Rant [UK] Virgin Media sucks, fair use policy of only 18Gb per month!

I can't believe this, after a long time on the phone they finally told me why I was capped. Apparently, if you download more then 1.5Gb a day you get capped. So I'm on a 10Mbit Fibreoptic subscribtion, and they cap me in peak hours to 2.4Mbit.

At 1.2MB per second, that 1.5Gb is gone just by browsing the net and watching some videos online.

I only watch some TV online, and do not download anything. Two HD episodes on iPlayer and that's it. Watch some Xfactor, Topgear, BBC life or whatever, and your capped.

To make a long story short, they cannot change anything about it, because the traffic management system is in place, and not even senior management can change that. They couldn't even tell me when I would be off it since it's all part of the traffic management system, and they do not have access to it. Apparently I'm part of only the top 5% of top downloaders. lol, yea right. If I would still be downloading 50Gb+ a month like I used to in my old place they would have had a heartattack.

Oh, and if you are on the 50Mbit plan, £38 per month, there is unlimited downloading and uploading, no cap ever. Great.

I can't get ADSL speeds over 512Kbit here due to being too far from the exchange. But as soon as that changes, they will lose a customer, and I told them that too.

They should spend their money on their infrastructure instead of having David Hasselhoff doing their advertising. Absolutely rubbish.

And this is for £20 a month. Grrrrr

 

I've never notice any major slowdown & I've done 100GB in a couple of days

 

Erm... 10mb is like a fiver a month... and tbf to VM... if you want a higher limit.. pay for it.

I wanted to download lots and stream lots... I went for 50mb.. shocker huh?

 

Who decided it was a good idea to have DL limits on a broadband connection anyway?

That has to be the most stupid idea ever.

 

So they don't have to update their infrastructure to deal with the mass downloaders/streamers, I expect. And so they can screw more money out of us

 

A higher limit? We are talking about peanuts in bandwith, that's the problem. 18Gb a month is absolutely nothing at all. So no, I won't be fair on Virgin, because it's ridiculous.

It's not a fiver with Virgin. I wanted to keep my phone line with BT so it's £20 a month, check it.

£38 is not something I can or want to spend on my broadband, so no 50Mb for me.

 

Yeah, as if that'll continue to be the case. Sooner or later they'll introduce a cap on the 50Mbit plan, probably just as soon as they've got enough customers hooked on the speed.

 

Its not actually 1.5gb a day, its 1.5gb peak time, and for 5 hours at 25% speed.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html They are pretty clear about how and when you will be capped.

Edit: Not to defend virgin media, I know their customer service is laughable. But they have set up speed bands for people to who use the internet in different ways. You watch all your TV online and download full HD episodes, you are a heavy user. The 50Mb and to some extend the 20Mb were designed for you.

 

At least your getting descent speeds. I only live 1/2 mile from my exchange and between 5pm and midnight im lucky if i get 300kbps!! in fact my bandwidth is so severely capped at peak times i have no chance of streaming anything at all, cant even watch a 1min youtube vid ffs! needless to say i wont be renewing my contract with O2

What do virgin charge over your 18gb cap limit?

 

You guys wouldnt be complaining if you had to pay the prices for internet i get here. I get a "96kb" I have yet to see this at 96kb, line with a 1GB dl limit a week if you go over they shut off your internet, and I pay $75 a month for this. Anyone still complaining? I will gladly trade anyone in here, any takers? OOOO and not to mention ive seen people get better spead out of dial up.

 

Thanks for the clarification, I didn't realise that. Still pretty much sucks though. Strange that I'm considered a heavy user lol.

 

I've heard they are trying to roll some of this BS out in California. All I know is that the public had better watch this, less we are in the same boat. I'll drop my ISP if they even hint at it, and I hope others would do the same.

Sorry that is happening to you... Sucks...

 

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what your saying is relevant. Theres always someone worse off than you in every situation, but it doesn't make any difference to the OP that you live in an country which has been war-torn for years and precious little money invested in the infrastructure. The OP is obviously referring to fellow UKers.

 

With Virgin you just need to work out there time system that is when ever i need to download anything at home (at uni at the moment) i will wait till 11PM then do it all over night you dont get caped then.

i lived for 3 years getting caped like every othere day because there are 5 computers in the house all watching tv on demand and surfing the web.

my friend is on the 50MB and he still gets caped on that so i dont belive who ever told you they dont, this is from personal experience.

 

Im just saying things could always be worse, and sometimes you need to be thankful for what you have.

 

he's paying money. No need to be thankful

 

Virgin themselves say it is uncapped. Check my link a few posts up. It might just be at peak times he is getting slower speeds due to every bugger being on the net. Or he torrents all the time and wonders why his internet is running down

 

If I get hit by a car today and loose an arm, I guess I should just be "thankful" that I've still got my other arm. Or if one of my children gets murdered, I'll just be "thankful" that I've got another.

What a pointless argument.

 

internet is not an arm or food or anything that is absolutely necessary to live. It is a service that is meant to improve our lives. You pay money for that improvement. If this improvement is not what you expected you have the right to complain. No need to be thankful

 

Everyone knows that Verminmedia suck, they're awful in so many ways.

Unfortunately I have to use them at the moment, on the lowest package. The plus side is I'm not paying for it.

Unlucky about being in a rubbish ADSL area, O2 or BE are awesome providers if you can get them - which you can't.