Committing Fraud Or Not?

[Gopher]

Are virgin committing fraud by Charging £85.00 For their Very Innadequate Package with an average speed of 1.5Mb over the last 2 months.

When They have KNOWINGLY Over Sold their bandwidth in some areas
adn yet still charge the Full ammount for their product and have no plans to resolve the issue for at least another 7 weeks when they are due to upgrade the Brentford UBR?

These are not Capped speeds! the chance to reach that magical figure of 3Gb would be great.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Anywhere from
I appreciate that speed tests are a guide but beleive you try browsing!
and they are pretty accurate.
D/load upload

18/11/08 23:45 (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtestcomplete.html?id=122705182342809828975)99 .13 Kbps211.24 Kbps

TO :-
D/load Upload
18/11/08 10:23 (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtestcomplete.html?id=122700375741477126004)12 938.46 Kbps722.06 Kbps


I SUPPOSE THE GET OUT CLAUSE IS "UP TO" but I think they are taking the Faffing P***

[webcrawler2050]

Simple answer is no. :)

Speak to Tech Support, could be a wide range of things.

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

lol, you could claim the same with the electricity generating firms then. If everyone turned every device they had on at the same time there would be melt down. VM dont claim you WILL get the "Upto" speed they know there will be times when its not possible

[Gopher]

Simple answer is no. :)

Speak to Tech Support, could be a wide range of things.

I Have and two Engineer visits and they ADMIT its the Brentford UBR at Over capacity.

[vbx]

Mines like that in an evening, but fine in the day, this is my 10meg tonight, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/122722117398216824196.html

Sucks :td:

[Mick Fisher]

This is Treasure Island.

You know that place where Businesses can rip off the population with the approval of the Government and their appointed Regulators. :shocked:

[Noggo]

When They have KNOWINGLY Over Sold their bandwidth in some areas adn yet still charge the Full ammount for their product and have no plans to resolve the issue for at least another 7 weeks when they are due to upgrade the Brentford UBR?

If VM tech support have told you that the UBR you're connected to is oversubscribed. Why are you paying the full amount? Haven't you spoke to any one in customer services about a reduction in monthly subs.

[synner]

If VM tech support have told you that the UBR you're connected to is oversubscribed. Why are you paying the full amount? Haven't you spoke to any one in customer services about a reduction in monthly subs.

Hi,

Sorry to jump in here, does anyone have a number (NON VM line) where I could arrange this ? My UBR is badly over subscribed, I called last Friday and was told "Well, we'll drop your tier down then" !!!! I'm now on the 10Mb instead of 20Mb but still only get approx 1-3Mb of an evening.

Thanks

Bri

[webcrawler2050]

My advice,

Speak to customer service, they will give you credits for each time you are down / cant get the right speed. They can be very helpfull if you get the right person. Just explain the situation, blag a little and away you go! ;)

[xspeedyx]

My advice,

Speak to customer service, they will give you credits for each time you are down / cant get the right speed. They can be very helpfull if you get the right person. Just explain the situation, blag a little and away you go! ;)

You can always catch out a blagger

[webcrawler2050]

Nah - not massive blag - little tiny blags, helps alot and sometimes gets want you want.

[Noggo]

As far as I'm aware Customer Services # is 0845 454 1111

They know you're been I contact with them as you're drop down a tier, but if wouldn't hurt going over with them:
Date first contacted about problem.
Any fault references #'s.
Resolve date if known (remember any dates are `subject to change').
What sort of speeds you're getting on 20Meg, peak and off-peak showing the problem.
What sort of speeds you're getting on 10Meg, peak and off-peak showing the problem.

+ anything else you might want to include to help your case.

Then the rest is up to you and your negotiations skills, to get the best deal possible.

---------- Post added at 15:05 ---------- Previous post was at 14:52 ----------

Remember to point out: That from when you first reported the problem til you dropped down a tier, you where paying for 20Meg service. If they do offer you a reduced month subscription it will be on the price you're paying now on 10Meg.

Obviously, half of £ 37.00 is a lot more than half of £ 25. That's assuming you're just got BB.

[AndyCambs]

There's more fraud in the fact National Express East Coast trains offer free WiFi - but generally it's a speed of less than dial-up - and that's only if you can manage to get an IP address assigned, which is the norm

[caph]

lol, you could claim the same with the electricity generating firms then. If everyone turned every device they had on at the same time there would be melt down. VM dont claim you WILL get the "Upto" speed they know there will be times when its not possible

No, it's not the same, not even remotely. In the evening there is a massive surge in electricity usage. The electricity companies know this and plan around it.

What wouldn't even be the same would be if you got home in the evening, tried to switch on more than the lights but didn't have enough power, for weeks on end. What would be the same would be if this was the case and you were being charged as if you had electric fires on in every room. Then you're getting close.

Selling and charging for a 20Mb service but only providing a 200Kbps service for weeks on end is not acceptable. It's a rip off.

[Magilla]

There's more fraud in the fact National Express East Coast trains offer free WiFi - but generally it's a speed of less than dial-up - and that's only if you can manage to get an IP address assigned, which is the norm

Since you didn't pay anything, in what way have you been defrauded?

[Noggo]

AndyCambs,

Have you ever complained about the low transfer rate or lack of connectivity. They're either ignoring the problem or don't know about it because nobodies complaining. I know they advertise the service as free but as we know, nowt is free it's just built into the cost of whatever you're buying.

[Stuart]

Are virgin committing fraud by Charging £85.00 For their Very Innadequate Package with an average speed of 1.5Mb over the last 2 months.

When They have KNOWINGLY Over Sold their bandwidth in some areas
adn yet still charge the Full ammount for their product and have no plans to resolve the issue for at least another 7 weeks when they are due to upgrade the Brentford UBR?

These are not Capped speeds! the chance to reach that magical figure of 3Gb would be great.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Anywhere from
I appreciate that speed tests are a guide but beleive you try browsing!
and they are pretty accurate.
D/load upload

18/11/08 23:45 (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtestcomplete.html?id=122705182342809828975)99 .13 Kbps211.24 Kbps

TO :-
D/load Upload
18/11/08 10:23 (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtestcomplete.html?id=122700375741477126004)12 938.46 Kbps722.06 Kbps


I SUPPOSE THE GET OUT CLAUSE IS "UP TO" but I think they are taking the Faffing P***

Sadly, you agreed to this.. Virgin specifically state that they make no guarantees of transfer speeds, and no longer state contention levels (*) .

From http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/legal/oncable/terms.html section b4c

Due to the nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee specific levels of performance for the Internet access.


I am not defending VM (I personally think that if a UBR is oversubscribed, then they should stop adding new customers to it until it is sorted), but legally, I suspect they are quite well protected.

(*)Contention is the ratio of users to the bandwidth available. So, 20:1 would mean 20 customers sharing the bandwidth for one customer. NTL used to specifically state that they had 20:1 contention. Note: With residential ISPs you will never get 1:1 contention. It is not profitable for them to do this, so they tend to operate on the principle that most users won't use all of their bandwidth. Business connections that do offer 1:1 contention cost a lot more than residential connections.