Tempted by Virgin Media

The current Virgin Media offer - £50 credit, 6 months half price, free
install and free router is very tempting albeit 18 months minimum term.

If I can get 50 Mbps, a basic tv service and a telephone (that I will never
use) for £27 for the first six months I figure that has to be better than
the £45 a month I am paying to BT and Zen for 3 Mbps tops.

I know that Virgin CS is useless whilst Zen is probably the best there is
(seriously, it doesn't get any better than Zen CS).

Has anyone switched from ADSL to cable, regretted it and ended the Virgin
contract in the 30 days Virgin allows?

I've tried to find details of the Virgin early cancellation fees but no joy.
BT is pretty good in this respect.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:35:52 -0000, "Gareth"
<hotmail.com@dgareth_remove.com> wrote:

>The current Virgin Media offer - £50 credit, 6 months half price, free
>install and free router is very tempting albeit 18 months minimum term.
>
>If I can get 50 Mbps, a basic tv service and a telephone (that I will never
>use) for £27 for the first six months I figure that has to be better than
>the £45 a month I am paying to BT and Zen for 3 Mbps tops.
>
>I know that Virgin CS is useless whilst Zen is probably the best there is
>(seriously, it doesn't get any better than Zen CS).
>
>Has anyone switched from ADSL to cable, regretted it and ended the Virgin
>contract in the 30 days Virgin allows?
>
>I've tried to find details of the Virgin early cancellation fees but no joy.
>BT is pretty good in this respect.
>
I have just told Virgin Media in the words of Lord Sugar 'You're
fired' and moved to Zen fibre to the cabinet.

Virgin Media Customer service was truly appalling (it was good before
the NTL/Telewest merger/rebranding). The broadband was also dead slow
at night but NOTE this was the ADSL not cable service.

I am very happy with FTTC. Although is a bit more expensive it
represents just over £1 per day which is money well spent IMHO.

> I have just told Virgin Media in the words of Lord Sugar 'You're
> fired' and moved to Zen fibre to the cabinet.

I'm with zen too on a monthly adsl contract but their website indicates fttc
requires a 12month contract. Not good. I hate long term commitments and I
hope there are going to be isp's who offer monthly contracts for fttc. If
there are then zen can go and fuck themselves.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2010 19:29:38 -0000, "tg" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>> I have just told Virgin Media in the words of Lord Sugar 'You're
>> fired' and moved to Zen fibre to the cabinet.
>
>I'm with zen too on a monthly adsl contract but their website indicates fttc
>requires a 12month contract. Not good. I hate long term commitments and I
>hope there are going to be isp's who offer monthly contracts for fttc. If
>there are then zen can go and fuck themselves.

This seems a somewhat extreme stance. Generally, longer commitment
results in a better 'deal'. I have just swapped my mobile phone from
30 days to 12 months and I am getting 300 minutes instead of 150 for
the same price. I think you have to look at the whole package and not
just the contract term in isolation.

Do you have a monthly contract for your gas and electricity as a
matter of interest?

On 21/11/2010 18:35, Gareth wrote:
> The current Virgin Media offer - £50 credit, 6 months half price, free
> install and free router is very tempting albeit 18 months minimum term.
>
> If I can get 50 Mbps, a basic tv service and a telephone (that I will
> never use) for £27 for the first six months I figure that has to be
> better than the £45 a month I am paying to BT and Zen for 3 Mbps tops.
>
> I know that Virgin CS is useless whilst Zen is probably the best there
> is (seriously, it doesn't get any better than Zen CS).
>
> Has anyone switched from ADSL to cable, regretted it and ended the
> Virgin contract in the 30 days Virgin allows?
>

Yes I did. I switched from a 4 Mb/s Zen line to VM 20 Mb/s 3 years ago.
I cancelled in the 30 days. I think it took one recorded delivery letter
to ensure there were no problems from the accounts department but
otherwise it was OK.

VM wasn't terrible, just not as good as the nominally slower Zen
connection. I have just seen that when FTTC is available at my exchange
in March my predicted speeds aren't good, 14Mb down 5.5 up. So I have
been looking at VM again but reading the forums it appears to be the
same old problem. Some areas suffer heavy congestion with slow speeds
and high latency. The more expensive 50Mb product doesn't seem to offer
any type of prioritization, so the latency and congestion is just as bad
as with the 10/Mb product. Combine that with the one year lock in, you
are exposed to paying a year subscription for a potential turkey with
the need to keep your BT line just in case.

The Samknows website did set up an independent testing process which
released one brilliant report on ISP line quality but then VM pumped
some money into them, the suspicion being to silence negative comparisons.

So I think I'll wait for FTTC from a quality supplier like Andrews and
Arnold, IDNet or Zen.

"tg" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:icbs3b$119$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I have just told Virgin Media in the words of Lord Sugar 'You're
>> fired' and moved to Zen fibre to the cabinet.
>
> I'm with zen too on a monthly adsl contract but their website indicates
> fttc requires a 12month contract. Not good. I hate long term commitments
> and I hope there are going to be isp's who offer monthly contracts for
> fttc. If there are then zen can go and fuck themselves.

Yes, this is one thing that surprised me: 12 months minimum, £75 set up fee,
higher monthly fee (£30 plus VAT) and no free router.

BT's offering has a 12 month minimum but no set up fee and a free router
with a lower monthly charge.

I have to say though since being with Zen I have had no reason - other than
BT line quality issues - to call their technical support line.

The problems I had with Plusnet were many.

Zen is an impressive outfit and it's the only thing that's keeping me with
an over priced ADSL 3 Mbps connection.

On 21/11/2010 18:35, Gareth wrote:
> The current Virgin Media offer - £50 credit, 6 months half price, free
> install and free router is very tempting albeit 18 months minimum term.
>
> If I can get 50 Mbps, a basic tv service and a telephone (that I will
> never use) for £27 for the first six months I figure that has to be
> better than the £45 a month I am paying to BT and Zen for 3 Mbps tops.
>
> I know that Virgin CS is useless whilst Zen is probably the best there
> is (seriously, it doesn't get any better than Zen CS).
>
> Has anyone switched from ADSL to cable, regretted it and ended the
> Virgin contract in the 30 days Virgin allows?
>
> I've tried to find details of the Virgin early cancellation fees but no
> joy. BT is pretty good in this respect.

1. You go for the cheapest - you get the worst.
2. There's no such thing as a free lunch
3. If you think it's too good to be true, it probably is
....and other sayings.
It's all down to you when all's said and done.
Tip - go for good service. It ain't cheap but you won't have anything to
worry about.

George

"Gareth" <hotmail.com@dgareth_remove.com> wrote in message
news:4ce98e83$0$2531$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> "tg" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:icbs3b$119$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> I have just told Virgin Media in the words of Lord Sugar 'You're
>>> fired' and moved to Zen fibre to the cabinet.
>>
>> I'm with zen too on a monthly adsl contract but their website indicates
>> fttc requires a 12month contract. Not good. I hate long term commitments
>> and I hope there are going to be isp's who offer monthly contracts for
>> fttc. If there are then zen can go and fuck themselves.
>
> Yes, this is one thing that surprised me: 12 months minimum, £75 set up
> fee, higher monthly fee (£30 plus VAT) and no free router.
>
> BT's offering has a 12 month minimum but no set up fee and a free router
> with a lower monthly charge.
>
> I have to say though since being with Zen I have had no reason - other
> than BT line quality issues - to call their technical support line.
>
> The problems I had with Plusnet were many.
>
> Zen is an impressive outfit and it's the only thing that's keeping me with
> an over priced ADSL 3 Mbps connection.

yes I agree are zen are the best, pricey but an excellent service. But to
see zen joining other ISP's in the the 12 month trap game doesn't bode well.
So far I haven't found an ISP that will offer fttc on a monthly basis. This
is not good.

> Do you have a monthly contract for your gas and electricity as a
> matter of interest?

no it's a quarterly thing and I can live with that but these 12 month
commitments are getting all to common and I hate feeling trapped. I like
being in a position where if I don't get what I pay for I walk.

"tg" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> So far I haven't found an ISP that will offer fttc on a monthly
> basis. This is not good.

Is this not because the ISP has costs involved in setting-up your
connection, which they can't possibly cover in one month?

--
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 "aaa" by "284".