"If I upgrade the broadband to Vivid 200MB then the monthly cost for existing package will be £77.49 (from Feb £81.48)"

Wow... worse than the big kahuna deal XD

Sabiya:If I upgrade the broadband to Vivid 200MB then the monthly cost for existing package will be £77.49 (from Feb £81.48)
09:25:14Sabiya:Great news is...
09:26:04me:nope... think we can do better than that. Thats more expensive than the big kahuna bundle
09:27:35Sabiya:With this bundle you'll get the Tivo 500GB (replacement of VHD box) and a new Super Hub 2 Ac router.
09:29:09Sabiya:Are you still available to chat with me Jay?
09:29:37me:yes.. but that deal is not suitable
09:30:05me:the big kahuna bundle is less than adding 200mb and i get the tivo and the superhub 2 in that
09:31:17Sabiya:Just by adding LRS offer you can save more.
09:31:49me:LRS?
09:31:54Sabiya:If you add LRS offer then the monthly cost will be £60.50 from Feb
09:32:13Sabiya:From Feb it will be £64.49 a month*
09:32:22Sabiya:I'll explain you LRS offer.
09:32:46Sabiya:Currently you're paying £16.99 a month for line rental.

£16.99 x 12= £203.88 a year.

Instead of paying £16.99 if you add line rental saver offer then it will cost you £13.66 a month.

You can save £39.88 a year just by adding LRS offer.
09:33:03Sabiya:Line rental will increase by £1 from Feb 16.
09:33:26mek.. do what would the package include and the total price be
09:34:03Sabiya:If you add LRS offer then price increase for line rental will not be applicable for your account.
09:34:06Sabiya:You can save £39.88 per year if you subscribe to our Line Rental Saver offer. All you need to do is make upfront payment of £164.00 and confirm the payment reference number. I will then add the offer to your account. Once the offer is activated, you will not be charged for Line Rental for 12 months.
09:34:27Sabiya:If you add LRS offer then the monthly cost will be £60.50 from Feb it will be £64.49 a month
09:34:54me:164 upfront?
09:35:05Sabiya:Right
09:35:12me:what?
09:35:15me:are you kidding?
09:35:31me:it would take 4 years before i broke even on your so called saving
09:36:38Sabiya:These are the available deals on your account.
09:37:51me:Ok.. so my options are pay what i'm paying and get 120mb when you sent emails for 152 and 200mb for free. Pay £88 a month for the big kahuna bundle which is advertised at less. and i can get a £40 saving a year by paying £160 extra?
09:38:48Sabiya:Currently you've 120MB so you'll get free upgrade of 150MB and not for 200MB.
09:39:01mek.. so even worse.. wow
09:39:31Sabiya:I'd request you to wait till free upgrade available on your account.
09:39:33me:and the reason i cant be changed to the big kahuna deal?
09:40:07Sabiya:You'll get the email confirmation about free upgrade as well as you can see this in your upgrade and offer session.
09:40:29Sabiya:I've quoted the the standard price and the deals available on your account.

 

[NexusK]

Just call back up again Vengeance, sometimes you get dunces like that but the next person is usually a lot better.

 

[Hamster]

Had VM 200Mbit internet installed today with the new Superhub 3. It's the biggest POS i've ever come across so wanting to use it as a modem.

What are the decent choices of router that work well with it?

 

[ChrisD.]

Budget?

 

[Tuvoc]

Had VM 200Mbit internet installed today with the new Superhub 3. It's the biggest POS i've ever come across so wanting to use it as a modem.

What are the decent choices of router that work well with it?

Odd, Superhub 2 work beautifully for me, both ethernet ports and wireless. And my wireless network gets hammered too with streaming several hours a day.

 

[Hamster]

Budget?

I'd say about £100ish tops. Just looking at the Asus RT-N66U which seems to get good reviews but not sure if there's something better out there.

Odd, Superhub 2 work beautifully for me, both ethernet ports and wireless. And my wireless network gets hammered too with streaming several hours a day.

The Superhub 3 is dire. Takes forever to load its homepage, can't type the password until the cursor then appears 30 seconds later, painfully snow navigating the crappy interface. Not going to attempt trying to do the basics like setting up statics ips, port forwarding, firewall changes as I'll be at it all week. Feels like they've put early 80s tech inside a shiny, oversized box.

 

[j_walsh]

Anyone having issues tonight? Speeds and pings seem to be all over the place.
Seems more of a routing issue.

 

[Calabi]

I'd say about £100ish tops. Just looking at the Asus RT-N66U which seems to get good reviews but not sure if there's something better out there.



The Superhub 3 is dire. Takes forever to load its homepage, can't type the password until the cursor then appears 30 seconds later, painfully snow navigating the crappy interface. Not going to attempt trying to do the basics like setting up statics ips, port forwarding, firewall changes as I'll be at it all week. Feels like they've put early 80s tech inside a shiny, oversized box.

I've got that router and it works well. Barely need to do anything to set it up and it has dual band wifi.

 

[pepp77]

I can highly recommend the Archer C7