Well, first of all, lets think about you rather than the miserable connection VM are offering. Nationally we're looking like heading into another winter of on/off lockdowns and WFH. Is this poor connection risking your job, or harming your ability to do it? If the answer is yes to either, then get yourself an Openreach connection ordered ASAP. It will be slower, but as you've found "fast & unreliable" is a pointless deal. Zen Internet will do you a 12 month contract, if you go with larger suppliers they'll usually insist on 18 month deals. "Now" are offering 30 day rolling contracts for Openreach internet, but you'll have a higher connection charge and Now have customer service like VM. For a 12 month Zen contract, that's going to be around a quid a day - surely that's worthwhile if it avoids problems with work?
Next up, what to do about the shoddy VM connection? VM have had their chance, they've still not left you with the connection you're entitled to under both consumer law and VM's regulatory commitments. Steps from here are potentially slow, and may result in your connection being fixed or you leaving VM altogether, that's why the Openreach connection is the priority.
Looking at the BQM, there's some spikes at all times, and some of these are just line noise and connection loss (eg in the first of those BQMs, at 2am, 3:15am, and 4:30am). But apart from those, both these and your previous BQM show a typical over-utilisation pattern - you see how it's very poor during normal waking hours, and then relatively peachy from about half past midnight to 9 am? Shows that the network and your hub are working moderately well when there isn't too much traffic on VM's local network. The root cause of this is almost certainly VM selling more contracts than their network has capacity for, and there's a bottleneck on signal processing usually at the head of the local coax network, creating moderate delays that sometimes don't affect speed tests, but create 70-200ms delays that destroy latency and massively disrupt latency sensitive applications like video calls and conferencing, gaming, and live-streaming.
If my diagnoses is correct there is nothing you can do to improve matters. In some areas VM do indeed undertake work to rejig the local networks to balance loads and eliminate over-utilisation. Nationally problems of this nature have declined, and VM spend tens, maybe hundreds of millions to increase capacity. But sometimes that's either not possible, or judged uneconomic or "not a priority" in some locations. And sadly VM won't ever admit the truth, so even where there is a fault reference and a "fix date" there's no way of knowing if that fix date is actually backed by an actual plan of action and programme of works. Quite often it seems not, and as the fix date approaches it is simply moved a month or two ahead. If there's not been a fault raised, then VM will swear on their mother's grave that there are no problems, irrespective of the evidence of a BQM.
Sometimes these capacity problems are short term (eg whilst other network improvements take place), but again, there's no way of getting honest and accurate answers out of VM. It could be fixed tomorrow, it might not be fixed for two years. Your options:
1) Sit it out (with or without an Openreach alternative connected), and hope blindly that VM do carry out improvement works.
2) Raise a formal complaint demanding that VM:
a) Resolve the problem within 30 days and pay compensation for the persistently poor connection, or
b) Release you from any fixed term contract without penalty, pay compensation for the poor connection and any overlapping Openreach costs, and
c) If they cannot agree to either of these on terms acceptable to you, you require a "deadlock letter" for the purposes of taking the matter to arbitration at the industry complaints overseer, CISAS. VM complaint handling is poor, so don't be too surprised if the complaint to VM is fobbed off and you have to take the matter up with CISAS.
If you go down the complaints route, the basis of your case against VM is the poor connection and failed attempts to rectify, and your legal rights are twofold: First the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that requires any consumer service to be provided with "reasonable skill and care", and second, the Ofcom Fairness Commitments, that VM promised Ofcom they'd adhere to in 2019, and the relevant point states "Customers’ services work as promised, reliably over time. If things go wrong providers give a prompt response to fix problems and take appropriate action to help their customers, which may include providing compensation where relevant. If providers can’t fix problems with core services they have promised to deliver within a reasonable period, customers can walk away from their contract with no penalty."
The forum staff may at this point intervene to head off the possibility of a complaint to CISAS (VM always pay the relatively high costs of CISAS investigations, and lose or concede about 92% of all cases taken to CISAS). An informal resolution would be quicker and easier for you, as well as saving VM rather a lot of money, but don't accept a trivial settlement like four quid a month off, or release from contract with no compensation.
I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more
Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks
