ISP, phone, media provider change?

[Vid]

Currently with Virgin, recently the cable broadband has been abysmal, dropping the connection occasional, very, very, very, very slow frequently. The Indian(?) call centre is a waste of time as I can barely hear a word they're saying, the last time I bothered the line just went silent mid-conversation. There appears to be no actual "help" available from them and the piss poor broadband is really doing my head in now.

Due to being cable and everything else needing a BT line our only option appears to be switching back to BT, slower broadband - 7.5Mb max against 20Mb currently, but if it's a stable 7.5 meg it's got to be better than no connection/ under 1meg that we've been getting on and off for the past few weeks. An added bonus is that taking as full a package as we can (a few channels that we do watch will no longer be available) works out up to £50 cheaper a month, mainly due to phone charges.

For the BT broadband users out there, how stable is your broadband?

One of the main reasons from moving previously was to get Sky Sports that weren't available via BT at the time, I don't pay that much attention to which channels I'm watching, am I going to miss something important by "only" having Sky Sports 1 & 2?

Sky as a service provider would just about split the difference in cost between Virgin and BT (but with all Sky Channels), the catch being that it's still reliant on a BT landline that I get installed free by going with BT or paying around £200 just to get the line connected.

Any thoughts or opinions?

[Steph]

I have sworn hatred of BT after being landed a £200 quarterly bill for breaching my download limit (kids streaming top gear and bears behaving badly )- no warning nothing for the whole three months until the bill dropped through the letter box

when I phoned up they tried to blackmail me into signing up to a new more expensive contract (looking into the charges would take days and was complicated, and they'd only do that if I signed up there and then). When I said no, they came back in minutes and said sorry your fault payup. I quit BT and then get weeks of grovelly begging calls (this time from people who can speak English) asking me to come back.

that said, BT is the most reliable broadband I have ever had.

[MarquisMark]

Simple for me Vid - Virgin is the best Broadband you'll get out there. If you find an alternative that you like, then fair play

I'd be more inclined to kick up a real fuss and get them to look at the underground cables than move. The Indian call centre is only there for out of hours, altho i know they do creep onto regular hours.

First thing on a Monday morning you should always get thru to someone in Nottingham tho. Or wherever they are these days.

If you've made your mind up tho, then good luck!

[Five long bones]

What modem do you have Vid, it may need replacing, if it`s a Scientific Atlantic get it replaced, but it sounds like a downstream power issue.

If its a surfboard modem can you post the readings from here.

http://192.168.100.1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Vid]

After another evening with a piss poor connection and then it just dropping totally again I call support again, finally an open and honest person on the other end of the line, there is a problem in the area that will not be repaired until sometime in March! So I've got a £!5 credit but will have to put up with a service that is poor/ disappears frequently for the next 2 months, my complaint has been logged. Whoopie!

[unc.si.]

spent about 3 hours on the phone today to Virgin and Sky. Basically virgin put their prices up again so I was paying £103 a month.
Could get the same from Sky on ultrafast cable (ok 'only' 150mbps instead of 200 mbps but in the real world probably similar and more than enough for zoom and Netflix) for just under half the price.

Virgins intro offer for the same would have been about £60, so if they'd put me on that I'd stick with them. Eventually got them to come down to £70. I guess they thought that £30 off was good enough. I was pretty close to saying OK as long as you send me new hardware as well (which is what I'd get if I was a new customer) but no, that was only if I stuck to the 2 year old router and cable box. Told them I'd call Sky and if they confirmed less than £60 I'd switch.

So I'm now with Sky (at £52, only slightly more than advertised but the package was tweaked slightly so it was the same as I was getting from Virgin) and will be calling Virgin back to cancel. OK they might offer me more off when I call but to be honest, the Sky installation is all booked in now, I've halved my monthly cost and I can't be arsed calling Sky again to cancel. virgin have lost their leverage to make me pay a few extra quid to avoid switching hassle now I've been through the whole Sky sign up process.

I don't really get it though. I mean I know that they have to make it hard for people to get onto better deals and must have a premium in mind that people are prepared to pay to stay with the same system rather than switch to someone else, but they must know what their competitors are offering and you'd think they'd get a bit closer to it. I guess there must be a lot of people that won't follow through with the switch threat so they accept losing a few to protect their revenue.

I just hope I'm not regretting this in a couple of months

[Vid]

Still with Virginmedia here, 600meg broadband (they keep upgrading us) and presumably the latest router to use it (no cost/ installation - ignored the pamphlet, plugged it and it worked) with Sky Sports and Movies it comes in at over £100/ month, but every year I just set MrsVid on them to argue it down a few quid, she's very good at that Get the occasional slow down still, but not too slow for too long. Had problems with Alexa and some other bluetooth connections until the latest router.

Also got an unlimited mobile sim, just no unlocked phone to slide it into atm, EE account ends next month so will probably switch, have never been outside of Orange/EE in the UK as a mobile provider.

[unc.si.]

well after a couple more goes I did get the new box and almost exactly the same package I'm on now for less than Sky's intro offer, so I've more than halved the monthly cost for the same package with new kit and don't have to have openrreach digging up the front yard for a new cable and no satellite dish on the house.

Its taken quite a few calls and a lot of very patient and polite negotiating, but happy with that.

just have to ring Sky to cancel now (signed up with Sky as that triggers them notifying Virgin that we want to port a phone line over so shows I'm not bluffing). Probably another 2 hours but not much else to do to be honest

[unc.si.]

All set up now. New kit is so much better and faster than the old TiVo box.
Put a 3 node mesh wifi in as well instead of the virgin hub, and also finally got round to wiring in ethernet sockets in each room to a switch in the attic so have a full 200mbps through the whole house now with work zoom calls and kids zoom lectures all going through ethernet instead of sharing wifi.
at least I'll know now that any drop offs in speed are down to Virgin and not anything in the house.

[unc.si.]

Back out of contract now.
Can’t be arsed going through the whole negotiation rigmarole with Virgin, and we’ve got cityfibre cables now as well so just cancelling Virgin, getting gigabit cable broadband through the cityfibre network and going over to streaming tv.
We never watch live tv anyway.

Virgin are one of the worst businesses out there for customer service though.
They don’t make anything simple. Waiting for a customer retention expert now. I get that they don’t want to make it easy to leave, but they don’t have to make the process quite so painful.

I quite like the idea of having 2 cables coming into the house. Gives me a better choice for future contract negotiations

[blahblah]

The trouble with Virgin is that they don't give a fook

[unc.si.]

I'm on a chat with them now. I really am running out of ways to say 'could you please just cancel the service'

[blahblah]

When does/did the Contract end?

[blahblah]

Ask him/her how do you cancel etc and then tell them to do the first step.

Asking for a copy of their "training" recording is also a nifty trick as it usually scares them.

[unc.si.]

ended last month. They've offered me some pretty good deals but the penny has finally dropped I think

[blahblah]

ended last month. They've offered me some pretty good deals but the penny has finally dropped I think

You're speaking to Ms Mordant? I'm jealous

Ask for how to reclaim the cost for this marathon phone call

[unc.si.]

They have to go through a script, so best bet is to stay polite but firm and let them run through their checklist. They're cancelling it now

[unc.si.]

ended last month. They've offered me some pretty good deals but the penny has finally dropped I think

You're speaking to Ms Mordant? I'm jealous

Ask for how to reclaim the cost for this marathon phone call

That Penny doesn't have any further to drop
I'm doing it via chat so it doesn't cost anything and I can do other things at the same time

[Mav3rick]

Their customer service is the worst of any company I ever experienced, even over whatsapp the whole process is just dire and designed to just put you off.

Won't ever go back to them, no matter how good the deal is, as a point of principle now.

[unc.si.]

After cancelling Virgin I tried out a streaming box (just a cheap Roku 4k) on my new broadband connection and never bothered plugging the Virgin kit back in again.

I don’t see how Virgin medias business model stacks up any more. Not for much longer anyway in its current form unless they get a lot more flexible (and a LOT) more easy to deal with.

They’ve still not been in touch to collect the old kit and there’s no easy way to get in touch with them.
Their ‘contact us’ page says to please only contact them if you need to. Obviously they get inundated with calls from people who just want someone to chat to