Virgin Media Community

[Claire2578]

I’m having problems getting my devices in our bedrooms to stay connected to my router. 
I also can’t get a signal in my kitchen either!
Ordered a booster after doing the signal test in every room weeks ago but still haven’t received it.

Ive tried speaking to a member of staff via Message Centre but can’t get the issue resolved. 
Does anyone know another way I can get Virgin to answer me?
Fed up paying for a service I can’t use.

[Andruser]

Unfortunately Virgin Media don't support customer's wifi.  They provide a hub that offers basic wifi capability,  but because there's far too many variables that can affect the quality and speed over wireless, they won't get involved.  They do have an extra cost service that claims to do this, but from comments round here the quality of advice is poor.  So, as far as VM are concerned you're on your own. 

The best and most effective solution is (unfortunately) to spend your own money on a good quality router or mesh wifi system.  That's what most of the regulars round here have done, and in my case that's a TP-Link Deco M4 mesh which has permanently banished all moans about the household wifi.  At the time it seemed expensive, but looking back it was an excellent purchase and good value.

If and when you ever get the VM booster, then (so long as it's free) give it a try, sometimes they work well, sometimes they don't.  If you're paying for it, send it back - the £3-4 a month charge is exceptionally poor value, and over a year you'll have paid half the price of buying an entry level mesh wifi system like the Tenda Nova MW3, and you won't even own the VM booster.

But before spending any money make sure that your cable connection from a device connected to the hub by a network cable is consistent, reliable and offering your full contracted speeds.  If the connectivity problems are with the cable connection, then you can spend any amount on a better wifi system and it won't solve the problem.

[Claire2578]

Thanks for your reply, I’m now realising why people are so annoyed at the lack of customer service from Virgin.

I’ve only been with Virgin since the February. There is NO WAY I’m spending any money fixing an issue they should be fixing or supplying me with a free booster. 
An engineer installed all my equipment so there shouldn’t be an issue with connection. 

My contract is for them to supply me broadband and they aren’t so unless they fix it the Direct Debit will be getting cancelled.

[-tony-]

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@Claire2578 wrote:

Thanks for your reply, I’m now realising why people are so annoyed at the lack of customer service from Virgin.

I’ve only been with Virgin since the February. There is NO WAY I’m spending any money fixing an issue they should be fixing or supplying me with a free booster. 
An engineer installed all my equipment so there shouldn’t be an issue with connection. 

My contract is for them to supply me broadband and they aren’t so unless they fix it the Direct Debit will be getting cancelled.

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hmmmm - VM as all other isp's do not guarantee wifi - yes they supply a hub that has wifi but they cannot say it will work thoughout the property - if it works then great - if not its your problem - you will not agree with that but its as it is - as said above there are far too many variable to wifi

your contract with VM is for an internet connection to the hub - thats on a wired test - if you get the speeds you are contraced for then thats correct - if not then it needs sorting 

there is a couple of things you can do that may help with wifi - log into the hub and split the wifi bands - just rename one of them - you can then choose which band a device uses - also turn off smart wifi

if that helps great - if not then you need to look at the post above again and think about other wifi equipment

and stopping the DD will get you nowhere - it does not concentrate there mind to resolve the issue - it will mean they put collecion of your bill out to debt collectors and in can and will be added to your credit file as a bad debt which is not good

[Claire2578]

Thanks for your reply.

I don’t know a thing about any of the suggestions you’ve added above. I wish I did as it seems it would makes things better.

Im going to call them as this is now ridiculous!

My package is for a certain speed WiFi that I’m not getting therefore Virgin aren’t sticking to their part of the contract.

There is no way I’m paying for broadband and certain tv channels I can’t use. 

I left sky for this same reason. When Virgin promised me I wouldn’t have the same rubbish WiFi connection with them as they don’t use phone lines I was so relieved. Trust me it didn’t last long! 

Does anyone have a number that actually gets you through to a human? 

[-tony-]

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@Claire2578 wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

I don’t know a thing about any of the suggestions you’ve added above. I wish I did as it seems it would makes things better.

Im going to call them as this is now ridiculous!

My package is for a certain speed WiFi that I’m not getting therefore Virgin aren’t sticking to their part of the contract.

There is no way I’m paying for broadband and certain tv channels I can’t use. 

I left sky for this same reason. When Virgin promised me I wouldn’t have the same rubbish WiFi connection with them as they don’t use phone lines I was so relieved. Trust me it didn’t last long! 

Does anyone have a number that actually gets you through to a human? 

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with respect

the text in red is where you are getting it wrong - regardless of what an agent said or did not say you are not paying for a wifi speed - you are also not paying for wifi coverage - i dont doubt all that was said but its rubbish - no isp can guarantee wifi coverage or speed - your contract is for a specific speed at the hub on a wired connection - even that is down to your equipment - if thats not the correct spec you will not get the available speed

the bit in green is just rubbish - not from you but the agent who sold you the VM package - how the ihub is connected to the system matters not - yes different is['s have different speed packages - but phone lines - underground cables or a piece of string if they could use that does not help the wifi

so you need to start again and answer the basic question - what speed are you paying for and what speed do you get on a wired device

[gary_dexter]

FYI:

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

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

If the actual download speed you received to your Virgin Media Hub during the test period falls below our ‘minimum guaranteed download speed’ for 3 days in a row (continuously or intermittently), we’ll confirm that there’s a speed fault, and if we can’t fix the issue within 30 days of your report, you may be eligible to leave us without paying an early disconnection fees.

Don’t forget, our minimum guaranteed download speed is to your Virgin Media Hub, not the device you’re using WiFi on. Even when using a wired connection, some older devices might not support our fastest speeds.

[jbrennand]

Claire - whatever you do DON'T cancel the DD - it will cause you no end of "credit rating" issues.

If you want to try and improve the wifi on the Hub3 see if you can do this. But as said - the only way to really sort it is to invest in your own better quality wireless equipment.

As explained in this link:
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/Slow-wifi-connection/m-p/4063642#M213435

Go into the Hub3 settings. Type in http://192.168.0.1 into your web browser’s url box and login with settings password on the Hub's base sticker (or your own if you changed it). Then in Advanced>wireless>smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box and save settings. Then, go to advanced>wireless>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's. Just change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - claire_2 & claire_5) -- use the same password if you like, Then, apply settings and restart the Hub. Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want to connect to individually from the "available networks" list on each device.

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.
5 GHz is usually better and subject to less interference (and is better for iDevices ) than the 2.4 one - although this one has the better "range" and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one.
You should also use a wifi analyser App to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so.

See if that helps - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back or do a "factory reset" if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.

[John_GS]

Hi Claire2578

Thanks for posting. I am sorry for the WiFi issues. I can see that since posting you've spoke to the team and we've ordered the booster, my apologies for the delay with this also. Please let us know how the booster is and if it sorts the issues out.

Kind regards,

[Claire2578]

Thanks everyone.

It took over a week but the right team finally helped me.

Fingers crossed there will be no more issues