BBC Watchdog takes a bite out of Virgin Media

[Scubbie]

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/...f-virgin-media

Following up on our lengthy item that laid out analysis of how Virgin Media is performing in its different areas of the UK and how we are now poised to keep an eye on their performance more closely (and the other providers and technologies too) we felt it good to add a few more words around what was broadcast on BBC Watchdog on the evening of July 5th.

The issues with over utilisation and core network issues have been many and varied at Virgin Media, and the research gives some idea of the scale of the issue, and while there was a short period of time where we saw very few getting the best speeds things appear to be improving. The key now is whether these improvements are sustained and for those customers who have been affected in some cases for a couple of years how good will Virgin Media be at compensating customers and in the future being more upfront about issues rather than leading customers down the path of having to sit in for multiple engineer visits to fix things that are nothing to do with the final coax drop into the property.

For those affected as highlighted on the programme there is no automatic compensation path, and only by pestering individually will Virgin Media look at each case, in the first instance if the normal moans go unheaded people need to ask to escalate the complaint so that someone more senior in customer support is dealing with you and utilimately if you have the evidence to show prolonged periods with problems the Alternate Dispute Resolution scheme is the way to go, and given this costs providers money they are invariably keen to resolve things rather than go down the slow expensive ADR route.

Feedback from the audience on BBC Watchdog was that while £10/m price reductions were pretty common, when you are still paying £30 to £40 a month for the broadband service and finding you cannot use it as you want this is not that good a deal, there was even one told because they got such a good deal when they signed up no price reductions due to poor speeds would be given. A further comment that echo'd with others was that the what seem like twice a year price rises very quickly erode any of these savings to.

Compensation for faults is something that should eventually become automatic but that is for total loss of service, and while some have been seeing that with Virgin Media those with broadband speed problems would not be automatically compensated based on what we know about the changes on the way, clearly with the importance of broadband to our daily lives this may have to change rapidly.

Looking forward, we hope to be able to report in our analysis of July speed test results that the Virgin Media areas have seen further improvements and we will be keeping a close eye on the the FTTC, various FTTH providers and the emerging G.fast products.

The Virgin Media perhaps highlights a problem with the UK broadband scene, no single provider wants to push the boundaries too hard, but rather it is all about appearing slightly better than their competitors in adverts to gain customers, rather than being world leading in their own right. Virgin Media which is part of the much larger Liberty Global group has other providers already selling vastly faster speeds than are sold in the UK, so we say bring on the DOCSIS 3.1 network with upgrades and show what is possible.

[lettice]

Watchdog so far this year has been pretty bad.
Matt Allwright though excepted and doing well. enjoy his Rogue Traders.
But that Steph woman is just appalling, she acts so childish, is dreadful at interviewing and just witters on through a lot of it with some kind of language that I do not understand and very stupid antics, some of which are not even comprehensible.
The presenters on Watchdog used to be so professional, looks like they are dragging the barrel lately.
The programme is also spoilt by the endless social network garbage that provides nothing.

As for Virgin Media, the CEO gave a good honest account despite that Steph just shouting at him during the interview. Bring back professional Anne is what I say or someone like her.
All I gathered was they had a few customers who were getting 5-10mb with no real deep reason just blaming busy times or some area utilisation, it was hardly widespread.
Sounded once again like a lot of user error and a total lack of a user to reasonably talk about their problems sensibly.

[jrfer]

Agree that this present series of Watchdog is awful.

IMO either get some competent presenters or call it a day.

[Scubbie]

Ok I like the presenters Matt Allwright, Nikki Fox & Steph McGovern. They are just the presenters. More often it is the researchers whom we don't see who have done all the hard work behind the scenes.

In my opinion the stories are becoming tired. They always seem to be highlighting the same issues each and every series.

Broadband speed not as promised? Tradesman visiting your home and selling you something for an extortionate price when a simple £1 widget would have done it. They've covered this all before. It's an easy target.

So let's confront them on camera! Didn't that go well... for some reason they didn't want to provide an interview, but we pushed our way into the office anyway.

I bet that they'll cover one of the budget airlines before the end of the series. They nearly always do.


How about they do some proper work?

TV Licensing harassing customers? TV Licensing over charging customer? Why can't the BBC change it's income model from the outdated Licensing model, to a subscription based system? Why is it still possible to put you in prison for non-payment? Sky just cancel you card. Of course T&Cs did change a couple of years ago and they can take you to court to chase for the money now.

What about showing some of the damage that government cuts have caused? Or perhaps the fraud of politicians making promises and then not sticking to them? Perhaps they could chase up bad election promises? Why bother to vote if you're not going to get what they promised?

[Shonk]

It was good to see them have a go at virgin for such poor management but the rest was a tad same old same old

[lettice]

How about they do some proper work?
TV Licensing harassing customers? TV Licensing over charging customer? Why can't the BBC change it's income model from the outdated Licensing model, to a subscription based system? Why is it still possible to put you in prison for non-payment? Sky just cancel you card. Of course T&Cs did change a couple of years ago and they can take you to court to chase for the money now.

Would be hilarious the Beeb having a go at themselves.
Do agree the license fee needs to be scrapped and bbc should start having ads across the channels and offer subscription models for sport etc.
Would not care really if the Beeb went away, watch so little of these days. Its not as if these days they do anything different and certainly not better.
Annoyed that Beeb made you login to iPlayer and then just spam you with emails, pathetic. Certainly does not solve the license fee avoiders.
Not ever been overcharged with the license fee, it has just come out 4 times a year for decades without a problem.

[andrewjr]

Would be hilarious the Beeb having a go at themselves.
Do agree the license fee needs to be scrapped and bbc should start having ads across the channels and offer subscription models for sport etc.
Would not care really if the Beeb went away, watch so little of these days. Its not as if these days they do anything different and certainly not better.
Annoyed that Beeb made you login to iPlayer and then just spam you with emails, pathetic. Certainly does not solve the license fee avoiders.
Not ever been overcharged with the license fee, it has just come out 4 times a year for decades without a problem.

thats annoying about having to sign in. iPlayer is now the only time I will watch BBC, never watch it live.

With regards to Virgin Media, I know they are over utilised in some areas, thankfully I opted for the 30 day rolling contract for BB & Internet to try it and luckily I am not in an over utilised area. BB has been full speads 24/7 (220/21). Their Hub 3 is a pile of junk though, especially the puma 6 problems but I don't notice it as I don't game as much as I used to

[bubblegun]

OFCOM has a speed policy with a voluntary code of practice which (according to Watchdog) Virgin Media is a member of. If you are with BT, Sky and talktalk (and others probably) then you get a speed estimate for your actual line and a guaranteed minimum speed (if you ask).

Surely with Virgin you should be able to leave without penalties if you cite broadband speeds promised with actual speeds you get,when you call to cancel, like you can with other providers. The CEO seemed evasive on this point and didn't answer the question.

[wizard200]

Hello All
I have heard of so many Horror Stories regarding VM both with TV & BB that I have always avoided them Like the plague
all providers should stand by the statements they make regarding BB speeds etc & if these speeds are not achieved you
should have the right to cancel without penalty.
Regarding the Licence Fee, I agree it's a bit dated but you have to realise how much this covers for example national radio
1/2/3/4 Five Live & 6 Music Plus all Local radio, TV BBC One/Two/Three So how would all of that be paid for ??
Although you may be able to bring in Subscription for TV how would you cover the Radio with a licence fee that never worked
before & how could you enforce it nationwide ...........??
We cannot enforce the Road Tax Licence : There are Many who never Pay & never will unless they are caught.......!!! I know many that don't pay now.
I know that Many people never watch BBC but they still make some excellent programmes : Drama, Wildlife, & excellent
News & Current Affairs along with some great sport programmes & No Bloody Adverts...!!
I enjoy Sky but when you are watching a show which last One Hour 15 mins at least are adverts.
As for having to Login to iplayer Whats the problem you Login to get the full benefit of This Excellent Forum.......!!!





Just a Thought.....Off for a Beer Well Done the Lions

[Scubbie]

Yes all providers are now required to provide an estimated connection speed, which should be the minimum speed you can expect to get. VM is on this but were denyng that a minimum speed was provided to some people.

Thankfully Sky has a good infrastructure and I haven't seen any issues for a while now, so the networking team must be on top of things too.

Regarding the Licence Fee, I agree it's a bit dated but you have to realise how much this covers for example national radio
1/2/3/4 Five Live & 6 Music Plus all Local radio, TV BBC One/Two/Three So how would all of that be paid for ??
Although you may be able to bring in Subscription for TV how would you cover the Radio with a licence fee that never worked
before & how could you enforce it nationwide ...........??
We cannot enforce the Road Tax Licence : There are Many who never Pay & never will unless they are caught.......!!! I know many that don't pay now.
I know that Many people never watch BBC but they still make some excellent programmes : Drama, Wildlife, & excellent
News & Current Affairs along with some great sport programmes & No Bloody Adverts...!!
I enjoy Sky but when you are watching a show which last One Hour 15 mins at least are adverts.

This is what I do like about Sky. You pay for the options that you want. If you don't want a group of channels, then you can choose not to pay for that package.

With the TV license you must purchase a license if you want to want live TV and now if you want to watch BBC iPlayer content. The fact that people who listen only to the radio pay nothing and that it doesn't matter if you don't watch BBC TV, you still need to pay.

Other radio stations exist. They don't rely on the TV License. Yes they use adverts. Likewise many TV channels also rely on advertising.

As for having to Login to iplayer Whats the problem you Login to get the full benefit of This Excellent Forum.......!!!

Of course this forum is open to non-members to view and we don't maintain records so that if you don't have a license we can identify you later.