Virgin v The Rest

Honest John Back Room » General discussion ( non motoring )
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Thu 26 Jan 2017 10:41
Virgin v The Rest - thecloser

I currently get my phone (landline and mobile) and my broadband via BT and my Sky TV direct from Sky and I seem to be paying an awful lot of money per month (about £120 in total (without any movie Channels - just Sky Sports). I am being inundated with offers from Virgin Media to supply the whole lot (and more) for about £20 per month less (in fact £50 per month less for the first 12 months). Do any backroomers have experience of Virgin for these facilities. I am reluctant to go through the rigmarole of changing everything over only to find that I am getting an inferior product. Comments (both positive and negative will be most welcome).

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Thu 26 Jan 2017 11:08
Virgin v The Rest - daveyjp
We've had virgin cable for almost 20 years. Speed has increased from about 5 meg and we now have a 100 meg service and costs are reasonable. Excellent and very stable. We have freesat for TV. Dropped virgin TV as it was poor value for us.

Can't comment on their none cable service.

Edited by daveyjp on 26/01/2017 at 11:10

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Thu 26 Jan 2017 13:18
Virgin v The Rest - galileo
We've had virgin cable for almost 20 years. Speed has increased from about 5 meg and we now have a 100 meg service and costs are reasonable. Excellent and very stable. We have freesat for TV. Dropped virgin TV as it was poor value for us. Can't comment on their none cable service.

We have also had Virgin cable phone and TV for 20 years, broadband is now up to 150 MB, including their Tivo box (which can record 2 channels while watching a third) is on average about £51 per month (many phone calls are free).

Also included is a WiFi hub and a second TV terminal upstairs. Generally reliable and good service (no connection with Virgin except as a customer!)

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Sat 28 Jan 2017 07:52
Virgin v The Rest - csgmart
We've had virgin cable for almost 20 years. Speed has increased from about 5 meg and we now have a 100 meg service and costs are reasonable. Excellent and very stable. We have freesat for TV. Dropped virgin TV as it was poor value for us. Can't comment on their none cable service.

We have also had Virgin cable phone and TV for 20 years, broadband is now up to 150 MB, including their Tivo box (which can record 2 channels while watching a third) is on average about £51 per month (many phone calls are free).

Also included is a WiFi hub and a second TV terminal upstairs. Generally reliable and good service (no connection with Virgin except as a customer!)

Same here - another satisfied customer.

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Thu 26 Jan 2017 11:17
Virgin v The Rest - RobJP

The first and most important question is whether or not you're in a cable area for Virgin TV.

If not, then you'd need good high-speed internet to get a decent enough picture to watch live sport, for example. If you don't have that, then you're pretty much stuck

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(I entirely understand if the rest of this post is moderated out, it does discuss dodgy practices at best.)

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There are 'dubious' products out there that can act as a Sky box (without the recording facility of Sky+, however) and are connected to the internet and thus get the encryption codes online every few seconds. Some work via the satellite dish and get the codes online, others do it all online. They're sold on Ebay semi-legitimately as an item with a 'gift' subscription that lasts for whatever length of time.

(Edit: your first para is fine, allthough I've taken the second out to be on the safe side.)

Edited by Avant on 26/01/2017 at 23:26

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Thu 26 Jan 2017 17:16
Virgin v The Rest - thecloser

Many thanks for the responses which all sound very promising.

RobJP, I am assured that my address does have Virgin cabling available (although I don't recall ever seeing engineers in the locality digging up the road to install it) Just as a matter of interest is it possible for Virgin to provide services to premises that are not cabled?

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Thu 26 Jan 2017 17:25
Virgin v The Rest - tourantass
I would "lean" on sky..I got 60% discount of my package...also their sky + is easiest to use along with their other menu structures......better the devil you know etc.
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Thu 26 Jan 2017 17:35
Virgin v The Rest - concrete

We had Virgin for many years at our last address. Phone, TV and Broadband and mobiles. We found them very good on performance. The Tivo box was really good with the ability to record multiple programmes and watch something different. Unfortunately in our village Virgin do not have a cable system, otherwise we have simply transfered our facility. We kept the mobiles though and the discount and they use EE as a carrier which is very good for signal round here. We are now with BT. Phone, TV and Broadband. The TV is not so good. Even at average download speeds of 30 to 45 Mbs the BT box often buffers live stream TV, which is annoying. I suspect it is the box design itself, also their previous routers were very poor. The new routers are very good. We use Now and Netflix which offer some good programmes and that is on the back of our daughters subscription. I watch the Rugby on BT Sport which is free with the Vision package. We do alright but are not TV fiends, but wish we had Virgin back for ease of use.

Incidentally if the OP goes for Virgin they will dig up your front garden to duct the cable to the box, then from the box into the house to the required points. As with Sky all the cables are on surface and can be seen. I lifted my own floorboards and fished the cables through for them to connect so they were out of sight.

Cheers Concrete

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Thu 26 Jan 2017 17:58
Virgin v The Rest - skidpan

We have been with Virgin now for probably 25 years.

Currently have 200mb broadband (Which speed check says its nearer 250mb), phone and the extra large TV package including 2 Tivo boxes. Its £64 a month for the first 12 months then just over £80. Ring back at the end of your 12 months and threaten to leave and the price will mysteriously fall.

We also have Virgin Mobile. Currently have the £5 a month SIM deal wich gives us 250 minutes, unlimited texts and 500mb data but its only 3G. Planning to change to the 4G option which give you 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 600mb data which carries over to the next month, its £6.

With Virgin mobile all calls to other Virgin mobiles are free and not part of you minutes. Can be quite a cost saving for a family.

If you feel like spending £9 a month you get 1500 minutes, unlimited texts and 2gb of 4G data. Not seen better than that.

Incidentally if the OP goes for Virgin they will dig up your front garden to duct the cable to the box,

I wish. At our last house the duct was about 4 inch under the soil, at this one the duct lays on the ground. The engineers are idle bugg3rs.

As with Sky all the cables are on surface and can be seen. I lifted my own floorboards and fished the cables through for them to connect so they were out of sight.

At the last house we booked for Virgin to come and fit an additional point upstairs, all FOC. When the "engineer?" arrived he had no clue what he was doing and said he could not work above ground level since he was not ladder trained. Eventually it was agreed that I would climb my own ladder and feed the cable through and he would connect. What should have taken an hour max took 8 hours after all the phone calls.

At the new house I put all the cables in before they arrived on site, much easier than discsussing it with someone in Taiwan.

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Fri 27 Jan 2017 15:58
Virgin v The Rest - concrete

Sounds similar experience to me skidpan. I have learned something today, thanks to you, about their more recent mobile deals. I think I will be having a word with Virgin Mobile to sort out a new sim package. I pay £8 month for 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 500mbs. For £9 I could improve that deal. Cheers Concrete

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Fri 27 Jan 2017 19:18
Virgin v The Rest - Wackyracer

I would be reluctant to use Virgin again, at my last house I signed up for cable internet 512kbps in 2001 with Telewest who were great. Once it was taken over by Virgin the guaranteed contention ratio of 20:1 went out the window and although by that time I was paying for 20mbps I was getting 200kbps at best.

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Sat 28 Jan 2017 15:32
Virgin v The Rest - Bolt

I had Virgin for years but their service gradualy got worse, drop outs every day on tv and broadband, transfered to BT and found them to be much the same except CS was allmost impossible to get through to.

so changed to sky for all and had no problems since, now have sky Q and it`s great, they are having teething problems with Q box but I wouldn`t go back to any of the others regardless of how cheap they are

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