VM Business : Still acceptable service? South London

[father_ted]

Hi all,

I'm moving to a VM area (SW16) soon. Sadly, I'll be leaving my Hyperoptic service behind, which has been consistently excellent.

The business 350/20 service with a block of IPs sounds like what I need... but it's hard to get a feeling for the standard of VM business service these days.

I've read about the historic GRE tunnel compromise, but now that it seems that will bond across frequencies the speed bottleneck has been resolved?

Native IPv6 will be a shame to lose, but I can live without it and implement 6in4 if I really need to. Paying for an AA L2TP service is an option, but I'd rather avoid the extra cost.

How congested is the network in SW London at the moment? Or is it segmentation pot luck? Is there any traffic priority for business connections?

Getting 150/10 at peak times instead of 350/20 wouldn't be a problem so long as the latency and packet loss didn't go crazy. But I've seen some horror stories of people getting a few megabits only - is it that bad that I should consider FTTC instead?

Thanks for any advice.

[RichardCoulter]

I'm in the process of leaving VM as each business account contract expires. The actual product itself is generally ok, it's just that their level of customer service is absolutely shocking.

I can't speak about it's performance in SW London, so can only advise about their standard of customer service.

I've been with VM for over twenty years and have never known such a couldn't care less attitude than is prevalent at the moment. At one time if you were getting nowhere with frontline staff (as is so often the case in my experience- you're lucky if they can even speak/understand basic English if you get through to their offshore call centre), you could escelate matters to the office of the CEO and they were extremely competent in sorting things out. For the last year or so, even they are providing a sub standard service. It takes weeks or even months to receive a reply and then all they do is tell you to take matters to their regulator.

I have a neighbour who I advised to complain to the office of the CEO after he mentioned that he was at a loss as to what to do after repeatedly hitting a brick wall with frontline staff.

He did so and was simply told to go to their regulator. He wrote back asking them to sort it out themselves and actually received a letter in the post (which he showed to me) that said he must go to their regulator and that if he sent them any more emails that they would consider cutting off all his services!!! He's been with cable even longer than me and has handed in his notice with disgust.

I did suggest that he wrote another email to them and then he wouldn't have to serve his notice, but he wants some time to get Sky installed.

If they actually carry out this threat, it could be useful to those wanting to leave whilst still in contract though This was in relation to a domestic account, but I can personally verify that the business side of their operation is just as bad.

If you are concerned about your data being protected, I can only tell you that VM recently left the details of 900,000 customers unsecured for anyone to access on the internet for nearly a year.

At one time, VM were the only company doing fibre optic broadband, but thankfully that's now all changed and various new companies have entered the market.

Hope this helps

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

I'm in the process of leaving VM as each business account contract expires. The actual product itself is generally ok, it's just that their level of customer service is absolutely shocking.

I can't speak about it's performance in SW London, so can only advise about their standard of customer service.

I've been with VM for over twenty years and have never known such a couldn't care less attitude than is prevalent at the moment. At one time if you were getting nowhere with frontline staff (as is so often the case in my experience- you're lucky if they can even speak/understand basic English if you get through to their offshore call centre), you could escelate matters to the office of the CEO and they were extremely competent in sorting things out. For the last year or so, even they are providing a sub standard service. It takes weeks or even months to receive a reply and then all they do is tell you to take matters to their regulator.

I have a neighbour who I advised to complain to the office of the CEO after he mentioned that he was at a loss as to what to do after repeatedly hitting a brick wall with frontline staff.

He did so and was simply told to go to their regulator. He wrote back asking them to sort it out themselves and actually received a letter in the post (which he showed to me) that said he must go to their regulator and that if he sent them any more emails that they would consider cutting off all his services!!! He's been with cable even longer than me and has handed in his notice with disgust.

I did suggest that he wrote another email to them and then he wouldn't have to serve his notice, but he wants some time to get Sky installed.

If they actually carry out this threat, it could be useful to those wanting to leave whilst still in contract though This was in relation to a domestic account, but I can personally verify that the business side of their operation is just as bad.

If you are concerned about your data being protected, I can only tell you that VM recently left the details of 900,000 customers unsecured for anyone to access on the internet for nearly a year.

At one time, VM were the only company doing fibre optic broadband, but thankfully that's now all changed and various new companies have entered the market.

Hope this helps

bet virgin will be very sad to see you go!!!!!

Pointless off topic post removed

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by father_ted

How congested is the network in SW London at the moment? Or is it segmentation pot luck?

It's pot luck. Even if you can find someone else in SW16, they are unlikely to be on the same segment as you. SW16 is split between two headends (Croydon and Lewisham), eight CMTSs, and no doubt dozens of segments.

[father_ted]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

It's pot luck. Even if you can find someone else in SW16, they are unlikely to be on the same segment as you. SW16 is split between two headends (Croydon and Lewisham), eight CMTSs, and no doubt dozens of segments.

That's what I thought. Even went so far as to look around the cabinets on Google Street View. I can see a basic numbering scheme - LxxCyy-z marked on some, but then a few streets over the numbering scheme is CxMBxxx. On the L side the first of each sequence has a P - presumably power - cabinet beside it. What I can't work out is the TM or TN at the end of each string, which is a cabinet with a small side extension.

[spiderplant]

There's no consistent naming system for the cabinets. The names were inherited from whichever local cable originally built the network, and are often duplicated in different regions.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Itshim

bet virgin will be very sad to see you go!!!!!

Bet they'll be even more happy to see you go with your activities.

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Bet they'll be even more happy to see you go with your activities.

don't think so my total bill each month is in the hundred's .Just been offered a great deal and I didn't contact them . in fact I make contact with them when my house ,(the one I live in myself) is due for renewal Always had a great deal with out screaming or legal action . Found them an easycompany to deal with givethat great services.

[Travelstar]

In a similar situation. We have been with G.Network over the past year, and I have to say the service from them has been simply stellar. 1G up/down with excellent low latency connection, all at a very reasonable cost.

It's been very noticeable how good my own connection has been compared to the rest of my team. The G.Network connection really has been rock solid. Having that huge upload pipe has been incredibly useful for shuttling around large files for work, and dealing with what seem like endless video calls.

Sadly we are moving home in a few weeks time, and G.Network is not yet slated to go beyond the confines of the West End quite yet, so back to wobbly Virgin we go. BT only provides a poor version of their FTTC in our new neighbourhood, so we really are back to a single provider. Mind you, where I am right now does not even have FTTC despite the tower being at the bottom of my street.

Providers like G.Network and Hyperoptic really have shown us the future. I know the government is pushing for everyone to have 1G by 2025, but I think we all know that date is unrealistic. Also its unlikely to be a symmetric service like that provided by the pure fibre players.