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Slow download speed with Virgin Media

Up until recently I was a Virgin Media broadband customer and have since left them and signed up with Plusnet.  As an avid gamer (please note, I do not download music or videos) I rely on having reasonably good Internet connectivity and to be honest, I really have not been at all impressed with the service I received from Virgin Media.

I have noticed my Internet service being extremely slow during certain hours...

The final straw for me was when my downward speed was reduced to less than 300kb/sec one Sunday evening.  In the past I have had a reliable 2MB/s, even though I live in rural Wales and am some distance from the exchange.  Over several months I have noticed my Internet service being extremely slow during certain hours of the day. Virgin have been less than helpful with this and more often than not my emails were ignored.

Being cut off from a recreational activity that I enjoy and look forward to on a Sunday was enough to persuade me to change Internet provider after quite a few years of being with Virgin and NTL before them.  To make matters worse I was then contacted to try and persuade me to come back!!  Here's the content of the email I was compelled to send back to Virgin...

Slow Internet speeds... "Come back to Virgin Media, you're joking aren't you?  Your service was so bad I would never consider coming back to Virgin and I would advise you to start listening to your customers and what they expect from a broadband service.  Your website is confusing your and your customer service help team are inept at resolving problems.  You have never responded to any e-mails I sent you regarding the problems with my service.  Throttling bandwidth, traffic shaping or whatever other label you care to hang on it have made Internet use with Virgin totally unacceptable.  With a slow service and typical speeds of less that 300kb/sec how is one expected to even surf the web never mind play a game on-line?

I hope for your sake you put your house in order and start giving people what they pay for... a good Internet service, before you loose any more of your customers and come last in the comparison sites Internet service providers.  When I was with NTL I always had good service and the help team always responded to any difficulties I had.  When Virgin Media took over NTL and the service went straight downhill in my opinion and I hope I never have the misfortune to deal with a company like yours ever again.

Please feel free to pass this e-mail to Richard Branson if you wish...   I'm sure he would like to know how THIS customer felt about the service (or lack thereof) from Virgin Media."

Disgruntled George

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there are 3 of us gaming in our house clean quality connections are important to us. I was running with 2 internet providers until i decided to upgrade my virgin to 100mbs at the end of October. But since then i have had nothing but issues with virgin the speed is not the issue it cannot keep connections it drops the connection only for a matter of seconds but enough to disrupt things. i have had 2 engineers out and now lost my wireless. as i also work from home on a laptop it has caused major issue as it has to reconnect each time it is dropped. I have asked sky to re connect me as i with working from home I now find i have no option but to have 2 internet providers. My view is that these 2 companies as bad as each other: virgin - fast but quality dismal, sky speed it so so slow (max 1,8) but more consistant . I really cant see what is so hard about getting a good connection in urban town.s.

+3

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rebs - 26-Dec-12 11:39 

Virgin has just put my media bill up. It said it had doubled my speed. It's now twice as slow.

It's so disgusting that it is easy to upsize the service [take on more mopre options] via their website when you want to do so, but impossible to downsize the options you have via the web. I am thinking seriously of moving on to to another provider.

+1

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I hate Virgin - 3-Dec-12 13:11 

Virgin strangles user lines in peak times so optimal speeds quoted are often impossible. I spoke to an ex-employee who told me this is policy.

-1

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Jesuit Priest - 16-Oct-12 16:34 

Glad I am not the only one experiencing this terrible service. Called them today about my mothers service and told i was being "trafficked" whatever that label means. 300kbps - my phone goes faster! Was told I could only download at certain times and to stop using the internet.

Told them I get better service with sky and then hung up. Will be cancelling this connection asap - Will be reporting them to ofcom ect ect. Unacceptable behaviour and false trading.

-1

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AnnoyedAngryandDisgusted - 11-Oct-12 17:42 

I Live in Weybridge London. I have Virgin 60MB on cable in fiber optic area.. I wish I never got involved with them. Had problems with the signal - it took 6 engineers to fix the noise on the line. Extremely expensive for the internet connection they provide. You are not allowed to use it during the day - because there is a 5GB traffic limit between 4-9 pm and another one in the morning between 10am-3pm. So DURING THE DAY YOU ARE ALLOWED 15GB AT BEST!!!!! hours . What is the point in having 60MB when you can't use it? And you get 60MB within UK at best otherwise it falls drastically. BAD, VERY BAD. SHAME ON YOU VIRGIN. NO RENEWALL. EVER!!!

0

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aimed - 3-Oct-12 16:21 

I`ve just signed on for a twelve month contract with virgin media, & I only hope that I don`t have as bad an experience of them as others seem to have had, because I was connected yesterday & it`s too late to back out.

+2

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hairyfairy - 28-Sep-12 15:55 

Wow 300kb/s? I'm lucky if i get that 3am in the morning on a weekday. ATM this very second i'm running at a 5kb/s. I can't even load an Internet Webpage Properly!!!

This is ridiculous, no matter how many times i ring them to fix this, they fiddle with settings that fix it temporarily. After a week or two it's back to it's slow self.

As i have no control of the Broadband in my household, i can't exactly change SP. But if i could, i'd have changed this over a year ago.

-1

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James - 24-Sep-12 20:57 

300Kb/sec? Luxury! My Virgin Broadband (via BT phone line - there are no fibre optic cables here yet) used to slow down to 130Kb/sec from Friday tea time to the early hours of Sunday morning, and wasn't much better through the week. Virgin customer services would blame the phone line or cables in the house. I now have Orange broadband via the same phone line and speeds are over 4mb/sec now.

+2

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Max - 15-Apr-12 22:02 

Dang. Here we go again. Thought something was wonky is happening so Googled virgin cuts internet speeds and found the article. I think our speed is usually around 12mbit but since torrents it's been cut by times six.

-2

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Andrei - 12-Feb-12 21:22 

Catch-up TV and streaming video is, in my experience, causing congestion on the internet.

I foresee a time when the internet will become unusable most of the time, not just when the kids arrive home from school and start downloading.

It’s all about bandwidth, streaming video and catch-up TV uses a lot,
and the number of users on your local loop.

If only you want to eat the apple pie you can eat as much as you like as fast as you like, but if all your neigbours want a piece, tough!

-2

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Stalag 14 - 28-Jan-12 07:51 

I Am a virgin user, i pay for unlimited 100mb download...wow how crap can this company get.

It`s 5.14am in the morning i am currently downloading at 847kb/s.

Ping is disgusting when playing games , it creates constant lag.

£80+ a month for a piece of crap.

I wish BT would offer a real alternative because i`m very angry at Virgin.

+7

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CM - 28-Jan-12 05:17 

Pfff..... I thought I was on a 10MB service, I found out when I went to my local Virgin Media shop on the high street, I've been put onto a 2MB service. Which isn't even listed on my Broadband speed tester..... I tell you to go and double check what service you are on....

+13

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robert66jr - 15-Aug-11 15:39 

Just moved re-installed virgin where I moved to, used to have 10mb at my old place, last 6 months or so got really slow. 30mb broadband installed at new place 2 days ago, tried watching blinkbox movie it keeps pausing during the movie to download stuff and they are long pauses, it used to be fine on my 10mb. Tried testing my 30mb broadband on some of the test sites virgin recommends, one site it tests at 31mb other siite it tests at 5 mb. Tried downloading 200mb file it takes 10 min. Looks very much like pre-agreed test areas virgin sends to are fast but normal downloads are slow. Luckily I now live near to a video shop and I know longer play online games, so am going to downgrade my service to slowest and not bother with speed from virgin.

-7

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Fides - 15-Jun-11 21:07 

when I phoned virgin they said they would look into my speeds and thought I might be a high user. they did phone me back the next day and said I use torrents, I said no, they said well someone in my house hold does, I said I do download movies, they said well that would be the problem, I said why I pay for the movies and I belong to lovefim.com and they are streamed to my games console. to which I got silence. I said have you even thought of things like this and that's why I paid for 50mg you said it was unlimited..

+1

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mediaevil virgin - 17-Mar-11 00:57 

I have 50mb package SORRY I pay for a 50mb package and what I get is well at this very min it's 12.27am and speed test not wireless is 4.6mb wireless 2.1mb the new problem is virgin tell people who download torrents to do it when they think people are in bed. but not everyone has normal working hrs like me so the out come is I can't even watch a 3min youtube clip or a bbc news clip or player without it stopping every 2mins all so have a really high package loss it's crap!! and like the other comments google virgin speed and you will have a million results. yet they still don't give a toss about anything..

+3

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mediaevil virgin - 17-Mar-11 00:34 

we have upgraded my broadband to 50mb package with virgin media. its been more then a month since we upupgrad cannot even open the google page. they just ripping off their customer no inetrnet rubishh . we call the customer services first they said to us wait till 17th of january then your internet will be working fine. still internet speed is very very very slow.

+2

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mano - 10-Feb-11 22:55 

VM used to eb the nuts. OVER the advertised speeds and ACTUAL unlimited broadband. Recommended them to everyone. Now I get my 20meg if I'm lucky and 500kb limit between 4-10pm. Which quite frankly is s**t.

-18

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Honest Innit - 2-Dec-10 20:35 

I love VM. Luckily for me in London; the service is excellent. 10-Fold better than BT, which isn't too bad here either!

+4

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Kakalaka - 23-Nov-10 18:52 

I have my tv, phone & broadband with virgin

Called at 9.50pm last night to report a fault with my broadband. They did the usual tests and said I would need an engineers visit. I was expecting an appointment weeks away......

How fantastic I could have had between 12 & 4 today but because of work asked for an evening appointment. The chap came tonight about half 5. All fixed with a new wireless hub within an hour.

Excellent customer service.

+6

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anon - 10-Nov-10 20:56 

totally agree, their adverts are a complete joke too.

'' Fastest braodband in the UK! ''
(between the hours of...)

-1

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rob, herts, uk - 9-Nov-10 21:37 

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