50M Virgin broadband is driving me crazy - Page 5

octatonic · 23-10-2011, 14:46

Ok, thanks.
I'll keep you posted.

Tim Deegan · 23-10-2011, 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

It's in your contact info on the site dude, isn't like someone's been doing background checks or anything.

Yeah I know that. But I just think it's creepy when people feel the need to check up on people.

---------- Post added at 16:53 ---------- Previous post was at 16:49 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

"checking you out" - you flatter yourself......

It's on your contact details..

Re your comment about how you get your income from your customers, and you put them first - good for you; but you do this by selling them goods you get from your suppliers, surely?

However, you were, imho, attempting to smear Ofcom by your comments - if you have any evidence to back up your innuendo, it would be helpful if you could present it.

No, it's different. Ofcom get their income from VM amongst others, yet they are expected to be impartial. I don't get any income from my suppliers, so it is completely different.

I don't have anything against Ofcom except the way they weren't interested in taking action against Orange when they were clearly in the wrong (but that's another story).

I'm just talking about ombudsman services in general. For example FIRA who do tend to side with furiture retailers and manufacturers who they are financed by.

---------- Post added at 16:55 ---------- Previous post was at 16:53 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

Do you by any chance remember putting this in your profile under Tims website.

http://www.bedlum-beds.co.uk/

As I've said, I know that. But I don't feel the need to check peoples profiles out. Why would I?

octatonic · 23-10-2011, 17:58

Nice to see Virgin doesn't disappoint.

When I say 'nice' I of course mean 'not nice'.
When I say 'doesn't' I of course mean 'does'.

Surely I should be allowed to invoke the swear filter at least once?

Peter_ · 23-10-2011, 19:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

As I've said, I know that. But I don't feel the need to check peoples profiles out. Why would I?

You added to your profile.

octatonic · 23-10-2011, 19:21

Ok I've sent this email to Neil Berkett.
Hopefully I get a response.

Quote:

Neil,

I am contacting you as a last resort to try to get something done about my broadband connection.

For the last few months I have had terrible broadband performance.
I pay for an 'up to 50Mb' connection.
By my reckoning this should be a faster connection than the 20Mb or 30Mb connections that are cheaper.
I realise that I am unlikely to get the full 50Mb at all times but lately (esp the last month) I have been getting speeds that are very much sub-par and indeed slower than both a 3G iPhone and even dialup.
I get , on average, less than 1Mb/s.

I have struggled to get a sensible response from Virgin Media staff and engineers who have acknowledged that there is a utilisation issue but they have wasted my time by trying pointless attempts to placate me by sending out engineers when they know full well that their attempts would be fruitless.
The general response from Virgin staff has been 'nothing we can do about it for a month or so' albeit couched in polite language.
This simply isn't acceptable.

In the last month I have had two engineers out to my house.
The first was due to come out on the 26th of September but did not turn up.
I waited in the entire day and lost a days pay, that I cannot afford to lose.

No explanation has been given for this other than an 'operator error'.
The next scheduled call out was on 28th.
He turned up that day but just put a 10db attenuator on my modem.
Frankly, I could have done that myself.
Again I missed a days work and pay.
This did nothing to address my speed issue as I knew it would not, and I stated that to the engineer.
His response was 'yes, probably not but I have to do it before I can do anything else'.

Another call out was booked to move my connection of my neighbours junction box and onto my own.
This did not occur until the 19th of October as an engineer was not available.
I was told that this would fix my issue.
It didn't as I knew it would not.

The engineer did however break my landline.
I am still waiting for an engineer to turn up to fix it.
They are supposed to be turning up tomorrow.
I need to wait in, again losing a days pay.

I was also told that there was a utilisation issue that was going to be fixed by the 25th of October.
Speaking to engineers last week they informed me that this date has been pushed back until either the 9th, 7th, 19th or 25th of November, depending on who I spoke to.
I have no faith that this date (whatever it is) will be adhered to and I am currently up a certain creek with out the necessary instrument.

So far I still have extremely slow broadband, I am out 3 days in lost wages that I cannot afford AND I have a broken landline.
This is very much a summary of what has happened- I have neglected to document in this email the number of calls to Virgin in the last month but believe me I have been calling ever few days and been passed from pillar to post.
When I tried to complain on Friday I was told that the technical support people would need to pass me to the customer service people.
Customer service needed to pass me to customer relations and the customer relations person couldn't log my complaint because it was a technical issue and then passed me back to technical support.

I am completely frustrated and annoyed with Virgin's recent incompetence and unwillingness to assist me.
I realise that things do not always go to plan but frankly, I have had too many of these instances in the last month and I must insist on Virgin doing better.

I would very much like a personal response from yourself or someone who can get something done rather than just give me a load of excuses and mistakes.

Regards,

[name, address and account number deleted]

**Hugh** · 23-10-2011, 19:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

Yeah I know that. But I just think it's creepy when people feel the need to check up on people.

---------- Post added at 16:53 ---------- Previous post was at 16:49 ----------

No, it's different. Ofcom get their income from VM amongst others, yet they are expected to be impartial. I don't get any income from my suppliers, so it is completely different.

I don't have anything against Ofcom except the way they weren't interested in taking action against Orange when they were clearly in the wrong (but that's another story).

I'm just talking about ombudsman services in general. For example FIRA who do tend to side with furiture retailers and manufacturers who they are financed by.

---------- Post added at 16:55 ---------- Previous post was at 16:53 ----------

As I've said, I know that. But I don't feel the need to check peoples profiles out. Why would I?

Well, there have been 9,532 visits to my profile, and 209 visits to yours, so others appear to have a different opinion - are all those people "creepy"?

btw, why did you put your website on your profile if you didn't expect it to be seen?

octatonic · 24-10-2011, 08:47

Just received this:

Quote:

Thank you for your e-mail

I'm really sorry you're unhappy, Neil is currently unable to deal with your complaint personally; however, I've passed your e-mail onto a member of his team who will be in contact within the next 24 hours.　

Raj Tandon on behalf of Neil Berkett.

Let's see if anything comes of it.

octatonic · 24-10-2011, 16:45

Had a phone call from a chap [Mod Edit - Name Removed] just now.
He was polite and placating and no animosity from me but it is all the usual stuff really.

Apologies and 'we're doing everything we can' but the long and short of it is that the date of resolution is likely to be at least until the end of November.
Even then they aren't committing to that time.
If they do it then fine.
If they don't then I have no recourse- they can take as long a they like and I just have to put up with it.
I am banging my head against a brick wall to try to get any more out of them.

I am still under contract so the only thing I can do is pay out that contract and go somewhere else.

I've decided all I can do is put up with it until March when my contract is up and then I will gladly be leaving Virgin for good, regardless of whether they end up fixing the issue.
My reasoning is essentially that the next time there is a fault it will also take up to 2 months to fix.
Frankly, this simply isn't good enough and I don't want to waste a further penny on them than I need to.

Thanks to everyone who helped me so far.
Can anyone suggest a good 20Mb ADSL in London with a good, reliable company?
I need an unlimited plan, decent upload speeds and ideally contract free.

Chrysalis · 24-10-2011, 18:28

ofcom will only act to individual complaints if its regarding VM (or any other isp) breaching ofcom regulation. CISAS wil llook into individual complaints tho. However still log complaint with ofcom because it goes to a tally and put on record, they will take the details.

Nopanic · 24-10-2011, 19:50

I don't think it appropriate or fair to post people's full names ..

octatonic · 24-10-2011, 20:50

Fair enough.

octatonic · 12-12-2011, 09:22

Update:

They finally seem to have fixed it.
Took them 3 months but at least it is done now.

Getting some pretty crazy throughput.

I have an up to 50meg connection and routinely getting 60-100Meg.
Anyone know if this is accidental, or could it be they have put me on a 100Meg connection as some sort of peace offering?
Ping is still pretty average though.

JayAy · 14-12-2011, 21:30

Certain Anti Virus products are known to send speedtest crazy - I've had 300M+ reported on occasions, temporarily disable Kaspersky 2010's web antivirus and magically spot on 50M is reported as I'd expect.

octatonic · 16-12-2011, 11:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayAy

Certain Anti Virus products are known to send speedtest crazy - I've had 300M+ reported on occasions, temporarily disable Kaspersky 2010's web antivirus and magically spot on 50M is reported as I'd expect.

I'm a Mac user and don't run anti-virus.