Would you of done the same thing in my position? (ISP switch)

[Deleted]

So for nearly 2 months I've been getting Disconnections at Peak Times. I pay for a "top" package with my ISP (Virgin Media). I've also been with the same company for nearly 13 years, Technically before they ate up NTL who i was with 6 years prior.

I posted over on their official support forums about the issue (Link if interested on reading) and got asked to post a bunch of crud in my network log which would wipe itself on reset so i couldn't really do it unless i caught it within 10 seconds of disconnecting.
So naturally because of this it took me a long time to collaborate a cluster of network logs for them to trawl through. Some guy who isn't even employed by the support branch of the company helped me more then the actual staff.

They wanted send 3 Engineers out to sort my connection out. The first guy inspected my cabling, modem, power levels, download speed, etc. Said he couldn't find anything wrong with it. Asked him if he wanted to look at the network logs, Told me it "Wasn't necessary" and gave me a sheet with his name and what he had done and left. None of this fixed the issue within 3 hours it was back to it's old self of disconnecting.

The second guy who came out was clueless as to why he was here. He replaced my Modem, stuck an isolator on my connection and fiddled with some settings. Asked him the same thing about the network logs; Same answer as the previous guy. This also didn't sort any problems. less then 45 minutes later it started disconnecting and giving me 20k ping in games.

Now they want to send a 3rd Engineer out, at this point i really can't be bothered for them to send a 3rd clueless guy who basically does nothing or hasn't been informed like the previous 2. I have to spend 20-30 minutes explaining to them what the issue is and because the Router wipes itself due to the wipes it doesn't Record any T3 or T4 Drop-outs (disconnections) to prove anything.

At this point, I'm on ragelevelgreenhulk. I called them up and asked if any of the days i got 6-8+ Drop-outs would be refunded from my bill. Obviously not. I'm paying quite a bit for a connection that doesn't work and i do so because there are no download caps.
However i found out the other day they've applied download caps as of September to the best connection package. This was the whole reason i upgraded in the first place and is now made moot as to why I'm paying extra for it.

Yesterday afternoon I looked into other ISP's and found one that was half my connection speed but had no caps and the exchange is 2 minute walk from my house so I should always get good reception.

tl;dr ISP is bad, can't fix the problem, don't know what the problem is. Keep sending clueless tech guys out, would you switch after being a loyal customer for 13 years?

Would you of change your ISP of 13 years because of the way they are handling the issue as stated above?

PS. Sorry for my English and grammar. I'm on the Dyslexic side of the fence.

[Mirishka]

Yeah, I'd definitely consider looking for a new ISP. These guys sound clueless!

[Masark]

Um, yes. Why would one feel any sort of loyalty to a company the size of Virgin?

It's not exactly your local where you know the owner personally.

[Odina]

You pay for a service... if you do not get said service and soem one else can provide it then you go to them!

They didn't think twice about you being a loyal clinet for that many years before they droped the unlimited DL from tehre package did they? Well shy shoudl you feel bad takign your$$ to another company if they don't feel bad about providing less service for the same $$ to you?

That is how I would look at it if you are having a moral dilema about leaving them after all this time!

[Xeones]

I have comcast, was having connection issues a few years back and was constantly getting disconnected around the same time every day. For me the problem was they have poor DNS severs that are easily overwhelmed. I switched to the DNS server my school has and haven't had "mystery" issues since.

[Deleted]

Loyality to an ISP.... uhmm that sounds dumb. Swapping ISP's is totally fine if the company can't get it done and a competitor offers a better product.

I'm unsure why we're discussing this.

[Deleted]

Loyality to an ISP.... uhmm that sounds dumb. Swapping ISP's is totally fine if the company can't get it done and a competitor offers a better product.

I'm unsure why we're discussing this.

It was more along the lines of 13 years of no problems then this crops up. I should of put some more background information of previous ISP's i've tried out prior to the current and them being god awful. It's was a massive pain to switch all the time till i found one i was comfortable with. I'm more then likely over analysing it.

[Deleted]

stopped reading when I saw who your ISP was.
Switch. Virgin are a pile of elephant wank.

im using BE which is ADSL not Cable, so not as fast, I have had 1 DC in 3 years, and there is no download caps at all.

[Ciddy]

Switch. I'm about to do the same thing with my ISP (Windstream). The past couple of years, I haven't been getting what I pay for. Apparently, most people who live in the state of Georgia have been having similar problems.

I've been with them for years, but I'm getting pretty fed up and will be switching. Your 13 years of loyalty doesn't really mean jack shit if they're going to repay you with shit service for it anyway.

[Lollis]

The thing with Virgin is they can basically act however the hell they want because they have a monopoly over cable internet in the UK. We recently changed to Plusnet because Virgin wouldn't even consider looking at a the bill from a mistaken 24 hour phone call to the doctors that happened because my mum didn't put the phone down properly on our crappy land line. Who purposely makes a 24 hour phone call anyway.

They can do what they want because their is no competition when they are offering 100 mb/s and everyone else is offering 10.

[Deleted]

OP, i would switch for sure if that were the case, if you feel you are not getting the response from Virgin you should be as a customer, you can also get Ofcom involved. Personally i was with Virigin in 2009-2011 and i was very happy with their service, the only reason i switched to BT was because at my new location virgin do not have a strong network.

Regarding loyalty, Sir Richard Branson lost about $3.5 billion last year and still has about $2.5 billion in assets so i am sure he can afford the loss.

[Sunseeker]

Dump your service, try someone else.

[Obby]

nope not at all comcast pulled the same shit on me like 1am every night for 2 weeks i was getting DCed cable was being all fuzzy and wonky first guy comes in pokles his gadgets around runs speed tests says its fine leaves second guy comes replaces modem does same as first guy leaves...the third guy cared about his job hes like well maybe its something with the pole....went out side up the telephon pole and found squirrels shewed thru the rubber on the wires and water was dripping in shorting it out lmao

[Rucati]

It was more along the lines of 13 years of no problems then this crops up. I should of put some more background information of previous ISP's i've tried out prior to the current and them being god awful. It's was a massive pain to switch all the time till i found one i was comfortable with. I'm more then likely over analysing it.

If you're best friends with someone for 13 years and then they randomly cut your arms and legs off and push you down a hill are you still going to be friends with them? Eh, probably not.

So no, you shouldn't feel bad or care that you're swapping ISPs. Find someone that's a reasonable price, and a reasonable speed, and go for it. If they are unable to solve the problem then you shouldn't pay them for their service.