Virgin ADSL Broadband :(

Uma, Uma, Uma. You lied to us all.

I've been with Virgin now for just over 8 days and have to say it's really really poor so far. It took them ages to set me up and now I wish they hadn't bothered. I was previously on UTV internet and moved away because I was on a 6GB monthly cap and thought virgin adsl would be the best option with limitless downloads (and possibly won over by the lovely Ms. Thurman in the process).

I was expecting slow speeds to begin with but over a week on and I've seen no improvement. On UTV I was getting pings of 50 or so and with virgin it in and around 200-260. A quick scour of the internet and I found plenty of people experiencing the same thing. I even found a review with the precisely same worded email when I complained about the speeds! According to the speed tests on this very site, I'm currently on 0.3mbps.

Does anyone at all, have anything good to say about Virgin's ADSL? Because if you do, I'm guessing you've starred in Pulp Fiction.

Anyway, I guess in a roundabout way, is there any way to get out of this hellish ISP without paying the fee and anyone else you would suggest? I need a provider that gives adequate speeds for gaming (PC and xbox live) and possibly a good download limit. Also I'm in Northern Ireland (02892) meaning a lot of providers are off limits to me.

Thanks in advance.

8 days should still be in the distance selling time (should it not) so you can cancel without penalty.

I would have thought so anyways

everyone gets a 10 day training time, but glad you researched the choice of product using these forums and others first and were not simply wowed by the price ?

also got a virgin phone and not a chance of swapping a 10-15 ms ping for a 200+ one...

Cooling off period is 7 working days...

Edited by SimonCraddock (Sat 24-Mar-07 20:37:03)

Ahh I thought it was 14


Thats bad though especially with ISP using the 10 day ADSLmax training as an excuse not to offer support in the early days

Legal min is 7 days according to the DTI.

Virgin quote this:

In reply to:

---

Cancellations and Refunds:

By law, you have the right to cancel this Agreement within seven working days of entering into it (the "cooling off period"). In the event of cancellation during the cooling off period, this Agreement is treated as if it had not been made. However, please be aware that you will lose your right to cancel under this clause during the cooling off period once we have commenced activation of the Service or you use the Service, whichever is the earlier.

---

What they are essentially saying is once you've had an email accepting your order your tied in for 12 months. Even Sky give you 7 working days (9 in total) after connection.

Just another reason to avoid Virgin Media.

Edited by SimonCraddock (Sun 25-Mar-07 11:25:07)

Well I have been off ill the last few days which allowed me to check the speeds when I was at home. Checking with the speedtester on this very site, I was getting 2.8 mbps during the day up until about 4:30 or so. After that, it slowed way back down to 0.9 mbps. Poor, really poor. Obviously being the 9-5 sort that's no use to me. I'm going to write a formal complaint to them and kick up a fuss. Support take literally days to get back to me and the advice they give is unbelievable (remove the cover from the main BT socket and wire my PC up to it? WTF?).

I'm going to move and thinking of going back to UTV which I think have done away with caps but I'll need to look at that.

Anyone care to advise a service useful for plenty of gaming on PC and Xbox live and perhaps downloads the odd demo and content too without danger of reaching a cap? I don't have sky or a contract phone btw. Thanks.