Is virgin media broadband terrible?

[Springisnear4]

The deals are good, the reviews are terrible. Does anyone have broadband with virgin media and can advise?

We left Virgin in December as it was awful. We logged a fault in May and they kept saying it was an area fault being looked into blah blah blah. By December it still wasn't fixed and we were out of contract then so left. The Internet kept dropping out constantly, would crash our laptops and buffered any streaming we did. Virgin initially tried to blame our equipment although our laptops worked everywhere else just not on our home broadband. We moved to Sky and none of this happens anymore, so what do you know it is virgin and not our equipment.

We have virgin and have no problems. Really fast.

I've been with them for years. My experience is that the internet service they provide is very good but their wifi equipment is rubbish. I have put a set of mesh discs in now and it's perfect. And with a lot of gaming/streaming, it takes a hammering!

It depends on were you live. It barely worked were I used to live, but were I am now, it's the best option. My DP has the full sports package and they give the cheapest price.

We're with Virgin in three places, our home, our office and our son's flat.

No problems at all. Super fast, reliable, etc. Maybe once, we've noticed an outage but only a few minutes.

All installed at exactly the date ordered on their website. For two, we needed their engineer to lay the cable from outside, no problems. For son's flat, there was already a connector box/socket so he got the equipment in the post, simple to plug in worked straight out of the box.

We had endless problems with BT/Openreach for years before we changed our home and office - ancient copper cable that was slow and unreliable with constant dropped connections. We waited until they installed FTTC (fibre to cabinet and end of street) to see if it improved but it was still crap and they blamed the copper between cabinet and home and that there were no plans to replace.

fine here and the fastest speed. Dh won’t let me leave them for a better deal.

Yes, all through lockdowns, the road whatsapp group would be buzzing with "is virgin down for everyone, or just me". When there is a problem, it is terrible to try and get through to them too, I have often been oh hold for 45 minutes before speaking to someone. I am nearly at the end of my contract and will be going elsewhere when I can.

We left Virgin, as it was so bad - especially their customer service. The wi-fi was completely flaky.

We changed to Sky and haven’t had any problems. It may be more expensive though.

Been with them for years. We have had a few issues owing to a network issue but resolved quickly. Just remember to negotiate at renewal and not just go with renewal price as they will always discount if you say you are leaving. You can get £50 discount if someone refers you. Let me know if you want a code.

We've had Virgin for years and zero issues, it's super fast, super reliable and cheap. We're in London. Easy to manage bills online

Their router is awful. I found the service unreliable with Virgin.

However, the real reason is advise anyone to run away from Virgin is the abysmal customer service if something goes wrong or - in particular - if you want to cancel. This is important because the great deal will become a dreadful one at the end of the contract. Trying to cancel was kafkaesque.

Ours is good, we did have a few drops and they replaced the box and it seems to have worked. The price going up each year is a bummer but my DH managed to chip them as I told him the first thing to go will be the bloody sports channels. Particularly F1.

I am not a tech expert, but it looks like asking your neighbours is the best bet for local service.

I'm on virgin - and it's been a fantastic high speed service BUT they are money grabbing arseholes of the highest order, ramp up the contract cost every chance they get and will take you a minimum of an hour on the phone to renegotiate your package to a reasonable cost, and to do it you need to get a comparison package and say you are leaving. It's an utter pain in the arse.

We had it ten years and very rarely had problems. It was fast and reliable.

But I hated dealing with them. Hated the cold calls, the "offers" which were for a couple of months and then increased dramatically, and they were incredibly expensive. We switched to Brsk as soon as they became an option locally. Similar speeds for a third of the price and so far, no hassle from their sales team.

I’m with Virgin and it’s excellent. There have been a few problems over the years but they quickly get fixed.

In Hampshire. Had them for years and broadband service is great. Customer service, on the other hand, is the pits. I hope I never need to attempt to contact them again and just let sleeping dogs lie. I'd switch providers rather than attempt a conversation with their many bots.

That said, I’d don’t know why the government haven’t legislated to ensure that all contracts of this kind are as easy to cancel as they are to set up. If you can sign up quickly online, you should be able to cancel without phoning people, being transferred to 15 different departments, continually being asked for security details, asked repeatedly why and being forced to go through the options for other deals they offer and so on.

(similarly, ‘free trials’ should require opt in at the end to continue, rather than defaulting and then being really hard to cancel too).

I have strong feelings about dodgy practices in attracting and retaining customers.

No problems here either although every time my contract is up the renewal price shoots so I threaten to leave then they take about £20 per month off.

In a city and been with Virgin for 7 years. I only stream TV and a bit of video calling; no gaming.

I’ve cancelled my contract only because of the massive increase in cost. Otherwise zero issues with delivery of service. Customer service a bit ropey but assume the same with all companies.

We changed from Sky to Virgin recently, BB is excellent, Sky was useless

I'm in NW England. I'm with sky who are faultless but they're going up to 40 quid a month. I don't know what to do because it seems a real mix of reviews for virgin and poor customer service keeps coming up. I don't want to get into a 24 month contract if its rubbish.

The Internet is great. When you have a problem, they are shit. They are the fastest around here so can't leave.

They were asking us for 90 a month when we left. Initial deals very quickly rise.

Hope not as we’ve had it installed yesterday 😂

The deals are good if you're new. Mine started at £33 and increased to £110 for the same package after 18 months.
Switched to brsk and have no regrets. The installation guy at brsk actually left virgin because of the way they treat their customers so that says it all