Telewest - safe to return ?

Wondering whether to use them again after ditching them in the mid
90's after outright lies and u-turns regarding free calls to telewest
phone customers - including any ISP on telewest (back in the days of
dialup)

Quidco have an offer with £120 cashback for signing up, but I believe
it ends Friday, and i'm really having a hard time convincing myself
they're a different company to what they were, and whether Phorm is
still on the cards...

Any recent comments / experiences would be welcome :-}

(hi to Alex Brown if you're still around, you've done a lot of
positive work in the group)

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:50:13 +0100, Colin Wilson
<(E-Mail Removed) o.uk> wrote:

>Wondering whether to use them again after ditching them in the mid
>90's after outright lies and u-turns regarding free calls to telewest
>phone customers - including any ISP on telewest (back in the days of
>dialup)
>
>Quidco have an offer with £120 cashback for signing up, but I believe
>it ends Friday, and i'm really having a hard time convincing myself
>they're a different company to what they were, and whether Phorm is
>still on the cards...
>
>Any recent comments / experiences would be welcome :-}
>
>(hi to Alex Brown if you're still around, you've done a lot of
>positive work in the group)

They are under new management now, as Virgin Media.

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:50:13 +0100, Colin Wilson
<(E-Mail Removed) o.uk> wrote:

No Complaints about Virgin Media here, would definitely recommend.
--
A useless life is an early death. Goethe

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:50:13 +0100, Colin Wilson
<(E-Mail Removed) o.uk> wrote:

>Wondering whether to use them again after ditching them in the mid
>90's after outright lies and u-turns regarding free calls to telewest
>phone customers - including any ISP on telewest (back in the days of
>dialup)
>
>Quidco have an offer with £120 cashback for signing up, but I believe
>it ends Friday, and i'm really having a hard time convincing myself
>they're a different company to what they were, and whether Phorm is
>still on the cards...

Assuming you mean Virginmedia (cable):-

Phorm is still a possibilty.
Their "traffic management" gives you about 20 minutes at full advertised
speed then you are reduced to 1/4 of the advertised rate. (unless you use it 9pm
to 10am)
Prices are going up - their 2Mbs tier has just had a £2 increase and their
traffic management will be even more draconian.
Charges have been introduced for non-DD payment and paper billing.
Despite denials that "the network" is not oversold, local overloading is
common, so even if traffic mangement has not kicked in there are multiple UBR
problems reported in the internal support groups.
Any change to a customer's service results in the loss of previous
facilities (e.g. if you were paying an extra £4 per month for 100Mb web space
this was withdrawn without any notice) - and of course if you negotiate a
reduction this counts as a new customer and a new 12 month contract.
Their website is a mess - try finding anything useful - like the STM limits.
Newsgroup support is reasonable - although since they fired the last team
the new lot are very patronising "We're sorry for any inconvenience caused."
The old names have disappeared (one of them after promising to answer our
questions about Phorm).
Marketing department still run the place and feedback is ignored.
New customers receive the same services as old customers but pay less for
it.

I am still with them after <blue whale mumble> years but will be instantly
switching to BE if Phorm does get implemented.


--
Geo

On Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:15:46 GMT, Geo <hw9j-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:50:13 +0100, Colin Wilson
><REMOVEEVERYTHINGBUTnewsgroup@phoenixbbsZEROSPAM. co.uk> wrote:
>
>>Wondering whether to use them again after ditching them in the mid
>>90's after outright lies and u-turns regarding free calls to telewest
>>phone customers - including any ISP on telewest (back in the days of
>>dialup)
>>
>>Quidco have an offer with £120 cashback for signing up, but I believe
>>it ends Friday, and i'm really having a hard time convincing myself
>>they're a different company to what they were, and whether Phorm is
>>still on the cards...
>
>Assuming you mean Virginmedia (cable):-
>
> Phorm is still a possibilty.
> Their "traffic management" gives you about 20 minutes at full advertised
>speed then you are reduced to 1/4 of the advertised rate. (unless you use it 9pm
>to 10am)
> Prices are going up - their 2Mbs tier has just had a £2 increase and their
>traffic management will be even more draconian.
> Charges have been introduced for non-DD payment and paper billing.
> Despite denials that "the network" is not oversold, local overloading is
>common, so even if traffic mangement has not kicked in there are multiple UBR
>problems reported in the internal support groups.
> Any change to a customer's service results in the loss of previous
>facilities (e.g. if you were paying an extra £4 per month for 100Mb web space
>this was withdrawn without any notice) - and of course if you negotiate a
>reduction this counts as a new customer and a new 12 month contract.
> Their website is a mess - try finding anything useful - like the STM limits.
> Newsgroup support is reasonable - although since they fired the last team
>the new lot are very patronising "We're sorry for any inconvenience caused."
>The old names have disappeared (one of them after promising to answer our
>questions about Phorm).
> Marketing department still run the place and feedback is ignored.
> New customers receive the same services as old customers but pay less for
>it.
>
>I am still with them after <blue whale mumble> years but will be instantly
>switching to BE if Phorm does get implemented.
>
>
Got to agree with you no matter what they are still better than any
flavor of ADSL even though their customer service,tech support and all
the rest are a load of time wasting lying scum bags .

Geo <hw9j-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Assuming you mean Virginmedia (cable):-
>
> Phorm is still a possibilty.

> Their "traffic management" gives you about 20 minutes at full advertised
> speed then you are reduced to 1/4 of the advertised rate. (unless you use
> it 9pm to 10am)

It's not quite as bad as that. For details see:

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...t/traffic.html

> Prices are going up - their 2Mbs tier has just had a £2 increase and
> their traffic management will be even more draconian.

OTOH the 2Mbps tier (which I have) is being increased to 10Mbps soon, which
is a much bigger improvement than I expected/hoped-for.


> Charges have been introduced for non-DD payment and paper billing.

Putting it another way though, using DD and paperless bills helps to offset
the cost of the price increase.


> Despite denials that "the network" is not oversold, local overloading is
> common, so even if traffic mangement has not kicked in there are multiple
> UBR problems reported in the internal support groups.

That may be so, but it's not as if ADSL is perfect, is it?

> Any change to a customer's service results in the loss of previous
> facilities (e.g. if you were paying an extra £4 per month for 100Mb web
> space this was withdrawn without any notice) - and of course if you
> negotiate a reduction this counts as a new customer and a new 12 month
> contract.

Customer service is crap, yes.

> Their website is a mess - try finding anything useful - like the STM
> limits.

I find Google and a site-search helps a lot.

> I am still with them after <blue whale mumble> years but will be instantly
> switching to BE if Phorm does get implemented.

Who are BE and how do they get access to VM's cable network?

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to (E-Mail Removed) replacing "nnn" by "284".

On Fri, 5 Jun 2009 19:41:51 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Geo <hw9j-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> Their "traffic management" gives you about 20 minutes at full advertised
>> speed then you are reduced to 1/4 of the advertised rate. (unless you use
>> it 9pm to 10am)
>
>It's not quite as bad as that. For details see:
>
> http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...t/traffic.html

I have seen - for your 2Mbs connection you can download only 200MB before speed
limit is applied - about 10 to 13 minutes. After which you get limited to
500kbs for 12 hours.

>
>> Prices are going up - their 2Mbs tier has just had a £2 increase and
>> their traffic management will be even more draconian.
>
>OTOH the 2Mbps tier (which I have) is being increased to 10Mbps soon, which
>is a much bigger improvement than I expected/hoped-for.

But your STM will be worse.

>> Charges have been introduced for non-DD payment and paper billing.
>
>Putting it another way though, using DD and paperless bills helps to offset
>the cost of the price increase.

Most other ISPs are competitive - look around for how many are charging £18 per
month for only 2Mbs.

>> Despite denials that "the network" is not oversold, local overloading is
>> common, so even if traffic mangement has not kicked in there are multiple
>> UBR problems reported in the internal support groups.
>
>That may be so, but it's not as if ADSL is perfect, is it?

It is not claimed to be - VM repeatedly claim that their network is not
over-subscribed.

>> Their website is a mess - try finding anything useful - like the STM
>> limits.
>
>I find Google and a site-search helps a lot.

Last time I looked at VM their site did not even have a search facility that
searched their site!

>> I am still with them after <blue whale mumble> years but will be instantly
>> switching to BE if Phorm does get implemented.
>
>Who are BE and how do they get access to VM's cable network?

BE will offer me 24Mbs unlimited from my fairly local exchange.

--
Geo

Geo <hw9j-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> On Fri, 5 Jun 2009 19:41:51 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >Geo <hw9j-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >> Their "traffic management" gives you about 20 minutes at full
advertised
> >> speed then you are reduced to 1/4 of the advertised rate. (unless you
use
> >> it 9pm to 10am)
> >
> >It's not quite as bad as that. For details see:
> >
> > http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...t/traffic.html
>
> I have seen - for your 2Mbs connection you can download only 200MB before
> speed limit is applied - about 10 to 13 minutes. After which you get
> limited to 500kbs for 12 hours.

Well, I've got the "M" service - the £18 / month one before the price risxe
- I dunno what "S" is. "M" was the slowest option available when I took it
out. "M" has a 1000MB trigger not 200MB, the limit is to 1Mbps not 500kbps,
and the maximum time you're throttled for is 5h not 12h. It also only
applies between 10am and 3pm, not 9am to 10pm.

There's a second throttling period from 4pm-9pm, with a 500MB maximum. I
think that 500 is separate from the initial 1000, so over the 12h period you
said a 200MB limit applies for, one's allowed 1500 MB, which is not so bad.

Bear in mind that there's no throttle between 3pm-4pm either.


When I took out the 2Mbps service I did not anticipate trying to download
massive amounts of data, which is why I only took the lowest level of
service. Although I do now use iPlayer and C4's 4oD service, throttling is
not often a problem for me - I'm more irritated by the fact that 4oD
downloads happen at nearer dial-up speeds than broadband ones.



> > OTOH the 2Mbps tier (which I have) is being increased to 10Mbps soon,
> > which is a much bigger improvement than I expected/hoped-for.
>
> But your STM will be worse.

What's that?

>
> >> Charges have been introduced for non-DD payment and paper billing.
> >
> > Putting it another way though, using DD and paperless bills helps to
> > offset the cost of the price increase.
>
> Most other ISPs are competitive - look around for how many are charging
> £18 per month for only 2Mbs.

I got a bundled deal so don't pay as much, and was able to ditch two BT
phone lines at the same time, so saved a great deal. Of course having got
rid of BT lines I do realise I made any future change to ADSL less
attractive.



> >> Their website is a mess - try finding anything useful - like the STM
> >> limits.
> >
> >I find Google and a site-search helps a lot.
>
> Last time I looked at VM their site did not even have a search facility
> that searched their site!

Google will search anyone site. Either type in for example

site:virginmedia.com traffic

in the google search parms, or use google's advanced search page:

http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

and fill in the site name you want searched in the 'site name' box.



--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to (E-Mail Removed) replacing "nnn" by "284".

On Sat, 6 Jun 2009 14:35:58 +0100, "Kráftéé"
<kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote:

>Scott wrote:
>| On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:50:13 +0100, Colin Wilson
>| <(E-Mail Removed) o.uk> wrote:
>|
>|| Wondering whether to use them again after ditching them in the mid
>|| 90's after outright lies and u-turns regarding free calls to
>|| telewest phone customers - including any ISP on telewest (back in
>|| the days of dialup)
>||
>|| Quidco have an offer with £120 cashback for signing up, but I
>|| believe it ends Friday, and i'm really having a hard time
>|| convincing myself they're a different company to what they were,
>|| and whether Phorm is still on the cards...
>||
>|| Any recent comments / experiences would be welcome :-}
>||
>|| (hi to Alex Brown if you're still around, you've done a lot of
>|| positive work in the group)
>|
>| They are under new management now, as Virgin Media.
>
>No they're not, they bought the right to use the Virgin branding
>(partialy due to buying the Virgin mogile phone company). The only
>difference in the management is that they are now in partnership with
>NTL, a good thing...I don't think so.
>
They merged wth NTL. Are you saying that none of the NTL management
survived the merger? I don't know what you mean by the management
being 'in partnership'. I understood they were the same company. If
the present management includes people from former NTL and former
Telewest then this represents a change of management so far as
Telewest is concerned. I know about the Virgin branding, which is why
I said 'as Virgin Media'. I thought Virgin Group had a stake. Are
you saying they don't?

Kráftéé wrote:

> Scott wrote:

> | I thought Virgin Group had a stake. Are you saying they don't?

> Yep, Virgin sold the rights to use the name

Not sure what Virgin Group is, but Richard Branson still owns a lot of
shares in Virgin Media Inc.

> and combining the management of 2 companies equally could be looked upon
> as a partnership,

I think most people would describe it as a merger rather than a partnership.
Especially as neither of the 'partners' exist as independent entities.

--
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