FabSwingers.com forum: virgin v sky

By *ub bbw OP Woman
over a year ago

oldbury

after being with sky for phone and broadband for the last year i decided to look into their tv package on top but they were goig to charge me £58 a month for it then so i went to virgin and have managed to find some good deals but are they any good?

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

We have virgin have way before they changed from NTL

We pay £78 for the biggest tv package plus Disney, Phone and broadband.

Wouldn't touch sky every time it was slightest bit windy it used to stop.

My mum has it now as they don't do virgin where she is (back of beyond) she's had nothing but problems with the phone line as they plug the tv into it for films

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Would like to have the choice.. We can not have Virgin here.. dont get normal tv either.. not even with an uprated Aerial.

So sky it is for tv but I have orange bb and home phone.

Cali

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By *ENDAROOSCouple
over a year ago

South West London / Surrey

We have been with virgin for years now and find the service in general to be very good.

The only issue we have is with the customer services....that is a nightmare trying to speak to someone that knows what they are talking about!

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By *uckscouple2007Couple
over a year ago

Bucks

Really do miss Virgins fibre optic service. We only move 1 mile away But it is not in a cabled street

so we now have Freesat and o2 BB

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"We have been with virgin for years now and find the service in general to be very good.

The only issue we have is with the customer services....that is a nightmare trying to speak to someone that knows what they are talking about!

We also have mobiles from them.

Husbands hasn't been able to receive pic messages since he had it.

So today we rang them to sort it

he was told to stick his sim in mine (o2)by the time he had put the phone down his still couldn't receive pics nad mine had stopped working

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

phone sky and tell them you have been offered cheaper elsewhere a good site to use is simplify digital as you can do a comparison

I currently have sky tv full package with 25% discount for 12 months and phone line with unlimited calls all day to landlines 01 02 03 numbers etc for £3 line rental and £5 for the unlimited calls

I then have the broadband unlimited for an additional £5 per month

Its about negotiating but you need to be prepared to leave sky if necessary. Check what deals are available and tell them you are looking to leave, they will offer you a deal

Hope it helps

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By *icketysplitsWoman
over a year ago

Way over Yonder, that's where I'm bound

I moved from Sky to Virgin as I was fed up with losing sound and/or picture when the weather was bad. I miss Sky Atlantic (Boardwalk Empire

) but I have had virtually uninterrupted service with Virgin. Customer service is not up to par but I haven't had to use it often.

Sky also refused to cut me a deal until after I had moved everything over and they then offered to undercut by quite a lot and I got Virgin to meet me in the middle.

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By *encarolCouple
over a year ago

Tyneside

virgin 1000 times better than sky .

if you have a problem with internet sky just not interested where as virgin sort it out straight away

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

virgins TV is much better than sky, in my opinion

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By *ub bbw OP Woman
over a year ago

oldbury

"phone sky and tell them you have been offered cheaper elsewhere a good site to use is simplify digital as you can do a comparison

I currently have sky tv full package with 25% discount for 12 months and phone line with unlimited calls all day to landlines 01 02 03 numbers etc for £3 line rental and £5 for the unlimited calls

I then have the broadband unlimited for an additional £5 per month

Its about negotiating but you need to be prepared to leave sky if necessary. Check what deals are available and tell them you are looking to leave, they will offer you a deal

Hope it helps

"
thanks i tried this but was told the only way to get a decent deal was to cut my internet down to light usage of 2g a month then i could have a 21.50 deal with them which isnt a deal at all as i would use more than that in a week then be billed stupidly high after exceeding. So my only option is to leave them or pay a fortune

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By *ub bbw OP Woman
over a year ago

oldbury

thanks everyone for your help

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

I'm a VIRGIN...

So I use virgin.

I haven't had any issues with them though they are pricier than other deals around.

Customer service isn't very helpful if something actually goes wrong with your Internet but to be honest that doesn't happen very often.

In general the overall service in regards to availability is good I have the 100mb Internet is good so I wouldn't change.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"phone sky and tell them you have been offered cheaper elsewhere a good site to use is simplify digital as you can do a comparison

I currently have sky tv full package with 25% discount for 12 months and phone line with unlimited calls all day to landlines 01 02 03 numbers etc for £3 line rental and £5 for the unlimited calls

I then have the broadband unlimited for an additional £5 per month

Its about negotiating but you need to be prepared to leave sky if necessary. Check what deals are available and tell them you are looking to leave, they will offer you a deal

Hope it helps

thanks i tried this but was told the only way to get a decent deal was to cut my internet down to light usage of 2g a month then i could have a 21.50 deal with them which isnt a deal at all as i would use more than that in a week then be billed stupidly high after exceeding. So my only option is to leave them or pay a fortune"

Drop me a mail and I'll run through how to get it cheaper than published. Or have a look on Martin Lewis's website.

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By *nIMidlandsCouple
over a year ago

Rugeley

[Removed by poster at 26/09/12 23:54:27]

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By *nIMidlandsCouple
over a year ago

Rugeley

Got to say Virgin for speed on the net and the TV and Phone is good too

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By *ce WingerMan
over a year ago

P.O. Box DE1 0NQ

Used to have sky+, broadband + calls, but lets face it who uses a landline to make calls anymore, unless it's an 0800 no.

Am now on Virgin with TiVo box fed into 3 separate rooms which does mostly the same shit. My missus is also on the contract for her mobile

Cost to me = £57pm plus calls

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By *omMaleSub SlutCouple
over a year ago

Bath

"We have been with virgin for years now and find the service in general to be very good.

The only issue we have is with the customer services....that is a nightmare trying to speak to someone that knows what they are talking about!

We also have mobiles from them.

Husbands hasn't been able to receive pic messages since he had it.

So today we rang them to sort it

he was told to stick his sim in mine (o2)by the time he had put the phone down his still couldn't receive pics nad mine had stopped working

to receive picture messages you have to send one... We had same issue when we first got Virginia mobile.

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By *n need of helpCouple
over a year ago

hull

has this site turned into go compare ?

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By *ce WingerMan
over a year ago

P.O. Box DE1 0NQ

Grow a moustache then let us know if

a) you have any twiddly bits

b) you are annoying & can possibly only sing in a soundproofed shower cubicle

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By *hite_Stallion26Man
over a year ago

leicester

I have virgin 3/1 service broadband is fast and if you order through a cash back site like i did you can get some really great deals

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

if you call Sky and quote what Virgin have to offer, they will normally at least match it, if not better it

We get the full package, movies, sport, ESPN etc for just over £40 per month, before we called and threatend to move to Virgin we were paying £70

They went onto the Virgin site during the call and compare the prices that i was quoting, thankfully they didn't check that we can't actually get Virgin!!

If you're after HD, stick with Sky, not many people know that Virgin's HD is not full HD, its only 720 where as Sky is 1080i, so if you've gone out and got a 1080 HD tv, its wasted on Virgin!

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By *ce WingerMan
over a year ago

P.O. Box DE1 0NQ

Hold ya horses on that one. Depends on where you live. I know my full hd telly gives a much better picture & sound with quicker broadband times than my next door neighbour.

So put that in ya pipe 'n' smoke it

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Hold ya horses on that one. Depends on where you live. I know my full hd telly gives a much better picture & sound with quicker broadband times than my next door neighbour.

So put that in ya pipe 'n' smoke it

only your broadband would differ depending on where you live

if your HD picture and sound is better and you both have Sky or Virgin, its probably down to your TV, not the provider

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By *ce WingerMan
over a year ago

P.O. Box DE1 0NQ

All in all then, I'm a Virgin

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

Used to be with Virgin, since the old NTL days, but then moved to a non-cabled area so now get everything from Sky.

VM's broadband was in a league of its own. My ADSL connection is less than a tenth of what I could get via cable. My connection now fluctuates based on time of day, atmospheric conditions and if the day of the week has the letter 'a' in it.

TV, on the other hand, is better with Sky. The EPG is less clunky with Sky and works faster. I also noticed that there are more HD channels with Sky - notably the F1 channel on VM is only SD, I believe.

VM should have a better on-demand service than Sky because of the delivery method, but I often used to get technical issues with it on Virgin.

I often hear people say Sky TV is shit during bad weather. From a technical standpoint this is incorrect - the transponders used these days are so powerful that any loss incurred from a bit of cloud is negligible. Plus the signal is digital so doesn't weaken as people assume.

Phone is the same with either provider... I only had a landline to receive calls from family members who lived abroad but now I need one with ADSL

In an ideal world I'd suggest getting TV from Sky but broadband from Virgin and ditch the landline... but financially speaking this doesn't make sense as it's more expensive than using just one provider. If TV is important for you then I'd say choose Sky, but if you're more often online than in front of the telly then go for Virgin.

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

Forgot to say that Virgin's customer service really is a sack of shit. Only they could bill me for 2 properties after moving house (before I moved to my current address) for almost a year and then send the engineer to the wrong house to disconnect the service!

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By *ce WingerMan
over a year ago

P.O. Box DE1 0NQ

You sure know your stuff Mr Carambar but does Usain come round to your house every night....

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By *andyguy59Man
over a year ago

Gatwick

I've been with virgin/Ntl/Nynex for many years. You cannot beat their broadband speed (although over last 2 months seem to be getting contention problems for the first time ever) am just preparing myself to call and complain as i know it will be a long and tedious route to getting it fixed.

BUt if anything major goes wrong their customer service cannot cope. It took them 11 months to successfully install 3 additional boxes in the house...very long story.

To get anywhere ignore the standard customer service option - take the 'thinking of leaving us option' and you will speak to people who know a bit about what you are calling about and they have a little leeway to do something about it. If you have a big problem keep ringing that option and eventually you will find someone who knows how to sort it.

But when it works it works really well. When it goes wrong....oh dear worra mess they are in...

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

I can tell you our experience is very good apart from the occasional service blip but its only ever in the daytime when most people are not at home anyway ( so that's when they do service maintenance), but equally i know people who have had bad experiences too, i guess you just have to suck it and see, and if you don't like it change back in a year.. they will probably offer you a better deal for switching back as you will be a "new" customer...

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Used to be with Virgin, since the old NTL days, but then moved to a non-cabled area so now get everything from Sky.

VM should have a better on-demand service than Sky because of the delivery method, but I often used to get technical issues with it on Virgin.

Phone is the same with either provider... I only had a landline to receive calls from family members who lived abroad but now I need one with ADSL

agree with most of what you say but, and correct me if I am wrong here, regards the phone, they should be different to a degree as i understood virgin has their own cable network different to the BT lines that Sky uses?

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By *john121Man
over a year ago

staffs

Had virgin since its inception in my region as comtel and NTL

Have max package but haven't yet gone for TiVo.

Don't get all the sky progs such as Atlantic or all the HD progs but I make do..

Already seen all of the latest series True Blood and will be with latest NCIS through their excellent broadband

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By *john121Man
over a year ago

staffs

Had virgin since its inception in my region as comtel and NTL

Have max package but haven't yet gone for TiVo.

Don't get all the sky progs such as Atlantic or all the HD progs but I make do..

Already seen all of the latest series True Blood and will be with latest NCIS through their excellent broadband

No current 1080p broadcasts in the UK by anyone..

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

sky tv is the best. You get more for your money and its a superior service. I hate being with virign but with no los and no ariel for normal tv, its the only option i have

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Cant comment on virgin tv as we have sky and have channels that virgin dont do so would never change. As to bad weather messing the picture well in 4 years we have never had a problem. We have virgin internet and its never worked for more than 24 hrs at a time dispite numerous engineers visits.

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

"You sure know your stuff Mr Carambar but does Usain come round to your house every night....

heh, i don't know much really. i just blag things with conviction

Mr Bolt never visits. He doesn't even call any more. I think he's found someone else.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Wouldn't have SKY on principal but have never had any real problems with Virgin.

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

Yes, mate, Virgin uses it's own network for users who are able to get cable - and in those cases everything would be using their own network... at least as far as the cabinet in the street. They do offer an ADSL and phone service which isn't reliant upon having access to their cable network, and in those cases it'd be using an 'unbundled' BT exchange. The kit in the exchange is then owned by Virgin, such as the DSLAMs, but the so-called last mile uses the same copper cables regardless of the network provider.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Would like to have the choice.. We can not have Virgin here.. dont get normal tv either.. not even with an uprated Aerial.

So sky it is for tv but I have orange bb and home phone.

Cali "

It boggled me on what you do to entertain yourself...........until I saw you profile

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By *ce WingerMan
over a year ago

P.O. Box DE1 0NQ

Used to have sky when I lived in a village that had no cable but now have switched to Virgin to see if it made any difference.

It seems to me that you may get many different deals with providers who try to win you over with crap deals that you neither want nor need.

Camp fires & smoke signals are the way forward

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

"Used to have sky when I lived in a village that had no cable but now have switched to Virgin to see if it made any difference.

It seems to me that you may get many different deals with providers who try to win you over with crap deals that you neither want nor need.

Camp fires & smoke signals are the way forward

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By *ENGUYMan
over a year ago

Hull

Camp fires & smoke signals are the way forward

Plus for messages, use Carrier Pigeons!

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

Camp fires & smoke signals are the way forward

Plus for messages, use Carrier Pigeons!

Haha, you may jest but.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8248056.stm

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By *ovecpl69Couple
over a year ago

london

virgin media the best down side there customer service would help if that had english people on the other end lol

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

This could all get very technical and dive into up and down speeds! Lol.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Camp fires & smoke signals are the way forward

Plus for messages, use Carrier Pigeons!

Haha, you may jest but.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8248056.stm"

But... did they start the transfer when they started transferring the information to the memory stick, and take the finish number when it had finished transfering onto the second computer? i doubt it... also 4gb of data is alot of data to send,,, an email is normally around 1mb on average, so a message via carrier pigeon would not be quicker,, however the transfer of large data bundles would be.

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By *andyguy59Man
over a year ago

Gatwick

" its only ever in the daytime when most people are not at home anyway ( so that's when they do service maintenance)"

Except if you work from home or have a home based business it completely screws your work up......on a regular basis. They seem to be quite happy to take the service down for a couple of hours during the day without any warning at all. If they would tell you when they were going to do their 'planned' maintenance then you can work round it but they don't. Had this conversation with them on many occasions.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

If sky is installed by a competent and enthusiastic engineer, you will have no problems with it. Trouble is, so many of their 'engineers' are in a hurry and don't do the job properly, ie putting the dish in a not so good part of the house just so they have a short cable run, not taking the time to properly align the dish so when poor weather begins the signal starts to disappear.

Most of the program content is shite, but then again whatever provider you use, the content is much of a muchness give or take a bit here and there

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By *andyguy59Man
over a year ago

Gatwick

I found out yesterday when I called their support line about a slow connection that there is a difference between connecting to your router using wireless or with a cable (I know my wirless is limited to 54MBPs). This is not at your end but at the Virgin end. Virgin connect you to different servers depending on if you use the wireless or wired connection to your router at the their end (seems strange to me but apparently true). On the wireless server you have to fight for bandwidth....but if you plug your laptop into the router with a cable they said that I would not have a bandwidth problem. Am going to try this out over weekend (would try tonight but going to the Any Questions Broadcast). Will let you know if it makes a difference.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

This depends on your area, i've had both and for me the customer service is much better at sky than virgin.

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