Awful internet quality - Another early disconnection fee query

[nb888]

We have been with VM for a few years and a few months ago signed another 18 month contract for fibre and TV. I understand as stated in the T&Cs there are early termination fees to leave the contract early.

Where we live the only fibre or fast broadband provider has until very recently been VM. Openreach quoted speeds were around 6mb for any other provider... We both work from home and need fast internet so the only choice has been VM until very recently, a situation I have not been very happy about.

The quality and reliability of the VM internet has been awful for the last few years, very patchy and unreliable for all the household. We have tested all the equipment, our PCs TVs etc, called and raised issues over and over again but these have never really been resolved properly with wishy washy responses provided and eventually I just accepted that awful unreliable internet was part of the package with VM at our address.

Anyway I was delighted to see that we now have the option of fast broadband from other providers. Ideally I want to ditch VM asap for the above reason. I would understand if we were moving or it was our choice to leave even if the service was fine but I think this is a different situation.

Have VM breached contract by not providing what they have contracted to do? Has anyone other similar experiences?

[Ernie_C]

You state clearly the service has been awful, yet sign a new 18 month contract a few months ago.

The early disconnection fee will be £240.

[goslow]

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@nb888 wrote:

We have been with VM for a few years and a few months ago signed another 18 month contract for fibre and TV. I understand as stated in the T&Cs there are early termination fees to leave the contract early.

<snip>

Have VM breached contract by not providing what they have contracted to do? Has anyone other similar experiences?

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Early disconnection fees below, capped at £240

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-legal-stuff/terms-and-conditions-for-fibre-optic-services/early...

VM's speed policy is here, which might bypass EDF

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-legal-stuff/virgin-media-speed-policy

and

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/speeds

Not sure if speed is part of your problem or more unreliability of the connection. You need to collect evidence of the issue and allow VM an opportunity to remedy. The speed guarantee is wired speed to the VM hub. Wi-fi isn't covered.

Ways to cancel here

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-legal-stuff/terms-and-conditions-for-fibre-optic-services#end

If you just want rid of VM, you may want to pay the £240 but you would probably be best to try to overlap the services to make sure your new service is working OK before scrapping VM.

If you want VM to try to remedy the issues then you will need to start gathering the evidence to get a tech visit (hub signal levels, sample speed test results, BQM graph etc.)

[nb888]

Connection dropping out, this means internet then no internet for a period of time between 10 seconds and half a day. This goes on and on and on. Speeds very variable sometimes only a few mb latency fluctuates sometimes very bad, not consistent with fibre offering. So quality of connection and speed of connection are the issues.

Previously had no choice but VM as a supplier so comments along the lines of we signed a new contract knowing the service was bad are not helpful, do you think I would sign a new contract if I had a choice of suitable offerings?

VM had a monopoly so what would you suggest we did differently?

I would love for them to be able to resolve. We have tried to discuss with VM on many occasions previously but according to them there is nothing wrong despite there being a problem with the service as explained above.

What do you think we should do differently to elicit a different response?

As I said all equipment has been tested, that means our equipment in the house and the VM equipment they have provided to us.

According to them we just have an intermittent problem which will go away yet it does not.

Again what would you suggest we do differently?

[Anonymous]

You need to persue it rebustly and allow them to remedy the issues, even then they may not agree to the cancellation of any EDFs.

I am seriously considering the same as you but would take the easier option of taking a hit with the fees. 

CS is an absolute nightmare and I have read so much about painful attempts to cancel never mind resolving intermittent issues. 

I have accepted for the time being issues come and go but I am not dealing with them - as I said they're a nightmare.

BT fibre is excellent, consistently attains above average speeds, has faster uploads than VM, is better priced and their Customer Service centres are UK based.

The BT Smart Hub 2 is far superior to VM's hub 4.

My sister switched out of contract from VM where I am currently stuck for another 10 months or £240......

[Ernie_C]

There is no obligation to sign a new contract at the end of any minimum period.

A few months ago, when you signed a new contract, you must have known another supplier was soon to be available and could have continued on with your rolling contract and cancelled with no EDF.

[goslow]

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@nb888 wrote:

<snip>

What do you think we should do differently to elicit a different response?

<snip>

Again what would you suggest we do differently?

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If your issue is primarily intermittent connectivity, set up a BQM graph to monitor your connection 24/7 for starters, as already suggested. That will quite quickly start to identify any ongoing connection issues.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality

Post your downstream stat's, upstream stat's and network logs from the hub on here as text and hopefully someone from the community or forum team will take a look at them for you and comment.

At some point you may also need to also start logging speed test results to prove you are regularly receiving sub-standard speeds (in line with the above speed policy link). I think VM only accept results from the speedtest website (may be wrong on that).

That should do for starters. In the meantime one of the forum staff should get to this in a day or two and try to help you.

[John_GS]

Hi @nb888

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community. 

I am sorry you feel this way and for any internet issues. If you are wanting to leave mid-contract, you would incur a capped early disconnection fee as advised above.

That being said, we're more than happy to assist you with any internet issues. Upon doing a check of the system, your downstream levels are out of spec. This will need a tech visit so I shall send you a PM now to confirm the details

Kind regards,

[John_GS]

Hi @nb888

Thanks for joining me on PM. 

Just to update the thread, the engineer visit was booked in.

This can be tracked or altered here

Do let us know how the visit goes.

Kind regards,

[nb888]

I have been running this monitor for a few months now. Although the monitor suggests a reasonably steady service the reality is: slow inconsistent internet speeds remain - I have a number of different devices and have ran a speed test on all of them, latency ranges from the teens up to 40ms +, speed ranged from a few mb/s up to just under 100...  I have checked each device to ensure the drivers and updates are all current. I have checked, rechecked and rechecked again the physical cables and connections and there are no tangles, kinks loose connections or anything else that may have caused a slowing of service.  I have checked just this minute on ookla which has reported a ping of 39ms and a download speed of 10.19.