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Armitage Shanks · 14-07-2007, 22:58

The missus and I have had V+ for about 3 months now and she is pretty much at the end of her tether with it now. I don't watch a great deal of TV myself but she uses the recording feature to watch an average of 2 hours of programming per day.

Unfortunately, there barely ever seems to be a recording which isn't rendered almost unwatchable by the constant stuttering sound.

Now, I haven't even bothered to report it to them as I know from this and other fora that the problem isn't specific to me, rather it is an inherent flaw in the service that they provide - which leads me onto the point of my post...

We have now reached the point where having tolerated this problem for months and having seen it fail to be solved that we would sooner cancel our subscription with VM entirely and defect to Sky, lock and stock.

Of course, they may argue that we could downgrade our package and switch to a non-V+ service but we signed up for our package on the basis that the package would correctly perform the fuction that we subscribed for it to perform - we would rather get a working Sky+ package (which we had for over 3 years previously) than a non-V+ package.

Essentially, my question is whether or not I have a legal basis on which to terminate my contract before the 12 month tie-in expires on the grounds that the service is not as advertised and is not fit-for-purpose.

Does anyone know of a precedent for this and has anyone else used the fact that the recording and stuttering renders the service all but unusable to succesfully cancel their contract early?

Just in case I get a backlash from the VM fans on here (I'm not saying I will, I'm just not looking for a ruck), I'd like to point out that I have no inherent interest in VM bashing and if they provided a service which was of equal quality and functionality, in my opinion, to the service I received from Sky for several years then I would be quite happy to see out my contract and beyond, receiving a service which can be used to the full.

As it stands, I think I'll be giving VM a ring on monday and I am anticipating all kinds of stalling tactics to try to grind me into losing the will to carry on - suggesting that the problem may be specific to me when they know full well that this is a widespread problem, sending out engineers to mess about with cables and the box, getting me to reformat (again - I've done it myself several times), getting me to turn off the box for several minutes and seeing if that fixes it, etc...

This isn't intended to be a rant and if anyone can offer/add anything constructive to solve my stuttering problem or help me to get myself out of the 12 month contract, it would be gratefully received.

14-07-2007, 22:58	#1
Armitage Shanks Inactive Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 14	Cancelling Virgin subscription The missus and I have had V+ for about 3 months now and she is pretty much at the end of her tether with it now. I don't watch a great deal of TV myself but she uses the recording feature to watch an average of 2 hours of programming per day. Unfortunately, there barely ever seems to be a recording which isn't rendered almost unwatchable by the constant stuttering sound. Now, I haven't even bothered to report it to them as I know from this and other fora that the problem isn't specific to me, rather it is an inherent flaw in the service that they provide - which leads me onto the point of my post... We have now reached the point where having tolerated this problem for months and having seen it fail to be solved that we would sooner cancel our subscription with VM entirely and defect to Sky, lock and stock. Of course, they may argue that we could downgrade our package and switch to a non-V+ service but we signed up for our package on the basis that the package would correctly perform the fuction that we subscribed for it to perform - we would rather get a working Sky+ package (which we had for over 3 years previously) than a non-V+ package. Essentially, my question is whether or not I have a legal basis on which to terminate my contract before the 12 month tie-in expires on the grounds that the service is not as advertised and is not fit-for-purpose. Does anyone know of a precedent for this and has anyone else used the fact that the recording and stuttering renders the service all but unusable to succesfully cancel their contract early? Just in case I get a backlash from the VM fans on here (I'm not saying I will, I'm just not looking for a ruck), I'd like to point out that I have no inherent interest in VM bashing and if they provided a service which was of equal quality and functionality, in my opinion, to the service I received from Sky for several years then I would be quite happy to see out my contract and beyond, receiving a service which can be used to the full. As it stands, I think I'll be giving VM a ring on monday and I am anticipating all kinds of stalling tactics to try to grind me into losing the will to carry on - suggesting that the problem may be specific to me when they know full well that this is a widespread problem, sending out engineers to mess about with cables and the box, getting me to reformat (again - I've done it myself several times), getting me to turn off the box for several minutes and seeing if that fixes it, etc... This isn't intended to be a rant and if anyone can offer/add anything constructive to solve my stuttering problem or help me to get myself out of the 12 month contract, it would be gratefully received.