What is virgin like [Archive]

sparkie415

12-03-2010, 21:05

Ben B

12-03-2010, 21:12

Hi and :welcome:

Well what I think is...

Broadband: On the 20mb package receive a consistent 19mb+ something which rarely if at all is acheived with services down a BT line

TV: I am on XL which gives access to all the channels minus the premiums and if you have a V+ Box you have all the HD channels available and can record 2 channels while watching a third. As an XL customer, you also get access to TV Choice on Demand and Music on Demand included in your package, as well as the Catch Up TV on Demand which all customers get. Excellent value for money.

Phone: Well it's just generally a phone package! Also remember, if you take out Talk evenings and weekends, evenings start at 6pm on Virgin not 7pm. You also have the option of taking Talk Weekends which is the minimum, or Talk Unlimited.

Overall I think Virgin provide an excellent value for money, that's my opinion truly and honestly. :)

Ben :)

oliver1948uk

12-03-2010, 21:27

I have been an ntl/VM customer for 10+ years.

Sometimes customer services is less than perfect but I could name other companies that have given me a far worse experience.

Phone 99.9% reliable. TV 98% reliable. Broadband (I am on 10Mb) 98% reliable and only occasionally falls below 9Mb. (Used to be on 20Mb. That was equally as reliable)

V+ box excellent and 95% reliable. I consider its greatest strength being the upscaling of standard defintion picture (by HDMI) making HD an anti-climax.

I have two family members (one based in the same town as me - Mansfield) and one in Dover on VM. Generally both would agree with me though Dover has had intermittent problems with broadband and ntl/VM email.

Things seem to be getting better and better. Even the offshore customer services has improved!

Peter_

12-03-2010, 21:33

Things seem to be getting better and better. Even the offshore customer services has improved!:erm::erm::erm::D:D:D

jtaylor06

12-03-2010, 21:55

TV:
It's great. On same package as Ben B and he's correct - the on-demand is great value for money.
Here is a link to what Virgin offer on-demand: http://www.virginmedia.com/tvradio/ondemand/
V+ is great.

Here is page, it explains what the TV packages includes.
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/tv/compare.html
It's unlike Sky's mixes where you have to have a certain mix for certain types of programming.

Internet:
Internet's great. You can see the speedtest result in my signature (I'm on 20MB/s)
Downloading's great, you get speeds over 1.0MB/s depending on the host of the file which is fast. You get free equipment too (I think it's dependent on package) so you get a fast N router, and the modem obviously.

Phone:
Can't really say much as a phone's a phone ;D

Reliability:
It is quite reliable tbh. I've only had one time when the TV service went down but it was no more than 5 hours or so.
Internet, it's always on. I can't remember the last time it cut out.

Hope this helps in some way :)

Useful stuff:

Broadband: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/service.do?id=2
TV: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/service.do?id=1
Phone: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/service.do?id=3
Bundles: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/bundles/triple-builder.html
New customer info: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/help/newcustomer.html

---------- Post added at 21:55 ---------- Previous post was at 21:53 ----------

Oo, just found this for Sky customers switching to Virgin:

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/broadband/switch-sky.html

It tells you what differences you will expect (mainly positive)
Really helpful

Spectato

12-03-2010, 22:37

They're better than BT, but then so is rabies.

Sephiroth

12-03-2010, 23:09

Hi and :welcome:

Well what I think is...

....

Overall I think Virgin provide an excellent value for money, that's my opinion truly and honestly. :)

Ben :)

I gotta go with Ben on this for my personal exoerience.

The poor experiences reported here are a very, very small fraction of the customer base.

That said, you might want to be aware of some issues. If you live in/near studentland for a major university, then do some research for your particular area. They live 5 or 6 to a house, downloading, P2P-ing, gaming - all legitimate acticities but they gobble up bandwidth.

oliver1948uk

12-03-2010, 23:12

Preumably the same problems will apply to those on ADSL in student areas

Sephiroth

12-03-2010, 23:17

Preumably the same problems will apply to those on ADSL in student areas
Maybe not to the same extent. The issue in studentland really is upstream capacity provided by VM's architecture.

Some DSL packages don't have this problem. I hope others can elablorate on this for you.

I'd say this - if you live near a BT exchange, seriously consider the up to 24 Mb/s DSL package.

broadbandking

13-03-2010, 10:24

I have to say the TV is brillaint esp the on demand services, the V+ is great and is used by all memebers of the family, the broadband is fine 50Mb service, only had a couple of outages which lasted 5hrs max, since I have been with VM/TW, I have only had a one full day of no service, been with them since the analog days.

caph

13-03-2010, 11:37

If you end up on one of the oversubscribed nodes, you'll wish you never swapped, but if you end up on one of the non-oversubscribed nodes you'll wonder why you didn't swap sooner. There isn't that much oversubscription but that will mean nothing to you if you draw the short straw.

50Mb is far less likely to suffer from oversubscription but far more likely to suffer one of a myriad of other problems. It's new technology that is still bedding in.

louisg

14-03-2010, 19:46

Maybe not to the same extent. The issue in studentland really is upstream capacity provided by VM's architecture.

Some DSL packages don't have this problem. I hope others can elablorate on this for you.

I'd say this - if you live near a BT exchange, seriously consider the up to 24 Mb/s DSL package.

when talking about living near a exchange. How close is near and how far is far?

---------- Post added at 19:46 ---------- Previous post was at 19:45 ----------

If you end up on one of the oversubscribed nodes, you'll wish you never swapped, but if you end up on one of the non-oversubscribed nodes you'll wonder why you didn't swap sooner. There isn't that much oversubscription but that will mean nothing to you if you draw the short straw.

50Mb is far less likely to suffer from oversubscription but far more likely to suffer one of a myriad of other problems. It's new technology that is still bedding in.

how do you find this info out about what node your on?

Sephiroth

14-03-2010, 22:35

You can look at www.kitz.co.uk and you'll see how distance will attenuate the DSL signal and lower speed.

You can put in your postcode and it'll tell you what you MIGHT expect.

I can tell you this - I'm about 2 miles from my exchange by road, more in terms of electrical length, and I can't get more than 1.5 Mbps on my O2 DSL line.

Stuart

14-03-2010, 22:48

HI,
I am currently with sky .full bundle i.e tv/phone/broadband.The bb that Sky provide is the connect package which is bt sold on to sky and very slow.

Thinking of changing to virgin full bundle as with sky.Is virgin good and reliable any issues that you guys know about.Honest and blunt answers would be most welcome.
Thanks for any help.

I don't have broadband, but I have a V+. Not had too many problems with that. In fact I think in the three years I have had it, I have had one fault, which was solved by tightening the connectors and removing the splitter VM put in for the broadband connection they put in but I never used (because I still had 2 weeks left before my BB cutoff date when I had the V+ installed, the engineer installed a cable modem despite my objections.

As for broadband speed, there is a site where users can register the kinds of packages they are on and the speeds they get. In some areas (like mine) they don't have a lot of reports so may not be accurate, but in others they should have a lot, so should be accurate..

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

chickendippers

14-03-2010, 22:58

There's always the 28 day money back guarantee. So if it turns out you're on an oversubscribed part of the network, give technical support the chance to fix it, and if they can't - just cancel.

No loss to you.

Kursk

14-03-2010, 23:27

Can only comment on the broadband connection and mine is rock solid. My experience with VM support (especially including those who assist on this site) is very positive. If you can get VM cable, get it.

Ben B

15-03-2010, 00:26

Milambar

15-03-2010, 02:30

My personal opinion...

When it goes good, its very good. When it goes bad, its rotten.

caph

15-03-2010, 08:41

how do you find this info out about what node your on?

That's a bit tricky because you won't know until you join! Your best bet is find someone else near you on cable and ask them what their speed is like at peak times. You can also have a look on www.top10-broadband.co.uk or www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk (click the speed in my area link) at your local area on Google Maps with speed tests overlayed on the map, they're not that reliable an indicator but better than nothing. If speeds are less than 75% of headline speed at peak times then forget it, at 50% it's up to you, anything higher and you are on to a winner.

louisg

15-03-2010, 12:31

Im already with virgin 50 meg. Very happy.

Whats classed as peak time, i do noticed a speed drop after 4pm. You tube never buffers properly that time.
But speed tests are always over 25meg and there a 3 connctions on in my house as well.

Louis

caph

15-03-2010, 13:09

Sorry Louis, I got you confused with Sparkie the original poster.

You can find out where you are connected to by clicking the "Connection" link at the top of this very page. The second set of letters and numbers are an abbreviation of your hubsite and the number of the CMTS within the hubsite e.g. mine is BASF9 which is the ninth CMTS in the Basford, Nottingham hubsite. The first set of letters and numbers relate to which card you are connected to within the CMTS.

Peak time is usually the evenings (around 5-10pm). I also used to find that Sunday afternoon/evening was even worse when I was on an oversubscribed UBR.

I'm not sure about YouTube, it could be your PC or it could be your WIFI connection or it could be your router or it could be the cable connection. Lots of things really. You'd need to start narrowing down the cause by plugging your PC directly in to your modem and retesting. Also try using a different PC if you can. It could even be YouTube. Most videos I watch are fine but some buffer like crazy.

louisg

15-03-2010, 15:37

cpc2-leic15-2-0-custxx.8-1.cable.virginmedia.com

so does that mean im 15? If so is 15 good for a hubsite?

Admin Edit (Stuart): We don't normally advise members to publish personally identifiable data. I have deleted your customer number.

The PIT

19-03-2010, 15:44

Very poor really. Willing to sell services when they know they can't. UBR overloaded for six months prior to yourself joining.
Then another six months of poor support and refunds until finally they upgrade the ubr.
At the moment my 50 meg is going flaky it maybe because work they're doing or it's a fault on there ubr again. Whatever I'm dreading ringing up their support if I need too.