What on earth is going on...

[Daniel_S]

Hi everyone!

I wonder if anyone can explain this mystery for me. Sorry for the long post...

I've been a Virgin Media (ex-ntl) customer for what seems like forever and have had 20Mbps broadband since it became available.

Today when I came in from work, I opened Firefox to check my email and was greeted with a Virgin Media intercept page telling me my modem is not recognised and it would need to be registered.

So I thought 'OK, just a slight glitch' and called 151 as instructed, to get this looked into by tech support. After 30mins of switching the modem and router on and off and clearing the cookies and temporary internet files from IE (which I don't even use) the issue was resolved. Apparently my modem had received a "signal" which caused it to not be recognised any more, so he sent a different "signal" to fix it (hmm).

Just to make sure everything was running fine, I did a speedtest. To my horror, it was showing 10Mbps! I powercycled the modem and did another speedtest - still 10Mbps. I opened the cable modem config page and sure enough it was showing Maximum Downstream Data Rate: 10240000.

I quickly got back on the phone to tech support to inform them they have messed up my connection speed in the process of re-registering the modem (or whatever they did). To my suprise I was told "I have never been on 20Mbps, I am on the 'L' package which gives upto 10Mbps."

How exactly was I able to consistently download files at around 2.4MB/s for the last several months if I have never been on the 20Mbps package(!?)

I was told by tech support that I would need to speak to customer services, so I did! They told me the same as the tech support guy; that I am on the 'L' broadband package which gives up to 10Mbps. The CS guy said he can 'upgrade' me to 20Mbps and put an extra discount on the bill which I agreed to just because I wanted my 20meg back!

I've checked my eBills and they are currently showing broadband package 'L' for £25 per month with "T E W & BB L Saving" of £4. Does this price sound about right for 10Mbps? Have I actually only been paying for 10Mbps but getting 20Mbps?

Thanks for any advice/comments!

[Skyyr]

No, Im on 10 and its £21.00 a month. And they are saying you have been applyed a discount also, Lol.. Id give them a ring mate.

[Stutz]

£25.00 a month is what I'm paying for "L" I think the £21.00 a month is for the 2 -10Mb free upgrade price. I might be wrong but I tihnk the difference is in the allowance before capping comes into force.

[General Maximus]

you might find they have clicked somebody made a boo boo months ago and accidentally sent an incorrect config file to a list of customers modems. Somebody has finally realised and to make it look like a technical glitch, unregistered the modems (or whatever they do) forcing peeps to ring up and get them reset.

Btw, I wouldn't complain about £25 a month, i was paying £35 till they bought 50mb out

[Stutz]

You are probably correct there General, I used to get TV Choice On Demand with the free TV account until someone noticed. Doh !

[Daniel_S]

Thanks for all your replies guys!

General: This sounds entirely possible, but I have been receiving 20Mbps since I changed my package online as soon as it became available. I can only assume that maybe the upgrade went through and I received the 20meg config file, but it didn't trickle through to the billing system to tell them to charge me more? Although at some point (further back in time than I have access to the ebills for) I was being charged around £37 for the internet package.

Anyway, thanks again for your replies everyone. I suppose I should be greatful that I've been receiving 20meg for apparently the price of 10meg. It was just a bit of a shock when my speed dropped after the tech guy had fixed the modem issue! :P

[Griffin]

you might find they have clicked somebody made a boo boo months ago and accidentally sent an incorrect config file to a list of customers modems. Somebody has finally realised and to make it look like a technical glitch, unregistered the modems (or whatever they do) forcing peeps to ring up and get them reset.

Btw, I wouldn't complain about £25 a month, i was paying £35 till they bought 50mb out

I would ask for a new deal paying that much, i have a bt line that just needs a switch flicked so free activation. As i have sky tv & an orange mobile phone i keep getting phone & broadband offered by each up to 24mb. The last time i went to switch VM offered me 20mb bb, & phone line for £20pm end result i signed up for another 12 months. One thing i will say for VM is i get the full speed at all times, even the speed test sites register as very close too.