Virgin Media

If you're technically knowledgeable and can work around the problems, then you may still consider Virgin ADSL as a cost-effective service for high-volume usage. If, however, you need a simple, reliable and supported service, particularly email, then Virgin is not for you.

 

Tucows incoming POP email server for Virgin ADSL was broken again for seven hours last night from 21:50 on 06/10/08 to 04:40 on 07/10/08.
When it did come back, as in the 2-day August 2008 failure, the POP UID list was broken, either temporarily or permanently, so I received a copy of several old emails I'd left on the server.
I've also been having a number of other ongoing intermittent problems with Tucows incoming POP and outgoing SMTP email servers both before and after the August outage.
Both incoming POP and outgoing SMTP email servers servers frequently reject connections for a variety of reasons. In the case of SMTP, both authenticated and unauthenticated connections fail, but with different errors.
I've switched some of my email traffic to backup providers including Google and O2, both of whom seem to be more reliable. I do not have anything like as many problems with those providers.
Virgin's email and online support desks were both completely unable to help when I contacted them some months ago. All they were able offer was basic support in configuring popular email clients, not actually solving any problems in Virgin or Tucows infrastructure. They were also unable to forward any problems to Tucows.
All in all it's a consistently shoddy service from an end user's point of view.
I still use Virgin ADSL because its cheap for high volume users and I'm knowledgeable enough to work around the Tucows and other problems, but I'm still deeply unimpressed.

Had this ISP for a long time now hoping that service would get better!

but no, it did not all that happened was that it got worse!

I now have internet access 3 days a week due to some ridiculous service upgrade or whatever. But the more often than not it's due to apparently nothing!

 Service Status is updated very slowy if not never, probably to hide the fact that the service is very obviously flawed but then again how can we see if without the internet! - Try the call in service of course... sure if you're expecting minimal help!

What a rubbish isp!!!

 2Mb line ---

 I have used many providers over the years but these bunch of jokers are the worst by a long mile!

 Outages that take a week to fix, but i am still expected to pay for no internet service.

A healpdesk that you cannot understand.

The fix engineers never turn up, after 3 attempts to get them to replace my modem i gave up and cancelled all my services with them.

 RUBBISH ISP!

 SLOW DLOAD SPEEDS THATS WHEN THE CONNECTION WORKS!

 Iam glad to be gettinfg rid of Virgin and i will never go back to them

 stay away from jokers there crap!

WtW

I posted on this site recently, as our 2mb BB had been getting slower and slower. Speedtests varied, so I put it down to maintenance. Finally identified it as modem, as the 'ready' light would go out. 'Phoned Virgin on Tuesday, and was told to run the various tests, disconnect router etc. Did that, rang back, they tested modem and confirmed it was faulty. New modem arrived Thursday, son fitted it, and I rang in the evening. Very helpful bloke in Swansea set it up. All sorted. It wasn't until I checked the paperwork for my account number that I found we had been with NTL etc for five years. This is the first real disconnection we have had in that time. I must admit, we stayed on 512 for longer than we should have, and I had to ring India and get it upgraded, but the lady was very helpful and efficient. So, credit where it's due. I work in retail, and deal with warranty claims etc. Being abusive gets you nowhere! If everyone had to work in a shop for two weeks, and ride a bike to work in the rush hour to get there, (as part of the 'National Curriculum')  they MIGHT be more tolerant of their fellow workers!

October 8th: Since the new modem, I was unable to update my webspace.It has taken me about seven weeks to sort it. Some people have been six months trying. I finally had some luck by joining a newsgroup on VM, that related to webspace, and that was only because someone on a forum pointed me there. I think if I had relied on the telephone, nothing would have happened.I think it is all to do with merging all the customers.

I was with Telewest before the NTL and Virgin Media transactions, and could not fault their service. Constantly high speeds, low latency and excellent customer service.

 

Things started going wrong when Virgin Media took over. Speeds dropped to a crawl during the evenings, ping times for gaming became a joke and the final insult was when ‘high users’ got their speeds throttled. ‘High users’ defined as those who download more than 300mb in one evening, which equates to about an hour of watching BBC iplayer.

 

I finally cancelled the account this month, and when my final bill came through I discovered that I had been charged an additional £9.50. I have just come off the phone to Virgin Media’s billing department and I must say that I am flabbergasted. Apparently once I told them that I was leaving, they removed the monthly discount I had for receiving two services (internet & TV). When I asked to be put through to customer services in order to get an explanation, I was told that they would not speak to me as I had cancelled my subscription. I would love to pursue things further, but to be honest, I can’t be bothered for the sake of a tenner.

 

So in summary, if you decide to leave Virgin Media because of their God-awful service, they’ll charge you a bit extra as a final insult and then refuse to let you speak to anyone about it. Only 5 more days and I’ll finally be shot of them…