We've had Virgin broadband for five years. We've been very happy with the service – until two weeks ago. Our broadband connection suddenly slowed to the extent the BBC iPlayer stopped working. 

Tonight, I phoned Virgin for the third time to find out what was going on. The company told me they had seriously underestimated the popularity of the BBC iPlayer and online services such as gaming through the Xbox. As a result, Virgin customers who connect through a local BT exchange are getting just 500 kilobits per second rather than the billed 8 megabits per second advertised. 

They reassured me that things would improve over the next couple of weeks. 

Shame they didn't tell me that when I called on Saturday and last night, resulting in a wasted couple of hours going through a checklist they emailed me to identify possible faults.