Thinking of consolidating all of my media services (TV, phone, broadband and 2 mobiles) and Virgin are offering a very tempting deal.

I believe that their broadband provision is very good but can anyone comment on their experience?

worst tv packange i have ever owned.

worst customer services i have ever experienced.

worst internet i have ever used.

phone was ok.

TV was crap, binned it
Phone is fine, no problems
Internet always works (apart from the POP server being down for a couple days about a year and a half ago

Was getting nuisance calls and ended up changing my number – they were great and very helpful

Erm…

TV is great inc the HD

Broadband is 10 x quicker than my business one

Phone is…. a phone!

I have had one problem with customer service miss selling me a package when I moved so a Manager called me back sorted the problem and helped me reduce my bill.

When I priced up doing a similar thing with BT or SKY Virgin was the cheapest.

I can only give them a big thumbs up…

don't do it if you can at all help it… they're sh1te!

Our broadband gets mysteriosly slower and slower as more people on the street get broadband… we now pay for the fastest one they offer and its no different. Hardware quality is laughable, we're on our 3rd cable modem this year and have burnt out several in the past, customer service is non existant (especially fun when you're calling from a mobile as the phone line doesn't work). they also once sent the bailiffs round to collect -£80 from me. at least the bailiffs had a sense of humour!

Grr,, hate them!

from reading the above, maybe speak to people locally and see what kind of service they get, i read in the paper this week that yorkshire (where i live) has the best broadband speeds in the uk or something?

only ever been good, until very recently some on-demand movies haven't worked properly… it normally sorts quite quickly, but the last couple needed a call to customer services… 3 separate people there all said different things about the combination of services and what should be paid for them. they were asking an extra 7.50 a month for the on-demand stuff starting in two months time. er, no, that's not what the agreement says. the third person said the first two were incorrect.

bit worrying.

oh, apart from my comments above, broadband, tv and phone have all been excellent, and previous encounters with their customer services have been very good.

I have to say that other than some glitches with the V+ box (particularly when the HD is filling up), I'm more or less happy with them. They could do with being better about advertising service faults on their website to avoid me navigating 10 levels of phone system hell but largely they're on a par with the best broadband providers I've used.

If you are a HEAVY evening broadband user, be warned that they do operate rate limiting between certain times of day once you've consumer a certain amount of data. You won't see if browsing the web or playing games but you will see it if you download things.

Ive got TV,BB and phone, and im happy.
Maybe get a problem once a year if that, and it always gets sorted quite quickly.
Got BB upgraded from 2mb too 10mb this year for free, and i get a discount off about 1/3 from the full price.

I've got phone, broadband and telly with them.
Mostly been very happy.
There have been the odd day where broadband has completely gone – but that's been once in a blue moon.
Broadband speeds been great. I'm not a big downloader though. Afaik, all ISPs are using throttling software during peak hours to avoid contention.
Telly with the V+ box has been a revelation. Also comes with the iPlayer, 4OD etc etc. The V+ box does have a few minor glitches every now and then but has otherwise behaved. I paid a one-off £70 for the V+.
Phone is phone. And they've given me free landline calls 24×7.

TV's been ok, broadband has been excellent.

Installation didn't go at all smoothly, eventually getting my phone line working after 2 months of failing.

Add on another 2 weeks to sort out the 'temporary work around' they employed to get the line in, leaving half an open box hanging off the wall.

Customer services were of no help and ignored everything up until about the third complaint.

Eventually offered to refund the first 2 months but had to keep reminding them to apply it 😆

Happy now it's all sorted though!

Internet generally very good.

Phone is a phone.

Not using TV service.

Customer services hopeless IME.

No issues here at all had for about two years about once a year a problem with internet being broken for a few hours. Phone works + tv works never not worked including catch up but I have the basic package without add ons. How does your tv break for those that it does?
The helpline calls have been OK in my experience – same as all helplines varies from excellent to pointless but at least it is free to cal them which is a big plus

but at least it is free to cal them which is a big plus

Not when your Virgin phone isn't working!

Just had the lot via cable.
Phone is clear, TV with V+ less glitchy than old sky box. Tinterweb is fast, engineer who came to house was good.
Its not the cheapest as we had to have the channel that shows the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so needed the all singing fancy pants TV one.

LOL fair point but my phone has always worked – though if it did break it would probably take me a month to realise though.
Dirt cheap SIM Only deal as well

I've been with Telewest then Virgin for 10+ yrs now without complaint. We just have the normal telly box, recently upgraded from our original telewest one which finally went poof. The phone appears to work, but that belongs to my wife and I don't think I'm really allowed to touch it. 🙄 The broadband is really good, and reliable, although I'm not a heavy users, I don't play games or download naughty movies. If however, anyone would like to recommend me some naughty movies, I'd be much obliged. 😆

Oh, if it's any help, I live in Stirlingshire.

B.

Recently went over to sky after years with cable. (They wanted to charge me 50 quid for an engineer to "check" my box after I asked for services to be put back on..long story)

anywhoo, I find the sky box a lot faster and more user friendly than the V+ user interface and there are a few more HD channels to play with .

The Internet is ok, but not as good as virgin was ;I can only get 4,5 meg where I am but always got close to my 10 meg on virgin (up to 50 meg available on cable)

phone is ..a phone

So I miss the fast reliable internet, but enjoy the TV experience more. Give and take

The internet is excellent, hardly ever have probs with the TV but you dont get sky red button services with sky sports.

All good here, but do not use if you're into file-sharing. They're rolling out deep packet inspection checks on 40% of their customer-base.

https://nodpi.org/2009/11/27/virgin-media-in-bed-with-detica/

I've had the full package now for about 6 months.

TV is great, much better interface than Sky+ imo (Which I had before), on-demand content and catch-up TV is superb, and you can record 2 programs and watch a 3rd.

Broadband is fast an reliable and as chakaping said, a phone is a phone (only ours is now crystal clear compared to the old BT line).

Plus if they V+ box goes wrong, you don't pay £60 to get it repaired.

Better all round package imo. Obviously other peoples experiences vary, but i couldn't recommend it enough.

Cheers.

ANy experience of their mobile phone service?

mobile is fine as well not sure which network but coverage is as good as Orange used to a tenner for a SIM with 400 mins + 400 texts
Worries he soundls like a Virgin fan but they are fine and just work never really had any isues with them TBH.

Plus if they V+ box goes wrong, you don't pay £60 to get it repaired.

good job too. I had 2 v+ boxes fail in 6 months. Both were replaced quibble free though, so cant really complain (apart from inconvienience)

I have virgin mobile. I have good coverage and unlimited data and it works well (and cheap) The only negative is the phone's charging socket failed after 2 months and virgin Mobile wouldnt replace it because it "must have been down to misuse".

we have got to be careful, here. Sky/ Virgin debates can rival PC/ Mac or
PS3/ Xbox etc etc debates on other forums 🙂

TV – good now they have the HD channels, HD box a bit plain.
BB – always been fine.
Phone – alwyas been fine.
Customer Service – pretty shite. Kept mucking up 1 of three installations they have done for me. I took two days off work for no-one to turn up and then they weren't able to do the job even when they did get there. Was not happy to say the least.

Wish I'd seen this thread before ordering BB and phone package last week.

Had BB up until now and it's been great, but concerned now about their ability to put in phone reading the above comments.

Still, it's not BT (the selling point to us)!

i'm having Virgin TV/BB/Phone installed tomorrow. so far they've been exceptional.

Any experience of their mobile phone service?

That really is their strong point. I have used Virgin Mobile for the last six years. It is not the cheapest, but I have always been extremely happy with my phones (all Sony Ericsson), and the service has been superb. I think it costs a flat 10p to call and speak to an operator, but I have never hung up without having a problem solved. Not bad for 10p.

In any case, an unequivocal thumbs up on the mobile service here.

TV – interface IS slower than SKY, but does do more (rather it did less and went faster). V+ is a lot better that SKY+, can record 2 and watch a 3rd live program and on the demand stuff is way better.

Phone – its a phone, it works,

BB – Ours has always been very good, but check localy to see what its like in your area.

Mobile service uses the T-Mobile network, so its only as good as that one is in your aera.

And right on cue…

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/TV/Loss-of-TV-Service/td-p/14531

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11/33658737-cable-tv-down-in-birmingham.html

They cut off my sister in error and have taken more than a month to reconnect her. Communication poor. usual telephone tennis. Some bits now work but not all.

Forget the current V+ boxes – they've just signed a deal with Tivo who are the daddy when it comes to PVRs & the new box should be a whole lot better than their current offering (and even the original 2001 Tivo is so much better to use than $ky+). So it'll be a great box if you can put up with the customer service.

Haze – Member

And right on cue…

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/TV/Loss-of-TV-Service/td-p/14531

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11/33658737-cable-tv-down-in-birmingham.html

Virgin are rolling out a new encryption system to try & beat the pirates – it looks like they've had an issue with the implementation 😀

Broadband is excellent I get just under 10 MB/s
Home phone doesn't get used that much
TV large package is good but the menu system can be a bit slow.

And right on cue…

I used to loose my sky signal every time it rained heavily

tv is off in darlo at the mo 🙁

Forget the current V+ boxes – they've just signed a deal with Tivo who are the daddy when it comes to PVRs & the new box should be a whole lot better than their current offering (and even the original 2001 Tivo is so much better to use than $ky+). So it'll be a great box if you can put up with the customer service.

if they are going to nagra 3 encryption like sky it may need a crop of new boxes…All you need to steal Cable right now is a 50 quid PCi card and some free software off the net, or a dodgy box from a friend-of-a-friend (we have all been offered one havnt we?)

Sky's encryption is much more robust so at least I am not paying for something someone else is getting for free (unless they are card-sharing)

I used to loose my sky signal every time it rained heavily due to a poorly installed dish

there, fixed it for you

badblood – Member

tv is off in darlo at the mo

All ex NTL areas are down

if they are going to nagra 3 encryption like sky it may need a crop of new boxes

new cards will cover it in most instances, some very old Pace boxes will need replacing