Atrocious service

[dPom]

our bill is going up £20 a month yet we have to reboot the Router twice a day just to get weak Internet in the house. both the TV boxes are continually buffering..every time I phone you you fix it for about 20 mins, have complained was told it might be an outage…an outage will maybe cause it  once or twice..this is ongoing and has been for 2 yrs(minimum) and your whole fault reporting system is horrendous/impossible to the point you have to lie to get past the automated messages and speak to a human being, half the time I’ve given up and just lived with our atrocious service 

been with these from days of Telewest and NTL, never any issues then..it seems a technology has advanced.. Virgin has just concentrated on upping the bills and filed customer service in the ‘ignore’ cupboard 

im seeing full house packages for new customers at half the new price we will be paying .. we don’t even have the full house .. lovely gesture for loyal customers 👍💩

[jbrennand]

Ignoring the "loss leader" discount deals for new customers for the time being...

Firstly - can we check a couple of things...
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Can you Check for any “known network faults first - Try in 2 places

1) Try the “check service,”Area status webpage" (link at top right of this forum)

2) Then also try the “free & automated” Service Status number - 0800 561 0061 - which usually gives the most up to date info. and tells you of more local issues down to street cab/ postcode level.

Report back what is reported on those
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Then, are the issues only evident on wifi connections or do you see them at the same times on devices connected on ethernet cables? If you don't know, can you check to help diagnose whether it is just a wifi issue or it could be network connection/Hub related?

What Hub model is it? What are the various Hub lights showing/doing when this happens i

[dPom]

Hello mate… I’ve tried the check area status  link and it says no issues in our area

have also called the number you gave me and same reply 

[dPom]

It’s not a one off mate.. it’s ongoing

we do a speed check and it says we have decent speed

last time we reported it(and got through to a human being) they asked us to tell them what was in use at the maximum time everybody was home(3or 4 phones, 1 tablet  and intermittently a laptop) when I answered they said our broadband should easily cover that usage .. but even when there is 1 or 2 in the house using their phones the WiFi plays up and more recently if you use the ‘apps’ on the tv service especially iplayer, itv x, more 4, c5 they are constantly buffering 

not sure if it makes any difference or makes it worse but both of our tv boxes are wired in 

[jbrennand]

Its still not clear from your reply whether your issues are purely wifi related or whether there may be a network connection issue - when you say your TV boxes (what models?) are "wired in" - do you mean they are connected to the Hub on ethernet cables and not wifi (or just wired on their co-ax)?

[dPom]

There are no apparent network issues according to the link or the phone number you suggested mate

Not sure what you mean by connected by Ethernet cables I think there is a cable that runs from the router to the tv box downstairs 

both tv boxes have brown cables like the old tv aerial wired in 

[jbrennand]

Until about 20 years ago there was no such thing as Wifi for us "hoi polloi". Every device you wanted to connect to the internet had to be wired in to the modem - usually on an ethernet cable. And it still remains the best and most stable way to connect to the pleasures of the internet. But wifi is just so more convenient - hence its popularity with those who join the party nowadays.

So assuming you want to stick to wifi see this......
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On a Hub3/4/5, you could first try separating the SSID's of the 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi bands by renaming them in the settings At the same time switch off "channel optimisation/Smart wifi” and “ apply and save the settings. All wifi devices will now need reconnecting to the best SSID at each location. Also use a wifi scanning App to find the best wifi channels to use (just select and use channels 1,6,11 on 2.4GHz) - this often helps Hub users get better wifi performance - so its worth trying - but its still no substitute for getting better kit 🙂

To address the wifi issues, VM now supply “wifi Pods” (no longer doing cheap and cheerless and poor value “boosters”). However, their Pods are only free to customers on the 1GB, Volt (or old Ultimate Oomph) packages - is that you? If so they are worth trying - they should work for you. VM Wifi is now “guaranteed” to 20 Mbps/room it’s now called… Wifi Max see.-

https://www.virginmedia.com/wifi-max

You call 0800 064 3850 to order the first one after scanning for blackspots using the connect App.- or just wait here for a VM person to respond in a day or two and they will sort the first one for you. If you do call dont get fobbed off by the offshore CS agents' saying you aren’t eligible it will be £5 or £8 month - you are… and it wont be - just look on the webpage.

If not free to you… you will be charged £8/month (note - BT charge £10/mo for their whole home wifi solution). It’s a simple solution and should work for you. However, you would soon pay off that cost by buying your own wireless solution that will be yours to own and use forever, although the VM Pods should be a simpler option.

If you do want to invest in better equipment, you would need to get either a… (1) Mesh System, (2) Wireless router, (3) Wireless access point (4) A combination of (2,3).

£30-100 (that’s ~4->12 months of Max Pod rental) should sort it for most customers with an average property and usage.

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @dPom 

Thank you so much for your post and welcome to the team, it's great to hear from you. 

I'm so sorry to hear that you are facing issues with your services, I have tried to look into things on our side but I have been unable to locate your account. 

I'm going to pop you a PM so we can grab some information and I can take a look. I will pop you a PM across now, please keep an eye out for the purple envelope in the top right corner of your screen alerting you to a new message. 
 

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @dPom 

Thank you for connecting with me via a PM and we have now been able to take a look.

I can see that you currently have an appointment with an engineer booked, are you able to let us know how things are looking after the visit? 

[dPom]

Hi Ash(obviously it`s not your fault and I`m not directing this at you)

the engineer was booked automatically by Virgin via the `make a complaint` service because the usual "you have a loose connection" and "switch off and unplug" remedies failed we are currently 6 hours into a 30 hour stretch with zero Broadband/wifi & television !!!!

thankfully we have still got use of the telephone (which we only use to phone virgin to complain !!!)

All good though because its going up £30 soon.... which obviously is me funding your new customers as i will be paying double what they are paying for the same package