Extremely slow speed for 6 months - virgin has been extremely unhelpful

[Daniel Kaplansky]

Ever since we joined the Virgin 20MB Broadband Package 6 months ago in September we have had a speed ranging between 3-4 MB

I have called the Virgin Support team 20-30 times, 10 technicians have been to my house gave up after 1 hour and left, I have sent 10 complaint forms and received no reply, I have posted on Virgin Media Support forum.

We have 4 computers here - a PC, 2 Macbooks and a brand new Netbook. Virgin consistently believes that "it is a problem with my computer", yet that is not possible.


It is clear that this is a very rare problem but no one is taking the effort to treat it as such. Virgin just makes the regular checks (upstream, downstream, hub problem, speed test etc.) but NO ONE tries to take it the next level and fix it.


All I am asking for is for Virgin to do their job and provide me with the service that they promised AND obligated by contract to give me.


Here is some of my data:



Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\Daniel>tracert bbc.co.uk
Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 26 ms 11 ms 10 ms cpc4-addl4-2-0-gw.6-3.cable.virginmedia.com [80.
3.154.1]
2 10 ms 25 ms 8 ms hers-core-1b-ae1-1686.network.virginmedia.net [8
0.3.33.197]
3 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms popl-bb-1b-so-501-0.network.virginmedia.net [213
.105.175.41]
4 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms glfd-bb-1a-ae4-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.159.61]
5 13 ms 12 ms 10 ms glfd-bb-1b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.172.6]
6 13 ms 11 ms 11 ms glfd-tmr-1-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.159.46]
7 14 ms 15 ms 15 ms redb-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.
185.78]
8 21 ms 15 ms 15 ms 212.58.239.249
9 16 ms 14 ms 15 ms 212.58.238.149
10 14 ms 14 ms 28 ms virtual-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]
Trace complete.




Here are my upstream and downstream numbers:


Downstream Channel

Lock Status Locked Modulation QAM256
Channel ID 56 Symbol Rate 5360537
Downstream Frequency 306750000 Hz Downstream Power -0.9 dBmV
SNR 43.2 dBmV


Upstream Channel

Lock Status Locked Modulation QAM16
Channel ID 4 Symbol Rate 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream Frequency 46200000 Hz Upstream Power 35.2 dBmV




average download speed from gamefiles.virginmedia is 370 kb/s
Highest - 420 kb/s
Lowest - 320 kb/s



Thank you to whoever can help!

[philwhite100]

Not good service at all. I assume you are on a cable connection therefore you should get 20mb or thereabouts. Not all speedtesters are accurate so try www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk and see what results you get and also try (unless already done) a wired connection with an ethernet cable as sometimes wireless connections can be a bit poor.

Sorry if i am mentioning something that has already been done.

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by Daniel Kaplansky

average download speed from gamefiles.virginmedia is 370 kb/s
Highest - 420 kb/s
Lowest - 320 kb/s



Thank you to whoever can help!

Phone up and choose the Thinking Of Leaving Us option. Explain the problem to the Agent and hopefully it will get escalated and fixed.

If not then Cancel VM and get some variety of ADSL. No matter how long or bad your phone line is you will get better speeds than the rates you quoted.

As an added bonus the ADSL will likely be cheaper too.

[Daniel Kaplansky]

Thank you for the quick reply!

Yes, sorry I forgot to mention that we connect both via cable and wireless and it hasn't made a difference.

I did the speed test just now on that site and it was even worse - 1966 kbps


I will phone them up Monday again and try the thinking of leaving us option.

Its shocking to me how even when I speak to a manager all they can say is "There is something wrong with your computer. What do you want me to do about it? Goodbye"
this is customer service?

[Nopanic]

Go on Twitter and message them .. I guarantee they will reply and do their best ..

[Telford240]

Welcome to my world bud, BT Infinity about to be installed for me I think, even though mine is better than yours, I pay for 20mb but my ranges from 4mb to 10mb :-(