cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

TV without the broadband or phone?

Gwalchgwyn
On our wavelength

I have the XL TV bundled with 200Mb/s internet and phone, a V6 box and a Tivo as my secondary. I despair of ever speaking to a human when I cannot even get a response regarding repeated loss of services. Before I settle in for a night of mentally disturbing hold music that I am sure is designed to discourage waiting, I wondered if it might be possible to get an idea of an answer to the next question from the community.

Can I cancel my internet and phone, port my number to my new provider, and keep just the TV package? I am aware that the V6 requires the broadband connection, but if it is not possible to use a non-Virgin connection for this I would be happy to accept reduced functionality or to downgrade the V6 box.

Why? I am tired of paying through the nose for unreliable internet service and I can get my phone bundled with an alternative supplier. The only reason I want to keep the TV service is that my wife enjoys watching TV and is comfortable with Virgin (when it works). I only pay for the big bundle for one program/channel that she enjoys, so it is ninety-something-percent wasted anyway, but if the only alternative supplier of this content is Sky, my options are non-existent (I won't every sign a contract with those criminals).

TL:DR : HD TV channels, second box, no bundled internet/phone- possible?

9 REPLIES 9

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

I believe that Maxit (the current equivalent of XL, minus the chargeable kids channels) is available standalone, but you're right to assume that you'll need to hand in your V6 and have a TiVo instead. I would seriously question whether that would be more frustrating than perhaps getting the internet issues resolved.

What are the broadband problems you're having? You've not posted about it on here, so perhaps we can help? There's plenty of experienced users on here (with VM staff mucking in where necessary) if you're happy to explain, and perhaps do a bit of legwork yourself.

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

I am an IT professional and experienced trouble-shooter with decades of experience providing support and installation services to my clients. I have never needed to post my problems in the forums. I am sure that this requires no further explanation.

I have come to accept that there is no point in trying to communicate persistent and unacceptable service issues to customer support, and they all but laugh in your face if you mention a refund for services not rendered.

There is one channel my wife likes to watch otherwise I would have dropped the TV package years ago - it does nothing for me.

Thanks for the response. If your answer is accurate then I will happily downgrade from the V6 - it also does absolutely nothing for me and my wife watches her favourite channel on the old Tivo in the bedroom anyway.

I wrote several paragraphs, but when I tried to submit this post I received a timeout error and all my text was lost.

Typical. -_-

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@Gwalchgwyn wrote:

I am an IT professional and experienced trouble-shooter with decades of experience providing support and installation services to my clients. I have never needed to post my problems in the forums.


That may be so, but there's plenty of users on this forum very experienced in troubleshooting VM service & technical issues of varying kinds - with the forum staff often able to pickup and resolve issues that the telephone-support staff fail to do.

I can sympathise with anyone who's experienced the frustrating side of VM's phone-support service, but to tar this forum with the same brush is to close off a potentially valuable source of support.

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

No tarring intended. As mentioned, I did type much more. The short version lacks nuance, and I cannot be bothered typing it all again. Also, I have been on these forums before, and I have done plenty of legwork (it's my day job after all). When I changed address a couple of years ago things got considerably worse, but I've just been going through the motions while hoping things would improve. They have not, and I have no faith they ever will.

To provide a little of the lost detail, briefly: almost daily loss of all services for one or more periods of up to an hour and with a router that variably either becomes unresponsive, refuses my login because an administrator is apparently already logged in, or reports that an update is in progress, and no response to multiple previous attempts to resolve the these issues or seek a refund. I gave up reporting issues a year ago and I run the router in modem mode because its habit of repeatedly restarting when it cannot establish a WAN connection is disruptive and infuriating since I retired my home server (which used to provide DHCP, which is now provided by a router that isn't a steaming pile of rubbish).

However, I am not here to debate whether my issues can be fixed by discussing them in this forum.

I have been a customer since Virgin was born, adopted as a former customer of NTL when it was absorbed, and while the honeymoon years were amazing, the most recent years have felt like I'm in an abusive relationship.

A price hike email followed by 18 hours of complete service blackout on an evening in which I had several important work-related tasks to complete is just the final straw. I'm just wondering what it's worth fighting to keep when I send the divorce papers.

I really do appreciate your offer of help but Virgin had their chance to address multiple issues years ago and it has only ever grown worse.

Thanks though.

Also, the sad little emails that reward me with a badge every time I post a comment on this forum just make me cringe. I already regret starting this thread.

Hi Gwalchgwyn thanks for posting and welcome back to our community.

I am sorry to hear that your experiences and lack of service have led to you wishing to end some or all of your services with us.  We're here if you wish us to take a look into things for you.

Regards


Lee_R

Gwalchgwyn
On our wavelength

Hi Lee.

Following discussion with my wife, we managed to find alternative sources for her favourite broadcast content. I believe that my original question is now moot; as soon as I have an acceptable alternative scheduled for installation, I will be cancelling all my Virgin services.

The only reason I did not do this years ago is because there was no competition. I would rather have no internet at all than ever suffer Sky, which is a lot nicer than anything I have to say for the thieving, lying saboteurs at BT (I take comfort from the five-figure fine they incurred after our last interaction).

 Sure, some of my money will still end up in the coffers of a carrier I don't care for, but at least I don't have to sign a direct contract with either of them.

As bad as Virgin have become, at least they never stole hundred of pounds from me and vandalised the local infrastructure and effectively scuttled their local competition (BT), or tried to con my father into paying for multiple services to which he had never agreed and faked his signature on the paperwork (Sky). I thank Virgin Media for not being THAT bad.

However, I'm still down the cost of several years out of the last twenty where I genuinely did not get the service for which I paid, and almost daily service blackouts over the last two years are just more than I can take. Maybe the next provider will prove to be no better, but I'll be paying 60-80% less for the privilege of finding out (and getting five times the bandwidth in the meantime).

Gwalchgwyn
On our wavelength

In fact, feel free to delete this thread. It is now redundant. Thanks.

Thanks for getting back to us Gwalchgwyn

I am really sorry your experience has led to you to deciding to fully end your custom with us.  I will pass on your feedback and I wish you the very best of luck for the future.

Regards

 

Lee