Unacceptable Broadband Service

[Jojo24]

Virginmedia have lost all credibility. Shocking that I was awarded £150 off my broadband bill a couple of weeks ago due to the disgusting treatment of Virginmedia management and its non existent complaints Code of Practice.

So long and short, since going to Broadband only, we upgraded from 200 to 350 mbps and now we get no WiFi and intermittent WiFi in nearly every room aside from the room the router is in. Engineer came out and so called fixed it a couple of weeks ago, and its now exactly the same and no change.

Virginmedia refuse to come and fix the problem as they say we've got to move our tvs to the router.....🤣🤣🤣

So we're stuck with hardly any WiFi when it was absolutely fine on 200 mbps and for more than 10 years.

Get a grip virgin because you're verging on the laughable atm. Please sort out our WiFi or we'll be leaving when our £150 compensation to our account runs out. Because you're breaching your contract.

Had someone contact me on Facebook to try to sort this out.  My response below:- 

They did diagnostics. The app is useful in that we get 350+ mbps at the router but as soon as we are out of our Lounge (3 metres) it immediately drops to 76. Its never been as bad as this. And yes, we genuinely feel that the router us in its way out. As it was defective not two weeks ago and the signal has gotten worse.

I don't see why I should have to pay for boosters when it should be working BETTER than it was when we were on 200 mbps. With no problems whatsoever. The blackspots are pretty much everywhere Barr the lounge upstairs.

Shockingly poor service tbth. As I said, I'll be cancelling within my contract when the £150 compensation runs out in around 3.5 months. As I can't realistically take my tvs to the lounge now can I???? Or our phones which don't get signals either in the majority of our home now.

To be honest???? I think Virginmedia are punishing us for being successful on an unrelated complaint and being awarded compensation. Shocking really.

Exceptionally disappointed after being with you for nearly 11 years.

WHY IS IT THAT WHEN RINGING THE VM CALL CENTRE, I AM TREATED LIKE A PIECE OF DIRT. THEN GET ASKED TO SIGN UP FOR THE VM FORUM ON FACEBOOK?  WHEN A SIMPLE GODDAMN PHONE CALL SHOULD BE SUFFICE TO GET THINGS RESOLVED. 

[jbrennand]

Did you swap from a SH2 to a Hub3/4 when you upgraded and that has kyboshed the wifi - but ethernet connectivity is all good?

If so there are a few options.

Leave VM in 3.5 months

Call retentions and tell them the Hub3/4 is not fit for purpose and you want the SH2 back and putting back on the 200 package. That should restore the status quo - if they agree to it.

If it is a wifi only issue, remember VM dont actually guarantee Wifi connection quality (no ISP actually does that) they will only fix it if it is broken - yours is just poor. On a Hub3, you can try separating the SSID's of the 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi bands by renaming them in the settings and at the same time switch off "channel optimisation" apply and save the settings. All wifi devices will 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 Hub3 users get better wifi performance - but its still no substitute for getting better kit 🙂

As you will know to address the wifi, VM now supply “wifi Pods” (not “boosters”). Pods are free to 1GB or Ultimate Ooomph package customers others will be charged £5/month. If they are free they are well worth getting and offer a simple solution. 

BT actually charge an extra £10/month for their whole home wifi solution.

If not, at that level of investment you would soon pay off that cost by buying "better" wireless equipment that will be yours to own and use forever on whichever ISP you end up with and which will cure all your wifi problems at a stroke.

I suspect that from your post its not something you want to do though.

[Jojo24]

Hello John. We've got a hub 3. The only things that have changed was us getting rid of Virgin tv and Telephone and kept the broadband, upgrading to 350 from 200. Absolutely fine prior to this. Engineer came out as they weren't receiving a signal and supposedly sorted it. Now we have very weak WiFi everywhere and none in other areas of our home. 

The call centre staff were as usual absolutely appalling. Telling us to move our router closer to our devises or vice versa.  Yip.... that's a really sensible option NOT! the hub is donkeys years old. And when we're told that they will not send an engineer out and that I ought to move my devices is quite simply unbelievable. I'm a disabled person with little mobility so their suggestion is laughable. 

I'm not one for complaining or moaning but when we're paying for a service for our home that has been perfectly fine until we upgraded speed, we've lost 80% that worked fine beforehand for 11 years. 

Just really disappointed that Virgin will not take ownership of their **bleep** ups. 

Sorry 

[jbrennand]

The age of the Hub shouldn't matter per se - I am still on an older SH2 and refused a Hub3 upgrade years ago for various reasons.

So... its the same Hub3 that was working fine before the "upgrade" is that right?

Just wondering whether that when the TV connection was removed (did you do that or a Tech?) the connections were properly isolated and terminated, etc. But if not you would have issues on an ethernet cable connection - you haven't said yet - are they working fine?

It would be worth looking at the connection data - can you do this.....
_______________________________________________________

In your browser’s URL box type in http://192.168.0.1  (or http://192.168.100.1 - if in modem mode) and hit return. On the first page up - dont login - just click on the “router status” icon/text at the bottom-middle of the login page and then copy/paste as “Formatted Text” (not images) 3 FULL sets of data onto here – 2 pages from the Downstream, 2 from the Upstream, & the Network Logs page. Don't worry too much about the formatting it can be easily read & DON’T include personal data or MAC addresses - blank them out - if you copy/paste the data, the board software will do this for you (you may need to click the "submit" button again.

[Jojo24]

Sorry for late reply we were busy. Yes it is the same hub we had before upgrade. When vm came out last time the engineer disconnected all the redundant wiring and made it a straight through connection to the router and remade all the terminations then tested the incoming signal and told us it was now all sorted. But the WiFi signal did not improve. The only kit that we have wired direct to ethernet ports all works well. So it appears that the problem is purely on the WiFi side of things and as we have not moved or installed any equipment it appears to be the WiFi range that has become significantly worse.

[jbrennand]

Did you separate the SSID's and did it help?

[Jojo24]

We have run on 2.4GHz only since we first got the hub3 as our ip cameras will not work on 5GHz, all our equipment has run like that satisfactorily since then, it is only recently we have experienced the issues we now have. Nothing has changed within our house to cause this with the exception of upgrading our broadband supply. Whilst we understand it may only be that the hub3 has just become faulty and needs replaced it seems a bit of a coincidence that it happened around about the same time as the upgrade and all we want is an engineer to attend and fix the problem but vm refuse to send an engineer.

[jbrennand]

Did you just disable the 5GHz frequency rather than separating and optimising the 2 individual SSID's?

Or do you mean.... there is still only one SSID for both bands but your devices are all 2.4?

It makes a difference as lots of customers find their 2.4 devices struggle to connect when VM's smart wifi is enabled onto a single SSID.

All you can really do is as I said and see if that sorts it.


This allows you to get maximum speeds on the 5GHz frequency. My iPhones get 220mbps on the 5GHz band but struggle to get 40-50 on the 2.4 one.

If not and VM say there is nothing wrong with the connection and wifi - it will be a hard slog to get a Tech visit. It could be a faulty Hub but they are not seeing evidence of that.

Have you tried a 60 second pinhole reset of the Hub as a last resort?

[Jojo24]

I just shut off the 5GHz so I will separate the SSIDs tomorrow and do a pinhole reset aswell if need be. Thank you so much for all your help and advice, I will let you know how I get on. 

Regards Jo

[Akua_A]

Hi @Jojo24,

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

Sorry to hear you have been experiencing this with your WIFI service. We can understand the frustration caused and want to best help. Please let us know how separating the SSIDs goes and if you need any further help.

Thanks,