Broadband Advice

[Nick]

Got Vodafone broadband last year (24 month term), had an email to say it's going up about £6 a month.

Thought I'd have a look online, if somebody was to sign up today for the same thing it's half the price I'm paying.

Apparently I can't cancel or downgrade because I am in the contract still?

 

[SkyBlueScottie]

It depends on the type of price rise, if its an annual price rise against CPI the chances are its mentioned in the T's and C's advising it will take place at a certain point, and they are covered. If its a decision by Vodafone to just raise theor prices therefore ( not mentioned in the T's and C'') then you would be eligible to leave as its a change to the tealrms and conditions.

 

[Nick]

Yeah just an annual one for inflation.

Takes the piss though as it's half what I pay if somebody new signs up.

 

[SkyBlueScottie]

Yep, way of the world unfortunately, some providers have delayed implementing it ( well the one I work for did) but they will get their pieces of gold.

 

[SBAndy]

Will piggyback this if that’s ok - just had an offer accepted on my first place and looking into it, seems that the Virgin Media top bundle is decent value (especially throwing in the SIM only deal as I’m about to finish my mobile contract). However, I know that when we’ve had it installed in my parents’ home in the past the connection can be dreadful. Anyone got experience of this? I work from home 3 days per week so can’t afford for an unreliable connection.

 

[Nick]

Is it full fibre?

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

Will piggyback this if that’s ok - just had an offer accepted on my first place and looking into it, seems that the Virgin Media top bundle is decent value (especially throwing in the SIM only deal as I’m about to finish my mobile contract). However, I know that when we’ve had it installed in my parents’ home in the past the connection can be dreadful. Anyone got experience of this? I work from home 3 days per week so can’t afford for an unreliable connection.

The connection coming into the house is good but around the house can be a bit sketchy.

 

[Grendel]

Will piggyback this if that’s ok - just had an offer accepted on my first place and looking into it, seems that the Virgin Media top bundle is decent value (especially throwing in the SIM only deal as I’m about to finish my mobile contract). However, I know that when we’ve had it installed in my parents’ home in the past the connection can be dreadful. Anyone got experience of this? I work from home 3 days per week so can’t afford for an unreliable connection.

I’ve never had an issue with it. They supply booster adapters as well so you can get signal around the house

 

[Nick]

The connection coming into the house is good but around the house can be a bit sketchy.

That's down to the actual wifi / router

 

[Ccfcsj]

Will piggyback this if that’s ok - just had an offer accepted on my first place and looking into it, seems that the Virgin Media top bundle is decent value (especially throwing in the SIM only deal as I’m about to finish my mobile contract). However, I know that when we’ve had it installed in my parents’ home in the past the connection can be dreadful. Anyone got experience of this? I work from home 3 days per week so can’t afford for an unreliable connection.

I've been with VM for many years on the top package and can count the number of issues I've had on one hand. As some others have said there can sometimes be an issue with the internal wifi but that is solved by boosters or putting the router in a better place

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

That's down to the actual wifi / router

Yep the one they supply is a bit shit, we run a lot of things off ours at the same time which won’t be helping.

 

[duffer]

Will piggyback this if that’s ok - just had an offer accepted on my first place and looking into it, seems that the Virgin Media top bundle is decent value (especially throwing in the SIM only deal as I’m about to finish my mobile contract). However, I know that when we’ve had it installed in my parents’ home in the past the connection can be dreadful. Anyone got experience of this? I work from home 3 days per week so can’t afford for an unreliable connection.

I've had Virgin Fibre to the house and the speed to the hub was pretty solid, but their hub was fairly useless (so patchy WiFi) and their customer service was hideous.

I've now got BT fibre to the house. Reliable and their hub is much more solid. If you rely on WiFi that's fairly important I'd say.

Virgin's TV box was better than BT's though, in terms of usability.

Next door neighbour has CityFibre (actually run by Vodafone in Coventry iirc). He's happy with it, again it's fibre to the house and pretty quick.

BT and Virgin are always using promotions, so you might get an Amazon voucher or something like that chucked in with the deal if you shop around. Personally I'd recommend BT over Virgin, just because of the WiFi and customer service, but others may differ!

 

[SBAndy]

The patchy WiFi thing is what we had previously. I’m hoping to hard-wire a connection to one of the bedrooms so I can work on Ethernet connection like I do currently (with Sky at the moment). However, can you buy a better router to fit which will stop the WiFi issues? Had my eyes on a TP Link mesh system but the house isn’t massive so don’t know whether that’s a waste.

 

[Nick]

If it comes to it, you can just disable the Wifi on the router they give you and plug in an access point or something for better Wifi

There is also the option of powerlines if you want to hardware to another room

 

[duffer]

The patchy WiFi thing is what we had previously. I’m hoping to hard-wire a connection to one of the bedrooms so I can work on Ethernet connection like I do currently (with Sky at the moment). However, can you buy a better router to fit which will stop the WiFi issues? Had my eyes on a TP Link mesh system but the house isn’t massive so don’t know whether that’s a waste.

Fwiw, I just hard wired a cheapish wireless router (£30-ish) to the hub for the upstairs bedroom/office. This to provide solid WiFi upstairs. Then cabled direct to that upstairs router for my works laptop to give maximum speed and reliability for work.

I had to do that for the Virgin kit, which was crap, bluntly; the BT hub is far more reliable and definitely has better range in my experience.

 

[duffer]

If it comes to it, you can just disable the Wifi on the router they give you and plug in an access point or something for better Wifi

There is also the option of powerlines if you want to hardware to another room

Fwiw I've never had much joy with the power lines extenders personally. The Virgin ones were spectacularly awful; apart from never really working they got so hot I thought they were going to catch fire (turns out this was a fairly common issue!).

I begrudged having to buy my own extra kit on top of the monthly rental, but it was the only way I could get Virgin to work reliably. Again, just my experience but a bit of googling suggests it wasn't unique.

 

[SBAndy]

If it comes to it, you can just disable the Wifi on the router they give you and plug in an access point or something for better Wifi

There is also the option of powerlines if you want to hardware to another room

Have looked at power lines as well previously. Again, TP Link I’d imagine would be fit for purpose?

 

[shmmeee]

Yep the one they supply is a bit shit, we run a lot of things off ours at the same time which won’t be helping.

I have 100mb, I rang cos my speeds were registering in the kb range.

“What have you got connected?”

“Nothing is using the net aside from the laptop connected”

“But how many WiFi devices are there in the house”

“Weird question but: 5 Google homes, 2 laptops,3 phones, two consoles and an iPad”

“Oh you’ve got way too many devices”

“Eh? The only thing actively using the net is the laptop, I’ve got 100mb”

“Yeah for that many we’d advise 200mb or above”

“Bu..but..but that’s massive overkill for a laptop, are you claiming my five idle Google
homes are sucking up 100mb of bandwidth??”

“Yes”

“We’ll I want to make a complaint I’m not getting the speeds I pay for”

“If you want to do that you have to run only to me Ethernet connection to a laptop, we won’t accept anything else”

“But I don’t have an Ethernet port on my laptop”

“that’s you’re problem”

I hung up and started looking at other providers.

 

[Liquid Gold]

I have 100mb, I rang cos my speeds were registering in the kb range.

“What have you got connected?”

“Nothing is using the net aside from the laptop connected”

“But how many WiFi devices are there in the house”

“Weird question but: 5 Google homes, 2 laptops,3 phones, two consoles and an iPad”

“Oh you’ve got way too many devices”

“Eh? The only thing actively using the net is the laptop, I’ve got 100mb”

“Yeah for that many we’d advise 200mb or above”

“Bu..but..but that’s massive overkill for a laptop, are you claiming my five idle Google
homes are sucking up 100mb of bandwidth??”

“Yes”

“We’ll I want to make a complaint I’m not getting the speeds I pay for”

“If you want to do that you have to run only to me Ethernet connection to a laptop, we won’t accept anything else”

“But I don’t have an Ethernet port on my laptop”

“that’s you’re problem”

I hung up and started looking at other providers.

I'm looking to switch atm. Who was this please?

 

[Liquid Gold]

It pisses me off that all the offers are for new customers.

Hadn't noticed my bill went up with Vodafone after my contract expired and they rinsed my for 12 months before I rang up and quit. they offered to match my other offer but I was pissed off with them by then, just give people a decent price.

Same with car insurance. You get your renewal letter of an extra hundred quid or whatever and you have to go through the dance of finding other suppliers and quotes before ringing them up and getting it matched. Just keep my price rolling you avaricious bastards.

 

[Nick]

Yeah, plus where's the fucking loyalty? If anything if you have been with somebody for years it should be cheaper than a new customer.

 

[shmmeee]

I'm looking to switch atm. Who was this please?

Virgin

 

[Liquid Gold]

Virgin

No, no no... I'm not

 

[Grendel]

No, no no... I'm not

View attachment 25991

to be fair they’ve always been ok with me I’ve get the full package and it’s £70 a month

 

[RegTheDonk]

Have looked at power lines as well previously. Again, TP Link I’d imagine would be fit for purpose?

I ran some Cat5s from the lounge where the original Blueyonder box was donkey's ago, to the upstairs bedrooms and the downstairs rear of the house. As most of the family and visiting grandkids are all on their phones and tablets these days, I put a TP link router in the bedroom about 3 years ago, so the house is fairly well covered now for wi-fi. The TP link hasn't aged well, keeps having to be re-started, but I put that down to being a faily cheap model and constant use.

VM upgraded me to the latest hub a couple of months ago - it was a really good 18 month deal with 1GB fibre, but to take advantage I'll need to upgrade to at least Cat6a at some point, plus a new network card in the PC. I see really fast speeds from the hub wi-fi to their mobile devices. I figure that, the way things are going with streaming and Sky putting more emphasis on broadband, it'll be future proofing to some extent.

The TP link is limited to sharing out 100mb. Seems good enough for a few devices connected to surf, youtube etc., but have seen some lag when they stop over and try gaming with their Xboxes and Playstations.

 

[shmmeee]

to be fair they’ve always been ok with me I’ve get the full package and it’s £70 a month

When they’re good they’re great, but in my experience as soon as you have an issue they’re a joke.

When I first moved in (to a house with Virgin already) first they failed to connect me somehow, then a guy came over to put a new cable in to my house and ended up not connecting it and connecting me to my neighbours, then another came, called the first two morons and claimed to fix it, then another one claiming the same.

90% of the time it’s great, then it’ll randomly drop things from the router or slow to a crawl.

 

[jimmyhillsfanclub]

Has anyone quit their provider and then re-joined as a new customer?

Do they make it awkward? Could I expect weeks of downtime between contracts?

I'm happy with my actual broadband speed, reliability etc. But it's with virgin and cos ive been bumbling along an out-of-contract rollover, turns out I'm paying nearly treble what I would be if I were a new customer with a better bundle...cunts.

 

[Grendel]

Has anyone quit their provider and then re-joined as a new customer?

Do they make it awkward? Could I expect weeks of downtime between contracts?

I'm happy with my actual broadband speed, reliability etc. But it's with virgin and cos ive been bumbling along an out-of-contract rollover, turns out I'm paying nearly treble what I would be if I were a new customer with a better bundle...cunts.

I rang them said I was cancelling and they reduced my bill from £120 to £77 and threw in HD sports which I hadn’t got in the original package

 

[Seaside-Skyblue]

Yeah just an annual one for inflation.

Takes the piss though as it's half what I pay if somebody new signs up.

If you're happy with the service Nick, and would be happy to continue with them albeit a lower price, you could try telling them you'd be willing to extend your contract but with a better deal. Broadband companies and many others from my exp seem to love to keep customers for longer on their books even at the expense of a reduced monthly fee, and this might well be a way to get out of the deal you have now and move onto a better one. They win and you win. Obviously this scenario could happen again but it might be worth a go, I have tried it before with some success.

Edit - sorry just realised your post is a month old so my suggestion might be quite late!

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