I too ditched Virgin after many issues (customer service) and have Sky/BT broadband - I am really pleased and got great deal from the Sky Reps in Broadway Bexleyheath (inside shopping centre). No issues, great speeds and TV.
I threatened to leave Virgin last year and was genuine in that if they didn't give me a decent deal I was. What you have to remember is you can end the call having left and ring back later saying you have changed your mind. My view was if what they offered me what seemed fair I would take it rather than hold out for more and fortunately the person I spoke to was decent. Virgin have some a*holes who play hardball and if you get one of these, cut the call off and try to get somebody else.
Funnily enough Virgin binned me (not sure if I mentioned this before), they just cut me off. Then told me somebody at my address had requested connection & there can't be two accounts at the same address. When I said but I'm the account holder they told me they assumed that I had moved (yeah right while still paying my bills) then said I had requested disconnection . & then while still trying to get my service reconnected I received a letter or email can't remember asking why I hadn't returned their equipment & if I didn't do so in 7 days they would charge me £40 I think it was. I was straight up the bank to cancel Direct Debit & never heard from them again. Though funnily enough I did receive bills addressed to this other person who it turned out lived over the road & he owed them about £160 but obviously not at my address ? Weird anyway I'm now with EE & never had a problem.
So I keep seeing the ads from EE, showing I can land a plane from my front room and then get a phone call from Kevin Bacon to see if I’m happy with my broadbands performance.
Just had a peek on the EE website, can’t see this offer being advertised anywhere?
Does the new legislation I saw on the news today about companies not being able to offer favourable deals to new customers over old customers apply to Virgin and Sky etc... I can't see why it wouldn't.
No, it doesn't. It isn't legislation: it is a change to the FCA's rules for general insurance such as home and car insurance to prevent "price walking" and nothing to do with any other service.
(I am fully expecting unintended consequences though. Obviously most of those "new customer" insurance deals will go away. So the savvy customers will suffer in order to protect the interests of the gullible, inert and ignorant. Prices for all such insurance products are likely to rise. The insurance companies' bottom lines will not suffer obviously. In addition watch out for increases in and more hidden fees for things like changing your car mid-term or moving house, etc. Any odds on an admin fee for putting in an accident claim, anyone? It becomes even more important to read your insurance T&Cs.)
Now, down the line, will the FCA's stance be copied elsewhere? Who knows but I suppose it is possible others will incorporate such changes. But I wouldn't hold your breath on Ofcom doing anything for some while. Contrary to the FCA's position, the laughably inept Ofcom seems to think new customer deals and price comparison sites are a good thing. Even though they know that 20mn customers are outside their contract periods. This from their own web site:
According to our research, more than 20 million customers are out of their initial contract period, and many of these are paying a lot more for their services than they need to.
How are people finding the basic speed of 67mb on the likes of BT and Sky? One of the reasons I've stayed with Virgin for so long is their internet speeds. I'm really not sure if that lower speed will be enough in my house? Bit of working from home. Gaming and plenty of streaming across multiple devices. Will it be up to it?
I see BT do a full fibre500 but I'm guessing that's a fair whack a month? The cynic in me says these companies start screwing up the basic speeds and then offer up the full fibre option at a far higher costs a few months down the line? Anyone had that?
How are people finding the basic speed of 67mb on the likes of BT and Sky? One of the reasons I've stayed with Virgin for so long is their internet speeds. I'm really not sure if that lower speed will be enough in my house? Bit of working from home. Gaming and plenty of streaming across multiple devices. Will it be up to it?
I see BT do a full fibre500 but I'm guessing that's a fair whack a month? The cynic in me says these companies start screwing up the basic speeds and then offer up the full fibre option at a far higher costs a few months down the line? Anyone had that?
You need to find out what "full fibre" means. It is only end to end fibre if the fibre cable enters your house and connects in the back of your router. If the fibre stops down the bottom of your road in the green box its not.
Not sure where you live but Trooli are one of the leaders.
So I've finally decided to ditch Virgin. Tried calling them but the best deal they could offer wasn't up to much. Just ordered BT broadband and TV as it was over half the price of what Virgin offered. Let's see if Virgin come back with anything?
How are people finding the basic speed of 67mb on the likes of BT and Sky? One of the reasons I've stayed with Virgin for so long is their internet speeds. I'm really not sure if that lower speed will be enough in my house? Bit of working from home. Gaming and plenty of streaming across multiple devices. Will it be up to it?
I see BT do a full fibre500 but I'm guessing that's a fair whack a month? The cynic in me says these companies start screwing up the basic speeds and then offer up the full fibre option at a far higher costs a few months down the line? Anyone had that?
I ditched Virgin recently and get BT BB via Sky deal - on 150 mb (was 300 plus with Virgin) and my new speed is fine.
How are people finding the basic speed of 67mb on the likes of BT and Sky? One of the reasons I've stayed with Virgin for so long is their internet speeds. I'm really not sure if that lower speed will be enough in my house? Bit of working from home. Gaming and plenty of streaming across multiple devices. Will it be up to it?
I see BT do a full fibre500 but I'm guessing that's a fair whack a month? The cynic in me says these companies start screwing up the basic speeds and then offer up the full fibre option at a far higher costs a few months down the line? Anyone had that?
I'm with Sky and get 72mb and it's fine. Thats me working from home, 1 or at times 2x daughters streaming Netflix etc as well as on their phones and the like and we run a lot of stuff in the house via wifi and Apple Home. That said none of us are gamers.
It's pretty stable whereas talking to a few neighbours who have supposedly much higher speeds with Virgin they seem to get no end of agro, drop outs and slow speeds at times.
PS the new sky router is very very good. 5 bed house, 2 garages and garden and everywhere gets very good wifi.
So I've finally decided to ditch Virgin. Tried calling them but the best deal they could offer wasn't up to much. Just ordered BT broadband and TV as it was over half the price of what Virgin offered. Let's see if Virgin come back with anything?
You'll get a call from their retention team 2 days before your contract is about to go pop with them, or before the cool down period is set to expire.
If you stick two fingers up to them then they'll send you a returns package to box up all of their kit.
BT wireless is more stable than Virgin. Virgin's hardwired connection is brilliant but their wireless connectivity is sporadic at best.
Currently have the basic sky broadband. Does the job but can have evenings where you need to turn it on and off (even though they don’t advise it) as it doesn’t work. Thing is they stupidly are only offering the internet I have at £25 for sky tv owners (currently pay £30) Where I can get bt for 27.99 for their fastest and I can add the sport for an extra £15 instead of £25 a month. However it does seem bt are slower?
I've had Virgin for ages and pay what seems like a fortune - includes a landline I don't need and TV we don't watch. From past experience I've not been able to get it down and they know where we are any service through BT will be crap because we are literally at the end of the line from the exchange. So, like all monopolies they charge an arm and a leg and their "service" is so poor I am getting through a lot of books. Everything streamed on TV buffers, to the point that it's unwatchable.
Are there any alternatives? We use a lot - 2 of us working from home during the day, at least 2 streaming TVs and one gamer every night. Trooli doesn't cover me, in Lewisham.
I've had Virgin for ages and pay what seems like a fortune - includes a landline I don't need and TV we don't watch. From past experience I've not been able to get it down and they know where we are any service through BT will be crap because we are literally at the end of the line from the exchange. So, like all monopolies they charge an arm and a leg and their "service" is so poor I am getting through a lot of books. Everything streamed on TV buffers, to the point that it's unwatchable.
Are there any alternatives? We use a lot - 2 of us working from home during the day, at least 2 streaming TVs and one gamer every night. Trooli doesn't cover me, in Lewisham.
Similar issues. Got TV, phone and broadband package, moved house and don't use a landline now, thinks it's disconnected, got free view so only need internet. was paying fifty something, and was going to go up to £78... shopped around for different broadband only, but seems we are in a black sport where no other internet cable or 5G reaches us, so basically stuck with Virgin. They would only offer the complete package and not internet only. Eventually got through to disconnections (tip for those who don't do this already, go straight to disconnections) and they have basically ripped the price right down.
So in terms of alternatives for you, see if Three 5G reaches you, they have some great offers (doesn't reach us to my increasing annoyance)
I've had Virgin for ages and pay what seems like a fortune - includes a landline I don't need and TV we don't watch. From past experience I've not been able to get it down and they know where we are any service through BT will be crap because we are literally at the end of the line from the exchange. So, like all monopolies they charge an arm and a leg and their "service" is so poor I am getting through a lot of books. Everything streamed on TV buffers, to the point that it's unwatchable.
Are there any alternatives? We use a lot - 2 of us working from home during the day, at least 2 streaming TVs and one gamer every night. Trooli doesn't cover me, in Lewisham.
Double check BT haven't installed their new Fibre via poles in your area, We too were end of line from the BT exchange (old copper lines) so had Virgin for a while which I wasn't happy with - I left Virgin and now have BT Fibre via Pole and its fantastic. (via good Sky deal with TV)
Virgin's been great for me since I signed up with them a few months ago. I pay about £18/month (after cashback and other offers) for a 100mb plan that's been doubled to 200mb because we have a cheap o2 SIM contract in the family. Even the Hub 3 router that's got a bad press has been as good as gold in modem mode with a couple of routers linked to it to create mesh network. It's far better than the crappy ADSL services that I was on before that never gave me speeds approaching the 36mb I was meant to be receiving and cost considerably more.
OK looks like Three 5G do cover me, I'll check that out. Significant savings. Virgin claim the speed I should be getting is 250Mbps, I measured it just now on an ethernet line and it was 9.4.
I've had Virgin for ages and pay what seems like a fortune - includes a landline I don't need and TV we don't watch. From past experience I've not been able to get it down and they know where we are any service through BT will be crap because we are literally at the end of the line from the exchange. So, like all monopolies they charge an arm and a leg and their "service" is so poor I am getting through a lot of books. Everything streamed on TV buffers, to the point that it's unwatchable.
Are there any alternatives? We use a lot - 2 of us working from home during the day, at least 2 streaming TVs and one gamer every night. Trooli doesn't cover me, in Lewisham.
I have Virgin Broadband without the phone line & TV.
OK looks like Three 5G do cover me, I'll check that out. Significant savings. Virgin claim the speed I should be getting is 250Mbps, I measured it just now on an ethernet line and it was 9.4.
Virgin charge a month in ADVANCE .. I paid their monthly fee by direct debit on 19th January .. my contract ran out on 4th February .. I told them by letter that I was not renewing on 27th January .. the payment should take me up to 18th February .. on 10th Feb I had a text from Virgin saying they would discontinue my service 'soon' .. bear with me lol
I've since had several bills from Virgin for £51, ignored by me as I didn't owe any money .. now they have put my 'debt' in the hands of a debt collection agency Spoke to the agency who have been given A LOT of my private details, they claim I was not cut off until 28th Feb .. I replied, that that was Virgin's problem, I had already cancelled .. I am now getting daily texts asking me to get in touch and pay my debt .. I am expecting my day in court very soon .. are they clueless dickheads or thieving bastards ?
In all honesty 30meg is more than enough for home working, gaming, streaming UHD and having dozens of devices connected
You can get that with FTTC which is what goes fibre to the cabinet/green box then copper or if you are really unlucky aluminium to your home
Openreach and about 50 other builders are building full fibre networks all over the gaff which will give FTTP and thats full fibre and can feasibly give you 1gig but truth is the equipment at the end of that bit of glass cant do anything with that much bandwidth. You can only download a moody UHD film so quickly or watch smut on a big screen in a finite amount of definition
Those who are building the full fibre networks aren't shy about telling locals about it but do a rudimentary Google search and you will find out if full fibre is coming to you anytime soon, until then FTTC is plenty
I am happy with my speed from virgin and whilst I did have some issues with the internet dropping too often, this has been solved by a new router. I did have the policy of not being on a contract to enable leaving at short notice but have found it better to negotiate a great deal on a contract and again when the contract is ending.
I do get a lot of channels I don't watch and a landline I don't use but they said it was cheaper to have these than not which still sounds ridiculous. If you switch to 02 they are offering some generous promotions.
Virgin charge a month in ADVANCE .. I paid their monthly fee by direct debit on 19th January .. my contract ran out on 4th February .. I told them by letter that I was not renewing on 27th January .. the payment should take me up to 18th February .. on 10th Feb I had a text from Virgin saying they would discontinue my service 'soon' .. bear with me lol
I've since had several bills from Virgin for £51, ignored by me as I didn't owe any money .. now they have put my 'debt' in the hands of a debt collection agency Spoke to the agency who have been given A LOT of my private details, they claim I was not cut off until 28th Feb .. I replied, that that was Virgin's problem, I had already cancelled .. I am now getting daily texts asking me to get in touch and pay my debt .. I am expecting my day in court very soon .. are they clueless dickheads or thieving bastards ?
It reads to me that you are required to give 30 days notice, which would be 27th Jan - 26th Feb and they then cut you off on 28th Feb? I would be surprised if you weren't meant to give 30 days notice, which seems reasonable to me.
Cancelling at the end of your contract
If you decide to leave us after your minimum fixed term contract period, you'll just need to give us 30 days' notice.
When you cancel your services, you’ll have access to your Virgin Media Mail account for 90 days, before we close it. This should be enough time to save any contacts, emails and files.
Virgin charge a month in ADVANCE .. I paid their monthly fee by direct debit on 19th January .. my contract ran out on 4th February .. I told them by letter that I was not renewing on 27th January .. the payment should take me up to 18th February .. on 10th Feb I had a text from Virgin saying they would discontinue my service 'soon' .. bear with me lol
I've since had several bills from Virgin for £51, ignored by me as I didn't owe any money .. now they have put my 'debt' in the hands of a debt collection agency Spoke to the agency who have been given A LOT of my private details, they claim I was not cut off until 28th Feb .. I replied, that that was Virgin's problem, I had already cancelled .. I am now getting daily texts asking me to get in touch and pay my debt .. I am expecting my day in court very soon .. are they clueless dickheads or thieving bastards ?
It reads to me that you are required to give 30 days notice, which would be 27th Jan - 26th Feb and they then cut you off on 28th Feb? I would be surprised if you weren't meant to give 30 days notice, which seems reasonable to me.
Cancelling at the end of your contract
If you decide to leave us after your minimum fixed term contract period, you'll just need to give us 30 days' notice.
When you cancel your services, you’ll have access to your Virgin Media Mail account for 90 days, before we close it. This should be enough time to save any contacts, emails and files.
T b h I didn't examine the small print re cancelling/contract finishing .. and you opine 'fair enough to give 30 days notice' ? .. when a contract ends, it ends .. also, as I typed, I paid a full month on 19th Jan, that is up to 18th Feb, so even under your scenario I only 'owe' from 18-28 Feb .. I am not sure when I was cut off as I had already changed supplier .. lastly, their text on Feb 10th I'll be 'cut off shortly'. 18 days max is not 'shortly' .. the debt collectors are not sure of all the facts, I have written to Virgin, they as yet have not replied .. we will see
I’m moving house to somewhere there is no bt connection. Currently have sky running my tv, broadband and phone line. So I’m looking at either the whole lot through virgin or broadband and line rental through them and tv through sky. reading through this thread virgins customer service isn’t great but what I’m interested in is peoples thoughts on the tv offering going from sky to virgin. You lose a lot of channels? I can see you lose sky Atlantic but anything else to be aware of?
I’m moving house to somewhere there is no bt connection. Currently have sky running my tv, broadband and phone line. So I’m looking at either the whole lot through virgin or broadband and line rental through them and tv through sky. reading through this thread virgins customer service isn’t great but what I’m interested in is peoples thoughts on the tv offering going from sky to virgin. You lose a lot of channels? I can see you lose sky Atlantic but anything else to be aware of?
I switched a couple of years ago and it's been great. I got a deal with them for every channel they do which includes all the Sky channels. Theres often still fuck all worth watching on any of the channels mind you, but that's not really Virgins problem. Deal also includes broadband and a SIM, so I'm massively quids in on what I was paying before.
Plus the service doesnt drop out every time theres a bit of wi d or rain like it did with Sky, although it's not always perfect.
I'd give them an 8/10 overall, which is good enough for me.
Comments
Just had a peek on the EE website, can’t see this offer being advertised anywhere?
(I am fully expecting unintended consequences though. Obviously most of those "new customer" insurance deals will go away. So the savvy customers will suffer in order to protect the interests of the gullible, inert and ignorant. Prices for all such insurance products are likely to rise. The insurance companies' bottom lines will not suffer obviously. In addition watch out for increases in and more hidden fees for things like changing your car mid-term or moving house, etc. Any odds on an admin fee for putting in an accident claim, anyone? It becomes even more important to read your insurance T&Cs.)
Now, down the line, will the FCA's stance be copied elsewhere? Who knows but I suppose it is possible others will incorporate such changes. But I wouldn't hold your breath on Ofcom doing anything for some while. Contrary to the FCA's position, the laughably inept Ofcom seems to think new customer deals and price comparison sites are a good thing. Even though they know that 20mn customers are outside their contract periods. This from their own web site:
According to our research, more than 20 million customers are out of their initial contract period, and many of these are paying a lot more for their services than they need to.
We’ve changed our rules for broadband, phone and pay-TV contracts. From 15 February 2020, your provider must tell you when your contract is coming to an end – and they must also tell you about their best available deals.
If you’re already out of contract, you must be reminded you’re out of contract, and told every year about your firm’s best deals.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jan/05/millions-of-virgin-media-and-virgin-mobile-customers-face-price-rises
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/1544556/your-virgin-media-broadband-bills-biggest-increase-in-years-price-rise-hike-uk-2022-cost
One of the reasons I've stayed with Virgin for so long is their internet speeds. I'm really not sure if that lower speed will be enough in my house? Bit of working from home. Gaming and plenty of streaming across multiple devices. Will it be up to it?
I see BT do a full fibre500 but I'm guessing that's a fair whack a month?
The cynic in me says these companies start screwing up the basic speeds and then offer up the full fibre option at a far higher costs a few months down the line?
Anyone had that?
Not sure where you live but Trooli are one of the leaders.
Trooli | Packages of 300mb, 500mb and 1000mb Fibre Broadband.
Just ordered BT broadband and TV as it was over half the price of what Virgin offered.
Let's see if Virgin come back with anything?
I'm with Sky and get 72mb and it's fine. Thats me working from home, 1 or at times 2x daughters streaming Netflix etc as well as on their phones and the like and we run a lot of stuff in the house via wifi and Apple Home. That said none of us are gamers.
It's pretty stable whereas talking to a few neighbours who have supposedly much higher speeds with Virgin they seem to get no end of agro, drop outs and slow speeds at times.
PS the new sky router is very very good. 5 bed house, 2 garages and garden and everywhere gets very good wifi.
If you stick two fingers up to them then they'll send you a returns package to box up all of their kit.
BT wireless is more stable than Virgin. Virgin's hardwired connection is brilliant but their wireless connectivity is sporadic at best.
Are there any alternatives? We use a lot - 2 of us working from home during the day, at least 2 streaming TVs and one gamer every night. Trooli doesn't cover me, in Lewisham.
So in terms of alternatives for you, see if Three 5G reaches you, they have some great offers (doesn't reach us to my increasing annoyance)
I've since had several bills from Virgin for £51, ignored by me as I didn't owe any money .. now they have put my 'debt' in the hands of a debt collection agency
Spoke to the agency who have been given A LOT of my private details, they claim I was not cut off until 28th Feb .. I replied, that that was Virgin's problem, I had already cancelled .. I am now getting daily texts asking me to get in touch and pay my debt .. I am expecting my day in court very soon .. are they clueless dickheads or thieving bastards ?
You can get that with FTTC which is what goes fibre to the cabinet/green box then copper or if you are really unlucky aluminium to your home
Openreach and about 50 other builders are building full fibre networks all over the gaff which will give FTTP and thats full fibre and can feasibly give you 1gig but truth is the equipment at the end of that bit of glass cant do anything with that much bandwidth. You can only download a moody UHD film so quickly or watch smut on a big screen in a finite amount of definition
Those who are building the full fibre networks aren't shy about telling locals about it but do a rudimentary Google search and you will find out if full fibre is coming to you anytime soon, until then FTTC is plenty
I do get a lot of channels I don't watch and a landline I don't use but they said it was cheaper to have these than not which still sounds ridiculous. If you switch to 02 they are offering some generous promotions.
If you decide to leave us after your minimum fixed term contract period, you'll just need to give us 30 days' notice.
When you cancel your services, you’ll have access to your Virgin Media Mail account for 90 days, before we close it. This should be enough time to save any contacts, emails and files.
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/cancel-virgin-media
reading through this thread virgins customer service isn’t great but what I’m interested in is peoples thoughts on the tv offering going from sky to virgin. You lose a lot of channels? I can see you lose sky Atlantic but anything else to be aware of?
Plus the service doesnt drop out every time theres a bit of wi d or rain like it did with Sky, although it's not always perfect.
I'd give them an 8/10 overall, which is good enough for me.