OK so i just got off the phone to Virgin media.
2 or so weeks ago we ordered an 10mb boradband (at that time it was called M=Medium) + M TV and standart Phone line.

All was well until today i discovered that i am back down to 2mb. Apparently they changed their services. 10mb is now L (Large) 20mb is XL and 50mb is XXL.

So can they downgrade me back to 2mb because 10mb is now large? Thing is when i ordered it was still a medium package. and now they change their plans they just come and downgrade me without any kind of warning.....
Do they have the right to do so? even though i ordered it when it was still called a medium package with a medium price?

Virgin media is a pile of sh*t to be honest...

Well I thought their plans were to make the 10mb line the standard line, guess I was wrong... and yes VM are shit, which is why my mum is going to Sky broadband, 10mb line and tv package, £16 iirc

Quote from Xaid0n :

and yes VM are shit

Really, after some of the ISP's I've had, Virgin's cable broadband is simply brilliant. I don't see whats wrong with them. They have been quick and helpful when some support was needed, and the connection is rock solid, fast and reliable at a decent price.



...wish your mum good luck with Sky from me

Quote from DevilDare :

OK so i just got off the phone to Virgin media.
2 or so weeks ago we ordered an 10mb boradband (at that time it was called M=Medium) + M TV and standart Phone line.

All was well until today i discovered that i am back down to 2mb. Apparently they changed their services. 10mb is now L (Large) 20mb is XL and 50mb is XXL.

So can they downgrade me back to 2mb because 10mb is now large? Thing is when i ordered it was still a medium package. and now they change their plans they just come and downgrade me without any kind of warning.....
Do they have the right to do so? even though i ordered it when it was still called a medium package with a medium price?

Virgin media is a pile of sh*t to be honest...

Just 'cause they don't work for you doesn't make them a pile of shit.

If you have proof that you bought faster internet than you're getting (and you have that in writing.. "blah blah blah ty for ordering our <package> this includes, tv and xxMB internet" then you have half a chance.

Otherwise I wouldn't moan too much. You could always pay for it

Quote from The Moose :

Really, after some of the ISP's I've had, Virgin's cable broadband is simply brilliant. I don't see whats wrong with them. They have been quick and helpful when some support was needed, and the connection is rock solid, fast and reliable at a decent price.



...wish your mum good luck with Sky from me

Maybe it depends on the area you're in, I don't know, but for the price mum is paying, she can get a better connection else where, £48 for Phone + 2mbit broadband? I believe you can get cheaper elsewhere.

And the connection is constantly going down, you're either getting 2mbit 1 minute and 200kB the next, it takes the piss really. Glad VM works well for you, but for us it don't so we're shopping somewhere else.

Quote from Xaid0n :

Well I thought their plans were to make the 10mb line the standard line, guess I was wrong... and yes VM are shit, which is why my mum is going to Sky broadband, 10mb line and tv package, £16 iirc

I'm with Sky BB myself, and tbh, i can't wait to get back onto Virgin Media. I'm sure with the Sky service being ADSL, it isn't the same for everyone, but my connection just isn't all that great. I get random downtime's, very slow speeds, and it seems to hate LFS
When i was with VM, i had zero problems, The only reason i changed is because i was struggling with cash at the time and decided to take the £5 pm option with sky to save me a bit.
So anyway, to jump to VM's defence, they are very chuffing far from shit, they are perhaps the best we have in England, the only thing that lets them down is the customer support, but again, that's very rarely needed.

EDIT: SkyHD tv however, kicks ass!

Quote from Xaid0n :

And the connection is constantly going down, you're either getting 2mbit 1 minute and 200kB the next, it takes the piss really. Glad VM works well for you, but for us it don't so we're shopping somewhere else.

Do i gather as you keep on about 2MB that you are/were on an ADSL service with Virgin? That's the only reason to see speed fluctuations like that unless you've gone over the FUP

If your getting speed fluctuations like that on an ADSL connection(and its not because you went over the FUP) then its almost certainly the telephone line/internal wiring etc. that is the problem. Changing provider wont sort that out.

I have 20mb virgin media, and although they are not perfect, its so much better than the other ISP's I have tried. They seemed to have relaxed their throttling as well.

So yeah I'd say they are the best we British can get atm.

im on vm and for my schooling need a line that is reliable and thats what i got, its also bloody fast andd as for sky, i had to set my sisters up and its awful and the security is wpa which oesnt agree with my sisters laptop and they dont give you the router access codes

We were with NTL (which for those who don't know, because Virgin Media) and our line was a whole heap of hassle from the moment we got it. Endless disconnections for no reason, sometimes for days on end, useless customer service, blah blah blah.
But since the Virgin takeover I understand it's a much better service.

We use Sky now too and have had nothing but good stuff from them. The subcontracted engineers are another story. But then one of our friends had a nightmare time with Sky as well and ended up cancelling his service before it was even due to go live.

It's all pot luck and entirely down to the people you happen to speak to and where you happen to live.

I'm on Virgin. I started out with Telewest/Blue Yonder on this line, and the service compared with those days has become absolutely abysmal. My brother was on NTL, and the service has got better for him under Virgin. Same service as me today, good or bad is all relative.

Virgin's network is not capable of delivering the 50MB service without re-grading other packages, and this is why the 10MB service is being downgraded to 2MB. They're also planning to alter their capping policy*, and that will result in an increase in network traffic, in-turn necessitating the reduction in per-package service to compensate. What Virgin are not doing, and this is pivotal, is increasing their network capacity. Because of this, the longer-term future for Virgin customers is significantly more bleak than BT customers on a LLU exchange. Virgin are the only major UK ISP without a network expansion/investment plan.

*Current capping policy provides for 3GB download between 4PM and 9PM with an instant cap to 1/4 line speed on the 20Mbit (XL) package. This effectively means that during the hours of the day when you're not at work, your 20Mbit line operates at 20Mbit for less than 40 minutes and reverts to 5Mbit/128kbps for 4 hours. If you exceed 40 minutes of 20Mbit usage at 8:59PM, your 5Mb/128k cap remains until 1AM. This is what Virgin describes as an "unlimited downloads" service.

NTL where brilliant with me for years, but when they became Virgin they lied through their teath about the whole capping thing. I was on the tube in London and read their "Unlimited Downloads*" advert, the * interestingly said...

*We dont sneek in small print like other providers, no hidden charges, no download limits. Just super fast blah blah balh

And I thought to myself, in what way is capping my downloads not a limit? This was after they had reduced the telephone and television packages already.

They then lied when I called and asked if I had hit the cap, the keyword they kept using here was "currently", of course I had not breached the cap that day as I was calling midday when their lines where open and didnt have huge queues.

When I moved NTL/Virgin had no cabling on my estate so i've gone with BT. Because I exceed all download limits of all but the unlimited package because of my work (I work from home and use the net heavily) I have to have the top package.

BT dont do their packages by speed, they do them by the amount you download, the speed is just "not guaranteed".

I get around 0.4mbit/sec download, ironically my upload is faster! Upload is actually better than when I was on NTL/Virgin (which is the one complaints I have about their so called 'fast' broadband, the upload is attrocious). Download however is apalling.

To make matters worse, because of my high usage during the day when working come the evening BT throttle me.

I am paying £40/month for broadband that is only marignally faster than the era of analogue.

Broadband suppliers in this country makes me sick.

O2's 'unlimited' looks good, Sky's isn't too bad, Be seems to be the best though if you can get it. Something like 300GB/month which I never pass.

Just got a flyer through my door from Virgin offering 10mb for £5 a month for the first three months, turns out because I've been an NTL/Virgin customer for a few years I can't have it for £5 a month.

I did notice though that the 10mb service is £14/mo thereafter, and I've been paying £18/mo for a 2mb service... ****ers.

I have no experience with Virgin internet, but I can tell you they are making a SILLY profit (i.e. if you sign up to Virgin at a PC World store Virgin will pay £142 to PC World if you take the Phone / TV / Internet bundle, as well as giving the sales guy £30 in vouchers!) - there business practices seem... questionable too (i.e. we had a rep come in who knew very little about the product, and was evasive about the FUP, and then let slip at the end that if a customer went direct to VM they'd beat the prices that we sell it for - which means effectively they want us to advertise their product with the potential for getting some more £ while actually hoping the customers go behind our back and go direct with them).

FWIW no other internet provider does this.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I did notice though that the 10mb service is £14/mo thereafter, and I've been paying £18/mo for a 2mb service... ****ers.

It may help if you call them and threaten to cancel your subscription. Often, they will offer existing customers a better deal for a renewed contract, to avoid losing them to the competition.

Quote from wsinda :

It may help if you call them and threaten to cancel your subscription. Often, they will offer existing customers a better deal for a renewed contract, to avoid losing them to the competition.

I've done that before but only when I was actually willing to go through with it. I don't want to have a BT line again.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Just got a flyer through my door from Virgin offering 10mb for £5 a month for the first three months, turns out because I've been an NTL/Virgin customer for a few years I can't have it for £5 a month.

I did notice though that the 10mb service is £14/mo thereafter, and I've been paying £18/mo for a 2mb service... ****ers.

Yeah, we had that. Turnout for about 4 quid like you said, we had a "10MB" line as opposed to the "2MB" one we had since we were with Blueyonder.

Never told us ANYTHING about their minimum package going up to 10 megs.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Just got a flyer through my door from Virgin offering 10mb for £5 a month for the first three months, turns out because I've been an NTL/Virgin customer for a few years I can't have it for £5 a month.

I did notice though that the 10mb service is £14/mo thereafter, and I've been paying £18/mo for a 2mb service... ****ers.

Simple solution would be to cancel your contract. Then re-apply. You should be entitled to it then, if not, then I'm sure you can find a better provider (in terms of price&speed) for a better price than you're currently paying.

Don't feel bad, I'm still on 1mb for £17.99 a month.

Except if your halfway into a contract it could well be 9 months till you can leave.

Quote from Quint999 :

-Snip-

Sounds like deja vu, I kept having the speed capped despite it being outside the time, and that also resulted in lag spikes and unplayable gameplay, thankfully mum has gone to a different service and we have a 10mb service.

OT - With BT here, no issues at all. CS suck, but they never bother with download limits etc. Something in the region of £26 a month for "up to 8" (although I get about 6.5mbit).

You most likely only get 6.5 because that's the limit of your line.

all this talk about VM but not a single answer to my question

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

You most likely only get 6.5 because that's the limit of your line.

I know that - I was just saying I actually get a decent speed as a lot of people seem to complain that BT randomly slows down to nothing all the time...

Quote from DevilDare :

all this talk about VM but not a single answer to my question

I answered it. You didn't read.


Jack.