Virgin Broadband

[burlyshirley]

Does anybody use this. What do you think of it ?

[JimF]

Yes. I like it.

[barry1010]

I've been with them ever since they took over my Telewest account over 20 years ago. I have had very few outages in all that time and none lasting more than 3 hours.
No other provider in my area can match them for speed. Every year I threaten to leave and haggle the price rise - I always get a very good discount.
All in all, I am pleased with the service they provide.

[burlyshirley]

Thank you. I've been told the speed is impressive. At the moment there is an offer of £27 per month which will go up to £51 per month after 18 months. Do you think this is reasonable and can I haggle after 18 months ?

[pastafreak]

I've been with them for yonks also. There were some teething problems here in the first year or so, but other than tgat no complaints. I just think they are expensive. I've just got broadband and phone and pay about the same as you're being quoted. Maybe I should haggle.

[burlyshirley]

pasta - I just want broadband and phone too. I was hoping barry would come back on and tell me about the haggling.

[barry1010]

I get 200Mbps, phone and tv. I did try cancelling the phone line and I could have done but it would have cost more - stupid billing system.
After 18 months you can threaten to leave and haggle :)

[barry1010]

What speed are they offering you?

[burlyshirley]

I haven't spoken to them yet barry. My brother has told me about this latest offer. He's not with them by the way. Do they take kindly to you haggling ?

[ladybirder]

Shirley I haggle with everyone!! My broadband provider and phone calls, household insurance, home contents insurance, car insurance and I always get something off.
I start by asking what their best offer is and then quote what I have seen others offering if cheaper. They're used to it.

[burlyshirley]

Wow I'm impressed lb, I think maybe I am going to have to start !

[jno]

used to and it was okay, till they "upgraded" it and it got slow and wobbly. We ended up switching to Sky. But how good it is will depend on where you are - best thing is to ask your neighbours, not ABers who might be anywhere.

[Togo]

If we had fibre to home instead of fibre to cabinet, I would be seriously talking to them. As it is, without fibre to home our best option for reliability and speed is B.T. We need the decent web speed because "she who must be obeyed" is currently working from home. Work that involves taking the minutes, and sometimes more, via a video link. If you have fibre to home some of the deals, price wise, are very good indeed, and when 5g satellite gets it's legs on B.T. have a lot of customer care to take care of instead of taking us for granted and dressing themselves up as a Television provider. I have told the nice lad back at their H.Q. that they are in for a drubbing. This of course is why "Open Reach" are dragging their heels on providing fibre to us all.

[burlyshirley]

I just assumed it would be the same all over the country jno, but good point, I could ask neighbours.

[Buenchico]

Whichever broadband provider you're considering using, it's worth remembering that higher speeds don't necessarily mean that you'll be any better off.

I'm still using a (non-fibre) ADSL 2+ broadband connection, which gives me a speed of about 10 Mbps. That's perfectly good enough for me to stream internet TV services, while surfing the net at the same time. (I don't download very large files, such as movies). If I paid more to get, say, 100 Mbps (or even 1000 Mbps) I would gain absolutely nothing from doing so, other than a bigger hole in my bank balance.

Fast broadband speeds are great for people who frequently download massive files, or for households where there are several teenagers all streaming video services simultaneously, at the same time that Mum is using Zoom to contact Granny and Dad is playing Fornite. However they're totally unnecessary for many people. Please don't let broadband companies con you into thinking that you actually need faster broadband services. The vast majority of people don't and they're simply throwing their money away when they sign up for such services.

[burlyshirley]

Thank you very much everybody for your input, I have some mulling over to do now ..