Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

virginmedia-is-evil.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 153 posts

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#141

Post by Nextgrid »

dogma1138 wrote: post #140
Nextgrid wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an FTTP line because there's no other choice. The connection fees were covered by the Gigabit Voucher Scheme which I believe is still around. It's only for businesses, however there is no requirement to actually be trading so you can very well set up a one-man company (12£ fee to companies' house) and then do it. The voucher scheme covered it for 2,5k which is a bit steep but also not that expensive in the gra…

Yes but this is extremely expensive even with the cheats. G.Network costs me £22 a month for 1gig no caps, there is another small fee for a real IP address since pretty much all FTTP providers use CGNAT.

I'm really surprised they'd be using CGNAT. Do they offer IPv6 at least?

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#142

Post by thrwyoilarticle »

sipos wrote: post #40
Silhouette wrote: post #12

Abuses such as this infuriate me, and I typically have a very low tolerance for them now. Any business that is causing trouble at my expense still gets one polite attempt to contact them via their preferred means and a reasonable chance to respond, but usually only one. I'm not hanging around on the phone for more than a few minutes or waiting more than a couple of working days for a substantial response to an online…

So, this didn't help me with Virgin Media in the past (though I did get it sorted by finding someone relatively senior and bothering them until they got it sorted), but it usually does, as you say. In general, I don't allow companies messing me around to profit from it. Even if it takes longer than it is worth, I make a point of principle that I somehow get more back from them than I was cheated out of or they neglec…

I try the same but had to give up once. HarperCollins released a book series as a series of early Android apps. When the app launches for the first time, it downloads the assets. I paid for them and came back to read them several years later but the server was down.

Reviews mentioned this and the official reply was to contact them for a refund. I did but multiple times but they alternated between ignoring me and refusing. Eventually I gave up. I no longer buy anything from HarperCollins.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#143

Post by DanBC »

thrwyoilarticle wrote: post #139
reitzensteinm wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once paid twice as much for a gym for the no lock in plan, with pay as you go in advance for a month. They offered me as low as a three month contract with direct debit and I refused. The guy signing me up thought I was nuts. I think everyone else is nuts.

I think I might agree with the guy signing you up: what about the Direct Debit Guarantee? (assuming UK from the term 'direct debit')

Gyms will claim you signed up for a 12 / 24 / whatever month subscription, and then the guarantee doesn't apply.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/dir...

"It cannot be used to address contractual disputes between you and the billing organisation. "

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#144

Post by DanBC »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #138

I do not really understand. Why not sending a cancellation letter (recommended - not sure what the US word for this is, the kind of letter the other party signs when receiving it and which is a legal way to provide letters) and blocking the payments?

> the kind of letter the other party signs when receiving it

In England this isn't the recommended way to serve legal documents, because the person receiving can just refuse to sign and refuse to accept the letter.

You can send letters and get proof of posting without signed for delivery, and that's seen by the courts as good enough.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#145

Post by BrandoElFollito »

DanBC wrote: post #144
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #138

I do not really understand. Why not sending a cancellation letter (recommended - not sure what the US word for this is, the kind of letter the other party signs when receiving it and which is a legal way to provide letters) and blocking the payments?

> the kind of letter the other party signs when receiving it In England this isn't the recommended way to serve legal documents, because the person receiving can just refuse to sign and refuse to accept the letter. You can send letters and get proof of posting without signed for delivery, and that's seen by the courts as good enough.

Interesting, to me not accepting would be even worse : you actively avoid the information. In any case an attempt was done.

We have both kind of letters in France (with sig and without). I just checked (https://blog.bureaudeposte.net/quelle-difference-entre-un-en...) and they have the same value.

In some cases the "with sig" is recommended

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#146

Post by daveoc64 »

Silhouette wrote: post #33
FartyMcFarter wrote: post #18

In the UK, use this: https://www.aa.net.uk/ I'm not affiliated with them in any way. They just have a great reputation for good technical knowledge, privacy, and support.

AA have a good reputation. Zen do too. I'm not sure why anyone who'd done market research would go with one of the bigger name ISPs these days. Well, OK, I am sure: AA and Zen both tend to be a bit more expensive. But this is one of those areas where you get what you pay for, I guess. Ironically, the one major exception to this is Virgin, because they do offer an alternative product with technical advantages, whereas…

I'm with Virgin Media (and have been for 20 years) because they offer the best speeds in most parts of the country.

AA or Zen simply can't compete when they are offering FTTC or ADSL.

I don't care at all about customer service. If you're contacting your ISP enough to care about the customer service, they must be doing something wrong.

Virgin Media currently offers speeds of up to 500mbps across their entire network. That will be 600mbps at the start of next month, and it's 1000mbps in some places (such as Reading).

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#147

Post by bnastic »

Nextgrid wrote: post #100
bnastic wrote: post #74

It's not that easy to get a contract either... First they said "health and safety", they can't get a man to bring the cable up to 2nd floor. I said fine, how about I buy that cable, I drill my own walls, and bring you the cable down to the ground, can you connect that? "Sure, let's set up a date for engineer visit". All is ready, engineer comes carrying a modem... wtf... you are supposed to connect this to your box o…

> The UK broadband is in such an appalling state, that if you want better than ADSL you have to subject yourself to humiliation Agreed, it is terrible. I ended up going with an enterprise-grade leased line that costs ~400£/month because that was the only choice besides Virgin, but honestly I'd rather be paying that much and know it pays fair wages to honest people then pay less but having it go in scammers' pockets.…

Paying the equivalent of someone’s mortgage just to be able to get a decent internet connection in 2020 is infuriating.

I would switch to Hyperoptic in a heartbeat but they are not rolling out to north London any time soon. Funny how in Scotland even Vodafone is rolling out a gig network, while in bloody London I still can’t get better than adsl speeds.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#148

Post by bnastic »

stordoff wrote: post #122
bnastic wrote: post #74

It's not that easy to get a contract either... First they said "health and safety", they can't get a man to bring the cable up to 2nd floor. I said fine, how about I buy that cable, I drill my own walls, and bring you the cable down to the ground, can you connect that? "Sure, let's set up a date for engineer visit". All is ready, engineer comes carrying a modem... wtf... you are supposed to connect this to your box o…

> First they said "health and safety", they can't get a man to bring the cable up to 2nd floor. I suspect this depends a lot on the installer. When my grandparents had it installed, they ran it up the drive, straight over the top of the house, then down the back wall and into the house there without an issue. Contrast this with when my parents had it installed (after my grandparents, so we assumed it would be fine) -…

> I suspect this depends a lot on the installer.

This is London, all installers of everything suffer from vertigo

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#149

Post by Havoc »

Nextgrid wrote: post #136
dijksterhuis wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See if Andrews & Arnolds would work wherever you move to. I've been with them for a few months now and don't think I'll want to switch anyone else afterwards. https://www.aa.net.uk/ Checking an address on their website will require active BT phone line at the address, but if you call them up they can check the area for you (I did that). I was asking their salesperson about static IPs addresses and all sorts. Answered…

A&A is definitely good but unfortunately they only offer DSL I believe, which is honestly pretty bad compared to real fibre like Hyperoptic or G.Network.

Looks like they do both, but not much fibre coverage yet.

Re: I tried to cancel Virgin Media broadband contract

#150

Post by Havoc »

dijksterhuis wrote: post #68
Havoc wrote: post #36

Looking for fiber in London next month. I guess VM won't be it. Reddit seems to think Hyperoptic is where it's at. With VM as second. That's on raw speed front. So if VM can't be trusted I guess I need to apartment hunt by Hyper...sigh.

See if Andrews & Arnolds would work wherever you move to. I've been with them for a few months now and don't think I'll want to switch anyone else afterwards. https://www.aa.net.uk/ Checking an address on their website will require active BT phone line at the address, but if you call them up they can check the area for you (I did that). I was asking their salesperson about static IPs addresses and all sorts. Answered…

Thanks for the feedback. That pricing looks very reasonable & the fact that it comes with a fixed ip is amazing. And the PGP signed email says there are definitely tech crowd at work which is pleasing.

If they've got fiber at whatever place I'll definitely have a good look. Currently on a 1gbps unlimited package so would prefer not to stray too far from that to be honest. Though 500 would functionally be the same I guess

Post reply on HN