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Thinking of switching broadband from Talktalk to Virgin - tell me virgin is OK...

48 replies

Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 14:42

My connection with Talktalk is so unreliable that I'm starting to come out in hives. It has been mysteriously fixed at their end once by moving me to "a more stable platform" after answering a zillion questions which were all obviously totally unnecessary.

Back to the same problme - I don;t care that much about the speed but spending hours (OK maybe minutes) clicking refresh hoping there might actually be a connection this time is driving me nuts. I have Virgin TV and mobile and am wondering if the marketing guff about cable being so much better is true?

I don;t do anything whizzy online - no games (except cbeebies!) and down download hige amounts. Just want something that works consistently.

Tell me if your virgin cable bradband (ie not through a BT line but via cable) works all the time at a half way decent speed.

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ivykaty44 · 23/06/2011 14:44

I have been happy with virgin broadband and as it is cable I don't need a landline and we watch tv on the pc - I mostly get the 10mb speed for which I pay.

It just my pc which is playing up not the connection!

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ivykaty44 · 23/06/2011 14:46

Oh and my dad had a call from virgin - he has had a mobile with them for a while and they reduced the price for him on his mobile and my dd2's mobile Shock by £5 a month in total so £15 instead of £20 for the two mobiles with 300 and 300 on both

so it is worthwhile asking for a good rate Wink

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 14:50

how much doea the speed drop at busy times - or is it not really noticeable?

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ivykaty44 · 23/06/2011 14:52

I have never noticed speed dropping..? when are busy times?

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 14:54

mine goes slow when everyone gets home 6-8pm, lunchtimes and late in the evening.

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 20:18

any virgins in this evening?

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ivykaty44 · 23/06/2011 20:20

only me again but not finding a slow patch here - are you Wink

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Grockle · 23/06/2011 20:27

Me!

I've had virgin broadband for about 2 yrs and, other than them putting the cost up again and again, I am happy with it.

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madamy · 23/06/2011 20:34

I'm very happy with the bb from virgin. No noticeable slowness and we watch iplayer lots without any 'breaks' or hiccups in service. As you have tv and mobile it would be worth ringing them up as you'll probably be able to haggle a good deal out of them!

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ensure · 23/06/2011 20:35

Ours is fine too.

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 21:43

is a sample of 4 big enough d'you think? Mond you it is a mumsnet four with the current rate of exchange thats probably 50 ordinary people...

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CruelAndUnusualParenting · 23/06/2011 21:59

Virgin is good most of the time. When it goes wrong Virgin's customer service is as bad as anybody's, possibly worst than most. OTOH it doesn't go wrong that often, so I guess it depends on your priorities.

My MIL has recently migrated from TalkTalk to PlusNet and is very pleased with the customer service.

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 22:06

oh customer service is so low down my list of requirements at the moment. I just want it to work consistently MAKE IT WORK.................... PLEEEEESE.

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senua · 23/06/2011 22:13

We have Virgin broadband. It seems fine - no dropped connections, speed is OK. No idea what their customer service is like cos we haven't needed it.

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bridgeandbow · 23/06/2011 22:13

You could be me last month - I was having the same problem with Plusnet and a very crackling BT line. But there was the risk that the problem could be inside the house and that would mean a £150 bill.

We are cabled for Virgin so switched.

Was seamless. I did it all at the shop and they have lots of offers at the moment.

If you are getting phone and TV too make sure you get the V+ box - that is the one that allows you to pause live TV.

The guy came and we had a clear phone line and internet that worked straight away. It was a revelation for us after months of very poor connection. BBCIplayer works again!

Only downside I have found is that the V+ TV box is not as good as our old Humax PVR ( basically freeview sky+). Impossible to search the guide for programmes easily. I work around this by using the Radio Times website and then finding the things on the guide. hey have a Tivo option (ver similar to the Humax we have) but that means even more money. Happy to do the work around for now!

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niceguy2 · 23/06/2011 22:15

From a technology point of view, if you can get Virgin cable, then it's way better than ADSL from TalkTalk. Given both are famously rubbish for customer service, you probably don't need to factor that into your consideration.

If I could get Virgin at my house, I'd get it in a heartbeat.

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bridgeandbow · 23/06/2011 22:15

sorry just read you already have the tv so prob know all that already!

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cece · 23/06/2011 22:16

I have Virgin and have renewed contract every year for the past 3 years. All works fine. I feel your pain we moved from Talk Talk to Virgin and haven't looked back.

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belledechocchipcookie · 23/06/2011 22:17

I had virgin. I got sick of them charging me different amounts every month so I left. They are still sending me bills (and calling my mobile phone every day to get the money from me)! Hmm They also swapped my phone line over with my neighbours, didn't turn up (three times) to repair the line and charged me anyway when I was left with no phone for a month over Christmas, despite them saying they wouldn't (they refused to refund me).

I wasn't impressed with them at all.

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ivykaty44 · 23/06/2011 22:18

I got virgin 3 years ago as my neibghour had it and it was so fast when I used her connection, this was when my other pc died a death and I used several friends pc for a couple of weeks - virgnin was the fastest out of the lot

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 22:25

niceguy I already have a virgin cable inside the house looking at me with just the V+ box plugged in. It;s calling me I can her it..... "hulloooooo Kew, are you theeeeeeeeeere, I might actually wooooooork and you won;t have to click refresh ever again"

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 22:26

can't hear you belle - lalalalalalalalalalalalalala nope can;t hear a thing.

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BlueEyeshadow · 23/06/2011 22:28

We only get 500K on normal broadband so VERY happy with virgin.

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belledechocchipcookie · 23/06/2011 22:28

Sky internet is good, works soooooooooo much better then virgin. Smile

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Kewcumber · 23/06/2011 22:32

ah but belle - I needed cable tv - we are u der the flight path and I got fed up with even digital recption getting interfered with (though admittedly better than analogue). In teh bedroom where I have no cable and rely on teh good old arial, on a bad night the tv freeses ebout every 90-120 seconds as the next plane comes in. Not close enough to make a huge noise but apparetntly close enough to bugger up your reception Confused

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