Comments on: Virgin Media Caps Are Driving Me Crazy

By: UJM

UJM — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:03:59 +0000

that delay is called buffering, and is caused by insufficient bandwidth to stream the video, this can happen during peak hours when demand is high, it's also far more likely to happen if youv'e been STM'd (traffic managed) by Virgin Media, where your bandwidth has been cut to a level where even streaming a video becomes impossible

By: Syl

Syl — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:26:13 +0000

Speedtest shows my download speed as normal (9.77/10mb) but ever since I got Virgin Media broadband I haven't been able to watch any YouTube clips or listen to Myspace music or any other kind of streaming without having to stop, wait, reload 2 seconds, play 2 seconds, stop, reload etc. etc. It's like it just times out after less than a minute… very annoying! Is it really a Virgin problem? Because I have no problem downloading to my HD, it's really just streaming that won't work…

By: Remi

Remi — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:08:19 +0000

Virgin Media are just one of a number of ISP's that use sneaky explainations as to why they are throttling the bandwidth that we pay for, apparently it's for our own good. As for the 50MB package, that may be free of STM now, but wait until more people sign-up and Virgin will throttkle the 50MB pack too … I dumped Virgin this year and went with O2 which is truely unlimited. Broadband in the UK is way behind most European countries … we are being shafted!

By: neno

neno — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:18:07 +0000

yup, O2 or Be are truely unlimited, no caps, no throttling, up to 2.5 Mbit upload speeds, and they’re cheaper than Virgin … go for it!

O2: http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/index.jsp

Be: https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/homepage

By: neno

neno — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:18:00 +0000

yup, O2 or Be are truely unlimited, no caps, no throttling, up to 2.5 Mbit upload speeds, and they’re cheaper than Virgin … go for it!

O2: http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/index.jsp

Be: https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/homepage

By: Das

Das — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:56:49 +0000

Time to move from Virgin, have been a loyal customer for eight years, with the last three years having nothing but problems with them. Allowing my son to run up a £500 phone bill in 1 month, even though I was paying for a call lock on mobiles and premium lines. He found out that if you phone the Virgin operator they will connect the call, at an extra cost of £3 for the service. This was at a time when my normal monthly call bill was around £4.
I have also had around 5 account changes without any prior notice, where bills have jumped £20 to £30 above normal, and when you get someone from customer service (joke)! you can’t understand a word they say.
And now the broadband speed capping watch an on line divx movie 750meg your capped for the next 4 hours. Unlimited broadband to me means the best speed possible at the time subject to the amount of user on line, and no limit on amounts downloaded.
So by by Virgin, O2 for me when I can terminate my account, and I will pass on the word to my friends.

By: Das

Das — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:56:00 +0000

By: wendy

wendy — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:29:54 +0000

i’d love to ditch virgin. i’ve just downgraded from the 10mg package to the 2mg and surprise surprise they’ve capped me at half a meg, and they’re trying to tell me i’m downloading too much. in fact i dont download anything other than the rare bit of music from my friends..i occasionally watch the iplayer and thats it. i HATE virgin and i wish i’d never heard of them. not to mention their inventive billing which seems to go up and up regardless of useage. bunch of moronic thieving bastards. do not want.

By: wendy

wendy — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:29:00 +0000

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:35:27 +0000

Better of leaving, contract or no contract.I have paid for 2 meg and lucky if I get 25% of it most of the time.The only people breaking the contract are ntl.Lets get together and put these complaints to trading standards.I’m up for it who else is ?

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:35:00 +0000

By: 50Mb Broadband Experiences With Virgin Media | Connected Internet

50Mb Broadband Experiences With Virgin Media | Connected Internet — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:21:20 +0000

[...] the more expensive 50Mb. My ‘rationale’ was that the 50Mb service isn’t capped, so as a heavy user, it was worth it paying for a good connection 24hrs today, rather than the [...]

By: L Thompson

L Thompson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:26:23 +0000

Not sure if this is related but I have started getting kicked out if I download anything of reasonable size. Also seems to happen if I link up any of my consoles via wireless. I have to unplug the modem then plug it back in to reconnect only for it to kick me out again after 5 mins. I’ll be glad when I move so I have an excuse to ditch them.

By: L Thompson

L Thompson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:26:00 +0000

By: reebes

reebes — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:05:23 +0000

Has anyone managed to escape their contract or get this fixed up?

I’m being capped to less than 1 when paying for 10! Sometimes use online games but not during peak hours, but even when I took a break from any large downloading it was still happening.

Its actually affecting my uni work as i cannot upload my work to my university database. I’m likely to try to take them to court if they don’t fix it for good.

By: reebes

reebes — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:05:00 +0000

Has anyone managed to escape their contract or get this fixed up?

I’m being capped to less than 1 when paying for 10! Sometimes use online games but not during peak hours, but even when I took a break from any large downloading it was still happening.

Its actually affecting my uni work as i cannot upload my work to my university database. I’m likely to try to take them to court if they don’t fix it for good.

By: FIONA

FIONA — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:27:37 +0000

My speed suddenly shot up to around 6mb for no reason especially on the laptop i asked around if anybody had moved from near where i lived no one had. I had still not worked out why. then i read a review of AVG antivirus. the review said it eat broadband, Bingo that’s where i reckon it was. I recently removed AVG and installed something else and the speed is more or less where it should be. Its worth a try if you have AVG installed put something else on. I had problem with the BBC Iplayer much like you tube constantly buffering. I went back to Internet explorer no more problems.

By: FIONA

FIONA — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:27:00 +0000

By: Dogz

Dogz — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:20:42 +0000

Well Said recon.
There now advertising the 50mg speed now.. YEA RIGHT!!! 7gig downed, then CAP!! from 50-4mb. What a load of Crap. Shall phone and get the basic speed. Feed up with it all now.
It maybe that its down to all the dodgy boxes out there, that we the paying are suffering for the cost? May get one myself i think.
Regards
Dogz.

By: Dogz

Dogz — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:20:00 +0000

By: rencon

rencon — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:17:00 +0000

@excreta 222
yeah we should all be like you , sitting there taking it up the keister. I bet you love being STM’d, bet you love seeing your 20 Mbit connection drop to nothing on a regular basis with no fix in sight, bet you just love paying over the top prices for an inferior broadband service. Take note, not every VM customer has the option of moving to a different ISP, they are stuck with Virgin, so think before you start talking bollocks … ya mug!

By: rencon

rencon — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:17:00 +0000

By: elixier22

elixier22 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:33:42 +0000

Look quit ya whining if you dont like virgin leave end of. Why stay with someone you hate then bitch about it like a kid. Check out bethere.co.uk their connections are faster than virgins and they dont cap ya. bloody hell do something about your problems as opposed to sitting on ya ass moaning about it

By: elixier22

elixier22 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:33:00 +0000

By: PE666

PE666 — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:21:35 +0000

Branson is a money grabbing theifing bearded fool who needs to start spending the money hes stolen off normal hardworking people on improving what is easily the UK’s worst interternet & digital TV supplier, not on his fooking private island.

Im paying out for Virgins 50mb top speed internet connection and the reality is a average of 2mb??? I only recently discovered the “caping” saga, what sort of a company resticts it high end users by 75% at peak time?!? High speed users pay for high speed lines because we want fast internet all the time, not just between the hours of 12:00am and 6:30am when everyone else is getting some shut eye.

Like a few people have mentioned already, I do very little downloading or uploading and certanly no ileagal downloads yet they cap me at 2mb even when Im searching forums or online stores.

Greedy fookers like Branson are the one of the many reasons this country is on its arse, the top 5% in this country get richer year on year by shafting the other 95% and driving more of us into poverty.

By: PE666

PE666 — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Like a few people have mentioned already, I do very little downloading or uploading and certanly no ileagal downloads yet they cap me at 2mb even when Im searching forums or online stores.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:14:53 +0000

This “peak period” capping is rubbish, they are capping a lot earlier than that, possibly around the clock. Take my 10Mb service at home…..as I’m in the process of writing this gripe…..I’ve been downloading a series of ISO files (which collectively have exceeded the 3GBlimit). All of a sudden my consistent 1MB/s rate has dropped to 200Kbit/s ……and its 2 o’clock in the afternoon……..and this has happened on many other occasisons…..before and after lunch……….VIRGIN MEDIA are jokers….I pay good money for something I dont get full usage of…and its not even illegal content I’m downloading…….

By: Nathan

Nathan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:14:00 +0000

By: lebron

lebron — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:24:16 +0000

virgin media is robbing us of what we paid for. I am paying for the 20mbps service and lately it has been ridiculously slow. I just spoke to them to complain about the slow internet and was told that they are capping my internet to 2mbps not only from 5 till 10 every night but the entire weekend. Considering this is normally when im on the internet studying and talking to freinds (im a student) there is almost no reason for me to be paying for the faster internet. Virgin sucks

By: lebron

lebron — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:24:00 +0000

By: Tia

Tia — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:30:25 +0000

Guess Im not the only one. I got capped EVEN when I have not downloaded ANY files or watched ANY youtube. JUST browsing between yahoo and man and reading news. Have been happening for the past one week or ++. And will not only be capped for 4 hours. Im capped ALL THE way from 2pm to next day 2am. And from 10mb to less than 512kbs. Scamming ISP Virgin. At least some people get download limits. For me even browsing between one or two pages I am capped. HELL HELL HELL HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

By: Tia

Tia — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:30:00 +0000

By: DOGZ

DOGZ — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:53:52 +0000

RE NIkev: or giving their girlfriend / boyfriend some rumpy pumpy action!
Well said m8 LMFAO

RegaRDS dogz b

By: DOGZ

DOGZ — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:53:00 +0000

RE NIkev: or giving their girlfriend / boyfriend some rumpy pumpy action!
Well said m8 LMFAO

RegaRDS dogz b

By: nikev

nikev — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:13:31 +0000

With Virgin Media it’s all about the marketing, promise people a 20 Mbit high-speed broadband service, then grab back the bandwidth using “Subscriber Traffic Management “. Many people don’t know about “traffic management” until after they’ve signed up, but by then it’s too late they’re locked into an expensive one year contract. The problem with STM is that it’s unfair, I wouldn’t mind if they used STM during the true peak periods, ie, when people return home from work or school and internet usage is at it’s peak say for example between 6pm – 9pm on weekdays. But Virgin Media are dishonest they’re using STM 7 days a week starting at 10am and finishing at 9pm. How they can justify that is beyond me, and how they can classify 10am on a Sunday morning as a peak period is just beyond me, most people are still in bed, or at church, or giving their girlfriend / boyfriend some rumpy pumpy action!

By: nikev

nikev — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:13:00 +0000

By: virginsucksass

virginsucksass — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:41:50 +0000

I have even simpler problems: I was streaming a simple video on realplayer and it was working normal for about 20 seconds then it cut off. I could still browse sites but couldn’t stream. Not on realplayer, not on windows media player nothing. And I also found I couldn’t download anything either.

I was using BT Broadband (£20 a month) a few days ago and everything worked fine. Videos, streaming, downloads, everything. Virginmedia is awful and I’m going to change back to BTbroadband as soon as possible.

By: virginsucksass

virginsucksass — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:41:00 +0000

By: Mr A Hinks

Mr A Hinks — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:10:59 +0000

I am TOTALLY P** off with Virgin.
Got 3 machines and a x360 running, the total download on all just hit 3gig and now i have been capped.Time 1pm… What a load of Cr**….
XL User Paying £37 a month? Not for long.. Grrr

By: Mr A Hinks

Mr A Hinks — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:10:00 +0000

By: eazy

eazy — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:20:55 +0000

ok ive been an ntl//virgin media customer for about 6 years i decided to upgrade to the xl package as i do alot of online gaming, recently ive noticed that if i view 2-3 web pages my connection is closed and i must re start my pc to get it back(great inconvieniance) also i was dlin cod4 from steam as i just reinstalled windows. at first i was dlin at 11mb/s amazing connection 1gb im now dlin at 512 kb/s ( a wtf moment) 2gb im dlin at 11 kbs by this time i was hitting the roof ive asked freinds and even a neigbour who works for virgin media, i refuse to phone them as its 3 pound per miniute which is ridiulous i understand the capping but why is my connection dieing after very thew veiwings of site’s, i cant even search things on ebay any more.

By: eazy

eazy — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:20:00 +0000

By: nikev

nikev — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:12:05 +0000

They’re actually capping 10 hours a day from 10am – 9 pm, (there’s a 1 hour gap between 3-4 pm) this is being rolled-out nationwide and will be effecting everyone on Virgin Media, if you exceed your download allowance your speed is cut by 75% (not 50%) and the speed cut lasts 5 hours from the time you triggered it.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

By: nikev

nikev — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:12:00 +0000

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

By: ozzie steve

ozzie steve — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:49:13 +0000

so as for this capping issue,

quote from earlier post [ 21:42 has any attempt been made to communicate this information to me - have I missed a letter or email or something?
21:45 No we do not communicate when customers are capped]

i wonder how they would respond if i was to deduct 5 days payment from my next bill.
why 5 days? well there capping = 8hrs per day which = 10 days per month @ 1/2 download speed.
therefore for those ten days i am paying for a full service but only getting 1/2 so by my logic im getting short changed by 5 days per month.
ok thats my rant over and i agree with all of you their service is cchit and i will be looking for another isp.

By: ozzie steve

ozzie steve — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:49:00 +0000

so as for this capping issue,

By: anthony

anthony — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:59:42 +0000

I’m on the 20mb and I do usually avoid the peak times so I don’t get capped.

However, last week I downloaded a 6GB game from Steam and after 3 gigs or so I got my 20mb reduced to 5mb. Nothing new there I know, but as I continued to download this large file I got capped AGAIN and the download speed went down to just under 2mb. This was after downloading another gig or so. So it looks like when you get capped by 75% the first time on the XL package you then get a similar allowance as the L customers, and can be capped twice!

Jesus!

By: anthony

anthony — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:59:00 +0000

I’m on the 20mb and I do usually avoid the peak times so I don’t get capped.

Jesus!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:24:06 +0000

Welcome to the Stoneage! well almost!
This cap of 80kilobits is ridiculous, especially in a house which has 3 computers sharing plus a Wii and XBOX, it renders youtube, MSN Messenger, online gaming and downloading practically useless.
Its unfair to efferctively punish those who have no option but not to get cable because BT are too greedy to install new technology and instead keep is behind the rest of the world.
Damn you BT and damn you Virgin! you both suck so much!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:24:00 +0000