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Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

Making your money go further
Fluke
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Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503158

Postby Fluke » May 27th, 2022, 12:46 pm

Had a knock on the door a couple of weeks ago from a Virgin Media guy who told me they're rolling out their new high-speed broadband in the area and left me his card. Didn't realise it then but my contract with BT was coming up for renewal and the offer to stay with them was pretty much the same level of service I've been getting for the past few years but for more money. I fished out the Virgin guy's card and gave him a call this morning and the offer was a much higher speed broadband plus an O2 SIM card for my phone - 10gb, unlimited everything, roaming etc etc all for less than BT's offer for slower broadband only. No set up charges no activation fees. I rang BT to tell them I was jumping and they told me the renewal offer was out of date (they only sent it this morning) and that I could of course go onto their higher tier (ie faster) broadband service, for a mere £8pm more than Virgin were offering.

I'm jumping, let's hope nothing gets lost in the crossover.

Gerry557
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503160

Postby Gerry557 » May 27th, 2022, 1:03 pm

I have seen many a tale about what happens at the end of a contract, manly not positive. Having gone through the same recently Virgin said that I could go Fttp with the option of much higher speeds.

There was also a new signer deals being announced. Vodafone later knocked on the door to say that they were also about to do the same. Vodafone won. Manly because they started first. Virgin called back, a week afterwards to say that they were now live after a delay and that I could get a great deal and faster speeds.

They wanted me to cancel my Vodafone contract and go with them even though they were more expensive. That "sell" tatic didn't resonate with me so I stayed with Vodafone.

Looking at the small print the price will rocket at the end of the contract. Hopefully there will be other options by then.

I suspect most have great sales teams and poor customer service teams. Not an issue if you don't have any issues if you know what I mean.

NotSure
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503163

Postby NotSure » May 27th, 2022, 1:13 pm

Gerry557 wrote:
I suspect most have great sales teams and poor customer service teams. Not an issue if you don't have any issues if you know what I mean.


I have used Virgin for mobile for literally decades and have personally found their customer service to be excellent, especially considering I'm on an £8/mo SIM only deal and have been on similar for years. Always got straight through to a human who sorts out my issue. YMMV.

richlist
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503188

Postby richlist » May 27th, 2022, 3:31 pm

I've just ditched Virgin tv, phone & broadband because I can t tolerate their poor customer service. Everything is fine until you need help or have a problem.
I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. I
Good luck.

kempiejon
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503193

Postby kempiejon » May 27th, 2022, 3:45 pm

I moved from Virgin to BT a year or so back - getting out of the Virgin contract I had to jump through hoops and waited an age to converse with them, I forget what the messed up but it annoyed me. Setting up and using Virgin was fine but I found they will sneak their charges up by offering you a deal for tiny bit more money for a fixed term. Getting out was sufficient nuisance that I'd probably pick another supplier over them everything else being equal.
I'm with BT for now but expect to shop come contract end.

richlist
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503226

Postby richlist » May 27th, 2022, 6:57 pm

Virgin owe me money because I overpaid. They have promised to refund it but it's going to take.......wait for it.......up to 45 days.

You have been warned.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503238

Postby UncleEbenezer » May 27th, 2022, 7:33 pm

richlist wrote:Virgin owe me money because I overpaid. They have promised to refund it but it's going to take.......wait for it.......up to 45 days.

You have been warned.

45 days?

They haven't refunded me from eight years ago, the first time I had a several-week outage from them. And a customer service story where all the time on hold led eventually (presumably when my call reached the head of the queue and got internally forwarded to what should have been a person) to
Virgin media customer support phone number wrote:Sorry, this number is not in service.


It got worse from there. Much worse.

richlist
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503247

Postby richlist » May 27th, 2022, 8:20 pm

The 'good' news for me is that they have acknowledged they owe me the money......but 6.5 weeks to pay me is almost unbelievable.
If it's not paid its exactly what the small claims court is designed for.

paulnumbers
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503261

Postby paulnumbers » May 27th, 2022, 11:22 pm

I build computer networks for a living. The only telco that has ever completely let me down is Virgin. Assuming it's the one built on the back of the old cable TV system, I'd give it a miss if I were you. The technology is just shoddy. (your neighbor can go on holiday, unplug his box, and the impedance change can screw up the whole neighborhood - your cables are all connected). They also cap your bandwidth if you dare to max it out for long periods of time. And yes, the support is awful.

If you just want a bit of web browsing you're probably fine, but I'd always pick one of the openreach options any day of the week over Virgin.

As others have said, you have been warned!

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503272

Postby UncleEbenezer » May 28th, 2022, 1:03 am

paulnumbers wrote:If you just want a bit of web browsing you're probably fine,

I wasn't. It stopped working, many times. And there were regular network snafus that led to *some* websites or *some* features simply not working - and nothing to do with Usual Suspects like sex, violence, or fringe politics.

In the absence of a BT/Openreach based option where I lived, I resorted to a 4G dongle from EE. It became my regular 'net connection by default, because although the device would go down about once a day and need resetting (which took several minutes), that was infinitely better than Virgin.

Fluke
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503334

Postby Fluke » May 28th, 2022, 11:01 am

Just came back to this thread after posting yesterday, feeling rather pleased with myself for getting such a good deal, can't find the scream emoji so this one will have to do :shock:

Okay well the good news is the cool off period hasn't even started, I remember the pain of transferring over to BT from whoever it was, I forget now, and I was left without broadband for months when I was doing a lot of work from home - nightmare, everyone blamed everyone else.

Ok I have been warned and I think I'll heed the warnings, I know there are likely many happy customers not reading this but for the sake of a few quid a week is it really worth the risk - I think not. I'll go back to the nice lady at BT and tell her I've mended my ways and will she take me back - on the faster broadband of course.

mutantpoodle
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503572

Postby mutantpoodle » May 29th, 2022, 9:36 am

well yes there are a few of us 'happy virgins' out there/here

i have been with them since NTL/Cable wireless days
never had a problem
once...at least 10 years ago a fault developed (probably me as I cant even plug the moden thing in)
they were here next day...and gave me a credit as well!!

only issue is the annual (now 18 month) price increases....requires phone calls (and patience while waiting)
but chat and renew at good deal
am amazed at the prices quoted above.....they all HUGE.......although we only have BB...no phone/TV etc

funduffer
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#503700

Postby funduffer » May 30th, 2022, 8:15 am

I also have been with Virgin since the old NTL days.

The broadband has been reliable and fast at the 2 addresses I have lived in over this time.

The only thing is to haggle when your contract comes to an end. It is essential for them to remain competitive.

FD

gryffron
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#504778

Postby gryffron » June 3rd, 2022, 11:54 pm

I was one of the first broadband customers of Diamond Cable. I know this because I spent hours on the phone to their tech support guys helping them setup their backbone routers. I am a computer tech so I could help them run tracert’s etc from my end. For a while I even had the DIRECT phone number of their techies so I could bypass all the flappers :o

For a couple of decades I concede their customer service was terrible. But since c2010 they’ve been super. I’ve always got straight through to a person in the last few years. Far better than most other companies I have to deal with. And their product is excellent. I always get spot on the advertised bandwidth, and not “up to” like the BT provided services. DYK Virgin we’re banned by the ASA from mentioning this.

Yes, you have to renegotiate every year or so. But I think that’s true of all the broadband companies. For all of them, it seems to be “what the customer will pay”, and their staff have considerable latitude over the price you are charged.

Gryff

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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#504918

Postby richlist » June 4th, 2022, 9:51 pm

Well I hate them.
If you are late with a payment by just one day they charge the customer a £7 fee for late payment.
When they owe a customer they give themselves 45 days to pay the customer.

88V8
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#505516

Postby 88V8 » June 7th, 2022, 9:40 am

Which magazine or rather their readers, in the April issue gave Virgin a score of 57%, the worst of the 'big four.
Particularly poor in customer service, value for money and connection reliability.

Top, Zen with 74%.
We are with Zen. We have a lifetime 'no price increase' contract. Customer service and reliability, excellent.

V8

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#505600

Postby UncleEbenezer » June 7th, 2022, 2:33 pm

88V8 wrote:Which magazine or rather their readers, in the April issue gave Virgin a score of 57%, the worst of the 'big four.
Particularly poor in customer service, value for money and connection reliability.

Top, Zen with 74%.
We are with Zen. We have a lifetime 'no price increase' contract. Customer service and reliability, excellent.

V8

What are the "big four" here? Does it follow chains of ownership, so that for example BT, EE and Plusnet (and I expect others) are all one?

Surprised to see Zen feature there. I know they've long had an excellent reputation, but didn't realise they'd grown that big!

88V8
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#505627

Postby 88V8 » June 7th, 2022, 6:39 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
88V8 wrote:Which magazine or rather their readers, in the April issue gave Virgin a score of 57%, the worst of the 'big four.
Particularly poor in customer service, value for money and connection reliability.
Top, Zen with 74%.

What are the "big four" here? Does it follow chains of ownership, so that for example BT, EE and Plusnet (and I expect others) are all one?
Surprised to see Zen feature there. I know they've long had an excellent reputation, but didn't realise they'd grown that big!

Sorry, didn't realise it could be read that way... :) ... no, Zen thankfully still quite small.

62% BT ... EE also 62%, Plusnet 63%.
59% Talktalk
58% Sky
57% Virgin.

V8

AF62
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#505892

Postby AF62 » June 8th, 2022, 7:19 pm

88V8 wrote:We are with Zen. We have a lifetime 'no price increase' contract. Customer service and reliability, excellent.

V8


Trouble is moving to Zen from BT would increase my bill by 50% for the same service, and I have never had to test BT's customer service as the broadband connection has always been 100% reliable.

Virgin on the other hand - I would not wish my worst enemy to have to deal with the shifty, useless, bunch of incompetents when their service doesn't work yet again.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Going over to Virgin for Broadband & SIM

#506073

Postby UncleEbenezer » June 9th, 2022, 2:45 pm

AF62 wrote:Trouble is moving to Zen from BT would increase my bill by 50% for the same service, and I have never had to test BT's customer service as the broadband connection has always been 100% reliable.

I wouldn't call that trouble. Be glad you have a deal that works well for you!


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