Virgin media tv- AIBU or is it absolutely shit?

[kolapop]

Why is it so fucking slow? Why is there a 10 second delay after I press any button? Why does it not let me pause a catch up programme and come back to it later? Why do I have to start from the beginning? Why are the menus so ugly?

AIBU to want to go back to sky?

I have a non sleeping baby and have quite a short fuse at the moment and find myself shouting at the tv quite a lot.

I remember seeing TiVo on sex and the city and thinking it looked SO cool, now it's randomly recorded "lip sync battle" cos it thinks I might like it and I'm just offended to be honest.

We've got virgin and live in Nottm. Had it for years and the broadband is excellent (gets loads of use in our house). The TIVO box is not my favourite as it can be slow at times but I regularly watch from catch up. I would not change to Sky.

I'm in Liverpool and the service is pretty good. I've never had any major problems with it.
Very rarely there are problems with accessing broadband or catch up/on demand but never more than 20-30 mins loss of service. TV has always been fine.
TIVO yes, I agree it can be slow but I have a freeview box as well (upstairs) and that's about the same.
The only thing I regret about not having Sky is that I can't get Atlantic so am missing out on some good shows!

As others have said, customer service is good. I had some work done on my garden that resulted in cable damage - this was fixed free of charge. I fully expected to pay so was well impressed.

I was thinking of switching from BT to sky - they have some really good deals at the moment

All the main providers (except Virgin who have their own cables) use the same BT lines from BT exchanges, so their broadband and phone services are very similar. They all offer good deals to tempt new customers, but after the first year or so the costs are broadly the same.

The only difference with Sky is that they provide TV pictures over the dish instead of over the broadband line.

I've had Virgin/TiVo for 7-8 years and never had a problem. The apps for things like Iplayer are a bit slow but I record all of my programmes so I rarely need to use them and when I do I watch it through my Nowtv box.
OH had Sky before we lived together and he prefers Virgin.

I think it depends where you live, TBH.

I had Virgin for a couple of years as a student 'cause it was the cheapest deal and it was appalling. The internet cut out a lot, and it was painfully slow. But I've stayed in holiday homes with Virgin in other parts of the country and it's been perfectly decent.

We have SKY at the moment (just broadband) and it's fine. There are often three of us online at once, streaming things on different devices and everything loads fine, never buffers and it's never cut out on us either. I never had any issues with BT either.

TalkTalk, on the other hand...

Hmm I've not had a problem with mine. My Internet has a problem for about an hour every six weeks or so at random but I can accept that as tech doesn't constantly work and virgin seem to know about it long before I've discovered the issue. I hate the TV but that's because I didn't want the TV package anyway. I don't see the point in it but DH wanted it and it was all cheaper than sky.

We switched from sky quite recently and I really miss the ease of watching stuff on sky. Their interface is so user friendly and pleasant.
Virgin is ugly and clunky.
On the plus side, our braid and is really fast and we re saving money.
We ll probably go back to sky tv if they entice us with good offers in a years time.
I'm happy to chop and change to save money. You get no rewards for loyalty.

I've had Virgin for about 7 years and rarely had a problem. Occasionally the broadband runs a bit slow, I'm talking a few seconds delay once every six weeks or so, but that's with two phones, a laptop and an xbox using the wireless at the same time. Whenever there's been a problem with the service in the area for more than an hour we've had that days costs taken off the next bill. The longest we've had a problem with the TV has been two days and there were engineers working on it the whole time, I can see the main box from the house and they were there at till at least 10pm.

My dad lives 200 yards away and has BT Internet and it's shit. It's okay for him browsing and doing an online shop but for anything else it's really slow.

You are so not alone! We recently switched from Sky to Virgin and I fucking hate it, it is the worst piece of shit I've ever come across! Can't wait to go back to sky when the sodding contract ends!

We have little problems! May b worth phoning to complain.

I'm in Liverpool too. I posted earlier to say we don't have any problems with any Virgin services.

Must be your area. Our Virginia TiVo box and our very old second box both work instantly and have never crashed or failed to record. There's a few seconds delay getting into the full iplayer menu but that's all.

Broadband amazing tv FUCKING SHITTEST THING EVER I utterly utterly detest our TiVo box. I had coveted one for ages got an upgrade after another futile attempt to get the ridiculous cost down, £120 a month again, and I've hated it since day 1. I just can't believe how slow it is

We have had virgin since it took over ntl and broadband is excellent. The only problem is the slow iplayer but i use the playstation for that. Otherwise very rarely have problem and when we do its fixed within a day. Once reported a fault at 10pm at night and new box was on the doorstep by9am next morning.

Our tivo box isn't too bad, a bit slow sometimes. But the broadband is the biggest load of bollocks ever, seriously the dial up internet of the late 1990's is much quicker. Come 5pm it sporadically comes on and off, reception upstairs is crap at night too.

I've never had a problem with it. I've got TV phone and broadband. All work well.
I'm sure it must vary depending on area.
The added bonus imo is that all repairs and call outs are free. They rang and told me my modem was old and sent me a new one in the post, and another time got me a better deal package for £££ less than I was paying.

is slow and they randomly raise the prices without you getting anything extra.

I have all three services from them and it's fine - like others have said, repairs and replacements are free - I've even been sent free connecting cables in the past when old ones have given up the ghost. They do put the prices up regularly, but so do Sky and BT and all I've had to do with Virgin is call them up, tell them I'm leaving and they've sorted me out with extra channels or money off or phone deals or whatever. I pay £45 a month for unlimited calls any time, 100 (is it mb? whatever) broadband which is more than adequate for several of us to be streaming and downloading at the same time, a tv package that includes tivo (which I agree is clunky but hasn't actually fucked up as such) and channels like the horror channel, sky, comedy central - basically ones that I've asked for specifically to be added whenever I've told them I'm leaving (ie about once a year). The only thing that pisses me off is that if the service does go down, they now only refund you for the cost of the service you've lost on a per day basis, which isn't really what compensation for inconvenience should be about, imo. Having said that, I think in the past year the only outage I've had has been a day without catchup tv, so it's not as though it happens very often anyway. And I would hate to suck at the Murdoch teat, so it suits me.

But the broadband is the biggest load of bollocks ever, seriously the dial up internet of the late 1990's is much quicker.

Often the reason for that is the WiFi isn't set up properly. Do you get the same problem connecting a PC directly to the modem with a cable? The VM support forum can help you to sort that.

I get 50Mbps internet from virgin. The best ANY other service can do at my house is 17. Because all the others use the BT cable infrastructure.
I am 100% a Virgin fan as I work from home and need good internet.

We downgraded our package and went back to Sky and I'm counting down the days until we can get rid of Virgin. The TV is slow and the broadband is great when it works but is so unstable.

And as for their so called customer service, I struggle to keep my temper when I'm reporting yet another fault! I'm always polite but I've had to tell them what the fault is as they haven't got a clue (I used to work for them in a previous life / Virgin incarnation).

Sounds like it's because your internet is slow.

What speed are you supposed to get? Google for an internet speed test and check what you are actually getting. If there is a HUGE difference, ie more than 50% then give them a call and ask them what they're going to do about it.

For those who don't like the TiVo, the new box isn't far away:

www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-product/digital-home/virgin-media-tivo-2016-4k-box-release-date-specs-rumours-3640324/?olo=daily%20news

We had virgin cable at our old house and loved it, broadband was amazing. Was with them for years and would be still if they were in the back of beyond here.

Sky are currently failing to install Sky Q so deeply irritated with them and the BT internet isn't a patch on virgin.

Must depend on area!!! We are heavy internet users and have no issues at all with streaming, netflix and tv.