Virgin Broadband cable (UK) - any feedback?

I'm currently with BT Broadband (ADSL), and my connection to SL is pretty good. However, they're very expensive and their customer support is woeful, and I've been thinking of switching to Virgin. The last straw was today when I had an e-mail from BT saying they've changed their Terms and Conditions, so if I dared to leave them (even though I'm well past my minimum contract period) they will charge me nearly twenty quid for the privilege of NOT using them!

This only comes into effect in December, so I'm probably looking to jump ship sooner rather than later - but before I do, I want to know that whatever ISP I use isn't likely to give me big SL issues. Anyone else here with Virgin Broadband (cable, not ADSL), and what is your experience of them?

Hi Damien

Yes I run SL on Virgin. I've been with them since their NTL days and never really had to call customer support so I can give you any feedback on how they handle complaints and tech issues

I do have an issue recently with my line keep dropping after I upgraded my speed from 5 - 20 mbps. It falls over a few times a night...and not just in SL but the internet goes down too..log off, reboot the modem and its ok again.

I'm not computer literate by any stretch but I do wonder if they should have provided a better more up-to-date modem when I upgraded the connection. That said, I get no inworld problems, it loads up quickly, and everything runs great except when I try to cam around (which I do a lot being a photographer) and everything freezes up.

So if you are a brand new customer you may be ok.

My broadband service from Virgin has been excellent, I can't fault it.

I was an NTL/Virgin customer for 5 years. 95% of the time the connection was great and had no cap. However since they upgraded me from 4MB to 10MB (for free) I had constant disconnections. Had the line upgraded outside my house, got a new modem, router and still rubbish. I gave up after 6 months and am now with Sky boradband. £10 per month for 16MB and I cannot fault it. I allways get the full 16MB off peak too so good level of contention for a heavy user/abuser like myself.

There are many good reasons why many people used to call the old company NTHell.

Let me see from memory and my own experience... Down time used to run to something like 30-40%. Personal record for non-connectivity was 11 days

Hours on phone lines to the queueing system at national rate phone billing before getting close to a human voice. 50 minutes to an hour was not uncommon, followed by conversations with script reading idiots, totally unable to show any comprehension of real problems

Of course, closing the 2 Welsh call centres at a time when the customer base was increasing exponentially was a really wise move!

The final grain of salt with NThell/Virgin was when 5 months after having left them, I had a letter drop through my door. It was a letter from a debt collection agency to whom they had referred me as a non payer of my fees in this said time period, demanding nearly 200 quid off me or the bailifs would be paying a visit

As somebody who moved in the opposite direction, I sincerely hope their service has improved

NTHell didn't turn into Virgin Virgin was already a broadband company before it bought NTL. They started out by buying the other that I was on - what's the damn name - huh.

I haven't had any reason at all to consider leaving Virgin, ecept that live customer support went onto a premium phone number. A few months ago they changed it back, so all is well.

I can recommend Virgin.

Telewest?

That's the one I started with Yorkshire Cable, which was swallowed by Telewest, which was swallowed by Virgin, and they've all been very good, except the time when Virgin operated phone help on a premium line.

Thanks for all the feedback, sounds promising! Hope they've got the dropping line problems fixed though - that sounds irritating.

www.thinkbroadband.com (formerly www.adslguide.org.uk) is THE place for assessing UK providers

Pep (Check the forums - even moreamusing and informative than here!)