[Sephiroth]

I think Arthur has conflated a number of issues here.

The word "promise" is at the heart of this topic. There is at least one VM fan on this thread that doesn't equate "marketing speak" to "promise". But a normal person reading what VM says or listening to an authoritative person would take VM at it's word. And that's a promise to most people, isn't it? My word is my bond sort of thing.

I think that there are three main areas where VM hasn't delivered on its promises:

1/
The field engineers as mentioned by Arthur. My experience is that they vary as to whether they are contractors (usually poor) or staff (seniors whom I rate fairly highly).

2/
The Super Hub (say no more).

3/
Their "perfect for gaming" and "download when you want, frequently and quickly". I won't go over this ground again as it's well covered in my contribution to this thread.

But as a general internet service, VM do deliver. Their "up to" guards are reasonable seeing how many mega-downloaders there are who demand all the bandwidth.

In short, they are a great company, their Tivo service is excellent. But with much room to improve.