Virgin Deal

[#1]

Hi guys

I've been with PlusNet 12 months nearly on the fibre deal. Had an email from MSE earlier and Virgin are offering 1000mbps fibre for £18.75 pm/12mth contract. (£25pm but 3 months free).

Have had no issues whatsoever with Plusnet - I like things to just work, which it does. Love the hub. Great WiFi. Nothing to complain about or reason to leave other than the deal.

Chatted with a friendly chap at plusnet earlier but best he can offer is std plusnet fibre of about 30mbps for £23.50pm/18mth contract utilising "paying line rental up front" option.

Speed isn't an issue, but it's a better deal in all ways and so I'm in this predicament- I really don't want to leave Plusnet but can't ignore the virgin deal.

Any words of advice? Virgin experiences good or bad? Am trying to find a reason to stay...

[#2]

Intrusive deep packet inspection (peeping toms)

Labeling your connection with your unique customer id which unlike an IP doesn't change and is a VERY unique identifier (every tom dick and Cambridge analytica can track you)

Historically appalling customer service

Historically erratic billing (although daughter has had no billing problems so far with her current VM cable billing) with offers and deals not being honored and refunds taken back a month or two after they give them too you

History of handing over customers name address to US lawyers based on 'an ip' being seen in a torrent swarm

History of service grinding to a halt at peak times (3.30pm - midnight and all day weekends) perhaps due to 'traffic management throttling'

They will try anything to stop you leaving - including giving discounts you dont get or giving you a free extra for a month, then claiming you cant leave as you signed up for a new 12 month contract in accepting something you understood to be simple compensation for failed service and despite them not ever saying new contract was part of the deal.

Will agree something, then when you call up op will state 'theres nothing in the notes', but ring back quickly and ask what your notes say and another op will read back the stuff the last op said wasn't there ..

Record all calls, with them as evidence, but don't tell them as they will hang up.

All of the above except the US lawyers one is personal experience/personal checked.

The US lawyers one was plastered all over many forums - BT reportedly did it too.

Had the 'bill more than agreed' about 18 months ago when I last thought about giving them another try.

Cancelled in cooling off period  when I got 3 bills for ever increasing amounts within 3 days of the service starting. Had to threaten them with regulator, abuse of DD and small claims court to get it cancelled despite it being a right.

They tried to claim I had to get in contact with the agent who sold their service to me - who wasn't answering the number he gave.

Convinced me nothing had changed with them.

If none of the above mean anything to you - I've seen that deal and it made me think too. Might give them a go again.

Just watch your bills, record all calls and follow up calls on ANY issues with emails as evidence..

Put it this way, that is really cheap and only a 12 month contract, not their more usual 18 months .. and I still probably wont despite VM being the ONLY high speed service where I am ..

I'd rather stay with an 8-9M sky adsl 2 service ... that costs more.

I might try it as well as keeping my sky one. I wouldn't  cancel the sky before having used the VM for a few months at least

[#3]

Good luck trying to get that deal, I had a look earlier, but it does not seem to be available once you get to the Virgin site - takes you to a £27 / month deal, but that's about it.

[#4]

I've got it in a basket with an email confirmation of the basket with clickable link to basket. Not bought it yet.

You do have to use the link from the deal to get to the VM site and that offer

Its actually 25 a month with 75 paid into your account by VM on activation

-  so works out at first three months free provided VM actually do pay it into your account

[#5]

I used the link, but it did not work for me!

[#6]

check any script blockers like adblock plus or noscript which will foul up the link.

[#7]

Why would the direct links on the Virgin Homepage not work? 

[#8]

Because its an MSE special - hence the need to 'get it' from the mse link

try this

https://broadband.moneysavingexpert.com/search-96022?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_...

The mse newsletter is well worth signing up for

[#9]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to Chat

[#10]

@RobC Are you aware ot this and other similar cases:

http://www.ecalpemos.org/2012/10/my-complaint-to-virgin-media.html

Have you checked out https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/bd-p/Wireless

and https://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps/compare?isp_77=1&isp_84=1&commit=Compare

[#11]

I haven't followed the issues on VM's forums for a while, but those look very similar to threads here, and elsewhere  😕

 Like the 5Ghz/firmware router disconnection issues here

Technical issues are one thing, but core service including meeting reasonable expectations and correct billing along with clear policy (like deep packet inspection and throttling) are more important in my mind

These are a real problem for me and I experienced them constantly on VM

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=...

Like all services, you need to test them quite thoughtfully and quite quickly, and if there are any issues, contact them immediately and clearly say (recorded)

that the service is not of sufficient quality and does NOT meet your reasonable expectations and requirements and that if it is not quickly resolved, you will consider any agreement void and will require any payments refunded in full

and if they question that - immediately cancel within the cancellation period (recorded) and follow up with email, as you should if the issue isnt quickly resolved.

Cheap deal is one thing (like me still being here for now) but if the service doesn't meet you basic requirements and reasonable expectations for that service from the start, its foolish to think that will change

I've had that reinforced with the plusnet mobile service.

It didn't work properly at the start, and has been unreliable since. I actually didn't follow my own philosophy - but WOULD have if it was more than a 30 day contract, and was very peeved with EE increasing my DD three months into a 12 month contract -  as they do annually.

Plusnet Do get the billing right for me, but the core service is just unreliable. I've had failures when people needed to contact me.

Cheap and unreliable simply isnt cheap - its just unreliable.