Internet problems for Virgin Media customers

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#unbucklesseatbelt

Switching to EE next week.

I get what they tell me I should get

but only after 18 months of engineers visits, several modems, upgrades to the box at the end of the road, calls to some lovely lovely people in India.
It drops out though, sometimes I have no connection at all. Not when the engineer is here though.

First world, capital city problem ...

you should try living out in the country at the far end of a copper wire: 3.34 Mb/s download and 0.81 Mb/s upload!

Sorry, on reflection that wasn't a very helpful post. Just jealous of all those who can load the .gifs tread in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea (to borrow a turn of phrase from Billy Bragg)

The problems continue. In one last attempt to get their attention I replied to the 'customer satisfaction' survey they sent me:

I don't know if anyone will read this, partly because I don't know if my 20meg broadband operating at under 4 meg is really strong enough to send an e-mail but since you asked, and I replied, and then I never heard back, I thought I'd let you know: since you rectified the fault with my service it has got worse. Which is a bit like my experience with maths at school: my A-level maths grade was an F. That's actually worse than the grade I got at O-level. I spent 2 years studying in order to know less than I did before. It's quite an achievement when you think about it. Just like with Virgin; you fix a fault, double my speed from 10 to 20 and it all gets worse.
I have called; I get people who are unnaturally polite but sadly that doesn't make up for their unfortunate lack of understanding of the one subject I want them to know anything about: Broadband internet, in particular Virgin Broadband, and even more in particular, the weak trickle of broadband that I get to my PC every evening. I did get through to one customer service operator who knew his stuff and worked out that the problem was indeed with Virgin's system and not my PC or my modem or the metal plate in my head causing interference. Alas I have not been able to get hold of him since - perhaps he retired from the shame of it all or maybe he's so in demand, being the only one who has a clue, that there's a waiting list to speak to him? His name was Jerry (or Gerry). I'd like to marry him and have his children.
He is Scottish but I'm easy going.
As far as I can tell it's easier to contact the dead than it is to talk to someone at Virgin who can really help. I've been with Virgin for a long time, oh sure we've had our ups and downs like any couple but now it looks like we're heading for a divorce. Call it a breakdown in communication, a mid-life crisis, maybe things aren't as exciting in the bedroom as they once were, but it seems it's over. The truth is, I've met someone else. I'm not going to to tell you their name, that's not important, but I'm sure they can provide the kind of service you used to. Let's face it; the sparkle has gone out of my broadband. It's not even fair to call it broad: it's kind of skinny, sort of a Kate Moss connection really. And I'm a chubby-chaser, that's just the way it is.
So, I don't know if you'll ever read this but if you do; well, my contract is up in less than 2 weeks. If you want to make another go of it, you know what to do.

kisses. Will.

A++ Great complainer, would read again

They deleted it from their Facebook page in about 5 minutes.

Repped. Post a link to their twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/virginmedia

I'm not signed up to Twitter.

Can't someone on twitter link them to the post?

Will, if you're on Facebook, you've given away your life to the NSA so you may as well join twitter too.

Ha! Facebook response:

Hey Will, thanks for your eloquently put post. If you'd like to put the details of your woes onto our webform, http://virg.co/social we'll happily show you that Gerry/Jerry isn't the only person who knows his stuff. I understand it could seem a little repetitive having already made us aware of your issues on Facebook, but the form allows us to satisfy Data Protection. We look forward to helping out. - Josh

Could that be the Josh we all used to know and love?

I had an ongoing saga with Virgin, which was eventually traced to incorrect cabling when they originally hooked me up. I got a refund, new box and modem, free upgrade, etc. and things do seem to be better now.

There are always issues phoning them from my "virgin phone", as their system doesn't recognise either my telephone number or account number. Calling customer services directly was much better and Collette was very helpful, when I gave her a massive sob story of a single dad of three stuck in on a rainy bank holiday weekend with no on-demand TV.

Switching to EE next week.

Switched

Now just waiting when the fibre optic will be available.

Isn't 27mb/s quite enough?

Switched from Virgin to EE. I get 3.45Mb/s at the moment.

I know, but why leave virgin if you get 27? Not that you need any further reason to leave virgin, but still...

Another hour on the phone. Nice helpful chap in Swansea. Ending with the advice to get someone out to look at my PC as they can't do the tests they would normally do in Safe Mode because - they don't support Linux.
And would Virgin refund me the costs of getting a PC engineer out? Not bloody likely. And does that explain why the speed only drops in the evening? Not really. Is there something running in the background on my PC that might be slowing it down? I don't think so.
Essentially, they have given up. But, where is the clause in my contract that says they can only help if you have Windows or Mac? It's not there.
I feel like Lewis Carroll is my ISP.

Sounds like Dell when they tried to blame Windows for CPU throttling back to 355mhz. They didn't really have an answer when I said it's the same in Linux.

Get Virgin to come to your house and re-test it just like they do standard installation and do it in the evening. (You have tested another PC right ? :P)

Ha! Facebook response:

Hey Will, thanks for your eloquently put post. If you'd like to put the details of your woes onto our webform, http://virg.co/social we'll happily show you that Gerry/Jerry isn't the only person who knows his stuff. I understand it could seem a little repetitive having already made us aware of your issues on Facebook, but the form allows us to satisfy Data Protection. We look forward to helping out. - Josh

So I filled out this form. Doesn't work. Got this:

Apologies Will, it seems we're having some difficulties with the form tonight. if you could drop us an email instead at twitter@virginmedia.co.uk, we'll pick it up from there and get in touch to help. Thanks, ^Michael

Oh FFS. Current speed: 1.5 meg.

I mean, obviously, that problem with my PC that only kicks in at 9 o'clock at night, I must get that sorted out.

email blasting after 9pm without you knowing ? heh. What does your router say (or are you using modem directly?)