New Virgin Media Install

[jasonjeffrey10]

 

A very frustrating post to make. So I’ve had Sky Broadband for nearly two decades and their customer service is first class in my experience, and also no issues with their products. I had around 60mb download speed. The downside is their range on WiFi was horrendous and gaming was only useable if hardwired. Hardwired there were no problems at all. 

I have a PS5. My son has a PS5. We like to play BR games so we want low ping. Now low ping is only achievable in the living room where we are both hardwired into the router which is a pain because my living room is setup like some teenage slumber room. 

I make the call to upgrade to VM. I’m assured that I can increase my speed to 512mb so I go for the package. I’m told there’ll be no latency issues and that I can boot my son back to his bedroom two floors up (yay I have my living room back). I (tactically 😃) have the router installed in my bedroom so that I can hardwire directly into the router. This is the worst broadband I’ve ever had. My son’s PS5 is lagging crazy and it’s unplayable despite him getting 300-400mb in his room. I’m hardwired and it is also unplayable.

I’m still in the cooling period to cancel but need to know if this is fixable please? VM customer support is nowhere near as good as Sky. It’s frustrating to say the least. I get told to reset router etc which does nothing at all. 

Attached some pics.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jasonjeffrey10]

I’m in BD6 but it’s looking likely I’ll have to cancel. Fortunately I kept sky broadband running so I could squash any VM tripe that everything is working as it should when I can quickly swap cables to my sky router and literally show them my console working fine. 

[-tony-]

not too far away then afaik the whole of the area is rubbish as is their CS

at a tangent even if you cancel you should look into compensation - if you had an install date in jan you are entitled a fiver and a bit a day upto the date they install - plus £26 for every missed visit if they did not inform you they were not coming - staff here might help but thats a big ask and they are likely to offer you £20 or so for the inconvenience

if you dont get it automatically open a complaint which they will fob off - thats fine ask for a deadlock letter and go to arbitration

regarding cancelling in the 14 days - you can phone but they will make it as difficult as possible by hanging up - taking no notice and generally ignoring you - best thing is a letter to the Sunderland address - send it recorded and sit back for them to make a mess of that

[jem101]

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@jasonjeffrey10 wrote:

Yes I was outright told not to expect any latency issues and that at worst, my sons room would still run at 250mb with low ping. 
..snip

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Oh I see, so they sent someone out to you to conduct a full WiFi survey of your house because that’s the only way of being able to make any claims about coverage and speed?

Or alternatively, did a call centre worker, on what passes for minimum wage in whatever part of the world they happen to be in; and who is ‘incentivised’ (‘say this or lose your job’); to claim anything, make such a statement with no supporting evidence?

Cancel now, while you still have the chance!

[jasonjeffrey10]

Oh I absolutely agree. A survey was supposed to be carried out prior to the installation. It never happened. I thought I have nothing to lose by getting it installed anyways so went with it. I have 12 days to cancel so plenty of time to keep the post updated with what I’m being informed. 

[Akua_A]

Hi @jasonjeffrey10 

Welcome to our community forums and thank you for your first posts.

Sorry to hear you have been having service issues with your broadband, especially with lagging and latency. We want to do our best to help. I have had a look into your service and I can see some issues with your hub power levels. To best resolve this, I have sent you a private message. Please look out for the purple envelope end provide a response when you can.

Thanks,

[-tony-]

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@jasonjeffrey10 wrote:

Oh I absolutely agree. A survey was supposed to be carried out prior to the installation. It never happened. I thought I have nothing to lose by getting it installed anyways so went with it. I have 12 days to cancel so plenty of time to keep the post updated with what I’m being informed. 

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be very aware of the 14 days or 12 that are left - as i said VM will not make it easy for you to leave and the days will tick by - i see a tech offered/booked - that may or may not solve/improve the connection but all the time the 14 day clock is ticking and a fair chunk of it will have gone by the time the tech comes

the tech may improve the connection what he cannot do is improve the utilisation issue/problem - as said i am not far away and your graph pretty much mirrors what mine was for years - it will not improve

BQM in BD4 

[jasonjeffrey10]

Responded 

[jasonjeffrey10]

Can I ask did yours improve? And if so, what was carried out?

so we’re saying that it’s because there’s too many people using VM in my area and that’s what the OU is?

I’m going to cancel and get my Sky hard wired to the rooms it needs unfortunately. 

[-tony-]

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@jasonjeffrey10 wrote:

Can I ask did yours improve? And if so, what was carried out?

so we’re saying that it’s because there’s too many people using VM in my area and that’s what the OU is?

I’m going to cancel and get my Sky hard wired to the rooms it needs unfortunately. 

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i assume the question is for me - i suffered utilisation for years - 5 or 6 years [maybe more] ago VM recognised the issue and had steps in place that if the level crossed a threshold then a partial refund would be given against the monthly bill - £8 or £10 i seem to remember - i got that for a year or more - they then did some work in the area and the discount stopped - the graph improved marginally but quickly went back to what you see as the sold more installs and speeds/usage increased

it slowly got worse over the last few years - the last time i asked for info - a year or more ago - i was told that my area was within limits for utilisation even though the BQM was worse than it ever had been

to solve over utilisation is a long term expensive job which never seems to happen - the area 'BD4] will improve in time naturally as City Fibre are coming in parts of it an BT FTTP is not far away i believe so VM will lose customers

for my self i left them 6 months ago - long boring story - i use 3 Mobile broadband on 5g - i only need BB and do not game so it works for me - as i say City Fibre are coming so that may be my next choice - depends on price - the quality of the connection is not in dispute unlike VM

[chrcoluk]

What hub do you have?

Traditionally in the past the answer would be upgrading your package will not bypass congestion.

However a Hub 4 or newer will grant access to 3.1 upstream channel if its rolled out in your area, and Gig1 has access to the 3.1 downstream channel, your congestion is very likely upstream, so going to gig1 would unlikely improve things unless you on a hub 3 or older and the hub 4/5 presents you with a much lower utilised 3.1 upstream channel.

Historically over utilisation issues could take VM a long time to resolve, so if I had your service in the cooling off period I would likely use my right to leave penalty free, especially as online gaming is important to you.