Virgin Engineers

[Mups]

I am with Virgin, and have been for donkeys years
.    
Does anyone happen to know whether it costs to get one of their engineers out to check a possible fault please?

[klondike]

No. Just call them and complain. They may drive you nutty with silly requests. Turn it off. Turn it on. Stand on your head.....

If they do give you the run around try asking them to put you through to cancellations (it's actually called retentions internally) as you are sick of the poor performance. Chances are you'll still be in contract though - that is their business model. When renewal comes around they'll ask for some stupid new price. You complain and they either make a small reduction or give some trivial upgrade in return for a contract extension.

[Scrumpy]

I too am with Virgin.. Been with them donkey years..
If you have a fault they will send an engineer to check.. 
NO CHARGE..
They usual do a 'run through' to check any faults.. As Klondike says they will ask you many questions..
Just play the ' stupid' card and tell them that you do not understand all this technology stuff.. Don't let anyone bully you.. You are a customer.. You pay THEM..
If you are unhappy tell them that you are thinking of leaving.. finding another....
They need you.. and WILL offer you a reduction in the package that you have with them..
 You must learn to stick up for yourself  Mumps
You are a soft touch..  You don't need to be rude.. 
Just be firm.. 
You are far too nice.. But it doesn't put food on the table..

[Mups]

Thank you Scrumps and Klondy.   You're very kind.  

[Mups]

The Virgin engineer has been,  well there were two of them actually,  which surprised me.

Anyway, they seemed pleasant chaps,  and he put the  new router on for me and took the old one away, which pleased me. 
He said there is nothing wrong with the wiring or any virgin equipment.  His young mate then fiddled about doing some tests and came up with a conclusion. 

One one test it showed big 'spikes'  and he explained it should be be a smooth line, not spikey like that,  so told me that indicated it needs a new Sata SSD - whatever that is?

I got him to write it down for me because I knew I wouldn't  remember what it was.    He reckoned they cost around £30 to buy,  but then of course,  I will have to pay to have it fitted too.    

He also checked my laptop,  and little tablet and connected them to the new router as well.

I am now trying to get hold of my computer man to see if he can get this SSD thing.

[klondike]

Is it only the laptop that is slow then?

You wont get a new SSD fitted for £30. It's the disk drive. It will require time cloning the existing system to the new drive then fitting it plus the cost of the drive which will depend on how big is needed.

You said your speed test was showing 1Mbps which is unusable. What is it showing now on each of your devices.

[Mups]

Is it only the laptop that is slow then?

You wont get a new SSD fitted for £30. It's the disk drive. It will require time cloning the existing system to the new drive then fitting it plus the cost of the drive which will depend on how big is needed.

You said your speed test was showing 1Mbps which is unusable. What is it showing now on each of your devices.

No, Klondy,  I said to expect to pay around £30 just to buy,    but that doesn't include the fitting.  No idea what that would cost yet.

And No, its not only the laptop that's slow.  The trouble all started with the desktop,  that's the worse one.

I will do a speed test in a mo, and let you know the results in a little while.                          

[klondike]

If they are all slow then it's pointless spending money on the laptop. I used to have a 500Mbps package because it was very little more expensive than the slower ones. I downgraded when they started charging high prices for the faster ones and now only have a 150Mbps one.

All of my devices had no problem hitting 500Mbps on speedtests even the phone. If all of yours are showing lower than your package speed it is a lot more likely to be a problem with the available speed than it is with the device. Depending on your WiFi some devices may be slower than you'd hope - try them near to the router to see it they improve.