Virgin Business Broadband – think twice! Virgin is advertising their VOOM 500 for small business online with their marketing slogan “Fast is good. Ultrafast is better” or “Ultrafast, Ultra-reliable”. But be forewarned, don’t be fooled! Having committed to their VOOM Fibre broadband for our business we have found ourselves without internet on more occasions than acceptable in this day and age. The first incident occurred in November 2020 when they claimed the fibre broadband line has broken and they need to “repull the wires” (a term that I have started to literally despise!) this repull took them until mid-January 2021. We were all happy that finally we had internet and we could operate our business again without having to rely on hotspots that kept cutting out. But fear not, our bliss was short lived! Mid-March 2021 the internet went down again and we were told early April that they need to “repull the wires” as they have broken… Again. I was told that the fibre line is too thin and can’t handle the speed at which point I started to question whether this is something we have to expect on happening every other month as clearly if so, this broadband is not fit for purpose! Since early April I am being told “the works have been rescheduled to the next day”, only to find that the next day is then the next day and then the next day… you get the gist. Also don’t bother calling their Faults Team as they are useless, all they will do, if you are lucky, read what they see on the screen, frankly you would get more information out of a monkey! On several occasions did I provide an update to them and they would call me to update their records with an update from what I found out. I should have asked to be put on their payroll! It is now end of May and we are still without internet, it’s borderline insane. Early April, I also demanded that they provide us with one of their MiFi options, which initially they had the audacity to tell me we have to pay an additional £7. Excuse me!? So you charge us £75 for an internet connection that is non-existent and ask for an additional £7 so that we can run our business because you are incapable of fixing our business broadband? The mind seriously bogles. After a lot of emails back and forth, they begrudgingly sent out on of their “dongles” but don’t think it came in a box with instructions. No, we received a few bits in a plastic Ziploc bag with no instructions. When I spoke to our contact he said that he has never seen such a contraption, but managed to unearth an instruction manual or as he called it a “handy guide”, only that the guide wasn’t handy at all and neither was the dongle. Needless to say, that it didn’t work! The light didn’t even flash, letting me believe the part is either faulty or broken, with no surprise as it is clearly a returned item. So back we are at square one, more than 2 months in, running a business without internet! If you are looking for a fast broadband for your business, Virgin definitely isn’t your answer! Stay away at all costs.