Is the grass really greener?

[burningfeetman]

I have been a browser here for a number of years, even though my post count is somewhat pathetic heh.

Im a little concerned that even those who have spent much longer on these forums than me are starting to fail in their allegiance to VM. Those that i would once have thought were VM fans are now turning against them.

I have been looking at other providers, mostly to ensure that i am getting value for money, and to be honest im beginning to think i am not.

BE do a fast, currently uncapped broadband service for very similar to what i/we pay. Sky TV have excellent packages available for very similar costs (and also do broadband! ) and BT, well, they are BT, but a phone is a phone, only use it to recieve automated phone call harrassement.

So my question to you all, are you REALLY happy with what you get? Are we all getting the sort of service we expect.

Just interested to know your thoughts.

BFM

[cimt]

I'm happy with my BB and phone. I'd rather have Sky for TV though, simply for the better choice of channels, including the HD ones.

[chickendippers]

Having both Sky (at uni) and Virgin Media (at home) I think I'm in a good position to compare. Personally I think Virgin Media services represent total value for money, it all works perfectly and when I'm at uni I really miss tv on demand. The extra channels on Sky (besides the HD ones) are nothing more than timeshifts, shopping and music channels.

I have no qualms with either provider's broadband, at uni I live quite close to the exchange so get the full 8Mb from Sky, but I do find the wireless router quite poor...although that could be down to thick Victorian walls.

Bear in mind that Virgin Media maintain their own network, so I expect to pay slightly more so I'm not reliant on BT's antiquated network. But still I've found little difference in the price:

Virgin Media: TV M, BB L and Phone M = £27 including line rental
Sky: 2 mixes TV, BB Mid and Phone Freetime = £30 including line rental

Both have similar channels, VM has on demand and the broadband is slightly faster, you stated that the phone package wasn't important to you.

[frogstamper]

I would echo cimts post above, I'm happy enough with VMs BB and phone service, I've always had a fast reliable service on my 20mb connection so I can't fault it, and as the OP stated a phones a phone.
This brings us to the TV, obviously VM hasn't as many channels as Sky, but it does have the majority of the best ones, then of course VM has VOD which is improving all the time, but where Sky is leaps and bounds ahead is its HD offering if only VM could pick up the pace in this department they really would have a TV service on a par with Sky, until then as much as I hate to admit it Sky presently offers a better TV service.

[xspeedyx]

I used to love my broadband as it was solid fast connection now it does what it wants but better than the 3Mb ADSL broadband I could get the phone it makes and recieves calls so that fine the TV I love the VOD and the channel offerings would kind of like HD but I dont like the look of Sky and dont like murdoch so wont line his pockets. All I have to say is FIX MY BLOODY BB and I will be well happy

[CrowmanUK]

I'm with BE for broadband only, for my 18 quid a month i'm getting 14meg down and 1.5meg up, i'm very happy

[whydoIneedatech]

I have been a customer for around 14 Years through different guises from CableNorthwest to Virgin Media and have never had any major problems any faults fixed within a couple of days.

Unlike Sky who I tried while staying a Telewest customer, 4 boxes in a 3 month period and over a month without service in total and box phantom dialing able to cancel as they had broken terms with all the faults NEVER AGAIN!!!

[Berealwith]

hey i just served my 30 days and have left virgin, my new isp is sky and i haven't a problem with it. all virgin (note a brand name only, with hidden surprises ie bpi,stm and phorm)has done for me is de-drade my service

WHAT YOU HAVE TO THINK IS WILL IT GET BETTER AFTER THIS............NO WAY, NOW BLOODY LISTEN, VIRGIN HAS HAD ITS DAY.......

if you are close to an exchange and expect good speed it looks like you will get it....

[mr_bo]

Here is my take after being with ntl/vm for 7 years and now sky for 7 months:-

Phone:-
You pick it up and talk to people, nothing special but caller id is what wins for me.
bt > vm

Tv:-
I have had all forms of cable tv but the best comparison is V+ versus sky hd where sky hd wins hands down. For me watching tv is only half of it and the other half is listening to it, the sound from the sky hd is awesome with my denon/kef sound set up. It is truly wasted on the v+ with its poor sound. I don't miss/couldn't care less about on demand and the hd offering on sky is nice. The slow channel change on v+ was a pain too.
sky > vm

BB:-
I have had the top tier package from ntl/vm for 5+ years and a lower tier for longer, have had no problem until vm took over where it turned into a bad service, random speeds, poor latency and was just not good value for money. Swapped to sky bb knowing I was a long way from the exchange with a line attenuation of 64db so was risky, but all in all tbh, I do not notice a difference on a day to day basis. The line is stable and rarely get >2.5mb speed so just schedule any files I need to d/l overnight. For £10 pm it is good value for money and knew exactly what I was letting myself in for.
sky > vm

£ for £:-
Was paying ~£50 for vm with retentions deal and now paying ~£60 for sky/bt but vm went back on what i'd agreed with them and were going to charge me ~£77 and the service was not worth half that amount, so I coughed up £56 to buy myself out of contract and say goodbye vm - you're fired! :D

[Welshchris]

it depends what area ur in to be honest, im in swansea SA1 area and there r a lot of probs, a friend of mine is in Neath SA12 area which is a few miles from swansea and is fine. The problems i have are on and of since November 2007 and they keep promising to fix the UBR but hasnt been done so in my experience it would be, the reason i havnt is because im on the waiting list to transfer to a larger flat, so i dont wanna play BT for a line here and then have 2 have another put in at the new flat. A friend of mine is on AOL upto 8mb and gets an almost constant 6.8mb and hes just under 2 miles from his exchange. his downloads are usually around 580-630kb/s. When i move i will go with either ADSL 24 or Entranet.

[chickendippers]

hey i just served my 30 days and have left virgin, my new isp is sky and i haven't a problem with it. all virgin (note a brand name only, with hidden surprises ie bpi,stm and phorm)has done for me is de-drade my service

WHAT YOU HAVE TO THINK IS WILL IT GET BETTER AFTER THIS............NO WAY, NOW BLOODY LISTEN, VIRGIN HAS HAD ITS DAY.......

if you are close to an exchange and expect good speed it looks like you will get it....

STM on BB: M is aprox 108GB/month unthrottled speed, Sky's BB Mid has a limit of 40GB/month...massive difference!

[Nicosia]

ive been with VM since 512kb ntl and never had any problems always get full dl speed and now with 20meg always have 20meg speeds any time of day or night but now with this smt im always being capped which is very annoying, for me i cant get more then 5mbit with adsl and very poor phoneline for adsl so cable is the better option and the cap is a small price to pay for full 20megs, they should definatly increase the upload also if i could get full 24megs on bethere i would be with them no caps and a 2.5mbit upload even vms 50megs wont have a good upload plus its more expensive for u not be able to use ur connection having to be careful until 9pm or until 3pm for an hour

[fluke9]

STM on BB: M is aprox 108GB/month unthrottled speed, Sky's BB Mid has a limit of 40GB/month...massive difference!

But it's not unthrottled :erm:

[Rone]

It wont take much more for me to move from Virgin, probably BE if anyone.
Virgin alter terms and conditions on what seems like a daily basis, they want you on the biggest package you can afford, but dont want you downloading anything, unless its at some ridiculous time, and dont get me started on Phorm.
I dont mind anyone making a profit, but i want something in return for my money.
I have Sky for TV, i would'nt entertain Virgins tv service if it was free.

[frogstamper]

hey i just served my 30 days and have left virgin, my new isp is sky and i haven't a problem with it. all virgin (note a brand name only, with hidden surprises ie bpi,stm and phorm)has done for me is de-drade my service

WHAT YOU HAVE TO THINK IS WILL IT GET BETTER AFTER THIS............NO WAY, NOW BLOODY LISTEN, VIRGIN HAS HAD ITS DAY.......

if you are close to an exchange and expect good speed it looks like you will get it....

It appears you are coming at this with a rather unhinged attitude, from the sheer anger in your post. Whatever you hoped to achieve you lost me, and no doubt others too with your offensive and juvenile language, I don't appreciate being told "NOW BLOODY LISTEN", if you want people to take you seriously I suggest you have a bit more courtesy for other posters.

[chickendippers]

But it's not unthrottled :erm:
Over the course of a month you can download 108 Gb without setting off STM (On BB: M).

[Welshchris]

Im usually downloading on average about 5-8GB a week now and thats it.

[LostintheNW]

Over the course of a month you can download 108 Gb without setting off STM (On BB: M).

If your lucky you can :)

I am no longer happy with their service and have had cable for 14 years, way back when Nynex arrived in the Manchester area, few teething problems along the way and everything was always sorted out in time. Rebranding took place and everything went down hill from there, no longer think what we get is value for money, and have given up speaking to anyone on the phone as its either India on the other end of the line who are rude and unhelpful, or you get someone in the UK who has no idea what VM are doing and are passed pillar to post with different answers and never a solution.

I am already in the process of jumping ship as the time has come, you can only give a company so many chances before the patience disappears altogether!

[wall4856]

If your lucky you can :)

I am no longer happy with their service and have had cable for 14 years, way back when Nynex arrived in the Manchester area, few teething problems along the way and everything was always sorted out in time. Rebranding took place and everything went down hill from there, no longer think what we get is value for money, and have given up speaking to anyone on the phone as its either India on the other end of the line who are rude and unhelpful, or you get someone in the UK who has no idea what VM are doing and are passed pillar to post with different answers and never a solution.

I am already in the process of jumping ship as the time has come, you can only give a company so many chances before the patience disappears altogether!
I have to agree with LostintheNW, After 9 years with NTL/Virgin I have had enough and am moving on to pastures new, they can stick their poor service, stm, bpi and phorm.

[Chrysalis]

grass is greener I would say depends on the following.

VM

if you in digital area.
if your area has bad congestion or not.
if you on a retention deal.

BT/sky/everyone else.

If you close to the exchange so short line.
If you in a LLU area for either easynet or BE, all other LLU are poor.

Not one simple answer from me I am afraid, in some cases VM are the better choice in other cases they not.

[whydoIneedatech]

grass is greener I would say depends on the following.

VM

if you in digital area.
if your area has bad congestion or not.
if you on a retention deal.

BT/sky/everyone else.

If you close to the exchange so short line.
If you in a LLU area for either easynet or BE, all other LLU are poor.

Not one simple answer from me I am afraid, in some cases VM are the better choice in other cases they not.

In my case the choice is 20Mb with Virgin or due to the distance from the nearest BT Exchange 2.5Mb~ with most ADSL providers do the maths.

Plus I have had no incoming BT phoneline for 14 years.

[pip08456]

If your lucky you can :)

I am no longer happy with their service and have had cable for 14 years, way back when Nynex arrived in the Manchester area, few teething problems along the way and everything was always sorted out in time. Rebranding took place and everything went down hill from there, no longer think what we get is value for money, and have given up speaking to anyone on the phone as its either India on the other end of the line who are rude and unhelpful, or you get someone in the UK who has no idea what VM are doing and are passed pillar to post with different answers and never a solution.

I am already in the process of jumping ship as the time has come, you can only give a company so many chances before the patience disappears altogether!

I was a cable customer for longer than that but jumped ship recently. Best move I ever made!

The cable service took a huge downturn when the rebranding happened, I won't miss it anymore.

[i-Set]

im going to be frank here, Virgin Media do some things well and some things utterly crap. however having been with many adsl providers before i.e bt, aol etc, I always tend to get 20mb+, good phone line and tv. the bb is always stable and never has lost connection. Only concern is the upload on bb xl, apart from that I would say Virgin Media are the best.

I left BT last year, due to the simple fact that they could not resolve a simple matter, when i was being charged for calls i did not make, what made me leave them in the end was the atrocious long waiting calls with bt just to get help. whereas with vm, normally takes 2-5mins :D

I for one am happy overall and I know many more that are happy as well. But them people who are happy with their service, dont come to cable forum to say their happy, shame really lol

[bywater]

It most certainly is gave up virgin cable spend most of the evenings walking the dog in the countryside and woodland now. So from that point of view yes definately and just as enjoyable too. Got one of those freeview hardrive recorders to record series which compares well to V+ box. Went with AOL UK and for all the horror stories have found the service very good. I get constant 4.5Mb download speed not the fastest but does me. Customer service faultless so far. Been very reliable got a free lappy thrown in and for the grand sum of £24.99 a month which includes unlimted phone calls all for the same price as I was paying for virgin L broadband. So yes I'm very happy on the otherside thanks. Sofar ;) Finished with virgin September 07.

[Welshchris]

im going to be frank here, Virgin Media do some things well and some things utterly crap. however having been with many adsl providers before i.e bt, aol etc, I always tend to get 20mb+, good phone line and tv. the bb is always stable and never has lost connection. Only concern is the upload on bb xl, apart from that I would say Virgin Media are the best.

I left BT last year, due to the simple fact that they could not resolve a simple matter, when i was being charged for calls i did not make, what made me leave them in the end was the atrocious long waiting calls with bt just to get help. whereas with vm, normally takes 2-5mins :D

I for one am happy overall and I know many more that are happy as well. But them people who are happy with their service, dont come to cable forum to say their happy, shame really lol

a friend of mine has reciently gone onto VM Business after battling with BT for over 8 months, he asked them to fit a Business line and he wanted a buisness deal broadband, they never turned up but he started recieving bills for calls he apparently made and the broadband and line rental etc. £3500 they threatened to take him to court.... Turned out they had fitted the line on the wrong address, and to make things worse the address that had fitted it on was over 4 miles from his LOL.

He seems happy now on 4mb business broadband.