350M : Back with VM

[VX1953]

Hi Guys.

Just re-signed back with VM on their M250 package, but because I'm with O2 it's been upped to the M350 service, hopefully the Hub will arrive on Saturday on Self Installation.

Was originally with Cable Midlands 512k service, then Telewest and finally VM until I left in Jan this year due to not getting a good deal on renewal and went with a local based Openreach Service Provider on a 12 month contract, but could only get a 67 Mbps VDSL service which ended up at just over 42 Mbps at my TP-Link Router despite my ISP telling me the VDSL Service to me is fine.
Full Fibre from Openreach, Cityfibre etc is not available here yet just outside Telford just yet though an Openreach email said that a year ago FTTP was on its way but no date offered.

After being finally on Virgin's M500, I found the VDSL 42Mbps service slow and lately webpages at times have been taking 5 seconds to load and Video streaming suffering with a buffering issue at times so decided to bite the bullet and go back to VM and a VM promise that I can claim my leaving fees up to £200, though I think my final VDSL service bill will be around £75.

The only thing I don't like so for is the VM 24 month contracts.

Originally Posted by VX1953

The only thing I don't like so for is the VM 24 month contracts.

Thats one reason I would never go back, 24M is just too long to be tied to one ISP.

[VX1953]

It is too long but nearly every BB and Phone Service is on or moving to 24 month contracts.

Got sent a Hub 5 and set it up in Modem Mode to my TP-Link Router setup this afternoon and getting nearly 340Mbps on my Toshiba Laptop via 5Ghz Wifi and the full 360 on my Desktop PC Ethernet connection with Windows 10 and also Windows 7. When I first setup I noticed I was only getting 168 Mbps on OOKLA's Speedtest and 163Mbps on Virgin's Broadband speed checker, phoned Virgin's Tech Support and they did their checks and got a Engineer call booked for Tuesday, about 2 hours later on checking the Download speeds had gone up, so might just cancel the Techie visit.

Got told by the Asian call center Guy that you can't get the full speed downloads on the M350 and above packages when in Modem mode, told him that was a load of b*****ks, I told him that 9 months ago prior to leaving VM I was getting the full M500 package on the Hub 3 in Modem Mode and the same TP-Link Router, he shut up after that.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Paul

24M is just too long to be tied to one ISP.

That depends on your priorities. My ISP offered me 18 months. I asked if they could do 24 instead, which they did. Two years of peace.

[Inactive Digital]

I wouldn't mind a 2 year contract if the price I was paying at the end resembled something like the price I was paying at the start. With VM though that extra 6 months of peace costs £48. I'd rather call retentions 6 months earier, as that 20 minute call would be pretty lucrative. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Ofcom does next about mid-contract rises.

Welcome back OP. It sounds like we live close by one another. There's no full fibre here either and the max I can get on Openreach is 37mb (if I could get a line into my house!). So its VM or mobile broadband for me - a little bit of competition would be nice. Openreach are apparently due to lay full fibre from my exchange next year.

[jem]

Originally Posted by Inactive Digital

I wouldn't mind a 2 year contract if the price I was paying at the end resembled something like the price I was paying at the start. With VM though that extra 6 months of peace costs £48. I'd rather call retentions 6 months earier, as that 20 minute call would be pretty lucrative. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Ofcom does next about mid-contract rises.

Welcome back OP. It sounds like we live close by one another. There's no full fibre here either and the max I can get on Openreach is 37mb (if I could get a line into my house!). So its VM or mobile broadband for me - a little bit of competition would be nice. Openreach are apparently due to lay full fibre from my exchange next year.

OFCOM has already done something, prior to their intervention, the supplier could say that ‘each April (say) the price will increase by 4%+the inflation rate as of the previous February’. The obvious issue is that there are a number of ways to calculate the inflation rate, and they don’t all give the same result, secondly, how does a potential new customer know what the inflation rate will be, possibly a year ahead, and can plan accordingly?

OFCOM ruled out such a thing, and said that suppliers had to give specific figures or a fixed percentage increase. Yes it’s still going to cost the customer more money, but at least they have the ability to know what the increase is likely to be, and decide accordingly.

So fine, sign up with, say VM now (other suppliers are available) for £x and you probably can have a good idea of what it will cost next year, and so on.

Oh and you think it will only be a 20 minute (lucrative) call to retentions, now? Good luck with that one! The only, only way to get a good deal is to threaten to leave, and mean it - don’t bluff, they are trained to see through that. And if they accept your offer to leave, then what? You have investigated and costed up alternative suppliers haven’t you - and are actually prepared to go elsewhere?

Because if not, if you give notice, VM accept it and tell you that you will be cut of in 30 days, and you were bluffing and call VM ‘begging’ to stay; there will be a massive red flag on your account which basically says ‘offer this person nothing at all - in fact charge them more’!

---------- Post added at 19:42 ---------- Previous post was at 19:37 ----------

Originally Posted by spiderplant

That depends on your priorities. My ISP offered me 18 months. I asked if they could do 24 instead, which they did. Two years of peace.

Yes OK fine, depends on your personal circumstances. So you are locked in for two years, why not five (five years of peace)?

Except they can and will slightly increase the price you pay every year, and you can’t leave, well not without paying an early disconnection fee - which could run into a fair sum.