Hi all

I'm in a bit of a dispute with Virgin media at the moment... I pay for landline & broadband with them since April. I was supposed to be getting 100mbps, and I am only about 20-30ft away from their cabinet. They even laid new cable to my house, fitted new connection boxes and phone socket.

To begin with speeds were ok. But for the last couple of months they've been dreadful.

They haven't fixed anything, I'm paying for a 100mbps service that is on average giving me just 14mbps... For the last week I've been taking screenshots of those speeds and saving them on my computer, tests have been run each day at various times from afternoon to evening... But even at 2am this morning it was still just as bad.

I stream a lot via netflix and amzon video. My tests via speedtest and netflix's one speed checker (fast.com) have shown that on average my speed is 8-9 times slower than advertised. My tests indicate that my speeds are not even fast enough to stream 4k conten... which is the main reason I signed up for it in the first place. I'm getting a degraded service.

I feel like I'm being ripped off, but am locked into a contract until April 2018.

What can I do to get out of it early, is the fact that they're providing such a poor service enough to claim breach of contract?

Of course you have all the right on your side and there shouldn't be any problem about this at all. However, all of these telecoms companies are bullies and they have no idea about fulfilling a contract by carrying out their promises.

When people get into this kind of situation all too often they simply cancel the direct debit and imagine that there will be the end of it. Unfortunately at this point the supplier gets into debt collection mode and then starts to instruct debt collectors, sent threats, and most importantly of all they wreck your credit file.

I'm afraid that if you want to deal with this then you will have to do it very carefully and it will take time – but you can succeed.

You are doing absolutely the right thing in keeping a record of the speeds. You should keep on doing this all the time. Do you know anyone else close to you who is with the same company? Are they getting the same speeds or better speeds?

You should not try to break this contract until you have forced them to acknowledge their breach. You could go to the telecoms ombudsman but I can guarantee you that this will take a long time and you will get no satisfaction there because the ombudsman is limp wristed. I'm quite sure that the only way to deal with this is to be prepared to bring a small claim in the County Court. Don't expect them to back down. These people are bullies enough that they are prepared to spend hundreds and even thousands of pounds trying to crush you even though economically it is not worthwhile. During the proceedings and in the buildup to the proceedings you may find that they will try to buy you off by offering you the service at a reduced price or even forgive you the cost for a while. It is up to you whether you want to accept this – but if you do there may be difficult to complain again later on.

I don't know of anyone who has decided to take on their supplier in the County Court which is a real shame because these people need teaching a lesson. On the basis of what you say and if you make careful preparation then I would say that your chances of success are better than 90%. If you want to go ahead then we will help you.

However, one thing that you need to ask yourself is whether an alternative supplier will give you a better speed given that they probably have to supply their signal down the same system.

Theres a reason they say UPTO certain speeds, not give a hard number.

However, if they arent giving you the speeds that you are paying for, they can drop you down a few tiers and charge you accordingly.

Some ISP's simply dont have the tech to give some speeds, which is why they throttle the hell out of a lot of people.

They have a fat pipe that they use for a specific number of people, knowing that the speeds advertised are unachieveable during peak times. So they throttle and say 'upto'

apparently, not so long ago V were caught out by Watchdog for over subscribing in some areas resulting in 'over utilisation' causing speed plummets contrary to the speeds promised.

their CE subsequently acknowledging stating things were resolved and retraining put in place to avoid.

maybe ask him to investigate your area? (if thats whats causing your slow down)

how does that help, if it is down to 'over utilisation'?

if the practice is still going on, then maybe the CE has not quite been true to his word re overall resolution.

it may speed up a resolution, reminding them of Watchdog.

also, it may lend support to leaving the contract early without penalty. if required.

what plan are you on, unlimited downloads?

For the last 2 months I have been taking random screen shots of speed test results... I've done this at different times of the day and night using both the regular speedtest.net website, but aslo the Netflix run fast.com one too... Because I stream a lot of stuff from Netflix and I'd heard that VM prioritise traffic to certain sites like speedtest.net.

I even tested it with and without a VPN enabled, as well as bypassing Virgin media's DNS servers and using neutral ones. It's not scientific, but I can state that my results over the last 57 days/tests show an average of just 10.3Mb connection... I'm on a 100Mb connection. The best speed recorded was 21Mb whilst the worst was just 68Kb... Yes, that's right.. 68k... just a fraction faster than the old style 56k modems of the 90's.

The difference between speedtest.net and fast.com is also noticeable at around 20% slower for the netflix servers.

My streaming has become very hit and miss... basically if i want to watch something... don't plan on watching anything between 5pm and midnight.

VM so far.. no comment and their so called support forums are a joke... and trying to get through to them on the phone is also a bit of a joke.

Tempted to put in an official complaint. as I'm paying for a service that I'm simply not getting at all... I'm also tempted to cancel my DD.. but then they'll just retaliate like they normally do.

Couple of Ofcom links for you:

Codes of practice: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/codes-of-practice

Practical tips for improving your broadband speed: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/advice/broadband-speeds

I'm on a 100Mb connection. The best speed recorded was 21Mb whilst the worst was just 68Kb... Yes, that's right.. 68k... just a fraction faster than the old style 56k modems of the 90's.

 

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that doesn't look good, for a deemed 100 speed fibre cable connection direct to a house?

68k! how long were you on that speed for.

I ran half a dozen speed checks over an hour period and got between 2.3Mb and 68Kb.

The cable is fibre to the cabinet and then coaxial to the house...

however the VM cabinet is about 20-30ft away from my house.

When I was on Sky fibre I was getting 38MB of the 40Mb and that speed didn't change when using a VPN..

in fact I had to use software to throttle my download speeds to avoid swamping my connection completely...

Such as using the download limiter within Steam and so forth.

I got rid of sky because of their constant prices increases and refusal to give existing customer access to better deals.

I've currently saving £15 a month with VM... but it's no enough for such a crappy service.

seems as #2 then

it does look something like that watchdog enquiry re over utilisation etc. maybe contact watchdog?

maybe put in an escalated complaint to V.

do V restrict vpn use.

if that gets nowhere, maybe consider legal recourse

not sure tbh.

even on basic broadband there shouldn't be modem speeds of 68k

ps,

68k, you're not hearing this are you

I had a bit of a back and forth with VM after putting in a complaint... I have now had my service ended due to 'utilisation' issues... which basically means they can't provide the service at a speed close to what they claim and cannot charge me a termination fee.

Sadly.. new ding dong now with vodafone who have caused me even more hassle and I've had to cancel with them after less than 30 days... looks like I'll end up with no broadband service at all for a while... but at least my current number is still with VM because Vodafone are to incompetent to do something as simple as transfer it over to them.

Can't sign up to a new service either because vodafone muppets have a different number attached to that line and are being feckwits about terminating my service because they breached the contract... whole other thread about that fiasco.