Virgin Media Caps Are Driving Me Crazy

May 23rd, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

I’ve been playing close attention to my broadband speed every since Virgin Media introduced Speed Caps, and they are starting to drive me crazy. Although my newsgroup usage appears to be unaffected, which is crazy as I’m sure that newsgroups usage is probably a big component of Virgin Media’s usage spikes, my web browsing has become almost unusable.

Watching an online video is now almost impossible with Virgin Media. If I want to watch a YouTube video, I have to leave it running for a few mins to let it download and then go back and watch it. It’s impossible to watch YouTube videos in real-time because the playback is so jerky.

I wouldn’t mind the Virgin Media caps if they were reasonable, but as a 10Mbps (soon to be 20Mbps) user I’d expect to at least be able to use popular mainstream internet services like YouTube. I just don’t know what is going on with ntl and particularly Telewest since the merger. I was a happy Telewest user for 7 years before the merger, but now every month there’s a problem with my internet or TV service.

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About the Author

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Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University, and currently runs the Portal and online operations for one of the largest ISPs in the UK. He also writes for Windows 7 News.

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There Are 48 Responses So Far. »

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  1. #30

    Comment by ade on 7 December 2007:

    virginmedia are giving me 76 thats 1.5 times dial up cant even watch videos on youtube
    crap

  2. #29

    Comment by Daniel Rowley (Aion) on 3 December 2007:

    Virgin continue to anger me - Not only do they cap me to 1/4th instead of half of 4MB if I download 750MB during peak hours, I’ve today discovered they cap you for uploading after I got capped during uploading 670MB (I was at the 300MB mark). I’m not sure what to say…

    I’ve also been having billing issues that have come to my attention over the last few weeks. Ever since my mother (she pays for the phone side and has been paying the extra charge) contacted them and got them to agree to half our BB costs (which I can’t see how they have on our bills!), we’ve been having a £22 ‘Current Balance Brought Forward’ charge every month for a year. The VM Indian/Scottish staff all tell me this is a credit note, ignoring the fact it’s added to the grand total. £60-80 bills each month for 4MB and a phone line…

  3. #28

    Comment by Kevin Preston on 10 November 2007:

    I am the same! I have been with telewest for years but since Virgin Media took over the service has gone down the drain. I can’t even watch YouTube videos, I go round my sisters and YouTube videos load up like your watching TV. She’s on Orange Internet, I’m close to quitting Virgin Media…but every time I ring up I get told they are fixxing it, I also heard everyone is getting upgraded next year for free to the next service up. I just wish YouTube would work :(

  4. #27

    Comment by TGB on 27 October 2007:

    yes Virgin now charge 25p per min when you call them, they also insist that you go through a tedious and often unnecessary procedure of re-booting your modem/PC during the call which adds to the overall phone charge. take a look at the link below because this is pissing a lot of people off.

    http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=virgin_cable&Number=3160049&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

  5. #26

    Comment by MEONAOL on 27 October 2007:

    mmmmmhhh….. I was thinking of switching from aol to them BUT these omens aint good at all!!! …. Thats it, Stopped thinking - NO TO VIRGINS.

  6. #25

    Comment by alan on 18 October 2007:

    all this and they have the gall to start charging for phone support! try to get a response to a complaint via their online support form? fat chance. i’ve tried 3 times. zilch. and you get all this smarmy talk about how much they want to help you, and how generous they are, and blah blah. i mean, i can’t even send a 2MB file as an email attachment any more. telewest were fine - honest and pretty reliable. virgin has ruined a perfectly good company with their money-grabbing methods. i pray they get bought over soon by someone with the consumer’s interests at heart. if you’re not with them take my advice and steer well clear!

  7. #24

    Comment by scott on 12 October 2007:

    iv been with virgin for about 8 month the first 6-7 month were ok full 8 mb 95 persent of the time. but resently i moved address only up the round and now i get capped after 4pm. i mean unsable sorts of speed dl range 7kbps-40kbps on an 8 meg line. in the morning its fine full speed no prob after 4pm dont even bother. its really annoying me coz im getting capped even if i dont use it all day and as i work till after 5pm every day i never get the 8mb line im paying for.

  8. #23

    Comment by IanW on 10 October 2007:

    Was with Telewest for over 14 years since Virgin took over the service in our area has been absolutley crap, not just the BB but the TV service also has been ****. Never had any problems with Telewest when you looked at the service status page you maybe saw 6 or 7 faults Virgin have managed to increase that by well over 100% shame the cant do that with there BB speeds.

    When you E-mail them nobody ever seems to get back to you really time to look at BT and Sky. Virgin Media are really going to get the finger out or this will just be another failure for Mr Branson or has he already sold it on.

  9. #22

    Comment by Daniel R. on 8 October 2007:

    Been with Telewest for years - My very first ISP. Never had issues with them, was happy even a 1MB due to the consistent service.

    I’ve been noticing Youtube videos not loading fast, freezing and needing few minutes of buffer time at certain periods. I tested my BB connection last night with speednet.net and discovered my connection speed was half what it should be - 1.9 MB. It’s back up to 3.9 MB now.

    It really is a shame… I never wanted to leave Telewest. There’s no way I’m going to start paying £25 a month soon my current £12.50 goes back up for a 2MB connection.

    By the way, about video streaming: http://www.speedbit.com/video_accelerator/
    This program works wonders at night when the cap sets in, allowing you to watch videos without waiting on it to buffer. :)

  10. #21

    Comment by steve on 4 October 2007:

    When they were Blueyonder Telewest the service was fine, consistent speeds, with not too many outages on their 10 Mbit service. But since re-branding they are now Virgin Media, they upped the maximum download speed to 20 Mbit, everyone jumped on the faster speed, then Virgin discovered they could not sustain this service, so introduced speed caps across the board, so everyone is affected no matter what service you choose. Right now Virgin Media are losing money hand over fist, they are looking for a buyer, and I don’t expect them to survive much longer!

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