Virgin Media have been a huge disappointment - and mainly because of lousy customer service. When I was stupid enough to sign up to their service, Virgin assured me that I 'didn't have to do anything' with regard to my previous supplier - and that they would 'sort everything out'. Ha ha ha. A complete and utter lie. Virgin took over my phone line, and my old provider is still sending me bills. Virgin now say that they can't do anything - because of the 'Data Protection Act'. Isn't it interesting that the 'Data Protection Act' wasn't an issue when they made their hollow promises in order to get me to sign up? I now have a demand from a Debt Collection Agency for six months 'line rental' for a service I no longer have. THIS IS ALL BECAUSE VIRGIN MEDIA LIED TO ME WHEN THEY SAID THEY WOULD 'SORT EVERYTHING OUT'.

It's proving to be impossible to get any sort of 'service' from Virgin - they don't know what it is. I will have to end up taking them to Court over this.
I know that the vast majority of ISP's are just as bad - it's sadly endemic within the 'communications' industry. No one seems to understand what 'communications' actually means! Or 'Customer Service' for that matter. I can only recommend AVOIDING Virgin Media at all costs. They will promise you the earth to get you to sign up (oh, and the initial contact staff are VERY friendly!) and deceive you at every opportunity. The rest of the staff don't have a clue as to what's going on and quite frankly don't know their arse from their elbow. I can only assume they employ people who use the majority of their brain power on involuntary bodily functions such as breathing. VIRGIN MEDIA ARE USELESS.

(I wanted to give Virgin Media NO STARS AT ALL but unfortunately this system doesn't allow it. HOW ABOUT MINUS 5?)

Posted by Hedger on the 22nd April 2008

Last September the internet started to go a bit wonky... but other times like after 10 at night it would be fine. Not wanting to blame Virgin I did all the usual stuff changing routers, changing computers to make sure it was not my hardware... no joy. Speed on to three days ago when the internet was at best 2k a sec and nonexistent for most for the time. By now I decided it HAD to be Virgin's fault. 1/2 an hour on the phone to some bloke in India I assume from his lack of understanding of where Scotland actually is; I have to phone up the 10p a min line to get any joy. After 25 mins explaining that all the hardware had been double checked on other computers and the line/modem had to be at fault, he was INSISTANT that it HAD TO BE MY ROUTER... HAD TO BE... NO OTHER OPTION. I stuck by my guns and got an engineer out... and thankfully he knew his stuff and changed the modem and installed a signal conditioning filter and its superb again. Moral of the story: stick by your guns and get the buggers out. Don't be fobbed off with people on the phone telling you its your fault. Interstingly I got a an email from Virgin saying that they would cap heavy users a few weeks before all this started. I personally think they have over loaded the servers and the old modems (mine was an original modem ntl gave me 10 years ago) can't handle it... just a thought.
In summary... Virgin's customer support is abysmal, ages to get connected to some one who does not speak English; very well only to have to phone an expensive customer support line (ok they say they will refund if the fault is theirs but it still is on your mind when you originally phone true?). So it's two stars... the engineer guy who came out and sorted it all was a god send so he brings it up 1.5 stars.

Posted by deadbydayinblack on the 11th April 2008

I was previously with ntl and was forced to change over to Virgin. The switch was made as awkward as possible, needless to say the Virgin service could not be made to work at all without several calls to their premium rate support line and I was without any service at all for some time. I was told that ntl is a different company and it appears they do not want ntl customers. Since then the service has been very poor, it often runs very slowly and is subject to horrible congestion which I never experienced with ntl. At peak periods it runs very slowly indeed, this is because they do not have adequate server capacity for the number of customers they have in my opinion. I have complained but all I get is a long winded letter telling me it is my fault and, yes, I should call the premium rate help line again so they can make me pay to be told the same thing. What a bunch of shysters. Unfortunately I am locked into a contract for 12 months, if you are considering Virgin be warned. I give no rating at all for the current service, it is rubbish.

Posted by richard on the 24th March 2008

As I write I'm waiting for someone to talk to on virgin media services. The automated service asks me if I want to cancel my phone line press a number, then a bloke says I need Movers dept even though tried to explain I don't want to transfer line; when I eventually speak to some one with all my details he then puts me through to someone and then I'm now back to automated service asking me what I want to do. I'm now back where I started and now been on phone for 30 mins... All I want to do is cancel my line. I'm sure it's a ploy to keep move on line so premiums charge bumps up!

Posted by Richard on the 18th March 2008

Telewest was great, never a problem in 18 months. Since virgin took over... immediately and ever since its been awful. At least one problem a week. Even when it works its slower at 4mb than telewest was at 1mb. Avoid virgin like the plague!! I haven't cancelled yet as I plan to move soon, but will never go near Virgin again! Oh and they charge for customer service now too. So I suppose the problems with their service help them raise even more money.

Posted by Chris on the 6th March 2008

I am sick and tired of Virgin Media. Ever since they have taken over from Telewest, the service has gone down and it is virtually impossible to get a response from them. This morning I received a letter, signed by a Trevor Elliot, that they have been making some improvements to the way we look after bills and that they have noticed that I haven’t been charged enough. This is a sick joke! They took over from Telewest and the charges never changed, so how can I possibly not pay the correct amount? What they are really telling me is that they have increased their charges and that they are going to help themselves when the next bill is issued to my money and that I can’t do anything about it as I foolishly allowed them to take the money from my account via Direct Debit. The letter they sent me was not dated and did not show an address so I will now write to them at the contact address on the last invoice and I will tell them that I have cancelled my Direct Debit agreement as I consider their letter charging me an unspecified increase as a breach of the Direct Debit Agreement.

Posted by Y Speckner on the 5th March 2008

Virgin Freedom - Media - formally ntl freedom.

The switch over is the biggest pain in the neck ever.
I have tried to obtain my mac code to either switch providers or update on line not successful; phoned approx 12 times on hold up to 1 hour. V-Media says not their fault, ntl freedom's fault which no longer runs, can't get hold of anyone. I received letter service to upgrade or switch providers phone 0800 052 4035 before 29th Feb, system does not work, been told to phone 08700 151515. Option to talk about current package - on hold over 1 hour, no joy; option to upgrade - 15 minutes, finally some one from virgin media sales. To upgrade they would do it over the phone but to get the mac code they said ntl freedom are responsible, but then transfered to 08700151515 and again on hold until I finally had enough of their on hold music and hanged up. On hold approx about 80 minutes.

Virgin Media will not get any of my customer in the future again, poor consumer relations and very poor man management service. No person will pass you on to the right service to obtain mac code or email address or cancellation department. Finally after 3 weeks was given local address of Virgin Media consumer department. A very large phone bill but still no mac code to switch providers. Unhappy with Virgin Media - yes!.
To contact V-Media have to phone 0845 or 0870 numbers which are approx from 3p per minute up to 6p per minute. It cost me a small fortune and still no joy. Again one very high profit company which has grown to big and has no or very poor customer service.

Posted by darrell on the 1st March 2008

I have been with Virgin Media/Telewest for about a year and a half. The first year was great until I moved address - then everything went downhill after I had to sign another 12 month contract. I got dial-up speed and can no longer use my Xbox on Xbox live. I would have cancelled but was told (after a very expensive phone call) it was a 'temporary glitch and should sort itself out'. I originally signed up for the 2 for £20 TV and Broadband at my old address but Virgin added another £3.50 to the monthly bill. After another unhelpful call, they said it was only a 12 month offer. I have even lost all connection for several days and when I called them they said there was a problem with my network card. After no fault was found with my PC, I borrowed a laptop and confirmed my suspicions that the broadband was to blame! I am sick to death of Virgin - they blatantly lie to you whilst paying a premium rate charge (unless you're forced into telephone subscription) for them to do that! which adds insult to injury. I say stay well away and Virgin hang your head in shame!

Posted by dan on the 19th February 2008

Well I agree with every post here almost - virgin media have dropped the ball big time - useless support, customer relations are clueless and they throttle my broadband speed every night during peek hours and when I contact them they blatantly lie and tell me it's not throttled and that when they test it, it shows the full amount. But for some reason between 5pm and 10pm I only get 1 meg connection, yet anytime outside of 5pm-10pm I get a stable 4.6 meg connection. This company is a farce - and I lost my internet over Xmas for well over a month while the engineers "investigated" what was wrong. It took 5 engineers and numerous phone calls to sort it out. I am defo changing to sky broadband. I have been with ex ntl now virgin for 6 years now and never had any issues with them till virgin took over and been having issues every month since. Stay clear of them, 9 out of 10 times you will end up losing against them and their ways.

Posted by I Hem on the 30th January 2008

If anyone here has problems where the modem disconnects randomly and you have to keep rebooting it to get it working - this MAY solve your problems:

First, while the internet IS working (otherwise you won't be able to connect) go on to internet explorer and type 192.168.100.1/gscan.htm which will take you to the modem's page.

Check what the downstream frequency is. It should be 331000000. If it isn't, go down to the Starting Frequency box and type in 0 (zero), then click on the blue button underneath to restart the modem. Reload the page when the modem has finished restarting, and the downstream frequency should then be correct. It seems to be working for me so far, so I hope it helps you.

Posted by Cat on the 30th January 2008

I have been with Ntl for years and I have moved house with them twice. However since having to start a new 12 month contract with them after moving a second time, I noticed on their site that their advertising broadband only at Standard monthly prices currently up to 2Mb is £9, up to 4 Mb is £16, up to 20Mb is £28. I demanded over the phone that they reduce my cost seeing as I had just started another contract with them and they refused outright. Anybody else in the same situation bombard them now!!

Posted by Keith Mayoh on the 29th January 2008

After using Virgin Broadband for almost a year with a dynamode router I was suddenly disconnected without any warning. I was told I had to download firmware to reconnected. I am unable to bring my computer near the modem. I tried the number the engineer left me but after trying for 15 minutes I could not through. I then phoned Dynamode direct and was helped immediately. There are two questions I would like to have answered: first, why was there a problem with the router after using it for almost a year without complaints? Second, why did Virgin not use their e-mail to let me know there was a problem, instead if simply disconnecting without any warning? Furthermore I wish I could speak with your helpline without having to deal with severe language problems on the part of your operator.

Posted by Catherine Darley on the 28th January 2008

I have been a Virgin Broadband customer for several years (using a BT line) and have always been happy with the performance I've received (usually around 3Mbps). However, in November 2007 I started to get regular speeds sub 400kbps. When I performed speed tests on Tuesday via speedtester.bt.com I received results of 62 and 61kbps (tests performed 3 hours apart). I have contacted Virgin Customer Services on numerous occasions and all they can recommend is to run more speed tests or phone their tech support line at 25ppm. I've tried to contact the tech support line but the phone just rings and rings. I would not recommend them as an ISP. There are plenty of alternatives out there. I'm off to research some now.

Posted by Richard on the 24th January 2008

My internet keeps disconnecting at random times anywhere between 5 minutes to an hour. This is seriously frustrating and am on the verge of changing ISP. Virgin has an even worser customer service than Microsoft. Never though I would say that...

Posted by Joe on the 23rd January 2008

This is the worst thing I have ever got myself into. There is no one actually listening to my pleas... If I do not receive a response from them within the next 5 working days, I will have no alternative but to contact Sir Richard Branson at his private island Necker Island, copies to BBC Watchdog, Mirror Newspapers, GMTV and Cit Adv Bureau. I have today been trying to send them a fax at their customer care centre, but midway, my fax was cut off all 6 times I tried... Don't you just love Virgin????????? Rating: 0

Posted by Martha Mitchell on the 22nd January 2008

Just changed from 1meg ntl to 8meg virgin what a difference! ntl was consistent and reliable and averaged about 5 meg, virgin is absolute rubbish, though faster occasionally, at times when you actually want to use it it is slower than dial up. Save money and frustration. Avoid virgin broadband.

Posted by Brendon Higgins on the 11th January 2008

I've had Virgin M 2MB for 7 months and even at peak times I get 1.9 MB. I think the service is excellent for £10 per month.
There have been 2 outages lasting 4 hours but I think that's acceptable.

Posted by Nigel Begley on the 10th January 2008

I found this forum after googling for info regarding my recent slow download speeds and timeouts. I confess that the more I read, the more I was seething that I wasn't getting the broadband service I was paying for. Buried deep down in the posts here is a link to Virgin which actually advises why this is now being managed. http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

Having now had a chance to read it, I'll now readily admit that their traffic management policy makes sense and if I want to do any heavy downloading, I'll have regard not to do this in the 5 peak hours they're managing. (That may well be an issue for others, but fortunately I've no problem for scheduling). I wonder if some of the angst about speed we're reading here isn't born from the fact that Virgins policy of managing traffic at peak times of day for those very heavy users amongst us just isn't common knowledge?

Posted by Grahame Priest on the 6th January 2008

I agree, virgin media are way down there in the broadband league table. I've had all the same problems. When I was with ntl it was good, always connected and I had a constant connection. As soon as vm took over I've had nothing but trouble. I'm on the 8mb package, I have installed net meter and am lucky to ever get passed 2mb if it works at all. Half my shortcuts don't load at anyone time. As soon as I can get out of this contract without penalty I'm off.

Posted by Shaun Burton on the 6th January 2008

I signed up with virgin media.
I canceled 2 days after 'service' was provided.

Stay away from Virgin at all costs! I would rather extract my teeth by banging my head against an urinal than spend another moment with VM. I paid for 8mb, I got 0.5mb! What a joke. Even pipex (shudder), who I had the misfortune to be with for 12 months, could provide 6mb to my property.
I had a lucky escape, that's for sure.

The main problems with the UK ISP market:
no consumer protection, diabolical contracts imposed by a bunch of thieves (pretty much every ISP!), no choice, rubbish speed (where I live anyway).

I wish that I didn't crave fast internet, that way I wouldn't be at the mercy of that bunch of bastards, known as ISP's.

Posted by Chris on the 6th January 2008

I have used what used to be Telewest broadband for a number a years without problem. I recently upgraded my package including my internet to 20meg connection. My new superfast 20mb connection gets on average around 1mb! and there is latency like you've never seen. If you are brave enough to speak to tech support your speed will magically speed up during the test's and slow down a few hours later. Talking of tech support... it will cost you 25p/min to not fix your broadband and to talk to someone from India who reading off his prompts insists all 20 of your network cables must be faulty, and to turn off your modem yet another time, it can't possibly be a fault their end. I assume they are throttling the connection speeds to remove the need to upgrade their equipment, if you normally surf the net at 3am this service might be for you.

Posted by Colin on the 3rd January 2008

Only been with virgin.net since Nov. It is absolutely awful, I can't play online games. The tech support have been ok in fairness; I asked them for the cancellations department, who have informed me because I took bundle 1 for £19.99 a month I have to pay £212 to get a mac code. I told em no way will they get 212 pounds out of me for this so callled 8mb service. My dl speeds since 23rd Dec after about 4pm have been 476k on an 8mb connection, speaks for itself. They have offered me a so called downgrade of 2mb instead of 1mb constant which I believe is no lower no higher than 2mb and evening and weekend calls for £9.99 a month. Will see if they are as good as there word, in 3-5 working days yet no e-mail to say it's in motion. I also can't play online games till after about 1am, that's no good to me starting work just after 8am. My ping on bf2 tonite has been 818, flamin awful. I feel so strongly I may just pay the £212 to get out of this nightmare or be brave and just cancel the direct debit. Are they going to take all disgusted customers who make a stand against this robbery to court for the remaining payments of a service they are not providing? Avoid virgin if u can.

Posted by Jay White on the 2nd January 2008

The customer service on the technical support line is a joke. I know we all joke that all tech support do is tell you to restart your system but come on! And then to tell me that Firefox is not compatible with any Virgin broadband? And that I should download IE for Mac?! Do you speak tech at all!
Can't, however, fault the technician that came out... after a 10 day wait. And don't even get me started on the d/l speeds!

Posted by R Bennett on the 31st December 2007

Please don't join Virgin Media, it causes nothing but heartache and frustration and they don't have a care in the e world for their customers. I've cancelled my subscription for the second time with them after they begged me to go back to them following the change from Telewest. It's as bad if not worse now and I don't care if I'm still under contract, I will not pay them a penny more whatever they say. Please, I've too many reasons to list here as why not to join them, for your own sanity just DON'T!

Posted by Tina Bates on the 30th December 2007

My internet cuts out all the time, would switch broadband if I could but just not suitable at the moment so I'm stuck with them... Do not go with this ISP...

Posted by Lee on the 27th December 2007

I had been with Telewest for 4 years and NTL for about 3 years before that, and I couldn't recommend them enough, especially for broadband. I do not recall any lengthy outages, only minor ones that were corrected within about half an hour, and these were few and far between. Then, almost instantaneously after Virgin Media took over, serious problems began to happen. I don't think I've had a single month without long periods of no service. This month however, it is getting ridiculous - I find myself lucky if this thing holds up for ten minutes – imagine that! What takes the biscuit is that I now have to pay them using a premium number to tell them they have a problem, and to date they have not been able to tell me what exactly is wrong. As for TV, I went over to sky the same day that I lost Sky One due to Richard Branson’s stinginess. Their replacement channel Virgin Central isn't even a channel. It is a cut down version of Telewest's on demand service, and navigating those on screen menus is painfully slow. These days I tell people to stay clear of Virgin Media, so I recommend you do the same.

Posted by Thomas Thorp on the 24th December 2007

My comments are the complete reverse of the majority of those on here.

Before take over, I had been a customer of NTL for years (through various takeovers), and over this time I had nothing but trouble with them. Dire administration. Dire Customer Service. Unreliable Broadband. In fact, the only thing that ever went for them was their price. Since becoming VirginMedia, I have been most impressed with the service and have had little course for complaint (apart from still being labelled with ntlworld.com email address!). My connection speeds have been reliable and I have never experienced any peaks or troughs.

Posted by Steve on the 22nd December 2007

I used to be with Telewest for years I never had a complaint. Now Virgin Media have taken over I have had nothing but problems. Their broadband service is slower than dialup and I'm paying for 20Mb! Looks like I need to get a BT line installed and leave Virgin Media as soon as I can, I can't believe I have stuck with this VERY POOR service for so long. You even have to pay a premium rate number to make a complaint about their service and they don't bother responding to you. If you are in anyway considering this company then from my personal experiences I would advise that you steer well clear!

Posted by Stu on the 21st December 2007

I totally agree, Virgin Broadband is a disgrace and the industry ombudsman should be looking into their business practices.

Posted by Sam Hilton on the 18th December 2007

In the last few months losing Virgin Media broadband connection for minutes/ hours / days - random outages. Complete DNS loss. Was with Telewest broadband for years with no problems. Helpline blamed my software even when the connection works and then doesn't without any changes on my end - daylight robbery.

Posted by B on the 16th December 2007

A few weeks ago I switched to VM and paid for 20Meg but, truly awful connection speeds during peak time (<100k). After complaining I was actually told by an engineer my node was oversubscribed and would be better off going back to my old provider. I have now switched over to Be* which seem fantastic so far. A word of warning: if like me you switch your phone/TV/BB over to VM and then want to go back due to it being crap then this can be a real pain... I nearly had to fork out £125 to reconnect to a BT line again after 1 week with VM!!

Posted by Andy on the 14th December 2007

Do yourself a favour and steer clear of Virgin Media Broadband. I have been with them for nearly 8 years (NTL then Virgin) and my advice is to avoid them like you would the plague, terrible service, CONSTANT service interruptions. I pay for the 8meg pack and I am lucky if I ever get up to the 3.5 meg area, right now while I am writing this I am getting a measly 15kbps, yes that's a 15k connection through my 8meg virgin superfast broadband, merely twice the speed of dialup, utterly useless. Very difficult to leave them though, they tend to hold on to your mac code for some time. They told me when we changed over from NTL that I would retain my 50meg of free webspace, then after the change over, ohh woops they made a mistake you only get 10 meg, totally useless call centre (I know quite a bit about computers) they however rarely have a clue. I have spent loads on calling them and been lied to on several occasions sometimes by people that I just cannot understand as there Indian accent is just too strong. I am frankly disgusted that you have to pay to call them, such an obvious rip-off. I will be getting xmas and new year out of the way then going over to the BT 8meg package, far superior with lots of extras plus some nice toys like the phone and a wireless router for more or less the same money.

Posted by Mark on the 12th December 2007

This service used to be some good when it was telewest. Now it is dire. The advertised speeds are never achieved, and they have started charging 25p/min whenever you need to ring them due to the fact that the service is not working properly (it used to be free in Telewest days). It goes down pretty often (after all servie failure is now a moneymaker). Steer clear. Stick with a BT line, so you can at least choose between providers, and it is easy to switch. With Virgin it is a pain - you are too tied in.

As it is I pay the same money as I did for Telewest but for a service that is advertised as better but performs a lot worse. Find a better provider. For your own sake.

Posted by Amos on the 11th December 2007

Virgin cable internet since November 2007 has been great. I never had any problems with Virgin Freedom before through the BT line. Left BT due to their high charges they wanted for a fault on the line they claimed was mine and was theirs, saving money with Virgin. However I do not see why I have to pay to speak to the internet support when I can hang on for hours on 151 whilst they faff around with the tv package when it does not work. Overall the best advice - if the internet does not work - switch off the modem then count to 30 then plug it back in - if the television conks out - switch the cable box off count to 30 then plug back in. It saves a whole heap of calls to the call centre. Overall Virgin needs to give free technical assistance. I spent unnecessary money sorting out emails. The emails are stupid - they all seem to come into the main identity, so unlike NTL world which had private accounts. Virgin is too big to care, why on earth do they put me on something called blue yonder? Telewest and NTL are supposed not to exist, they are too lazy to change their server ids.

Posted by Keith on the 10th December 2007

Have exactly the same problem. They seem to be going down the same route as the dial ups years ago. Save money by sticking too many people on the same box. So no service at busy times. As to paying a fortune for tech support just to complain!!! Maybe they are trying to fund new boxes with complain money. Worst - "We have never heard of this issue before"!!!

Posted by Cook on the 6th December 2007

I used to be with Telewest for many years and NEVER had a problem with their service. I was laughing at my friends who were unlucky to live in the areas not covered by Telewest. But since VirginMedia took over, I really enjoy BT 2 or 4 mbs ADSL when I visit my friends and they are laughing at me now. I'm on 20mbs broadband with VM now, but it’s slower than dial-up and not even the speed is an issue – it’s the latency, most websites simply don’t load and I get time out errors. I feel like I would love paying 100 pounds a month if I could get my Telewest back, I miss it to much, it used to be so good… How did VM manage to convert the best ISP in the world into the worst one in such a short period of time? I've got two accounts with former Telewest and one with NTL, at different locations, but now it's all screwed up… I want my Telewest back!!!

Posted by I. T. on the 2nd December 2007

I am on Virgin M and my internet disconnects every (almost precisely!) 5 min.

Posted by John Malcowitch on the 26th November 2007

An abysmal service. I have been with Virgin for some years and was well out of minimum contract restrictions. In March '07 I switched bundles to include telephone calls, stupidly unaware that this would initiate a new 12 months contract. Since May I have suffered dreadfully slow speeds and email problems. Expensive calls to Virgin (after 20 mins waiting) only achieve more frustration as they try to tell you the fault must be yours. If I log on at an unearthly hour, surprise, surprise my speed is in the mid 5MB range. But at normal times it can be as low as 0.2MB. Come March 2008 I will be parting company with Virgin. I would like not to give them any star rating but I fear leaving them blank might just mean it shows as 5 star. I will accord them 1 but they certainly have not earned it.

Posted by Bill Anderson on the 26th November 2007

I'm very very disappointed. I moved my home a month ago but they didn't move my broadband. I'm fed up of calling and mailing them all the time. Why all the team don't even care (but I still must pay them!!??). Pathetic!!!

Posted by Nusia on the 22nd November 2007

Service was great a year ago, but is now slow and unreliable. Don't bother trying virgin if you hope to use XBox live as it constantly dies on you... MAC code here I come!

Posted by Chris Blaylock on the 20th November 2007

I have virgin, and it says I'm connected at 7.9mbps.. I have an 8mb connection. Not had any real probs, apart from I can only download 2 bbc podcasts at any time.

Posted by Ian on the 12th November 2007

Appalling speeds, 146k last night and that's fairly typical these days. Definitely a contention issues as it only occurs during peak periods, though support keeps trying to tell me its other factors causing my problems. I hate being treated like an idiot.

Hardly great for online games. Sign up to Virgin if you want to throw your money away as you are unlikely to be getting fast broadband speeds. Better to stick with dial-up.

Posted by Joe on the 9th November 2007

Virgin Media are absolutely awful. We're paying for 8mb broadband, and our line can handle 4meg (according to their tech support and email). We only get between 0.2 and 0.5 meg due to a high contention ratio. It's taken around 8 online sessions and over ten phone calls to a tech support number (35p a min, 10p connection charge) to weasel this information out of them. Basically, they've oversold the area and now everyone is getting a terrible speed. Paying for something new, and then having to pay again because it's broken is absolutely disgusting. Their staff are absolutely nonchalant and downright rude. The worst, most bullying company imaginable - stay well away at all costs.

Posted by S Stiles on the 7th November 2007

Virgin Media 8mb broadband sounds like a good deal for £10 pm but beware - it is complete rubbish. Every 3rd web page browsed is unobtainable and the speeds are slower than dial up for browsing. There is no consistent speed. IT support keep you are on for ages and cost you a fortune. Pointless requesting a ring back as they just don't. Different people say different things, but it is always your own fault. Despite the fact that they are not providing me with the service I contracted to they state if I leave they will charge me £50. I'm stuck with them for a year! Any advice anyone ?

Posted by Lisa Porter on the 6th November 2007

Having read all of the above I am now aware that I am not at all alone in the frustration with Virgin Net, I find it impossible to send or receive any emails after a short while from the initial connection, despite may calls to virgin I have made no progress at all, I am now going to switch providers.

Posted by Ian Mackay on the 4th November 2007

I absolutely agree to the previous comments and there is actually nothing to add to them. Fact is that Virgin is not capable to provide even a constant 10MB service. The customer service equivalent to a paying XXX hotline is treating us like real numpties and we all know that Virgin cannot deliver their services due to its infrastructure. Even one of their engineers admitted that they cannot cope with the demand. £37 per month for a 5MB (if lucky) service is really steep for my taste. The best thing is to find an alternative, maybe overseas in France or Germany with a better service and less money.

Posted by Nils on the 31st October 2007

I second these emotions. Virgin Media should be ashamed of itself. It is the poorest service I have found in a decade of ISPs. I inherited it via Telewest, which now seems like a benign old pal compared with the car-crash that is Virgin Media. Off to Sky.

Posted by Oliver Bennett on the 30th October 2007

I must be one of the lucky few, but Virgin Media (NTL) have always provided me with a solid, reliable and fast Internet connection. I subscribe to their 20mbps package, and I get downloads of up to 2000 KB/sec which is about what you would expect once you account for the TCP/IP overhead.

Posted by Paul Maunders on the 29th October 2007

Absolutely bad service.
Wait of 45 min at customer service line to be told that I cannot reduce my contract for min 1 year from the 3 for £30 package, when the salesperson from virgin told me at sign-up otherwise.
I will contact the Financial Ombudsman and recommend the same to all.
The word will go around about this dubious practice to shackle people.

Posted by Ari Saneshfar on the 26th October 2007

Absolutely bad service!

Broadband is the slowest I've ever had. Also they just billed me for 6 months of talk service that their server held by mistake. They don't sort anything out over the phone, you barely ever get through the hold music and the operators do not have a clue!

Will be leaving pronto and taking my business to SKY Broadband!

Advise - Don't touch them with anything, least of all a bargepole!!

Hoped there was a minus rating!!!

Posted by David Seal on the 26th October 2007

I used to have telewest in my old house, but since moving house have the XL package on the internet from Virgin Media. I am disappointed in the speed throttling, and I am lucky to get 9mb/s even though I am paying for 20mb/s. This is outside of the speed throttling hours. People are wising up to Virgin Media's poor tactics and switching services. I am a bit lazy so I haven't changed services yet - YET that is. No probs with their phone service/tv service. It's just the internet that concerns me. Why pay a premium price for a restricted service? I'd rather pay 45 pounds knowing I was never going to get my speed throttled.

Posted by Daniel Lawrence-thomas on the 26th October 2007

Richard Branson is a money grabbing so and so (politely put). Yes Telewest weren't great but they were a damned sight better than VM and actually a lot more helpful. I hope VM go bankrupt and are forced to sell to a better company who can do the job properly.

Posted by Tim Collinson on the 25th October 2007

Avoid at all costs. During peak time I was unable to browse web sites such as the BBC, and even had to switch to the text only version. Worse than dial-up!

I found that it was fine during the day when people are at work... but useless at night, when I actually need to do some browsing.

Now I have to buy myself out of the contract, which will cost me another £70. But I couldn't stand it any longer. MAC code requested, hope it arrives within the 5 days.

Posted by Chris Williams on the 23rd October 2007

Welcome to Virgin ADSL!

If you like that "retro" dial-up style experience, then you've come to the right place. With Virgin, there's no need to keep your eye on bandwidth, since we're helpful enough to disconnect you on a regular basis!

In fact, Virgin will automatically disconnect you every 12 minutes*, free of charge! You can set your watch by it, guaranteed, or your money back (certain conditions apply).

We're so confident of our service, if you sign up now, we'll even throw in a free migration authorisation code after a month!**

* The 12 minute auto-disconnect feature applies only to modern routers. Users of older routers may not qualify.

** only available by dialing our expensive premium rate number (three day wait, may or may not arrive).

Posted by Jonathan on the 22nd October 2007

Connection speed is terrible now and fluctuates so much to a point where web pages come up with 'cannot be found' errors, like being on 56k! Cancelled the TV service as it is nowhere near as good as sky. Customer service, let's just say it takes a long time to get through to someone...

Posted by Mark Vesty on the 21st October 2007

I've had the same problem as Craig F and Jonathan below. Since 15 October my Virgin Media broadband has disconnected every 12 minutes. Customer service advised that this is a widespread issue but they do not know the cause and have no idea when it will be fixed.

As of 19 October their service status web page states: "At present we are experiencing difficulties with the Virgin.net Broadband service. We are trying to resolve the problem as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused."

I have requested a MAC code. (The number to call for this is 0845 045 0709.)

Posted by Glen on the 21st October 2007

I have exactly the same problem as Johnathan (see below). Since the 16th, my connection has been dropping every 12 minutes.
I have called customer support 4 times around (@25p/pm) and they are utterly unhelpful.
I was given a toll-free number to call for a service update, but it always reports that their service is fine.
Their website too maintains that there are no problems.

I honestly believe that Virgin is giving me the run-around, and do not take this issue seriously.

I would strongly recommend anyone considering their service to STAY AWAY.

Posted by Craig F on the 18th October 2007

Since 15th October Virgin drops our ADSL connection every 12 minutes throughout the day and night. The technical support team admits that many customers are affected by this issue, but can not/will not give an ETA on the fix. Incredibly, the "broadband status" page states "No reported problems".

Normally our download speed is highly variable. In the evening it is close to dial-up speeds, and much of the time it is unusable.

If you are a prospective ADSL customer, I would advise you to avoid Virgin Media broadband. It's too slow and unreliable. Customer "support" is charged at premium rate.

Posted by Jonathan on the 18th October 2007

I have moved and wanted to take my virgin broad band with me. Engineer turned up when I was out and put a cable in but not connected to my computer. I have no pin num or activation code so no broadband. Phone calls 25p a minute to virgin but no help from anyone I am now in the process of cancelling. But how do you get in touch with them. It is virgin from hell with no help never again.

Posted by Philip Harrold on the 14th October 2007

I haven't been able to connect to my broadband for several days now. I ring one (free) line on which a recorded message tells me that there are problems in virtually the entire northern half of the British Isles.
I ring other help lines (for which I am charged). One is answered by a nice lady who tells me to turn off the power to the modem and play with the line into it - something I had already done.
Another line tells that they "only deal with the bills." I ask them all if they are aware of any problems in my area - NO ONE CAN TELL ME. Problem unsolved - I've been recommended BT so I think I'll give them a try

Posted by Mark Smith on the 11th October 2007

I am a pensioner, and so far over the last month I have been charged around £20 for help line calls to the Virgin broadband helpline for set-up problems.

I cannot read my e-mail due to no password being given in the welcome pack, so I will have to spend another number of pounds trying to solve this why because when you use password retrieval a message tells you we have sent the password in an e-mail. You've guessed it - to access the email please enter your password. Get your act together Virgin and stop fleecing us!

Posted by Eric Smith on the 28th September 2007

Ubuntu is no problem, it's a cable modem which connects to the PC through a normal network connection. You may have to configure networking on the Ubuntu machine and I suspect Virgin support would be no help there, but if you can set it to "automatic" yourself, it should be no problem.

Posted by Pete on the 25th September 2007

Absolutely appalling since Virgin took over from Telewest.

For the last couple of weeks I've had VERY slow connection speeds throughout the day, with my connection cutting out completely at peak times. It is simply unacceptable.

Posted by Richard Marsh on the 24th September 2007

Can Virgin Broadband be installed on a Computer running Ubuntu Linux???

Would I need to purchase other installations CDs????

Posted by D Fleming on the 24th September 2007

Absolutely dreadful customer support. 4 weeks without home connection I pleaded with support (premium rate) to fault out to BT. 31 days later BT found fault in exchange. £40+ spent on calls to them which they wont refund..saying their agents provided best support.

Posted by D Stalker on the 14th September 2007

Absolutely appalling connectivity issues. Literally disconnects you every 1-2 minutes for about 20 seconds throughout the course of the day, meaning you can't play any online games - even simple ones such as poker or chess. Moving away from this ISP ASAP.

Posted by Stuart Hughes on the 10th September 2007

I think this sums up the service you get with Virgin Media: 10 am - 2am, 16 hours a day constant disconnects. 9 disconnects within the space of 45 seconds. £100 wasted entering a poker tournament I can't play in because I'm constantly cut off.

Posted by Stuart Hughes on the 10th September 2007

I installed Virgin Media's 20mbps broadband on 3rd September. After getting disconnected throughout the day for 3 days, my speed is now only 2.8mbps as opposed to 20mbps and I am paying £29 for it!

Guys, don't ever use Virgin Media!

Posted by Ken on the 7th September 2007

What can we do to fix our problems with Virgin Media's supposed 20Mbps download speed?

Mine was a fairly healthy 12Mbps to begin with, then recently no better than 5Mbps. This morning, it is 0.5Mbps. What the heckis going on? How can I sort this out without paying £87,000 for technical support?

Posted by Tom on the 5th September 2007

Hey guys!

I may have a solution to the slow internet speeds from Virgin Media. I've been trying to work out an answer and I think I found it. I upgraded from 2MB to 20MB (XL) on Virgin Media so it should work for all XL Customers.

Type the following link into your address bar:

http://192.168.100.1/

In the top left hand corner you'll see Login. Click on it and and it'll come up with with a username and password. Type in root, all lowercase in both boxes and press Enter.

You'll know you're in when you get some links on the left hand side saying things like Status, Downstream, Upstream, etc.

Click on the link "Operation Config."

When you click it, you'll see a message saying Maximum Downstream Length and Maximum Upstream Length, etc.

My downstream says 20480000 and above it it says Allowed. That means that I can get my 20 MB connection.

So if you're XL your number should say that too.

You then need to click on Tools in the top right-hand corner and it'll ask you to reset to defaults, click it and then check Yes, then Apply. Close down internet explorer or Mozilla and restart the internet again.

Go onto speedtest.net or speedtest.bbmax.co.uk to check your internet speed.

I really hope it works for you guys because it's working for me. I was on 2 MB downloading at 225-240KB max. Now I'm download over 1.5 - 2.2MB per second!!! Definitely worth it when it's working :)

P.S I'm not a Virgin Media Technician or anything. I'm 19, so if I could work it out in a couple of hours, it'll probably take them another 6 months or so at least. lol :)

Posted by Waqar123 on the 1st September 2007

I would advise anyone to avoid Virgin Media Broadband. This is the worst broadband I have ever seen.

Imagine a broadband provider that uses premium numbers for support. Meaning that they charge customers in order to get support on the top of the money they have already paid!

Posted by Simon Kama on the 30th August 2007

Avoid these guys like the bubonic plague. Speed fluctuates massively. Sometimes it's the speed I've paid for (2mbps) but most of the time it's slower than the 56k dialup I had in the late 90s! 25p/min to call tech support and get it sorted - and they blame it on the router. Well, I bought a new router (not that the first one wasn't brand new) and still - same bloody problems. I think I'm probably stuck with these guys for 12 months now. Avoid!

Posted by Luke Owen on the 26th August 2007

Some of you should know that 20Mbps is not 20Mb/s download speed.

1 Byte = 8 bits

20Mbit/s = 2.5MBYTE/s

Posted by Carlos on the 24th August 2007

This service is terrible. When trying to do anything other than browse slowly, the connection drops every 30 seconds, comes back for 10 seconds and then drops again. Posting this will be hit and miss...

Terrible.

Posted by Barry Wright on the 21st August 2007

I have been a customer with Virgin for over 7 years and they have always been excellent with great customer support.
However, since the merger with NTL the performance has dropped dramatically, especially at night. Trying to get through on the online customer support is near impossible and takes a lot of attempts to get an advisor.

That said, once connected they are very helpful and knowledgeable and attempt to resolve the issue as far as they can. Think it is just now a case of too many users on a system designed for less people. Time for an upgrade I think!

Posted by Rich Platt on the 21st August 2007

I reduced my package because it was getting too expensive, how does getting a crappier internet connection and tv package make it cost more than it was before!
(I am currently investigating my phone charges since they cost over 25 pound now and cost 15 before (I hardly use the phone)). My Tv package has been out for 3 weeks now, they said they would send someone, they didn't come! I phoned again but they said there computers where down and they would get back to me, THEY DIDN'T!!!! I phoned again and they said they would deduct from the bill the time the tv was down and that will be starting from that day to the week it will take for someone to come round, "But it been out for 3 weeks" I say, "but that isn't down on our computers" they say! On top of that IF you don't pay with direct debit they charge you an extra 5 pounds, if you pay the bill late they will charge you a 10 pound late payment charge. I always loved Telewest they where a great provider, I feel like someone has taken my perfect child away and replaced it with a a retarded baby hippo.

Posted by Rob on the 20th August 2007

I'm a little annoyed with the capping scheme, but I'm more annoyed to the ridiculously low amount of what is allowed. I only have the 2mb service which at peak times allows me to download 350mb before I get capped down to a 1mb service. Also, I work during the day and most of my NET use is after 4pm and before 12midnight. I also use the XB360 a lot during those times.

Telewest was a great service before Virgin took over, and to add fuel to the already growing fire, they now charge a premium rate on their Customer Service.

Posted by Steven Johnson on the 17th August 2007

A while back I started getting frustrated with my broadband since it was becoming increasingly unreliable, always dropping out, etc. I thought to myself, what the heck is happening over at blueyonder? Maybe they have taken on too many customers. Then I found out that Virgin Media had taken over (I don't get the bills directly).

Since Virgin took over things have deteriorated so much it's becoming unbearable.

Posted by Steven Martin on the 16th August 2007

Very poor since they took over from NTL.

1. My internet cuts out (I actually get disconnected) seemingly randomly.
2. My connection speed goes up and down all the time to the point where web browsing, playing games online and downloading files is painful.
3. The obvious loss of Sky1 - one of my favourite TV channels.
4. When watching TV I regularly get an info box in the middle of the screen telling me about some sort of upgrade, or maintenance or whatever, which I can't get rid of for about 5 minutes and I can't change channels during this (not that I can see the program anyway).
5. Reporting problems to a £0.25/min line in India got me nowhere. Useless.

Posted by David on the 9th August 2007

Hi - I have just got off the phone with VM and am fuming.
I was with NTL for years so when VM took over I took advantage of the 2 for £20 offer (phone line and broadband). I telephoned them in December of last year and swapped over. It has only just come to light now that they have been charging me £32. I rang VM who said that on my account there was no record of them setting up 2 for £20, so after a lot of debate they connected me with a supervisor.
She went on to explain to me that as I hadn't noticed this error there is nothing I can do. I should have checked my bank statements every month. I said that I trusted your company. She went on to say "Do not trust our company". I asked her if I could quote her saying that and she agreed. I said well if there is no proof of me requesting the 2 for £20 can you swap me over now? No, she replied, you are signed up until December and that's it. I said that's not acceptable. She said we can reduce your cost if you take out an extra package of the tv with us. I said no thank you very much I am with Sky and am quite happy with their service. She said well there you go then. I asked for an address to write to to send in a complaint, she said yes and tell them I said you cannot have the 2 for £20 then hung up.....

Posted by Janet Weedon on the 8th August 2007

I have been charged £29.50 per month since the NTL service began 15 months ago for TV and Broadband. This month I was charged £48.20. Called the not-so-hot line and was made to wait an hour to speak to a clueless fella.
He transferred me to a customer liaison to deal with the issue following his insufficient response, waited a further 30 minutes to be told tough, my discounts had run out (without any notification whatsoever) but of course they can sort me a new improved deal from next month @ £25. I cancelled. Absolute robbery - surprised Richard Branson has his name associated with such crap. ZERO stars.

Posted by Dean Betsworth on the 7th August 2007

Having read the other messages here, I see that many customers have worse problems than mine, but I fear I am witnessing the early stages of a downward spiral.
I live in Essex and was a (reasonably happy) NTL customer for over 2 years. I use my broadband mainly for online gaming, and this is where my problems are becoming apparent. During gameplay my connection drops off, roughly about 4 times every 10 mins for 30 seconds at a time.
Now, I can almost hear all you other folk saying "Huh, is that all!!." At the moment it doesn't really effect normal browsing, just slows it down. But the fact is that the stability of my connection is gone, and when playing online games that is UNACCEPTABLE!
NTL had problems, but none as fundamental as this.
When Virgin first took over I was concerned. I wondered what would happen to peer-to peer, newsgroups and bit-torrent because for years these protocols had been costing Virgin Megastores a fortune because of piracy. I find myself wondering about the Branson/broadband agenda.

Posted by Gordon Freeman on the 5th August 2007

VM's browsing speed has dropped significantly since taking over from Telewest broadband, whom I never ever had a problem with.
I am so fed up with the slow speed.

Posted by Paddy Hopkirk on the 2nd August 2007

Since Virgin have taken over, my £37 pm broadband service is often slower than dial up.

Posted by Nic Shaw on the 2nd August 2007

If you're not already put off be the previous comments then consider the following:

- My 'broadband connection' is transferring data at a rate of 100kbps (less than most dial-up connections these days).

- To speak to a real person on their support system I have had to pay £0.25/min! The guy told me that the speed tests I'd run at zdnet, broadbandgenie and various other testing sites were unreliable and that I should go to game5.virginmedia.com, download 2 games at the same time, record the transfer speeds and then call them back. The game5 subdomain does not seem to exist (neither do game-5, gamefive, games5, etc, etc....) and I now am unable to get through to them again.

- What's REALLY winding me up is the letters they're sending through the post claiming that they are the ONLY true broadband because their service is not affected by the distance from the exchange.

Quote from their promotional media "the fastest broadband".

I'D BE BETTER OFF WITH A 128K DIAL UP CONNECTION

I'm a web developer and I currently have an important project to finish for a client. If this issue prevents from meeting the deadline I may not be accepted to work on phase 2 of the project and the cost to me will run into £1000's.

Thanks for nothing (almost literally) Virgin!

Posted by Carl Codling on the 27th July 2007

Since the 17th of July my surprisingly high (off peak 3AM), 20MB broadband hasn't reached above 5 meg??? 1-2mg average. Are they bottlenecking the connections now? But just called and they are sending out a new modem that apparently handles the new 20mb connection. We will see....

Posted by Darrell Woodley on the 26th July 2007

After being in receipt of an excellent broadband product for 7 years with NTL I am now totally disgusted with the service provided by Virgin Media. Ping times in online gaming are averaging 450ms!!! I used to get 15-25ms. Wild fluctuations in speed from barely adequate to total standstill. Many, many errors trying to connect to web pages, the list goes on. How VM have the cheek to say that customers will complain more due to their higher expectations heaven only knows. It will cost me £125 to get a BT line connected to my house, but I'm going to bite the bullet to give me a choice of ADSL providers and hopefully get a decent service back again. VM should be ashamed, DO NOT TOUCH THIS COMPANY!

Posted by Nige May on the 26th July 2007

It's no good. My download speed is sometimes close to dial-up, the connection drops completely every 4 to 8 hours, and it now costs 25p/min to report problems. I have spent £30 being told to essentially restart my machine in as long winded a way as possible. Let's just leave the service and have it crumble to nothing, that'll teach 'em!

Posted by Simon Steel on the 24th July 2007

Customer service was always appalling from NTL but at least they provided a broadband service that matched the advertised product.

You paid for a 10mb connection and got 10mb (and hoped you never had to talk to customer service)! Sadly, this is now very far from true. Since Virgin Media took over and "upgraded" the service it has been simply painful to use. Web pages that will often load faster off a 56k modem, very poor online gaming performance, regular outages and, to rub salt into the wounds, a cap on usage for 33% of the day just in case by some fluke their "service" allows you to get a reasonable connection speed in the first place.

Oh well, on the plus side at this rate they will be out of business soon!

Posted by Phil Griffin on the 24th July 2007

Virgin Media is far and away the world's worst customer service company. It is not surprising that the company is up for sale again. Anyone mad enough to buy them can expect the worst. Whatever due diligence they have done on the company will not prepare them for what they find on the ground. My own experience was an install from hell.

I should have known what to expect when the Virgin Media account generated an ntworld email address.

My partner's name was spelled differently on different letters / contract etc. - not the best start given the fact that email is not that flexible. The install letter did not arrive until several days after the engineer called. I therefore did not have a PIN number. The install engineer was plain rude and gave me the wrong PIN number after using his laptop to receive it from HQ.

The serial number was wrong. It turned out the there was an error in the Customer Service manual!

I signed up for 4 Meg but was entered up as 2 Meg on their database. I was not given the £10 installation discount for joining online - they had me down as ordering by telephone. I was advised to ring support in 'India" and after a long time waiting they told me to ring 'England' who then told me to call 'India' ... India did not have access to all my details and so we had a completely impossible conversation. They asked me for my password. Two had been given by the Virgin Media sign up did not work. Later, much later, it transpired that he should have asked for a 'security word' - in-fact I had given that in desperation even though it was not a 'Password' but they would not accept it. It later transpired (from a supervisor) that the staff I had been talking too did not know about a 'security word' for security reasons!

I was continually refused access to a Manager / Supervisor.

During one of the many calls it was revealed they I had been put down as £25 per month when it should have been £17.

I was then told that 'the best solution would be to go back online and go through the registration process again!' I was told I would get two bills, TV and telephone and just a telephone. I had not ordered TV! In fact, it the became clear that the £25 charge was for TV. So I 'may receive a £25 bill and a £25 credit'.

At the end of all this I just kept insisting on a manager and finally, after who knows how many hours, I got one. Mr S. was OK, he was doing his best to sort through all these mistakes. He was able to increase me to 4 Meg pretty much immediately and I demanded better compensation. He finally agreed to upgrade me to 20 Meg for £25 per month. I was told that he would not be able to do this himself and that it could take up to 24 hours but promised to call me back after 24 hours to check if it had been done. I was impressed that, somewhere, there was someone at Virgin Media that understood that the customer is still king, I trusted him. I thanked him and we had a laugh.

Some two hours later my 4 Meg died, I assumed that it was part of the 20 Meg upgrade. Sadly, 24 hours later it was still dead. Mr S. did not ring. Several days later I have nothing. I have a dead cable modem, a 4 port router I purchased to use with the service, and high blood pressure.

It has cost me a small fortune in phone calls and a redundant cable modem but I have had enough, I can't take any more of this. The only problem is - how do I get out of it?

Virgin Media are the biggest joke on the planet. DOING BUSINESS WITH VIRGIN MEDIA can seriously damage your health.

Posted by Martin Hughes on the 22nd July 2007

My broadbands speed and support was PERFECT under Telewest. When Virginmedia took over my internet speeds have gone down. For around a week per month I find it hard to load any websites without having to wait for 2 minutes for them to load. This includes Google.

Posted by Kurt Munro on the 20th July 2007

Full service and refund demand

VirginMedia Broadband only Plan two
8 Mb/s - unlimited - actual speed 0.057Mb/s (57kb/s).

My advice is ** DO NOT USE **

Exceedingly poor service,
couldn't care less about the customer, premium rate number to report problem and complaints - nasty!

Speeds are not good at the best of times,
expect dialup speed in evenings.

My proof : http://www.speedtest.net/result/155623072.png

Reconnection of ADSL modem to reset exchange has no effect. Location 300m from BT exchange.

Long ping times and server time-out prevents access to much of the Net and speed tests especially at slow periods.

Mornings are slow, but speeds up mid late morning and then slows down very rapidly by about 4 pm onwards until late at night.

BT speed test rated the line at 6.5Mb/s. Actual speed on first connection was 7.9Mb/s. This was good.
However, after two weeks they were eroded to max of 2.9Mb/s at useless times of day/night.

The 0.057Mb/s (57kb/s) http://www.speedtest.net/result/155623072.png obtained last night indicates a serious problem with the service.

Conclusion virgin.net are rubbish and offer a service of no or low value.

I say **DO NOT USE**

Action - demand a full refund and hold to contract to supply adequate service.

Posted by N. Braithwaite on the 17th July 2007

I ordered broadband and tv with Virgin for £20 but they are sending me bills £31. I've sent a letter about that and, of course, no answer. Now I am going to cancel my agreement before the end of minimum period and will have to pay about a £250 penalty for that. NEVER MORE VIRGIN MEDIA!!!

Posted by Rafal Z on the 16th July 2007

I have been with NTL/Virgin Media for almost a year now. My Contract is meant to end on the First of August. When I asked to cancel my services on that date I was told that I would still have to pay for the month of August.
What I don't get is why should I have to pay for a month that I am not going to have services. Also why should this be if I have not signed a new contract with Virgin Media should i have to pay for this?
I have to agree with everyone else that Virgin Media is the worst service you could go for.

Posted by Philp Annesley on the 12th July 2007

I had been on cable broadband ever since it was laid in our street about 7 or 8 years ago. These were the Telewest days. Sure, there were a few outages but only a day or 2 every 6 or 9 months.
Blueyonder came, speeds got faster, service became more reliable (not that you could fault it previously), customer service was pretty good things were great.
Then... Virgin Media who were fine on their own as an ADSL company Virgin.net got hold of everyone and threw the whole lot together like a big stew.
Now my so called 10Mbps connection struggles to hit 1Mbps any time after about 16:00 hrs.
For the last week I have had to shut my cable connection down completely and run on my PAYG back-up ADSL service (from enta.net) as the Virgin Media connection grinds to a halt. Virgin Media are still pushing the 20Mbps claims and advertising heavily when they can't even provide a fraction of the claimed service to their existing customers.
I would suggest anyone should stay well clear of Virgin Media for a broadband connection and if possible go with one of the ADSL suppliers. Virgin Media with their Prime Rate 0870 numbers at 25p / minute. If you try and phone up about a fault, useless call centres manned by people that are extremely difficult to understand (so adding to the time spent on prime rate number) and everything else everyone has already said make Virgin Media the worst internet provider since.. well since "Virgin Media"!!!

Don't go there, you'll regret it for a long time!

Posted by Pete Walter on the 11th July 2007

Well... where should I start from?
I was a happy NTL Telewest customer until Virgin Media took over. I always liked Virgin brand and all that was associated to them. When they took over the only thing that made me mad was taking Sky One but I got through that and forgot about my favourite series - Lost.
Then I moved to a new address (less than two miles from where I lived) and Virgin took more than 1 month to get it all right and proceed with the installation. And because I didn't have a landline at the time (I had just moved) I spent over £100 on mobile calls to them - the minimum I've waited was 45 minutes!
Then they charged me for installation - which they only installed the phone line. I continued to use NTL's equipment (TV box and modem) even after asking for new equipment. The TV box was never the same. It kept freezing, losing channels, etc. I had to reset the box every 2/3 days.
On my new address they charged me two months in advance.
Then I received a 12 month contract which I refused to sign since I only had 6 months left with NTL. I called customer services and a girl told me that they would be sending a 6 months contract ASAP. Surprise, surprise I never got one! When they kept sending contracts every week I called up again and I was told that they could never send a 6 month contract. Basically they told me that I was lying... but I had names.... although that didn't help me - they were either off on that day or on another call - and no point asking for a ring back because they never did!
Then... I received another letter with £216 cancellation fees to pay - from my previous address!!! I called up... again... and I was told that I had to pay it. I explained that I transferred the services, so I was put on hold and after 30 minutes waiting someone just hang up on me. So I called then up again (another 3 hours waiting to be answered) and finally I was told to ignore those letters, it was a mistake...
But I kept receiving them. I got two more for the same amount, but I ignored then thinking that they could be computer generated. And now I've been receiving calls from a Debt Collecting company every 3 days. I called Virgin again and told me to send a letter to them... complaining... So I don't care if they take me to court. I cancelled the services and within one month they cut me off and the technician came over to collect the TV box. Quite promptly, too! Nobody has ever mentioned that I would be charged anything for cancelling this contract, so I'm just waiting to see what happens.
I'm amazed for the amount of problems I've been having with residential Virgin Media! And funny enough... I deal with Virgin at work on a daily basis and I never had any problems.
Oh well... What else can I say?....

Posted by Patricia Magalhaes on the 9th July 2007

Upgraded to 10Mb service from 2Mb. Now only getting 1Mb download!!! Terrible, terrible customer service.

Posted by Adrian Scoyne on the 5th July 2007

I recently moved into a new property and transferred my services with Virgin Media, as up until that point I never had had a problem. Installation into new property and was enjoying having broadband, phone and TV, until last week. Somebody in Virgin's Media back office closed our account as there were new people moving into the property seemingly (could it have been myself who moved in a month ago?)

Anway, called Virgin Media Customer Services who did apologise for the mistake and assured me everything would be reconnected by 48hrs at the latest. That was the Wednesday night, Friday night came - still no services. Called on Saturday morning to be told that they (as of that day) were upgrading their account systems until the 6th July and no changes made, which meant I will be without any services until 7th July as that's the earliest I can be reconnected. When I asked how come they didn't reconnect before this new system was implemented I was told that I have to "understand that there back office is very busy", to which my reply was that it's not my fault as they disconnected me in error and my reconnection should have been a priority.

I asked for a address to send a complaint to be told I could do it over the phone which means they would take details and nothing would be done..... Virgin Media are completely useless and would not recomment them to anyone...

Posted by Carol on the 3rd July 2007

we thought it could get no worse than ntl - WRONG !
VM we are off SKY !!
The final insult ? - 25p a min call for tech support !

Posted by Mr & Mrs Jensen on the 2nd July 2007

Well, what to say!!! I think everyone here has said it all. Virgin cut our Internet off for 4 days, not including when the internet dies each week. It's apparently 20 mb's now after I got it working today. Thank you! I found a way to get it working without ringing technical support again. I believe they changed something outside which messed us over big time.

The main problem with Virgin is well... everything.
I found this thread because I'm experiencing very, very, very slow browsing times, but downloads are very fast. WHY!!!!

All my speed tests come back to say I'm getting between 13 meg and 19 meg (changes every few seconds which sucks for gaming!) but surfing the Internet, it's slower then dial up.

DON'T GO WITH VIRGIN! I've regreted it from the day we signed up. If it wasn't for my flat mate who wanted the tv, Iwould have never gone with them!
RUBBISH!

Oh blue yonder wasn't anywhere near as bad! I'm so sad because of this...

Posted by Tom Hl on the 1st July 2007

All I got to say is that I've dialed 150 just to upgrade to get the 3 for £30 deal I've been waiting for over 2 hours now and am disgusted!! I like the product.. hate the service!!! I wish I could do this online but the online is just for new customers!!! Grrrrr.. Should I hang up? Free XL package upgrade ends today!!!

Posted by Daniel Cormier on the 30th June 2007

All was going well until a few weekends back my modem stopped initializing with ADSL line. Have currently spent about £20 calling customer services (no normal rate phone number) and keep getting conflicting information. Keep being told problem is at my end despite trying 3 different modems in BT test socket. My advice would be to steer well clear of this service until they learn how to provide customer support.

Posted by J Phelps on the 30th June 2007

VM have really messed up since taking over and many users here in the southwest are fed up.

Main problem with slow speeds is contention ratio. If your unfortunate to live in some areas near Plymouth e.g. Plympton you won't see more than 10-20k/sec on a 10mbit connection on various sites/services.

Why not download (if you can) a mac sniffer to show you how many subscribers are on your local node. You'll be surprised at all the 10mb modems on it sucking up the bandwidth.

Vote with your feet people you CAN cancel your contract early if they can't provide the service under their T & C's.

I and many others have already done this so call 150 select the option for cancelling and away you go!

But don't go to Sky broadband it's even worse trust me on that...

Posted by Simon B on the 27th June 2007

Virgin Media are crooks. I took out my account with NTL and now by default I find myself in the hand of Virgin Media. Sloppy service and overcharging. Oh and if you try to cancel that is a whole other world of issues and problems. They are masters at preventing you from cancelling with underhand tricks and questions. Stay away at all costs.

Posted by Ashley Trees on the 27th June 2007

I have just had all my services cut off apart from my internet. All my bills are up to date and paid for so you can imagine the surprise I got when I had no phone or tv services. I got through to Virgin to which they told me that I had purchased 13 pay per view films in 2 days. Due to the fact that it was impossible for this to have occurred the operator agreed with me and put me through to faults. These films were supposed to have been watched 2 months ago but because we still haven't been billed for these supposed watched films they wouldn't tell me what these films were. They say they can't give out details about any bills that haven't been "generated." If your bills are up to date and paid for how can they cut your services off when you haven't been sent a bill and been given chance to pay for the bill. Four days later still waiting for the bill!

Posted by Susan Brotewood on the 24th June 2007

Virgin Media is terrible in every way. My phone has been out of order on and off since Feb 2007. I have had 7 engineers who have all said different reasons for the problem and it still doesn't work. I had 2 phone lines/numbers and one number they took away which I gad for 18 months, then they said I never had the number in the first place. The engineers don't always turn up. They offered me compensation, then the next person I spoke to said there wasn't anything in my notes to say I was entitled to compensation.
I didn't want to go back to BT but who else is there? TalkTalk are dreadful as well. What I have written is just a small amount of the problems I have had with Virgin.

Posted by Sue Bain on the 23rd June 2007

Virgin.net were brilliant. Since merging with NTL and becoming Virgin Media the broadband service has been very slow and sometimes drops out altogether during peak times. Customer services to their credit do respond, but treat you like a simpleton inferring that the problem is at your end and not theirs.

Posted by D Williams on the 20th June 2007

Well, what can I say, I had a small vein of hope for this service, 8MB unlimited for £17.99 sounded great compared to the rest. Now I'm stuck with a modem that sits there flashing and no connection. VM suggested taking things off the wall and messing with wires, or turning off my freeview box, so basically I won't be able to watch it anymore. Guess what? None of that worked, and how much did I pay for that sound advice? £5.....yes...£5. Their customer service rate is 25p a minute for people who don't take their phone service, and as far as I know, from 1st july, people who do have their service will pay the same. Want to cancel? Sure! Wait 30 days (just enough to get another £17.99 out of you) and pay £50 and you can have your line back! Good Luck if you choose this service, you'll need it.

Posted by Duncan on the 19th June 2007

Telewest was superb, never had a complaint. Now well what can you say. The capping on speed if you dare to download from 4pm to midnight is bad enough, but to expect people to pay a fortune to be kept on hold for ever is the pits. I was always reading about NTL customer problems and being thankful that I had Telewest. Oh dear, Virgin, what a company !!!!!

Posted by David on the 19th June 2007

I was a loyal ntl customer for years and was happy with the service, it always worked! I'm now in a legal battle with virgin over money they say I owe them. Thank god I didn't give these idiots my bank details. I paid for a 10mb connection, not a 2mb. They were quick to demand money from me but couldn't fix my problem after months of not being able to get through to there helpline. Customer service is a bad joke!
SO I had no choice but to terminate my contract with them. I threw out my cable modem and tv boxes, phoned BT, SKY and BE broadband. I was connected the next week, and I'm extremely happy with my BE DSL and BT. Especially the fantastic customer support from both companies. Do not trust or use Virgin media!! or you will regret the day you did!

Posted by Lavaman on the 19th June 2007

Like all the other folks said, the service we received from Virgin is bad bad bad bad bad... However to be fair the problems I experienced with them can actually be traced back to the NTL era, so I believe they simply took over NTL without upgrading their customer service sector.

Problems I experienced are:
1. Slow broadband speed and sometimes with no signal at all.
2. Rubbish customer service including phone, email, and mail. In a good day you may be able to talk to someone (who still can't solve your problems!) in 30mins. In a bad day... I once waited 1hr plus and they hung up the phone!!! The prob is I don't have a phone line with them and so it cost me a fortune calling from my mobile.
3. Overcharged me hundreds of pounds saying that I have watched dozens of movies and MV's from the digi box. Engineers came and check, no prob with box, got full refund, but the same thing happened again next month. Imagine how frustrated I am having to receive a 3 digit broadband bill every month and spending hrs trying to reach those people to get a refund.

Avoid Virgin Media at all costs!!!!! They may be cheaper than some network providers but don't let that fool you!!!!

Posted by Chris on the 16th June 2007

Virgin are useless. The installation process is painful. They have cancelled several appointments to install broadband without even telling us. Again it seems this is another company concerned only with the bottom line and not the customer - it's becoming all too familiar.

Posted by Alex Edwards on the 15th June 2007

Avoid Virgin at all costs!
When I moved address I contacted them to say I didn't want to take their package with me due to poor internet and TV box problems. They offered half price TV and phone and 10 mega broadband for £10 per month, so I stupidly agreed. Their engineers cracked bricks and plaster and generally didn't care. Then I found that my broadband speed was less than 2 mega and rather than discounting me they doubled my billing, in three months they took over £400 from my bank account. I sent an official complaint in copies of my bank statements and this was acknowledged but has not yet been resolved, I have received demands for equipment they took when I moved address and now I have received a debt collectors letter for an outstanding amount.

Posted by Mike A on the 13th June 2007

Like over a million posters, I too have gone from a very good service to a crappy one. It happened the moment Virgin took over from Blueyonder. Now, every weekend and sometimes on weekdays, I lose my connection all day on a Sunday, sometimes Saturday too, from midday, to the evening. There's no point phoning up some moron in another country who spouts dogma at you, from a page and wastes your time rebooting your perfectly good PC and modem. It's clear from the pattern that these outages are not due to damage, as lamely claimed, but rather to some planned maintenance procedure that they already know about. Virgin now want you to pay premium rate to listen to this crap. They don't even have the consideration and good grace to inform their customers, so that they can plan around the downtime. My post may be a lot more aggressive than most, but I think a lot of people out there actually are this angry with Sir Richard The Turd's company.

VOTE WITH YOU FEET, OR GET SHAFTED EVERY MONTH LIKE CLOCKWORK

Posted by Mike Russell on the 10th June 2007

Cable and Wireless-NTL-any problems solved-Virgin-forget it! 40 mins. on Friday
ending with a promise to put me through to Customer Services by which time my head was reeling and I was sick of repeating details. I was not put through to anyone.
Tried again on Sat. morning-20 mins-
an engineer would ring me within 48 hrs.
By Wed. morning no one had been in touch.
Wed afternoon and I actually got through
to an engineer after a further 25minutes around the world telephone travel.
By this time I had a sore throat from repeating my details and was sick of the sound of my own voice . I came to the part where I gave my post code-he did not deal with that area -but would put me through to a man who did-I got back to India wastedanother 25 minutes and was told she would pass my details to a supervisor who would get back to me sometime in the next THREE DAYS.
I dont think so.
Sorry Richard. I'm off to the bank to cancel tomorrow. I know when to give up.

Posted by Irene Firth on the 6th June 2007

I gave notice to Ntl in Jan and switched to Sky in Feb of this year. Account was paid in full.
Now i keep getting bills for my broadband..Why!! only they know. I spoke to about 10 different people about this and they all said i should'nt be getting the bills and that they will close the account ASAP.
Now i have been sent a default notice which effects my Credit Rating and i am not happy..
I have spoken to 5 or 6 different people today who all say they will get the account cleared today but after 3 hours on the phone my patience is running out.
I have told them i want a letter to say thet i have paid in Feb and that they should'nt of sent a default notice. Can they do this? Your having a laugh, the bloke has now gone to speak to someone else about it.

Next Step Offtell..

Ntl Were bad Virgin are even Worse..

Posted by Phil Edney on the 1st June 2007

Since virgin took over and have promised upgrading the 10Mb package to 20Mb, we've been getting nothing but 2Mb for weeks now.

And with this new throttling they've said is only going to be for the upgraded speeds, they're basically giving us the speed to get throttled. 3GB on a 20Mbps line is fucking ridiculous.

Virgin media are a bunch of morons, they're just going to lose hundreds of customers if they don't get their heads out of their asses soon.

Posted by Aidan on the 28th May 2007

I have been with telewest broadband for years i love the broadband service. I currently use Sky for my TV service i decided i wanted a one stop shop and decided to go for the £85.00 VIP service.

An engineer turned up on Saturday spent 5 hours screwing around looked like he did not know what he was doing. Drilled two holes in my house installed a V+ box and a Multi room box. Left to deliver a ladder to one of his colleagues. Told me he and his mates were from Scotland and they were installing all over England this weekend happened to be west London.

He then told me that he was having a bad day and the TV service was not going to work "right this minute". "i will call you later " he said..Not surprised ..no phone call. no phone call on Sunday either. So i decided to call Virgin today to be told that they could only return to complete the install in 2 weeks time. No apology. No nothing

This Service is a horror and an absolute disgrace. And is totally unacceptable in this day and time Virgin thus far have shown me a lack of integrity and a lack in care i am very disappointed.

This has left a really bad impression on me. If you can not get a simple installation right then god help us if there are any other problems with the service I have decided to cancel the service immediately before i have even received it and requested they pick the boxes up ..lets see how long this will take . I will instruct my bank not to pay any monies to virgin and will send their accounts and customer service departments a letter cancelling the service by special delivery. Tomorrow. I will keep my TV service with Sky ... what a shame

Poor Richard if only he knew his Quality Virgin Name is going to be destroyed with this business. Badly needs to sort this customer service out. Whoever Virgin have installing and customer service need a complete overhaul an absolute disgrace.

Its like having my windows replaced and being told " sir we have taken your windows out but i won't be back for 2 weeks to put your new ones in.

Good luck Virgin
you are going to need lots and lots of it

Posted by Brian Keeley on the 28th May 2007

The key word for VM is "slow": Zapping through TV channels takes for ever, the inertia of every button push is crippling, broadband download speed is a joke, and the on-hold time when you phone them is insulting—as are their clueless representatives or "technicians" sometimes. But, hey, they've redesigned the colours and layout of their little site and banners, and they use oh-so-today expressions like "blisteringly fast" to describe their broadband speed. So, they can't be that bad. The other day, when I finally got through to a VM technician and asked him if there was anything they could do about my ridiculously slow browsing time, the guy had me run a little download test online which returned a few numbers that I read out over the phone to him. After a few calculations, he announced that my download speed was actually twice as fast as what I'm supposed to get with the L package and that I should look into tweaking my browser's parameters (instead of complaining). Things were absolutely perfect before I switched to VM, but that didn't seem to bother his sense of logic. Virgin Media is so bad, it's not even funny.

Posted by Sven Mattys on the 27th May 2007

I've been having the same problems, for the past 7 weeks. That's nearly two months!! We've called them, and earlier on with this he told me to go buy a new adapter card, because that was the problem and not them. Luckily I didn't waste my money buying one, because I knew it wasn't that.
We called them last night where he told us to call another automated number which would tell us how far along with fixing it they were, and all that was said was "there is a problem in the Yorkshire area, we're doing all we can".

This is completely ridiculous, they could at least give us a estimate of how long it would take.

If this carries one we're cancelling it, as we've paid for 2 months internet, and getting less than have of it.

My connection hasn't worked for nearly 3 days now.

Posted by Leanne on the 26th May 2007

Wait for ages on 150. You get through to an over-seas call centre where you can't be helped and they try to book an engineer for you.

I gave a month's notice (as required) to cancel my TV service, and they (virgin media) cut my TV off straight away, Took 6 hours of phone calls to get it back on. Worst customer service ever.