Hi all, I'll try and keep this as brief as possible but it's quite a long story!

Signed up to Virgin broadband in May 2007, everything was fine til mum got a laptop for christmas and i thought it would be good to get the higher speed broadband package from Virgin so on the 26th Dec i requested the new package.

Virgin didn't actually upgrade the package til April 2008 and everything was fine til the broadband died on the 12th August 08.

Phoned Virgin to report the fault, and first of all they said the modem was broken, then it was the router, then it was a few other things....all of which were working fine but i changed everything to humour Virgin.

I then found out that when the package was changed Virgin put me on a new 12 month contract, starting in April 08 and running til April 09, and if i wanted to cancel i'd need to pay the remaining 8 months of the contract. Told them this isn't acceptable since they didn't have my permission to restart the 12 month contract.

I have also found out that Virgin didn't do a line test to check whether the BT phoneline supported the faster broadband, which it doesn't.

So now i've been almost 4 weeks with no broadband, it's costing me a fortune in phonecalls to be told lies from Virgin's staff in various departments, and if i want to cancel the account i need to pay for the rest of the contract.

I've phoned technical support, been put through to a supervisor who accused me of lying because there weren't any notes on my account for half the phonecalls i've made. I was also told that i have been phoning too often and that Virgin will phone me in due course. I have put in a formal complaint in writing to their address in Swansea, but had no acknowledgement and i've now complained through OFCOM but it seems i'm getting nowhere fast with Virgin. I'm now at the point where i don't want them to fix the broadband, i want to cancel my account but obviously i don't want to have to pay the remaining 8 months payments on the contract. The next direct debit is due out my account on the 22nd Sept and when I phoned to ask why they're taking money for a service they're not providing i was told that I'll only get a refund once the broadband is reconnected, which i don't find acceptable.

Can anyone help with what to do now. I just want to have broadband again but I'm worried that by playing Virgin at their own game they'll put a tag on the line and i'll be stuck.
Any help is greatfully appreciated.

Thanks, Jo