how about we start a campaign to let VM know that we LIKE SHAPING

Originally Posted by helmutcheese

Are you trying to start trouble, I read the topic as sarsasm.

if you have a problem with any posts, threads, or topics the Cable Forum team are more than capable of dealing.


my 4 meg + paid for newsgroups I can schedule does for me

[JackSon]

Ok Lezwez, I'll simplify it for you, as I have actually given you my reason more than once in this topic (as have others) if you bothered to read it.

It is apparent that with a network unable to support a sustained full 20Mb for all at peak times, there will have to be some kind of bandwidth management employed. Out of the main alternatives I see, you can have service termination after a certain usage (bandwidth cap), or you can face extra charges for usage over a certain limit (financial deterrent, stealth tax etc.), or there is shaping. Out of the three I see shaping as by far the most customer friendly as service continues and nothing is added onto your bill.

In an ideal situation I would like to have a network with no need for any management at all but it is not a perfect world we live in, so until conditions improve I support shaping above any other possible method which could be employed. I also enjoy the knowledge that the shaping will have a next to nothing impact on my usage becasue of my internet habits. That is not true for all I know, but for me it is and thats what fuels my opinions on my service - how it affects me.

[Rone]

Originally Posted by JackSon

Ok Lezwez, I'll simplify it for you, as I have actually given you my reason more than once in this topic (as have others) if you bothered to read it.

It is apparent that with a network unable to support a sustained full 20Mb for all at peak times, there will have to be some kind of bandwidth management employed. Out of the main alternatives I see, you can have service termination after a certain usage (bandwidth cap), or you can face extra charges for usage over a certain limit (financial deterrent, stealth tax etc.), or there is shaping. Out of the three I see shaping as by far the most customer friendly as service continues and nothing is added onto your bill.

In an ideal situation I would like to have a network with no need for any management at all but it is not a perfect world we live in, so until conditions improve I support shaping above any other possible method which could be employed. I also enjoy the knowledge that the shaping will have a next to nothing impact on my usage becasue of my internet habits. That is not true for all I know, but for me it is and thats what fuels my opinions on my service - how it affects me.

Exactly, its this or download limits, but some are just not reading whats put.
A lot of the people moaning [sorry complaining] were probably not even here when the hot news of the day was "Caps".
No, not what schoolboys wear on their heads, this was a really heated debate that was very similar to this, when there was technically a capped service.
Most people went over the limit, by accident or otherwise, a few got warning letters, and a very few [if any?] got turfed off the service.
My point is, in a few months there will be something else, and although this "speed reduction" is'nt popular with anyone, it looks like its here for the foreseable future, and this forum is probably a tiny minority of Virgin customers.
No doubt your mum or gran wont ever notice the speed reduction, and will never have any complaint whatsoever, it would be interesting to know how many customers are on here regularly, versus the total number of customers.
If we totalled 10% [unlikely] Virgin would have a fairly satisfied 90% of customers.
I cant see them losing too much sleep over it, and all the talk about it on here wont change a thing, but dont let that stop anyone.

[Biggus]

Well I'd be happy to endorse a "feature" like this if it worked as intended, but it doesn't for me. I have the 20Mb speed enabled on my my modem although the best speed I've got yet is 15Mb, but that's not why I'm posting.

I'm posting here because between 4pm and 11:45pm EVERY DAY, my speeds are at best around the 1-2Mb mark, and usually hover around the 600-800Kb mark for most of the evening with higher latency to boot (70ms+). Come 11:45pm, my speeds jump to 12Mb+ with latency down to 15-17ms.

So please tell me why I'm paying top money for the "top tier" package and yet only getting around 3% of what I'm paying for? Would anyone realistically settle for that on any other service? If I/we are now getting 1/3rd of the time that I'm paying for at a greatly reduced service, why haven't we had the pricing reduced accordingly? Also remember this is at the peak time that the majority of people use it and is therefore effectively half of the actual usage time, as the rst of the time people are at work/school etc.

Everything was fine until VM took over, and if it's true that a small percentage of users are making the service crap for everyone because of their "abuse", then why don't they just remove their services completely so the rest of us can actually get what we pay for without restriction?

I had VM get an engineer out last week to check it wasn't anything else nearby causing it (which of course I knew it wasn't), he said everything was ok and was quite surprised at just how poor my service was (this was around 4:30pm), no matter which site I tried accessing/downloading from.

Can I download an MP3 track in under 2secs? I seriously doubt I could download a track in 2 minutes like this.

So if you want to start a "campaign" to let VM know how great it all is, just remember to include those of us who aren't getting it so great. I'm quite a distance from a BT exchange, so I'd be lucky to get 1Mb if that, but at least I wouldn't be paying £38 pm for it (ok I'm only paying half price ATM, but that's for the balls-up NTL made with my no TV for 3.5weeks up to and including Christmas, and the susbequent taking of £93 from my bank despite me telling them not to, AND the subsequent charging of full-price BB for 2 months when it was supposed to be half price), can you say "fools"?

Yeah it may be a rant, but I'm sick of paying for other people's crap and want what I'm paying for. I've never "abused" my service, in fact the most I've ever DL'd in one month was 70Gb and that was when we had the 75Gb cap (most of that went on downloading the likes of 24, SG1, BSG etc. which I paid for via NTL/Sky supscription but download because I hate poxy adverts every 5 minutes).

Originally Posted by Biggus

Well I'd be happy to endorse a "feature" like this if it worked as intended, but it doesn't for me. I have the 20Mb speed enabled on my my modem although the best speed I've got yet is 15Mb, but that's not why I'm posting.

I'm posting here because between 4pm and 11:45pm EVERY DAY, my speeds are at best around the 1-2Mb mark, and usually hover around the 600-800Kb mark for most of the evening with higher latency to boot (70ms+). Come 11:45pm, my speeds jump to 12Mb+ with latency down to 15-17ms.

So please tell me why I'm paying top money for the "top tier" package and yet only getting around 3% of what I'm paying for? Would anyone realistically settle for that on any other service? If I/we are now getting 1/3rd of the time that I'm paying for at a greatly reduced service, why haven't we had the pricing reduced accordingly? Also remember this is at the peak time that the majority of people use it and is therefore effectively half of the actual usage time, as the rst of the time people are at work/school etc.

Everything was fine until VM took over, and if it's true that a small percentage of users are making the service crap for everyone because of their "abuse", then why don't they just remove their services completely so the rest of us can actually get what we pay for without restriction?

I had VM get an engineer out last week to check it wasn't anything else nearby causing it (which of course I knew it wasn't), he said everything was ok and was quite surprised at just how poor my service was (this was around 4:30pm), no matter which site I tried accessing/downloading from.

Can I download an MP3 track in under 2secs? I seriously doubt I could download a track in 2 minutes like this.

So if you want to start a "campaign" to let VM know how great it all is, just remember to include those of us who aren't getting it so great. I'm quite a distance from a BT exchange, so I'd be lucky to get 1Mb if that, but at least I wouldn't be paying £38 pm for it (ok I'm only paying half price ATM, but that's for the balls-up NTL made with my no TV for 3.5weeks up to and including Christmas, and the susbequent taking of £93 from my bank despite me telling them not to, AND the subsequent charging of full-price BB for 2 months when it was supposed to be half price), can you say "fools"?

Yeah it may be a rant, but I'm sick of paying for other people's crap and want what I'm paying for. I've never "abused" my service, in fact the most I've ever DL'd in one month was 70Gb and that was when we had the 75Gb cap (most of that went on downloading the likes of 24, SG1, BSG etc. which I paid for via NTL/Sky supscription but download because I hate poxy adverts every 5 minutes).

Biggus, you have my sympathy (probably don't want it, but you have it anyway), and so does anyone else in your position.

Why not vote with your wallet, and reduce your BB to 2 or 4mb - those are fairly stable, and you could tell VM that was why you were doing it; if enough disgruntled subscribers do it, it should get some attention. Or at least you (and others) won't be paying for a service you're not getting.