Transferring from BT to Virgin

[Voltaire]

Hi 

My BT contract ends at the end of October - about 3 weeks.  I was thinking of moving to Virgin to the Bigger Bundle and Sports package.  I thought I had to cancel my BT contract by telephoning them.  When I did contact BT when asked if I was keeping my landline number and I said yes BT said I do not cancel the contract with them it will be done automatically when I apply for the Virgin package.  Is that correct?

Everywhere I looked it said the BT contract has to be cancelled first?

Thanks.

[BenFax]

Quite frankly I would stay with BT. Been with Virgin 15 months and have had no TV or internet for six days. The whole area here is without service and the customer service from Virgin has been appalling. Still no idea when it will be resolved.

[Voltaire]

Will have a think on all this as my BT contract still has 2 weeks or so to go.  Thanks to everybody for their information, details and Virgin experiences!

[newapollo]

Hi @Voltaire 

I would suggest running VM in tandem with BT during your 14 days cooling off period so you can determine if it's a good for for yourself. You can always cancel within that period if necessary, and probably also be able to negotiate a new deal with BT if you decide VM isn't for you.

Each individual has differing experiences with each ISP provider, VM being no exception. 

You generally find that forums for all ISP's have lot's of customers complaining about loss of, or poor internet, bad customer service. They seldom post extolling the virtues and their satisfaction.

I've been with VM approx 10 years and been very fortunate as I can count on one hand the number of times I've had issues with either my broadband, TV or phone line. I've never suffered more than a few hours loss of service. 

Barring a few calls where I've spoken to offshore support I've also had no issues with calling up and speaking to CS. 

I wouldn't advise using VM's  sms or whatsapp methods of contact as phone calls always take priority. Also if you do need to call VM then around 8am when lines first open and are ellst busy is the ideal time to contact them.

The forums are great palce for help and support, however as they are community based you will normally find that queries are answered first by fellow community members, rather than staff as it's not a real time communication channel. 

There is a great depth of knowledge and help available through the forums, and the tech guru's here can pick up errors and help remedy the poor connections some customers have by interpreting the data customers post showing their issues which often isn't possible when talking to tech support over the phone etc.

[Voltaire]

Thankyou @newapollo.  I might lose my landline number as mentioned earlier if I do decide to run both systems side by side.  So if I do decide to jump ship to VM it'll probably be one or the other.   

One thing that concerns me is the coaxial connection to the 360 box (if I've got the terms correct).  The VM engineer would have to run the cable from the street all around to the back of the house then bring it into the kitchen and site the 360 and hub there.  Don't know if he'd just want to drill the front wall of the house and put both in the front room (which we don't use). 

At the moment the BT hub is in the front room but the BT TV box is in the back kitchen which is connected to the BT hub via a wired connection I've run all around the front, side and back of the house.  I suppose what I'm asking is does the 360 VM TV box and the hub have to be close together and would the VM engineer go that extra mile and site the equipment in the rear kitchen with a cable running from the front to the back of the house.  There's access but it's a tiny bit difficult where the back fence goes at a diagonal and there's only a small 6inch gap between the fence and the house wall.

Sometimes when things seem daunting I'm always warmed by the humanity and helpfulness you find in some forums.  It's like a breath of fresh air in these hardnosed times it sometimes seems we live in.  Thanks to all.

[Adduxi]

The 360 needs both co-ax and Ethernet (or strong WiFi). 
Personally I’d go for Ethernet every time where possible. 

[goslow]

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@Voltaire wrote:

Will have a think on all this as my BT contract still has 2 weeks or so to go.  Thanks to everybody for their information, details and Virgin experiences!

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A good example in this topic below, from earlier today, as to why the 'overlap' of old and new services is so often recommended on here when joining VM.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Appalling-service-for-a-new-customer/m-p/...

[Voltaire]

Terrible.  I know every operator will have customers with similar horror stories, but that was awful reading and I feel for the forum member going through that mess.

Must admit in our very long time with BT we've only ever had great service on the telephone and with the engineers.  Does make you think.

[Adduxi]

“IF” you can afford it, you can run BT broadband only and VM together via a DualWAN router. Best of both worlds and redundancy to boot !