Day Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 As I write this, Virgin Media are yet again down, predictably since midnight. Luckily though our contract is up next month and we're free to leave again. I went from Sky to BT, now Virgin, snapping up new customer offers as they don't give a diddly squat about renewals. I'm not sure if my expectations are too high, but all 3 have downtime issues shortly after midnight, Virgin in particular massively underachieve with their minimum speeds and trying to get anything done about it is impossible. Tempted to go left field with Vodaphone next as that's where my mobile contract is with, can refer the Mrs for £50 off. Speeds are not overly impressive but the price is. Anyone had any experience with them, or EE, Plusnet etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve How Hard? Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 I signed up to Vodafone broadband earlier in the year. No major problems up to press but I'm not a heavy user of it. Mine was installed by a BT engineer so I presume they piggy back on their network. Worth bearing in mind if you've had issues with BT in the past. I signed up through the Martin Lewis Money saving expert website and got a decent deal. Free £120 Amazon voucher and then surprisingly at the point of sign up they threw in a free Ring doorbell as I was an existing customer having switched my mobile contract to them last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Buckley’s Dog Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 I am with Vodafone, again not a heavy user. Seemed more reliable than plusnet, although obviously it’s the same cable etc so could only be down to router I suppose. However over the last few months have noticed that the tv loses wi-fi, the x-box stops working or mobile phones lose wi-fi. All of these are fixed by turning the router off/on again, then it’s fine. Make of that what you will! There are, as someone says above, massive Cashback deals available when you switch so definitely do it through that way. (I think if you have a Vodafone mobile contract you will get an additional £3 a month off-but perhaps do this after the initial Cashback has been settled?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GboroRam Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 6 hours ago, David said: As I write this, Virgin Media are yet again down, predictably since midnight. Luckily though our contract is up next month and we're free to leave again. I went from Sky to BT, now Virgin, snapping up new customer offers as they don't give a diddly squat about renewals. I'm not sure if my expectations are too high, but all 3 have downtime issues shortly after midnight, Virgin in particular massively underachieve with their minimum speeds and trying to get anything done about it is impossible. Tempted to go left field with Vodaphone next as that's where my mobile contract is with, can refer the Mrs for £50 off. Speeds are not overly impressive but the price is. Anyone had any experience with them, or EE, Plusnet etc? The only person I know that complains about a virgin going down. Steve How Hard?, Alph, cstand and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaspode Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 18 minutes ago, GboroRam said: The only person I know that complains about a virgin going down. Perhaps virgins are quite rare where @David lives..... cstand 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anag Ram Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 They’re all the same. Great service to get you on board then rubbish until you threaten to leave. We raised an official complaint against Virgin and mentioned the Ombudsman and suddenly they were all over us. No wonder customer loyalty is becoming a thing of the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GboroRam Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 56 minutes ago, Gaspode said: Perhaps virgins are quite rare where @David lives..... Good point. Grimsby. Day 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Git Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 We (eventually) got our fibre broadband installed about 12 months ago on a BT contract. The original process was an absolute nightmare. BT/Open Reach must have some of the worst internal communications in the world, which must be hard for a telecoms business? Once they did get it sorted its been absolutely fine. Not particularly fast, but fast enough for our relatively low usage. Theyve just hiked the price, however, so I'm looking to swap as soon as the 18 month contract is up. maxjam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Day Posted May 7, 2023 Author Share Posted May 7, 2023 3 hours ago, Steve How Hard? said: Mine was installed by a BT engineer so I presume they piggy back on their network. Worth bearing in mind if you've had issues with BT in the past. Didn't realise this, ugh. 😩 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziggyram59 Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 9 hours ago, David said: As I write this, Virgin Media are yet again down, predictably since midnight. Luckily though our contract is up next month and we're free to leave again. I went from Sky to BT, now Virgin, snapping up new customer offers as they don't give a diddly squat about renewals. I'm not sure if my expectations are too high, but all 3 have downtime issues shortly after midnight, Virgin in particular massively underachieve with their minimum speeds and trying to get anything done about it is impossible. Tempted to go left field with Vodaphone next as that's where my mobile contract is with, can refer the Mrs for £50 off. Speeds are not overly impressive but the price is. Anyone had any experience with them, or EE, Plusnet etc? David I happened to be a Virgin Media TV and Internet customer and like you I woke up this morning to find the bloody thing had gone down again, this is about the 5/6th time this has happened to me over the last few months, unfortunately for me my contract does not run out till November this year so I'm stuck with it. Good luck with your next provider and hope you have better luck. Day 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxjam Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 We were with BT for 20+ years and the only time we had a problem was when we moved house 12 years ago, as @Grumpy Git mentioned, trying to get through to them was a nightmare and it took forever for them to rectify the problem, but once its works, it worked flawlessly - never had a problem. We did move house again earlier this year however, took early retirement by the coast in an area that only has Virgin, suffered several outages already... 🤬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Git Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 (edited) My problem with BT was that their left-hand didn't have a clue what their right-hand was doing. They couldn't get the feed to our local man-hole due to a blockage in the duct feeding it, but Open Reach hadn't told the domestic installation team and they kept sending tech's* round to do the final installation (when no fiber was at the property). No joke, I bet they sent six different blokes round over a period of two months!!! When they did get their act together at last, it only worked for 24 hours then went down completely. The first bloke they sent round was fecking hopeless, he hadn't got a clue (who employs these losers)? The following day a young lady tech* came round and had it working in 10 minutes, its been fine since. *It's a pet hate of mine, but as an engineer, I refuse to incorrectly call technicians 'engineers'. You wouldn't call a health-worker a doctor, so why devalue the profession? 😡 Edited May 7, 2023 by Grumpy Git Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostyn6 Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 My Vodafone dropped to almost dial up speeds at tea time. They wanted me to run tests but my laptop doesnt have ethernet so I couldnt and they refused to send an engineer out as their policy was only to send one out after tests done over ethernet by the customer. Obviously i raised hell and binned them off. Idiots. They’d actually oversubscribed their allowance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Git Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 Serms like good ol' Britain has made a pig's ear of its Broadband network. Last time i was working in Italy, the WiFi in the factory seemed fast, so I did a speed check, ...... it was over 300mbs! ariotofmyown 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Sheriff Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 With virgin for a few years now. Surprised to hear the speeds and drop outs as i have rarely encountered them. My speed is constantly high its purely just the increase in bill i have had to haggle with to remain. It must purely be a location thing if your virgin is naff? Pretty sure BT controlled every providers line except Virgin. (Not sure this is still the case) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elwood P Dowd Posted May 8, 2023 Share Posted May 8, 2023 (edited) https://www.youfibre.com/ Moving from Virgin to YouFibre FFTP this week, if YouFibre are in your area they are worth a look, their reputation is good and they offer an extremely good deal. Edited May 8, 2023 by Elwood P Dowd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariotofmyown Posted May 8, 2023 Share Posted May 8, 2023 On 07/05/2023 at 21:49, Grumpy Git said: Serms like good ol' Britain has made a pig's ear of its Broadband network. Last time i was working in Italy, the WiFi in the factory seemed fast, so I did a speed check, ...... it was over 300mbs! I used to think Telecomms privitisation wasn't the worst idea. There was some genuine competition and prices seemed lower than in other countries. It feels now though that short term profit and shareholder return is way more important than investment and infrastructure. And the customer choice is something of an illusion when there are so few actual fixed or mobile networks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexxxxx Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 Ended up getting 4G as no provider could seem to give us fibre as the local exchange/box was full and the ADSL was rubbish. Is pretty reliable and get 70-100MB/s which is enough for most things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angieram Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 Was with EE for years, never had any problem with outages but speeds weren't great. I think it was a steady plodder. Switched to Virgin on a Martin Lewis deal so a really good price. They were brilliant laying cabling, installing and the speeds are noticeably better. Brilliant when streaming live football. BUT, have had several outages, usually overnight. It's really frustrating but all back online within 6-8 hours. Suspect I'm going to have to bin them when my contract ends as price will triple, but I'm not looking forward to going back to one of the BT plodders! Always check out the Martin Lewis deals as he seems to be able to blag rates well below their usual contract prices. Steve How Hard? and ariotofmyown 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Clough Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 Typically change every year to ensure I'm not paying much (and also get cashback in the process) Virgin - fast, reliable, but kept getting letters in the post due to what I was downloading Sky - cheaper, not as fast, fairly reliable Now Broadband - cheaper than Sky but same speed, less reliable OneStream - same sort of price, never dropped out, but have had speeds drop off now and again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account.
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now