Virgin Media is one of the major UK internet providers. How does the service compare? Does it live up to expectation? Find out in our user review here.
When choosing an internet provider, few features are more important than availability. One of the most continuously available internet providers in the UK is Virgin. Virgin has been around for years and is regarded as a market leader in the UK. Does the marketing hype live up to the reality, though? Check this user guide out from a real Virgin internet user.
At the height of the COVID pandemic, my partner and I decided to buy our first home. It was daunting, but the time was right. As someone who wants to work from home but was spending eye-watering sums on local office rentals, one of my first concerns was fitting an internet connection. So, I looked around at the options available locally, and Virgin was deemed the ‘best’ service in the area.
Here is how I have found Virgin to have been during my two-year stay with the company.
The Setup
The setup process was quick and painless. I contacted Virgin on the Monday, and an engineer fitted our equipment by Friday. The package I chose included a 60Mbps internet connection and a basic TV box package.
However, I will also say that I was in my office when Virgin was installed. My father overviewed the engineers work in case any problems came up. What we found, though, was that the process was extremely simple. Everything was setup within about an hour, two hours at the absolute maximum.
We could connect to the internet quickly and painlessly, with every device in the house connected within minutes of turning it on. We had some more issues with our TV set-top box, which was resolved in a quick chat with Virgin customer services.
The Quality
In terms of performance, I have absolutely no complaints. Uptime definitely meets the set-out aim – I think in all the time I have bene in my new home we have had two outages and they both lasted for about a day each. One of the outages was due to vandalism of the main internet box for our street, too, so it was not exactly the fault of Virgin.
Best of all? I paid for 60Mbps, but in October of 2022, I was contacted by Virgin to tell me that I was getting a free upgrade. They boosted me to over 70Mbps without paying a penny extra. It’s not a huge increase, but it’s nice all the same. As you can see from my internet speed test, too, the results are there.
The Problems
The only issues I had were some teething problems with the TV box (resolved rapidly) and a couple of minor outages. However, given I was on a provider before this who seemed to have one outage per month (and that is being generous), I will take a minor outage per annum on average!
Customer Service
The only time I had to contact Virgin support was to resolve my TV box and look at what new contracts I could take on. The TV box is a paid-for dust gatherer, so I wanted to swap to a package that offered greater internet speeds but no TV box for a similar(ish) price to what we pay now (around £60 pounds per month).
Unfortunately, the offers I got were pretty poor, but that is something that we found with all providers. The offers out there are not great for many users. The free upgrade I was given helped to ease any discomfort at that side of things, anyway.
Verdict
Overall? I would recommend Virgin for customers in Scotland. I have found the service to be smooth, the customer service to be reliable, and the pricing to be fair. Out of all of the providers I have used in recent years, Virgin is the best. They have allowed me to work from home without major delays to my schedule, and the money saved on office rental covers my bill without any issues.
I am happy with Virgin, and would recommend them to other homeowners. They aren’t perfect, and their upgrade packages leave a little to be desired, but as my first internet connection in my new home, they have not let me down.