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SKY vs Virgin media
Davegtst - 13/1/10 at 10:06 PM

Has anyone swapped from SKY to Virgin? I've been with SKY for 3 years now and Virgin have just offered me the V+hd box, installation, broadband and phone line for less that i pay Sky now for just a sky+ box, broadband and phone line.
What is the internet like? Is the fibre optic much better? Are there any channels that Virgin don't do that you miss?

hearbear - 13/1/10 at 10:14 PM

Never looked back.

Davegtst - 13/1/10 at 10:29 PM

Oh good. Rang sky earlier to see if they could match the offer but they didn't really seem interested, look like they may be losing out on my hard earned every month.

RichardK - 13/1/10 at 10:29 PM

I've just done the exact same swap although my service with virgin doesn't start until feb, but the deal was good.

Cheers

Rich

keith777 - 13/1/10 at 11:25 PM

Virgin all the way,sky more intersted in getting new customers than looking after old ones.

MikeR - 13/1/10 at 11:31 PM

g/f really wants sky (its what she's got at her place now). I've got NTL already installed so upgrading to NTL HD service should just be a change of box.

What is the difference, the sky interface seems really slick, is NTL's HD interface as slick? I think the current (box must be 10 years old) interface is clunky and slow.

dhutch - 13/1/10 at 11:37 PM

Ive never had sky but i was impressed with the VM service in our student house last year.
- We just had the basic entry level tv package but the range was good, bbc iplayer and 4od set-top was nice. Internet was blindingly faster than anything else in loughborough. Its not firbreoptic usally but old 60's co-ax but its stonking good non the less.


Daniel

MikeR - 13/1/10 at 11:51 PM

its fibre to the box at the end of the street, they then run coax from the box to your house.

Downside is everyone in the street shares that one fibre (i believe - not part of ntl / virgin to know for sure) but it should still be pretty fast and reliable.

I've had virgin for over 12 years. When things work its fab, when it goes wrong you get hassle trying to get support - but i've only had two issues in 12 years.

splitrivet - 14/1/10 at 12:08 AM

As Mike says its fibre to the Cab, the geen box in the street then Co-ax to your house.
Got regular BB at home (I live in a private road and theres no Virgin connection) Virgin at work and there is no comparison.
Cheers,
Bob

contaminated - 14/1/10 at 09:44 AM

Interesting. I'm with Virgin and thinking of going with Sky. Virgin just will not have a discussion with me about a better deal, even if I tell them what Sky will offer me as a new customer. Bad as each other really.

D Beddows - 14/1/10 at 10:19 AM

There isn't actually that much difference in price even with the 'new user' bonuses. A SKY salesman knocked on the door last month and after speaking to him for a bit we worked out between us I would be perhaps £7 a month better off with SKY for a comparable service to what we currently have with Virgin ..... and even he eventually admitted there wasn't much point swapping over

The secret I think is going through what you are paying for with whoever you are with and cancelling the things you don't use - SKY movies for example is expensive and given the cr*p selection of films they rotate endlessly ........ yes customer service is always dodgy with either but to Virgins credit whenever I've had a broadband problem I've been put through to someone who actually knew what they were talking about!

ashg - 14/1/10 at 11:05 AM

i have got virgin for the internet and phone and sky hd for the telly. prob pay over the odds but the sky hd is much better.

the reasoning behind net and phone is that i didnt want anything bt in my house because they are a bunch of wankers.

[Edited on 14/1/10 by ashg]

splitrivet - 14/1/10 at 04:28 PM

Dont forget you will only get the best deal with Sky BB if they have their own equipment in your local exchange if not its dearer and the BB wont be any better than what you get at the moment.
Cheers,
Bob

MikeRJ - 14/1/10 at 05:46 PM

The only thing that puts me of switching to cable is you have to have some monkey drilling holes in your house and generally making a pigs ear of the installation (as proved by several other houses in my street!)

At least you can do it yourself with a Sky dish and ADSL.

MikeRJ - 14/1/10 at 05:49 PM

quote:
Originally posted by ashg
the reasoning behind net and phone is that i didnt want anything bt in my house because they are a bunch of wankers.


This is true. I've had them ring me constantly about changing to a different tariff and I'm simply not interested and have told them stop ringing me but they refuse to take the hint. The last time they rang I pretended there was a fault on a line and couldn't hear them

mistergrumpy - 14/1/10 at 05:53 PM

I have Virgin too which in the whole is generally trouble free though it does tend to go slow around 8pm and occasionally it stops working and when this happens just forget it. You only end up talking to someone in Mumbai who in fairness is just doing their job as they're told but they know nowt about compuetrs or internet and the accent barrier on top of the line quality (ironic!) is beyond rubbish. The only way to speak to someone in England is to ring up and threaten to end your contract. By far the worst customer service around!

woodster - 15/1/10 at 10:19 AM

this is good site for all cable and sky stuff .......... if your thinking of virgin the eurovox section may be of interest

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/forums/

Jasper - 15/1/10 at 10:19 AM

Or go with FreeSat and never pay anything again! And you can get a decent FreeSat PVR too.

I love tell Sky to p*ss off everytime they call and try to get me back.

MikeRJ - 15/1/10 at 10:34 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
Or go with FreeSat and never pay anything again! And you can get a decent FreeSat PVR too.


But you do miss out on some good channels and no broadband.

woodster - 15/1/10 at 10:37 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
Or go with FreeSat and never pay anything again! And you can get a decent FreeSat PVR too.

I love tell Sky to p*ss off everytime they call and try to get me back.


eurovox now that IS freesat

Jasper - 15/1/10 at 12:30 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
Or go with FreeSat and never pay anything again! And you can get a decent FreeSat PVR too.


But you do miss out on some good channels and no broadband.


Yes, but I also have a 20Mg Virgin cable broadband so can download pretty much anything almost instantly, AND there is already so much on all the FreeSat channels I really wouldn't have time to watch anything else. So no Sky 1 or Discovery type channels, but Dave is on Freeview (so can pick that up with my TV).

And the Humax PVR FreeSat box is an absolute joy to use compared to Sky+, And you get BBC HD and ITV HD when it's on.

Davegtst - 15/1/10 at 10:49 PM

Just phoned sky and Virgin. Sky were no help and didn't seem at all bothered about me leaving, this is the second time i have asked them. Virgin were a nightmare, the first 2 calls the indians on the other end didn't even know what the special offer was and kept asking for my account number. I eventually got through to an American who was quite helpful but the leaflet i was sent seems to be a bit misleading. If i swap i will end up paying about £7 more than i currently pay sky but i will get a few HD channels, an extra box for the bedroom and hopefully faster broadband. Little bit worried about the Indians if i get a problem though, they were truly worse than useless and didn't even know the phonetic alphabet.

JoelP - 15/1/10 at 10:58 PM

i left virgin for sky. I got worse than indians at virgin, i ended up speaking to a scottish woman Who i must say, was a total c**t. So outrageously rude i vowed never to have owt to do with virgin again.

Ninehigh - 16/1/10 at 09:26 AM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by ashg
the reasoning behind net and phone is that i didnt want anything bt in my house because they are a bunch of wankers.


This is true. I've had them ring me constantly about changing to a different tariff and I'm simply not interested and have told them stop ringing me but they refuse to take the hint. The last time they rang I pretended there was a fault on a line and couldn't hear them


When they ask for you say "Hold on I'll just get him/her" put the phone on the table and leave them waiting until they hang up.

Done exactly the same, Sky couldn't give two turds about it after Missus has been with them for something like 14 years.

Good points:
Iplayer etc. built in
One button to record series instead of the messing about sky has.
Afaik if a series stops and then picks up again it'll start recording it again.
Record two things at the same time.
They have pretty much the same HD channels (apart from the films I think)
Broadband's fast, and been much more reliable.

Bad points:
Black on yellow text makes me squint at night when I'm tired.
Remote is flimsier, I nearly bent the first one in half!
It's more of a faff deleting recordings, but no biggie really.
Our box has this habit of not responding to the buttons being pressed until you've done about 75, and then it'll do everything at once. So you want to change channel and because you then start pressing buttons at randome (because nothing's happening) it flicks through 30 channels, brings up the menu, goes onto Iplayer then switches off.
It does need re-booting more often than my laptop

martyn_16v - 16/1/10 at 08:58 PM

I guess I've been lucky in that I've never had a problem with Virgin, so can't comment on pap customer service. To be fair, pretty much anyone supplying tv/internet/phone/leccy/gas etc seems to be crap once they've got your cash, so you may as well just go for the cheapest.

I've recently gone from sky TV and virgin internet to virgin everything and am quite happy with it all. The V+ box menus take a couple of days to get used to if you've been using sky for a while, but once you've got the hang of it it's no worse. From what I've seen of the recent Sky HD box update Sky have tried to implement a few features that are already in the V+ box anyway.

V+ box does hand for a few seconds every now and then, but then my sky+ box used to decide it had no signal quite regularly which was probably more annoying.

Virgin internet kicks ADSL all over the room. Unless you're unlucky enough to live in a road full of virgin subscribers with teenage kids then even the 'slowdown' at busy times is faster than 95% of houses will ever see on ADSL.

Andybarbet - 16/1/10 at 10:06 PM

I changed from Sky to Virgin in december and its really good.
Our sky used to go blocky quite a few times a day, no probs with Virgin so far, internet is fine & telephone too.
Im happy having everything with Virgin and its about £10 cheaper per month here.

Ninehigh - 17/1/10 at 07:17 AM

Oh yeah that's the other one, the wind and rain won't affect an underground cable

Davegtst - 1/2/10 at 08:48 PM

Rang virgin back today after my sky broadband going slow all day. They gave me a deal i couldn't refuse so in a few weeks i guess i'll ind out if they are better.

MikeRJ - 1/2/10 at 11:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
Or go with FreeSat and never pay anything again! And you can get a decent FreeSat PVR too.


But you do miss out on some good channels and no broadband.


Yes, but I also have a 20Mg Virgin cable broadband so can download pretty much anything almost instantly,


See my first comment about monkeys butchering your house though...

Davegtst - 27/2/10 at 02:59 PM

Just had it all installed and fortunatly the bloke was alright and put everything exactly where i wanted it. Haven't tried the telly much yet but the internet is spot on. I went for the 10mb internet and i'm getting 9.9mb so i can't grumble at that.

rickys2000 - 27/2/10 at 04:20 PM

I used to be Director of TV Networks for VM up until last August when I left.
As far as the TV product is concerned VM offers superior On Demand content over Sky but Sky win hands down for normal broadcast and HD channels. In the region of 300 TV services for VM and 500 for Sky. Realistically, 90% of the population will watch on average no more than 10 channels out of all available. However if you really want HD then you need to consider Skys HD service against the VM VOD HD movies, balances things out a bit. All in all you pays your money and make your choice for the TV Product. The main issue from VM is not when the product is working but when it isnt. Customer service leaves a lot to be desired......
Over the next 9 /12 months VM are upgrading their TV platform and sending out new smart cards. This will have 2 major impacts, firstly all pirate cards will become null and void and secondly the TV service fault rate will improve dramatically as well as giving additional capacity for future HD channels