Goodbye Virgin Media "Business" (rant)

Funny how things work sometimes. I've been with VMB for quite some time now as they were the best option available in my area, and are on the 500/50 (was 500/35) service.

I pay by BACS (FasterPayment) each month and send remittence advice via email. Today I received an overdue email with big red writing to warn me they'll entitled to charge me a £100 late fee + interest, so I give them a call. Quelle surprise when the call is answered in the UK and not the awful overseas contact centre for the first time ever.

The nice call handler says it's been paid and I can ignore it. I take the opportunity to find out when the contract expires (it was rolled over due to changing up packages), and to my present surprise it expires in December, and she kindly let's me know I need to give 90 days notice, which I did there and then.

Openreach have installed FTTP since re-contracting with Virgin and I can now get a 1000/115 service with a static IP with IDNet for less than I'm paying now with their excellent customer service on a 12 month contract.

Anyone looking to go with VM Business need to think twice. This is a static IP system that's wrangled onto their residential network that was never designed for it in the first place, and it goes down a lot in my experience. I can assume the majority of this downtime is down to the static IP system as when you call them, they've already added a message to say there's a problem, yet when you use the residential online checker with a postcode, it shows no problems.

- The vast majority of calls go through to their overseas call centre, and while pleasant, the calls are poor quality and its difficult to communicate, and they're not the most efficient.

- If you're on a DirectDebit, they take this very early after the bill is generated.

- I've experienced full speeds from time-to-time, but you should expect no more than 50% down more often than not. The static IP system also nearly doubles ping time.

- They're online bill viewer doesn't let you do anything other than download a pdf of the bill, you can't pay it online.

- The online live chat hardly ever is online.

- They have an online form function that's completely ignored.

- They reduced the time you have to pay bills about a year ago without any notice.

So thank you, VMB, for your overdue payment email this morning. It was much appreciate after all