Virgin Media & The Next Best Provider

[chrissarah1988]

Hi

 

I am not satisfied with Virgins price increases therefore i am looking at going elsewhere

 

TalkTalk do a deal at the moment but not sure if its worth it can anyone tell me if its worth going over to them ?

 

I did go to BT once but had a doing with them so i won't be going with them

 

I did want to try sky but not sure what they like as i hear mixed reviews about them

[biggeorge]

Sky are very good for broadband.

I just moved from them to Virgin and in 16 months never had a problem with the broadband,

Good speed all the time 16mb and no caps at all.

Sky's only problem was when the wireless router became faulty and they asked me to pay £40 for a new one,

I then switched to Virgin Media and they lost a good customer over their greed.

 

George

[LaughingGirl]

I've recently switched from Sky to Virgin, and am frankly regretting it now.

 

Issues with Sky: Non-cable broadband in our area is naff. Speeds of around 2MB and around peak times even worse. The only place we could have our dish placed is effectively a wind tunnel, so we constantly got blue screen on the TV with the 'No satellite signal is being received', sometimes for prolonged periods.

 

Their customer service is fine though and they're definitely cheaper than Virgin. Our bill has gone up about £20 a month since we swapped.

[silverfox1961]

I would recommend Sky over the others.

 

Reasons

 

Virgin-More expensive, poor customer service, not as many channels as Sky

 

TalkTalk- Their new system, YouView is quite good BUT, you will need a good aerial signal for the freeview channels and a decent broadband speed to take advantage of the downloaded TV channels. Aside from having to take a phone line from TT and having a 12 month contract, any boosts last only as long as you want them with a minimum period of one month. One good thing is their Value Line Rental where if you pay £114 up front, the line rental works out at £9.50 a month instead of £14.50 per month. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. As they are based abroad, there is language issues to contend with as well as some of the staff having a couldn't care less attitude (as I found last week).

 

Sky- Even with their basic package you get far more than the others and you get the plus one hour service. OK you don't get unlimited broadband (just 2MB per month) which IMO is a waste of time unless you are not a avid user of the internet or catch up TV. If you are not bothered with films or sport, their rates are reasonable. Customer service is UK based although I do find that some of the call centre staff with broad Scottish accents are hard to understand (but that's just me) They also do a little box that you can connect to your Sky box that wirelessly connects to their on demand service. Very small, unobtrusive and works very well. I have noticed no drop in quality compared with a direct connection.

 

Do you think I may be a little pro sky

[locutus]

Personally I'd check for alternative fibre broadband in your area. Search for "BT infinity", and see if they are available to yourself. I would also say plus.net are probably the cheapest fibre broadband supplier, so if BT infinity is available, check the plus.net website for offers.

 

Plus.net use BT cables but are generally cheaper.

 

so plus.net broadband is around £23 per month.

 

For the TV, do you have a PC that you can connect to your TV? If so you can use that for all the free players (BBC iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD and Demand 5 etc..) and you could also take a subscription to a movie service like love film or netflix.

 

My hint is you can change your DNS settings to fool netflix into thinking you are in the US, and then you get many more shows to watch.

[chrissarah1988]

Do you think id have any luck going through to virgins leaving department and asking for a offers or a price decrease

[LaughingGirl]

Do you think id have any luck going through to virgins leaving department and asking for a offers or a price decrease

 

It's always worth a try - I know a few people who have got really goo deals by doing this, but mostly with Sky. On the other hand, whenever I've tried it, they've said "OK, see ya then".

[IdaInFife]

I would recommend Sky over the others.

 

Customer service is UK based although I do find that some of the call centre staff with broad Scottish accents are hard to understand (but that's just me)

 

Do you think I may be a little pro sky

 

I am dead inside now

 

 

 

 

Also just to add the new sky wifi hub is an excellent piece of kit - never once dropped and had 6 devices running at once,

 

As locutus said, do a few checks first to see whats in your area and what speeds are offered.

[MrHat]

I just got a letter advising of a 5.50 price rise pcm. Not happy

[locutus]

Do you think id have any luck going through to virgins leaving department and asking for a offers or a price decrease

Always best to have a backup plan. Tell them you wish to leave and you can get "xxx" for £xx which is a lot cheaper and they'll see you're serious.

 

LG a friend of mine did this with Sky and they said "ok, your service ends in 7 days". If you make price the issue and you can get cheaper from a competitor they'll try to make a deal... throw some complements like "you guys in the cal center are so friendly" and they'll engage and try to do their best by you. Sales and Retentions always use your name to make themselves seem friendly, do the same back but when they offer a deal ask them what more they can do for you.

[labrat]

and be prepared for ALOT of spam off virgin

 

my wife cancelled ours she got 4 calls a week, 2/3 named mails (not just ussual junk drops) a week

 

even after asking them to stop they didnt till we threatened them with harrasment, now we just get the ussual junk

 

 

i ussually find with retentions if i stake something along the lines of "im leaving so i can get the new customers offers" they will make a deal but they dont like being delbt with harshly - when we were on virgin we got free internet for 6 months a while ago just by mentioning we were looking at sky, when we told them we already signed up to sky it changed to "we will refund any cancellation charges they make if you stay"

[Ionlymissedfiftyquid]

I used sky and was very impressed considering the broadband came down the phone line but like they all do all of a sudden its spoilt by unexplainable price rises so your bill is no longer what you signed up to within a few quid so i moved to virgin for faster bigger broadband and low and behold the bills are starting to be very movable only upwards its a matter of about 15 pounds.The sky broadband was good though and in hindsight wish as they hadnt messed me about but hay ho life eh