50M : Bye Bye Virginmedia

[Phil53]

Had a nice ride on the 50mb service for the first nine months. Slower, slower, slowest!

After much agro for 9 months Virgin caved in and refunded 90% of my charges.

Service went back to normal eventually and for a few months it was ok.

Now its getting so poor it never gets above 20-30mb if we are lucky.

Rather than go through the trauma of more stories and excuses I signed up with BT Infinity.

I was happy to give up £28 a month on 50mb service which never was and get up to 40mb for £20.

Well I got a letter in writing stating never lower than 34.6mb download and 10mb upload.

Been on for three days and average 38mb almost everywhere I go. Very happy indeed!

Went to exactly the same sites and large test files as the Virgin connection and the speed was 2 to 3 times as good.

What can I say other than I assume that the 50mb connection is traffic managed or has yet another "capacity issue" as it had for 9 months last time.

So I gave virgin a good shot but now its time to go and fair thee well.

I wish you all good luck and the best of luck, your going to need it if my experience is anything to go by!

Phil53

[greeninferno]

Originally Posted by Phil53

Had a nice ride on the 50mb service for the first nine months. Slower, slower, slowest!

After much agro for 9 months Virgin caved in and refunded 90% of my charges.

Service went back to normal eventually and for a few months it was ok.

Now its getting so poor it never gets above 20-30mb if we are lucky.

Rather than go through the trauma of more stories and excuses I signed up with BT Infinity.

I was happy to give up £28 a month on 50mb service which never was and get up to 40mb for £20.

Well I got a letter in writing stating never lower than 34.6mb download and 10mb upload.

Been on for three days and average 38mb almost everywhere I go. Very happy indeed!

Went to exactly the same sites and large test files as the Virgin connection and the speed was 2 to 3 times as good.

What can I say other than I assume that the 50mb connection is traffic managed or has yet another "capacity issue" as it had for 9 months last time.

So I gave virgin a good shot but now its time to go and fair thee well.

I wish you all good luck and the best of luck, your going to need it if my experience is anything to go by!

Phil53

sorry to hear about your experience

can i ask how far you are from your exchange?

[Threepints]

Originally Posted by greeninferno

sorry to hear about your experience

can i ask how far you are from your exchange?

If he is on cable surely this should not matter? That is if you are enquiring re his virgin speed.

[kwikbreaks]

It doesn't matter for Infinity either - it's the distance to the street cabinet that matters with that.

[Phil53]

150 yards from the BT cabinet

Virgin 50mb does not use an "exchange". Customers should know this

[greeninferno]

Originally Posted by Phil53

150 yards from the BT cabinet

Virgin 50mb does not use an "exchange". Customers should know this

yes it was the BT exchange i was enquiring about.

so the distance does not matter from the exchange with this new technology from BT?

[Perfect Choice]

But the distance from the cabinet does I belive, you are still using traditional copper telephone line to your house from the cabinet which is nothing like the Coax cable VM use from their cabinets.

So while there can be some variation on bandwidth capability and certainly cannot match VM 50 & 100MB, BT Infinity does seem to provide a better responsive service than VM for the bandwidth which is available, based from comments made.

It is a clear threat to the 30MB and below market, so distance is much less an issue than traditional ADSL, notably the ability of users to get 30MB+ (and better upload) a good distance away from the old BT exchange when previously they may struggle to get to 10MB.

[kwikbreaks]

Yes distance to the cabinet matters. BT will not install the Infinity product if you can't get at least 15Mbps but other ISPs may possibly resell the underlying product with worse performance. All ISPs give a speed estimate when you order these days.

Infinity uses VDSL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDSL

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Phil53

150 yards from the BT cabinet

Virgin 50mb does not use an "exchange". Customers should know this

Virgin Media have a completely different setup to BT as they use CMTS which is rather different to an exchange although they will be in a building akin to one.

[Harryn9000]

phil is your top light on your superhub green or blue. i only ask this as i had a problem about 2 months ago where my router was not bonding it which it resulted me getting the speeds u are describing.

[Phil53]

The lights on the Virgin product are Blue. It is two years old.

It was not just the poor speed performance from Virgin I was led a dance for 9 months. I really did not like that.

Also the owner is starting a Bank up

I found out who he intends to use to insure his fiat currency loans.

The only ethical thing to do is leave this company at once.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”
M.Gandhi.

I don't think Gandhi quotes really come into play when you've had somewhat slower internet speeds as opposed to cutting down rainforests and starving african children.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Phil53

The lights on the Virgin product are Blue. It is two years old.

It was not just the poor speed performance from Virgin I was led a dance for 9 months. I really did not like that.

Also the owner is starting a Bank up

I found out who he intends to use to insure his fiat currency loans.

The only ethical thing to do is leave this company at once.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed�
M.Gandhi.

OH Dear another person who does not even bother to look up his facts before posting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Media

Richard Branson does not own Virgin Media and nor has he ever owned it, his group of companies have leased the name Virgin Media to NTL/Telewest for maximum period of up to 30 years.

The majority of customers have no issues and the grass is not always greener on an ADSL connection.

[Phil53]

If Wikipedia is your data source good luck with your postulates for the financial future.

I am VERY pleased I have left Virginmedia as I was misled by its "staff members" on many occasions.

To all Virgin media customers who get slow speeds and Virgin staff members tell you some nonsense about "high Utilization" problems or any other excuse about Virginmedia is being slowed up by an outside agency like a Borough Council for instance.

What you do is telephone the local council and contact the Dept that deals with "work and Engineering permits" for BT, the Electricity and Gas company Virginmedia etc etc.

The council worker who is often funnily enough an Ex BT employee can look up ALL the outstanding permits of work that needs doing and requests for work to be done in your street or area.

I found my local Council very happy to provide me with ALL the ammunition I needed to disprove what I was being told by the Virginmedia staff members

You can actually find out if you are being told an absoloute pack of lies (as I did) about your speed being slow because of someone other than Virginmedia being responsible.

Don't take what your told on trust. Find out for yourself whats going on.

When you do find out and if Virginmedia is at fault demand full repayment for the period of slow speed and involve the Ombudsman from day one.

Don't pay for a service thats below standard. Don't take what the Virgin media staff member tells you. Often they don't know whats going on. In my case the Virgin media staff member admitted that road work and cable installs were done by outside contractors rather than Virginmedia staff members.

I was suprised when the Virginmedia staff member went on to excuse the slow speeds as being out of his contraol as the contractors were not duty bound to tell Virginmedia staff members what they were doing or how progress was going regarding the cabling up to improve speeds. I thought it very poor business practice to pay people to work for you who di not answer to you.

But then I work for myself and am not constrained by the working practices of Virginmedia staff members

I am sure there are many Virginmedia staff members who work tirelessly for long hours and low wages to provide an excellent service. In my case they failed.

Lets see how Virginmedia do over the next 12 months. I wish them only the best along with all the Virginmedia staff members. LOL

[philwhite100]

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

It doesn't matter for Infinity either - it's the distance to the street cabinet that matters with that.

No BT Infinity in our area yet but the streeet cabinet is about 50 yards away from our house.