Cable / Virgin media upping their prices (read to save cash)

[Mickymoody]

I was worried when Cable started upping my bill, and got to the point where they charge £12 for line rental, £25 for 2Mb broadband (supposedly upgraded to 10Mb), and £1 for M TV package. Then extra for weekend calls/after 6 o clock, and extra for a paper bill..

So I rang them early this morning, (when they were tired), and immediately got £7 off my bill for the weekend calls, and then got passed through to technical, to ask them why my free upgrade from 2mb to 10mb didn't receive 10mb downloads, but they charge me £25 for it....you won't believe this, as this has repercussions for everyone in the country!

'EVEN THOUGH WE OFFER EVERYONE A FREE UPGRADE FROM 2MB TO 10 MB, THE MODEM THAT IS CURRENTLY INSTALLED IS UNABLE TO RECIEVE 10MB'....they then blabbed on about when the offer was origionally issued, which was months ago, and can be proved, they only said this was implicated in the last two weeks, and offered me a £20 refund, WITHOUT me asking for it!

They then went on to say they will send me a new modem FOC, that IS capable of receiving 10Mb download speeds.

But if I recall the origional email from them saying the date that they were upgrading their service, and pass this onto the OFT, or Trading Standards, free internet for a while, as they lied, and what they say is the speed of the connection is 2mb to 10mb, which it never was.

So if you have cable internet, check your speed..ring up, and get a new modem, as apparently modems are unable to provide 10Mb, unless you have a new modem, so check back to when you were upgraded, and check out how much you were overcharged.

My speed strangely went up overnight from 1.5 to 9Mb/s even without a new modem..

 

[Mickymoody]

BUMP! So if you are NOT getting the speed you are supposd to receive, you are HAPPY with that?

 

[Mickymoody]

BUMP! So if you are NOT getting the speed you are supposd to receive, you are HAPPY with that?

If people don't wan't refunds, and upgraded speeds, fine! I told you that you could, as the company was breaking the
rules, and giving refunds..if you don't wan't them, fair do's.

 

[jctilingservices]

How do you find out what speed you are actually getting, bear in mind i am completely iseless with computers, so in laymans terms please
Cheers
Jimmy

 

[oompah]

http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/
Don't know how accurate it is but worth a go.

 

[joinerjohn]

Here's another good site for testing your connection speed.
http://www.speedtest.net/

 

[Mickymoody]

Here's another good site for testing your connection speed.
http://www.speedtest.net/

That's the BEST site, and you can even post the result in your sig.

 

[opps]

The line about the modem is ball0cks. Sounds like a delaying tactic.

I rang them back in Feb to whine about the fact that we were paying too much for a 2meg service (compared to the rest of the market), they instantly offered to bump it up to 10meg. I asked if they needed to send out a new modem given that our Motorola Surfboard was about 9 years old.

later that week we had our 10meg service, using the old modem and they even sent out a new router FOC (a crap 54g netgear).

I think (might be wrong) that we pay £18 for the BB. £18 for a stable 10meg sounds fair to me.

 

[JohnD]

9853kbps

Am I due a refund

 

[opps]

9853kbps

Am I due a refund

I'm not a VM fanboy but where I live they pee on adsl over copper.

Tell them you are thinking of moving to sky with the free BB and see how much they knock off. If you don't ask they definately wont offer a discount.

 

[gblades]

That comment about the modem not coping with 10mbps is plain wrong. I have 10mbps and for a while was using the very old terayon cable modem which dated back to 2001 and it coped fine. I had a separate issue once and the engineer did replace it saying they were not compatible with 20mbps.
For the modern modems you can just go to http://192.168.100.1 and log in and view the operating config which shows you the speeds you are configured to run at.

If you were paying £25 for your cable connection then it must have been installed a while ago. Its trus if you never questioned it when they reduce the price yours is not reduced automatically so you are correct in advising people to check their bills. Often they will keep the £25 charge on there but just put on a separate credit for £7 or so (it was reduced from £25 to £16).

 

[opps]

Hi gblades

I too was tild that the modem would work on 10 but not 20.

192.168.100.1 also works for the old modems. However my old modem will not tell me what it's max rate is

 

[JohnD]

...For the modern modems you can just go to http://192.168.100.1 and log in and view the operating config which shows you the speeds you are configured to run at.

mine says:

Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10242000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 514000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Enabled

Is that significant?

 

[joinerjohn]

Micky, just thought on your OP. If you receive your internet through the set top box, you may well not get 10mb connection speed. I had to have a separate cable modem to get the 10mb speed. It was free though, all you have to do with VM is get through to someone who actually speaks English as a first language and not these Asian wallahs in Bombay.
Best of luck with that one.

 

[gblades]

...For the modern modems you can just go to http://192.168.100.1 and log in and view the operating config which shows you the speeds you are configured to run at.

mine says:

Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10242000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 514000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Enabled

Is that significant?

You are on the 10Mbps service. 10Mbps down and 512Kbps uploading.