Opinions on Virgin Media.

[Scotty]

Got around to calling retentions today. I need to do it more often. They recommended I do it every 9 months!!

Result of 45mins on the phone :

• 70Mb b/band upgraded to 200Mb which is giving 12Mb up 
• Sky Cinema package added ("would be £0.66 more without it")
• Superhub3 coming to replace the Superhub2 (activation fee dropped)
• Cost reduced by 1/3

Be glad of the software pushout they're just starting to improve Tivo lag but even more interested in V6 box due in Jan/Feb. The press are saying £100 but VM suggested in "full house packages" it could be half that.

Gotta say it was a pleasant experience and the TV upgrade and b/band upgrade were live before I even got off the phone. Glad I didn't have to jump ship which was getting a more and more serious consideration.

[Booster]

Sounds like a good deal. 

Love having a haggle with Sky. We have Sky Q now and it is bloody brilliant. Paying less for it than we were for single room Sky HD. 

[Scotty]

After posting the above I got an sms from VM :

"Ok lets get cracking. We've sent a signal to your home and everythings ready for your to set up your kit"

WTF? I won''t have the SH3 for 2 days

30mins later I start noticing issues with my LAN. After trying everything I called them up and my SH2 now has no LAN ports working.

Coincidence?
They maintain my new box on Friday would beat a fix for the prob so I'm stuck.

[max_b]

SuperHub3, tell me more please?

Also wtf have virgin done to recorded program's on TiVo. My box now seems to have 2 copies of each program available, one from Iplayer (et) and one that I asked the box to record. Also all previous series seemed to have appeared, available on playback. Anybody else?

[NewNiceMrMe]

SuperHub 3 is crap.  WiFi signal is much worse than SH2 and I recently bought an Asus router and now use it for the WiFi with the SuperHub 3 as a modem.

I went to Virgin HomeWorks+, their 300mb service, and my speed dropped to 150-160mb on the SH3 after 210mb on the SH2.

As soon as I went to the Asus as a router and the SH3 as a modem, I began (and still am) getting 300-320mb.  The coverage to the back of the house and garden was appalling on the SH3 and I now get 170-180mb in an area I was getting 10-15mb on the SH3 (as opposed to 70-90mb on the SH2).

 

[max_b]

Thanks Chris

I'll wait to see some more feedback before considering any changes then

[Waylander]

My experience is slightly different from NNMM's

I found the range for the SH3 is slightly poorer than the SH2 but the speeds over wifi much quicker.

It doesn't really help that my office is a virtual faraday cage

I've just had my Senior Tech visit - he undid all the crap the last tech did to the power on my line a year ago

He then upped my speed to 70mb from 50, then called retensions and got them to drop my bill by £20pm while making my calls anytime

Oh and on the way out threw in the powerline adaptor as I did need one to get 5G signal throughot the house.

Sadly he was aghast the Business Manager offered me a free Cisco 2802 although he did say if he had one he'd have been obliged to give it me but only their commmercial installers could source them. That being said the powerline has sorted the issues.

I was a little unnerved to learn JUST how much info they have been tracking about my line usage!!

Edited December 2, 2016 by Waylander

[Waylander]

On 30/11/2016 at 6:19 PM, Booster said:

Sounds like a good deal. 

Love having a haggle with Sky. We have Sky Q now and it is bloody brilliant. Paying less for it than we were for single room Sky HD. 

Sky screwed up my last negotiation and I have been too busy to notice.

I agreed to a 12 month renewal with a modest discount but scrapping movies and sport. For a few weeks we wondered if the signal hadn't gone through as we were still getting both but I've dug out the emails and they idn't actually action what I agreed over the phone and are still charging me for the full whack package

[burble]

In my time with VM I'd had all incarnations of the SH and foudn the wireless to be borderline OK on them all and I didn't have a big house.

Since moving I went with BT (no VM cable here) but their equipment is rubbish so I've replaced everything with my own kit.

[Waylander]

Interesting. I thought the latest smart hub was mean to be very good

[billy2shots]

On 09/08/2016 at 4:24 PM, billy2shots said:

 

TV XL (everything minus Sky Atlantic and premium channels)

Sky Sports HD

BT Sports HD

Tivo main box

second HD box for another room. 

200mps broadband

call package

line rental

£65 for 12 months (£104 after that). I was paying £102 for sky (£82 after their offer last Friday). 

Over 18 months I will save another £150 from Sky's best offer they gave me Friday. I gain much faster bb, BT sport and a second box. 

 

 

Bump. 

Return to sky ?

I've been on the above Virgin package for 12 months and everything has been fine. My initial introductory offer of £65 a month has come to an end so I will be paying the higher rate for the last 6 months of my contract. Due to price increases that puts me on £119 per month. It still means I will save a few £hundred over the 18 month contract.

However, Tipex was always keen to point out that you have the right to cancel your contract with no penalties if the provider raises their fees. Virgin did that yesterday which means I can now leave for free within 30 days. That means I maxed out the 12 month low offer of £65 a month and can now jump ship just as the price bumps. 

Sky Q. 

It looks like Sky Q is the only thing Sky are offering these days. In truth I still don't get all the hype. Multi room works better than having to drill through walls like the old days granted but the other features don't interest me a great deal. 

By switching to a like for like deal (minus bt sport) I would save £30 a month over 12 or 18 months (you can choose the length). If I didn't pay the £12 multi room fee it would be £42 saved each month. Seems a little bit tight that this whole 'fluid viewing ' bulls4it is reliant on you paying top ups on top of getting sky Q, they could have given you 1 free extra room as part of the sky Q package as that's the biggest USP of the thing. 

After connection charges I could save between £500-£700 based on 18 month contract, multi room/no multi room. 

Decisions decisions 

[Tipex]

I paid a one off fee for the Q mini boxes, I don't pay any monthly multi room fee.

 

Sky Q is simply the replacement for the old Sky+ HD boxes, they are pretty long in the tooth these days and very old tech now, there are two Q boxes (excluding the mini boxes), the normal 1tb box which doesn't give you 4K UHD, or the 2tb which does.

 

The whole fluid viewing thing is a bit of a gimmick in general and I never use the 'My Q' page of the menu, however it is handy to be able to watch any recording from any other box.

 

For example, on the old Sky+ boxes, if you had multi-room each box recorded whatever you asked it to, and you could only watch those recordings on that respective box, with Q it's all recorded on the main box, and you can play back on any box anywhere in the house, or on your iPad or whatever, also means no whiring Sky+ box in the bedroom making irritating noises all night, the mini boxes are silent.

 

Sky are keen to do deals, I'm paying £78/month for everything, unlimited broadband, phone with unlimited calling, full TV package, My parents just moved house and I negotiated a new Sky Q set up in their new house, they have always had the full package and were previously paying £120/month on Sky+HD, they now have Q with 50% off that price for the same package.

Edited September 6, 2017 by Tipex

[billy2shots]

Thanks Tipex. 

The 1st mini is being offered free but there is no way around the £12 multi room fee each month. You also need to subscribe to this 'multi room' to receive Ultra HD on your main box. That has pi55ed many people off.

Tomorrow is the last day for the Box Set bundle offer so I have until close of play then to decide. 

If I go ahead I think I will future proof myself by getting the 2tbt box. This way I can get a 4K TV in the coming years without having to upgrade sky again. It's the same monthly and just an extra £40 initial fee. I'm thinking about moving in the next couple of years so the 2tbt box will fully support additional minis if required. 

Box sets Bundle

Full sports 

sky sports HD £6 (bloody cheek but I've complained about that in the past)

1 mini with the £12 multi room subscription. 

Unlimited fibre

sky talk and line rental 

£88 per month. £20 setup cost for 1tbt, £60 setup cost for 2tbt. 

[Tipex]

I don't think that's a bad deal to be honest, basically what I pay minus the multi room, not sure how I got away without paying that, maybe because I was one of the early adopters of Q?

 

My contract runs out in the next couple of months I think, so will be interesting to see if I have to actually cancel and wait for the 50% offer or if they'll just give it to me over the phone, it might just pop up in the 'my offers' section of account details on the box though, seems to happen to a lot of people.

[billy2shots]

12 hours ago, Tipex said:

I don't think that's a bad deal to be honest, basically what I pay minus the multi room, not sure how I got away without paying that, maybe because I was one of the early adopters of Q?

 

My contract runs out in the next couple of months I think, so will be interesting to see if I have to actually cancel and wait for the 50% offer or if they'll just give it to me over the phone, it might just pop up in the 'my offers' section of account details on the box though, seems to happen to a lot of people.

 

Hopefully you get a good offer. If you have been a customer for over 20 years and if you haven't already, log on to 'my sky' and you should be able to register as a VIP. Sky are finally looking after their loyal customers and offering great deals to them. 

Typical, I left last year after about 12 years with them. 

[Booster]

You can always do the old switcharoo....

We wait until the deal ends, cancel it in my name and then take a new one out in the wife's name. Done that a few times now to get the new customer offer which can often be far better than the existing customer deal particularly if Money Saving Expert has one of their special code deals on the go.

 

[billy2shots]

Just to finish this off (until next year.....). 

Phoned VM to cancel or accept a better deal. The better deal option was looking good when they offered to lowe my package by £9. I asked if that's £9 off my current £66 or next months new rate of £118. They said it will be £57 for the next 12 months. I asked again and they gave me the same answer. I tried once more and asked for a guarantee that my fee won't shoot up next month.  They checked again and it all went Pete Tong. 

'I'm sorry sir you are currently on a deal that is due to end, we can't offer you a new deal'

WTF. Glad I triple checked as they were going to discount my next bill but subsequent months would revert to £118. I cancelled!

Turned on the computer to buy the new Sky customer offer that runs out today but I was denied.  I'm not a new customer as I'm 1 day short of 12 months without sky. Feck, time for plan B. I signed the Mrs up, sorry sir computer says no. 'We can see your address has been a sky customer within 12 months' Looks like they are sewing up that old loop hole. 

Phoned up and was on the line for 45 minutes. Result made it worth while. 

The online new deal would have been £88 a month, I bagged £76. 

The setup for phone, BB, sky Q 2tbt and Mini would have been £85 online deal, I got it for £35. 

All in all a good result. 

[AZURES3]

I must do more mates rates deals

[Calm Chris]

2 hours ago, AZURES3 said:

I must do more mates rates deals

Talk is cheap, unlike VM.

One day your marketing gurus might understand how annoying it is for customers of 10 years standing to get feck all back from VM. It pisses me off that new customers get deals, existing customers just get treated like cnuts.

Just to rub salt in, they post out marketing for new customers to existing ones, what is that about?

Why not have a customer loyality scheme / system for existing customers rather than reward new customers?

 

[CarMad]

I've on pretty much everything bar any Sky channels on VM and paying £65 a month at the moment, I think thats pretty good. 

[billy2shots]

8 hours ago, CarMad said:

I've on pretty much everything bar any Sky channels on VM and paying £65 a month at the moment, I think thats pretty good. 

 

I was paying £66 with £20 worth of sky sports and £6 sports HD. So it would work at at £40 for what your on. 

Similary my new Sky deal would be £50 without the sports additions so your deal is ok but you could do a lot better. 

[Tipex]

On 07/09/2017 at 6:55 AM, billy2shots said:

 

Hopefully you get a good offer. If you have been a customer for over 20 years and if you haven't already, log on to 'my sky' and you should be able to register as a VIP. Sky are finally looking after their loyal customers and offering great deals to them. 

Typical, I left last year after about 12 years with them. 

Yes I've signed up to the VIP loyalty thing, got our free DVD and whatever else it was.

 

Every now and again Sky give away DVD's anyway, I normally get something come up from friends on Facebook who keep an eye on the various deals websites, we've had about 4 free DVD's in the last year where you do the buy and keep thing, you download the film straight away, and they also post you the DVD, just comes up with the price as £0.00 and you purchase as normal.

[billy2shots]

2 hours ago, Tipex said:

Yes I've signed up to the VIP loyalty thing, got our free DVD and whatever else it was.

 

Every now and again Sky give away DVD's anyway, I normally get something come up from friends on Facebook who keep an eye on the various deals websites, we've had about 4 free DVD's in the last year where you do the buy and keep thing, you download the film straight away, and they also post you the DVD, just comes up with the price as £0.00 and you purchase as normal.

 

Good stuff. I also meant 10 years as a customer, sausage thumbs typed 20. 

[CarMad]

14 hours ago, billy2shots said:

 

I was paying £66 with £20 worth of sky sports and £6 sports HD. So it would work at at £40 for what your on. 

Similary my new Sky deal would be £50 without the sports additions so your deal is ok but you could do a lot better. 

No idea, did you have 200mb broadband and everything else?

For me sometimes its the value of hassle vs reward, I got a big discount, paying less than everyone I know in work and I'm happy and saving more than I was. 

[billy2shots]

10 hours ago, CarMad said:

No idea, did you have 200mb broadband and everything else?

For me sometimes its the value of hassle vs reward, I got a big discount, paying less than everyone I know in work and I'm happy and saving more than I was. 

 

Yeah 200mb with VM on the £66 all in bar movies. Will take a hit on BB speed when I return to sky.