Bloody Virgin Media, putting up my costs again!

Bloody Virgin Media, putting up my costs again!

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Discussion

condor

8,837 posts

249 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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neenaw said:
I've had it with Virgin Media now, for the past 8 weeks we've been having problems with the TV and broadband and despite countless hours on the phone to them and 7 is its from their technicians it's still not working.
Needless to say, I'll be cancelling it before they get a chance to charge me even more for the service!
I've had interference problems for approx 2 years affecting BBC1 and BBC2 channels ( not the BBC HD ones though) and had plenty of engineer visits. Previously I've had 6 months free BT sport and credit refunds as compensation - last month was £12.50 utilisation refund. I had been told to ring this month to get a further £12.50 utilisation refund, but I've now got a team of 'expert engineers' coming out to have a look in a weeks time. I've said I'm not paying full whack for a service I'm not getting, they've said they can't keep giving me discounts -well fix it then is my reply.
Losing the BBC channels for 30 mins at a time isn't too much of a hardship as the BBC HD ones work, but the HD ones don't have the regional news programmes which I like to watch.

All that jazz

7,632 posts

147 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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Esseesse said:
Speed 3 said:
The price hiking on the back of freebies/upgrade is pretty annoying.
Oh dear, I've just clicked on the 'ok' for 50mb->70mb 'free upgrade'. Should I be expecting a hike? Currently I pay £28.25/month for internet access only.
They're going up in November anyway according to the letter I got. Mine was auto-upgraded from 50 to 70 too recently. Personally I was happy with 50 as it's fast enough for my requirements.

LordHaveMurci

12,045 posts

170 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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Does anybody know if the latest TIVO boxes are any good? Ours is probably 2yrs old & takes forever to react to anything other than the simplest request to change channel. Forget trying to use iPlayer etc, basically unusable.

Our contract is up in November, will make a new box a demand of renewing but not much point if they haven't improved!


mad4amanda

2,410 posts

165 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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there is a new uhd box coming

anonymous-user

55 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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LordHaveMurci said:
Does anybody know if the latest TIVO boxes are any good? Ours is probably 2yrs old & takes forever to react to anything other than the simplest request to change channel. Forget trying to use iPlayer etc, basically unusable.

Our contract is up in November, will make a new box a demand of renewing but not much point if they haven't improved!
Noticed the same with mine recently, takes about 30 seconds just to bring up the menu

condor

8,837 posts

249 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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I've got a new replacement one ( replaced about a month ago). Seems fine to me and doesn't switch to standby after a few hours viewing, which I found very irritating.

ecsrobin

17,133 posts

166 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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digimeistter said:
LordHaveMurci said:
Does anybody know if the latest TIVO boxes are any good? Ours is probably 2yrs old & takes forever to react to anything other than the simplest request to change channel. Forget trying to use iPlayer etc, basically unusable.

Our contract is up in November, will make a new box a demand of renewing but not much point if they haven't improved!
Noticed the same with mine recently, takes about 30 seconds just to bring up the menu
Likewise pressing home or guide just results in nothing!

TX1

2,368 posts

184 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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Have both the V+ box and the Tivo, the V+ is the one connected to the main telly as the Tivo in my opinion is garbage.
Slow to respond and very annoying.

Oakey

27,592 posts

217 months

Wednesday 7th September 2016
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Have there been free upgrades again then? I just logged in and it says my 'upgrade is complete' and I'm on Vivid 150. I just checked my previous bills for the last 6 months and they all state Vivid 150 so I think I've always been on 150mbps. Notice there's another new modem as well.

Jobbo

12,973 posts

265 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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I called them yesterday and cancelled from 31 October. They'll have to do me a pretty amazing deal to make up for the rubbish serevive over the last 6 months and monthly costs going up from £32ish to over £45 with this latest increase.

When do you think I'll get the retentions phone call?

SickAsAParrot

304 posts

113 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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We ditched Virgin a couple of months ago because it was already too expensive (£55 pm for the basic TV, no TIVO, calls and 70m b/b, recently upped from 20mb but nothing in our house could take advantage of higher speed).

Glad we did now it's going up again.

We've had about 4 calls so far wanting us to go back, 2 before the turn off date, but the second one offered us a worse deal to stay with them than the first (up from £20 to £25 pm). And 2 after, and several letters.

We're contracted in with Talk Talk now so no thanks. I know the initial offer was a good one but once I make the decision we're going with someone else, we're going, I don't care what you offer me. Should have kept the price down and we might still be with you.

Oh, and Talk Talk's internet hasn't dropped out once yet, Virgins used to several times per week, it's slower but it works.

The only thing I miss is the newsgroups, Virgin had a full set of binaries, but I'll get by, I can always subscribe If I start to get panicky.

LordHaveMurci

12,045 posts

170 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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Think we were upgraded to 150mb recently, not really interested to be honest, once it went over 40mb it was plenty fast enough for us.

Pretty sure we pay low £40's now, Medium TV I think & Tivo, free weekend calls which never get used!

Good to hear it's not just us that struggle with Tivo, unless they replace it with something that works we may actually bite the bullet & move, really don't want to though, the BB is superb.

Kev_Mk3

2,779 posts

96 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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Virgin are a bit of a joke TBH

Account as you all know yourselves has gone up slowly over the last few years.

I have the basic phone package, the one above basic tv package (they upgraded me for free) and 70m B/B £41.99 a month...........

I kicked off when the price went up and they added a discount so it was £35 a month. Thats now ended so hence its £41.99 a month. I went into the trafford centre store to ask whats going on the other week. Girl was a thick b***h was more interested in her nails so I walked out. Rang up to get sense of whats going on as I am out of contract have been for a few months & got told they cant reduce it as I have another discount on till Jan of (wait for this...............) £2!!!!!!!!!!!

They cant make my account cheaper without reducing things, if I went to 50m B/B I would save £10 a month..................... When I asked "Why should I reduce my service to a something less when you upgraded me for free to save money, Are you saying I am actually paying for the broadband then and its not a free upgrade as advised" The chap didnt give me a answer / couldnt answer it!

He advised to call around xmas as the best deals are then and they will throw things at me.


Sadly we have no other fibre alternatives in the area I live and the other speeds are SHOCKING.

Grin and bare it I think

Jobbo

12,973 posts

265 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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Kev, my experience was a bit like yours - completely basic telly (but with a Tivo), lowest phone (I don't even have anything plugged in, but it's cheaper to have a package than not include it) and now 150Mbps broadband after starting with 50Mbps and having 'free' upgrades a few times.

However, they told me I was tied into a contract for another year or so; I certainly didn't agree to that and I've been with them over 7 years so unless one of the 'free' speed upgrades triggered it without telling me, I can't see why I would be. That's why I've taken the opportunity to cancel. I'm mostly expecting to stay with them on a better deal but we'll see. Certainly not bothered about the Tivo; I mainly watch iPlayer through the chromecast, or freesat for live telly because there happened to be a Sky dish on the side of my house already.

Kev_Mk3

2,779 posts

96 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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Jobbo said:
Kev, my experience was a bit like yours - completely basic telly (but with a Tivo), lowest phone (I don't even have anything plugged in, but it's cheaper to have a package than not include it) and now 150Mbps broadband after starting with 50Mbps and having 'free' upgrades a few times.

However, they told me I was tied into a contract for another year or so; I certainly didn't agree to that and I've been with them over 7 years so unless one of the 'free' speed upgrades triggered it without telling me, I can't see why I would be. That's why I've taken the opportunity to cancel. I'm mostly expecting to stay with them on a better deal but we'll see. Certainly not bothered about the Tivo; I mainly watch iPlayer through the chromecast, or freesat for live telly because there happened to be a Sky dish on the side of my house already.
You maybe onto something as my end date for my contract changed by a few weeks from different people which falls inline of these "upgrades"

I rarely watch tv these days apart from if I am at a lose end in the morning, I only really use my kodi stick so if nothing comes good at Xmas. I will look to get rid and just get BB from someone thats fine for streaming. Since having Kodi I dont record things at all so basically its redundant.

AB

16,988 posts

196 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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I'm considering giving Sky Q a go.

40mb fibre down from 150 on Virgin but I honestly don't think it'll make a difference.

haggishunter

1,315 posts

244 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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Is there not a clause that lets you leave if the service providers raise costs? I'm sure mobile phones are the same?

ecsrobin

17,133 posts

166 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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I actually read all the small print before clicking free upgrade last time but nothing that I could see stated a contract tie in.

Funkycoldribena

7,379 posts

155 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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haggishunter said:
Is there not a clause that lets you leave if the service providers raise costs? I'm sure mobile phones are the same?
There is with Virgin.Just had an email saying mines going up in November, well pleased,means I can get rid of the awful TiVo.

SBDJ

1,321 posts

205 months

Wednesday 14th September 2016
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AB said:
I'm considering giving Sky Q a go.

40mb fibre down from 150 on Virgin but I honestly don't think it'll make a difference.
Considering the same for TV as no improvements in tivo and it seems my contract runs out in 2 weeks smile

Was considering keeping the internet with them, but I've had a persistent niggle with it since installation and dealing with their support the other day left me bashing my head against a wall. My internet connection drops out a few times a day. Strangely it almost always drops out at the same time, usually for about 5 minutes at a time. During this problem the actual WAN side of the router is having issues - loss of downstream channels and no IP connectivity on the WAN side.

I provided screenshots showing this.

Firstly Virgin support were blaming my WiFi network channel choice. I reiterated that I was connected via an Ethernet connection, and that clearly it wasn't a connection issue since I was able to take the screenshots showing the WAN issues. They repeated this several times before moving on to the next reason for the fault:

I have more than 4 devices connected.

I mean seriously? She even went away to consult a colleague who confirmed this. I tried to point out why this was not the case, but they were having none of it. There ended the call as they refused to move past this.

So there you have it folks, your 200Mb/s internet connection can only be used by 4 devices. Idiots. I've posted on their forum now instead in the hopes that I can find someone who actually understands networking to assist me. Clearly my years served as a network consultant have been trumped by a level 1 helldesk bod!