The Lemon Fool

When I was away on holiday, Virgin put in ducting for broadband in our street, alongside the existing Openreach service.

The Virgin website does not say when this will be up and running !!
I imagine it shouldn't be too long, as how else do they earn a return on that capital ?

Unfortunately, my current Sky broadband deal recently expired, which has resulted in a price increase.

So I'm probably going to have to sign up for another Openreach wholesale supplier, as I can't wait for unknown deals and unknown timing with Virgin.

Having invested in the ducting, I'm just astonished that Virgin don't give some guidance on timing and pricing. Is this their normal way to conduct business ?

Sign up for an openreach provider. Or alternatively a wireless (4G or 5G) provider. Anything but Virgin!

With Virgin, it's not just your prospective deals that are unknown. When the service goes down, the first you'll know of it is no service. And that may be for weeks or months on end. At that point, you also find it's not possible to contact customer services, and even the staff in the high street shops are well-trained to fend off desperate customers.

Fibre was put in our street. I was told approx 3 months before getting into the house.

I think it took over a year before it was available

If you really want to switch to Virgin, then you can do. They will currently be able to supply you using the Openreach equipment that they lease.
Then when the fibre is active they'll be able to switch you over.

Personally unless your current speed is inadequate (and out here the 42Mbps line strung through the woods is more than adequate for us) I'd phone Sky and renew for 12 months at a negotiated discount and see how it goes next year.

Paul

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I phoned Sky to haggle.
Even finding the number to phone was a struggle, due to all the Artificial Stupidity on their website.
Once I made the call, there was another struggle so speak to a person.

Their best quote was £14 a month above what I could get changing supplier. Just to really take the mick, it was £11 above what Sky would offer to me if I were a new customer.

So I'm changing supplier to Vodafone.

Ofcom really ought to require companies to offer existing customers the same deal as new customers. However, judging by the outrageous above inflation increases, I suspect there is some "regulatory capture" in this sector.