Has anyone used our speed tester and been shocked by how slow their connection reads? Are you paying for 20Mb, only to receive a fraction of this speed? Is your ISP driving you insane? Here’s your opportunity to get it off your chest.
Virgin Media (formerley) NTL seemed to have given up on their customers. When the NTL 'family' owned the business it took 1 to 2 hours to get an answer on broadband support HOT? line. What utter rubbish. Yet we patiently listened to the ansaphone message... "You are twenty-xxxx in the queue. All our operators are busy. .please wait patiently ... unless you die whilst we are getting round to answering the call.... else dial emergency services instead ... "
Branson, who in most other Virgin projects was a breath of fresh air to the business, (Virgin Atlantic, Trains, Cola etc), has gone down the wrong path. Generally we get 0.23-0.24 of 4mb bandwidth,most of the time (checked with your speed checker). We do it all properly, no half baked tests and we get fed up checking it, as the results are almost always stupidley low. We ring, now Virgin Media support, get told as usual (nothing new here) to disconnect all the gear (1 router) and then something magical happens when we connect it all back again.
I won't bore others with the details, but we have proven time and time again that our router is not the fault, it's the damn cable modem or cable or basic NTL (Virgin Media) incompetance time and time again. I say incompetance because we never ever get a sensible answer to why the service sucks. Maybe there is some major fault with the modems they just won't admit to. Do they send an NTL cable modem reset code to the modem after we disconnect our kit to hoodwink us into thinking it's all our fault.
Since Virgin Media have been running the NTL business, the support staff answer the phones promptly (well at 25pence a minute why wouldn't they?!). We go through the same old rubbish script as usual (inherited from NTL) and then on top of everything else they're damn RUDE to us when we're not happy with the service. Almost borderline f**k off elsewhere attitudes.
We don't get the 4mb we pay for each month dutifully.. By the way now I think of it , we were sent a letter saying we would get 8mb F.O.C .. we don't even get the full 4mb service regularly.
So we'll go buy a new router, just in case we really don't understand computers (huh!) and when it goes wrong, we'll vote with our feet (well footprint) and connect somewhere else.
How many customers does Virgin want to lose before they 'Get Smart'. We have paid NTL/Virgin media about £4500 or thereabouts over the years. Can they afford to lose customers as quickly as the Water boards lose water !?!?
We don't think so. Also the Gadget Show are looking into this and Watchdog. Branson give it up and sell to someone who wants to keep their exisiting loyal customer base. You we're sold a duffer and there's no signs of improvements since you bought NTL. (warts and all ! )
Has anyone used our speed tester and been shocked by how slow their connection reads? Are you paying for 20Mb, only to receive a fraction of this speed? Is your ISP driving you insane? Here’s your opportunity to get it off your chest.
hello my friend i was looking at these posts and found them to be very true, i decided to do a speed test for download and uplod after 5 tests i found i was getting average of 1.75mb down and 0.45 upso i called my people on virgin and said i want to upgrade from 2meg broad band to 4 they said ok then will cost you and extra 7 pounds monthly, ok so i upgraded to 4 meg and did more tests and found the results to be the same averaging at only 1.95 down and 0.44 up hows this? supposed to be 4 mg no less then 2? and help please,,, also is it possible to speed up your upload speed? please help me thanks everyone
Well I have to speak as I find and I dont have a problem with Virgin. Ok it aint brilliant but when my comp was new I was getting 1.77 mb out of a 2mb deal. This was better than my old BT account and better than a mates Tiscali.
When it started to slow down I waited untill Virgin went free call on the help line (1st June) and rang them up. I had to wait about 6-7 mins to get through and, yes, went through the usual routine of unplug and start again.
I was told my modem was on the blink and a new one arrived 36hrs later. I set it all up - dialed up to re register and - BINGO 1.77 again and it been ok ever since. It can slow down a little during the 6-8pm slot but they all do that dont they?
Its not the best by any means but its not the worst either.
My ISP is also Virgin which was NTL and prior to that Cable and Wireless and prior to that it was something else but, it was so long ago I cant remember what it was called.
Anyway as you can see I have been a customer for quite some time but maybe I shouldn't have been? Each one of them all promised download speeds and none have come up to the promise. My latest being Virgin. I am paying for a 20MB connection and have done various speed checks through different on line sites. Each test has given me an average Download of something between 4.2 and 5.8MB and around the 730kbps upload speed. I could understand maybe a max 5MB discrepancy between what they say I have and actually what I have however, a whopping 75% difference is inexcusable. They are ripping me off for a £30 charge and more so, in my opinion, are probably doing the same to many others. I have only just come across this and have been slightly naive in not checking previously.
I have also been trying to install a home network for 3 PCs and have had no joy in connecting any to the internet via the router. Virgin, as normal are blaming everything apart from themselves and have now come back and said they cant support me in resolving the issue apart from providing me with a new modem, usual rubbish response to the majority of connection issues. If they have so many problems with the modems then they need to get a new supplier because they are being provided with faulty Modems.
I have paid a PC engineer to fully check the router and I have also taken it back to Novatech, where i brought it from and they have tested it aswell and it works fine.
I have had my PC and the other two PCs checked out and they are fine. So if the router works and theres nothing wrong with the PCs and Virgin have provided yet another new Modem then there is only one other part of the equation left, Virgin!
The latest from them, after three attempts to get help, was they cannot support me even though the router is a Netgear and the same that they provide. Well, that was until they received a letter from me canceling both my Internet and Telephone service. Now all of a sudden they are falling over themselves trying to help me out.
They have promised, guess what? yes, another New Modem, full support and an engineer to come out and try to resolve the issue. I think this is absolutely fantastic support, pity its not their policy to provide this from the start and the fact that its about 3 months to late and it has cost me about £80 in PC support and they are ripping me off for charges
Well done Virgin you have managed to alienate yet another customer and I am changing ISPs.
I have justregistered and would appreciate some help as the comments and Ideas on here seem really useful and constructive.
I get broadband through Virgin on up to 10meg. Which after checking download speeds through odd times of the day seems to hover anywhere between 6 - 9 meg which is awesome. (I think?).
My problem though, is as soon as its the evening or night time, Im lucky if I get 0.5 meg, maybe just up top 1meg?!?!
Surely it shouldn't drop this much? It makes no difference if Im wireless or plugged in either?
Would really appreciate some help or thoughts? KH I have 2 brand new MACs that are connected to this internet connection (24" iMac and 13iBook) both running the latest versions of OSX.
Congratulations on your first post! My household is also on Virgin (we have their bundled deal, tv, broadband and phone) and we experience the same problem, especially at the weekends. Virgin told us it was due to large volume of traffic and there is nothing we can do about it, so we are actually considering paying the £40 exit fee and leaving them for Sky...
The only thing I can suggest you do, if you don't want to switch providers, is to schedule all your downloading for the off-peak hours (between midnight and 8am).
Quality - Thanks Becca. Really appreciate the reply. My only concern about switching provider is that, 'Will it be any different with anyone else?' Surely poor performance caused by high demand is something all providers, even Sky, will experience? Do you think if I upped my Virgin package to "Up to 20meg" it would help? There would still be a drop in speed at busy times, but maybe not as substantial? Thanks again KH
Virgin throttle your connection depending on the time of day, so instead of giving you a download limit to adhere to, they just slow your speed down and claim it's "unlimited".
Switching ISPs, depending on which one you switch to, will make a huge difference.
Poor performance due to high demand (especially if it happens all the time) just means they oversold and don't have the capacity to handle every customer at the same time.
I agree with Jimmy, switching ISPs will really make a difference, and so will the package you are on. Some packages, such as PlusNet's Broadband Your Way PRO, give priority to certain traffics.
For example, those on the more expansive tariffs will experience fewer restrictions during peak hours than those on cheaper packages.
The PRO package has no restrictions to gaming servers, peer-to-peer networks, or any other type of download site at any time and restrictions then vary down to Option 1 which has restrictions slowing downloads on peer-to-peer, binary usenet, and external FTP sites at all times, then download sites and download servers between 4pm and midnight. Nothing else is restricted though so all normal browsing and internet traffic would still run at the highest speed possible.
I'm not sure about Virgin's "priority list" but it probably works in a similar way...
Shockingly Slow Speeds
Posted - 09/05/2008 : 16:45:23
on a up to 8 mb that is just stupid.
